89%: adding iodine lifts a tin flow battery’s efficiency from 53%
A Chinese team adds iodide to the battery liquid so tin uses its full charge, in a lab test.
Chinese scientists added a material called iodine to the liquid of a large battery, so it uses more of its energy. It was tested only in a lab, so you will not see it in stores soon.
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Why it matters
Flow batteries can store solar and wind power for the grid. This is lab work, far from a product you can buy.
Watch: a nice example of improving a battery by changing only its liquid.
The details
- Tin can exchange four electrons, but acidic tin batteries usually use only two.
- Adding iodide to a chloride-based liquid made the first reaction step reversible.
- Energy efficiency reached about 89%, against 53% for the chloride-only liquid, with bromine chemistry.
- Energy density reached 205 Wh/L in a more concentrated mix, and a 20-cell prototype delivered about 800 W.
- A problem remains: iodide and tin ions slowly cross the membrane, so efficiency drops. This is lab research with no commercial date.
Receipts
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