A Nitrogen Battery Electrode involving Eight-Electron Transfer per Nitrogen for Energy Storage

Abstract

Redox flow batteries have been discussed as scalable and simple stationary energy storage devices. However, currently developed systems encounter less competitive energy density and high costs, restricting their wider application. There is a lack of appropriate redox chemistry, preferably based on active materials that are abundant in nature and show high solubility in aqueous electrolytes. A nitrogen-centered redox cycle operating between the limiting species ammonia and nitrate via an eight-electron redox reaction stayed practically unnoticed, albeit its ubiquity in biological processes. Ammonia or nitrate are world-scale chemicals with high aqueous solubility, and are then comparably safe. We demonstrate here the successful implementation of such a nitrogen-based redox cycle between ammonia and nitrate with eight-electron transfer as a catholyte for Zn-based flow batteries, which continuously worked for 12.9 days with 930 charging-discharging cycles. A very competitive energy density of 577 Wh L−1 can be reached, which is well above most reported flow batteries (e.g. 8 times the standard Zn-bromide battery), demonstrating that the nitrogen cycle with eight-electron transfer can offer promising cathodic redox chemistry for safe, affordable, and scalable high-energy-density storage devices.