(588c) Electrochemical Formalism for Redox Flow Battery

Redox flow batteries are an ‘open battery’ technology with possible extension to a variety of electrochemical systems. Over the course of several years, we made significant advances in improving their performance in a way that is readily generalized to many systems. In this talk I will present these advances in some detail, with emphasis on the enabling material advances and the decisive role of targeted basic research underpinning the technological developments. While this is an unfinished chapter of work, we consider both elements from the Bockris dichotomy of ‘Ionics’ and ‘Electrodics’. Various types of diagnostics were developed to probe electrode kinetics and mass transport in the RFB and then used to study electrochemical behavior in ex situ configurations and in operating cells. These methods and results will be discussed in some detail, including a discussion of some of what remains to be done to realize more complete understanding of the behavior of flow battery components. Finally, we will touch on the flow battery as an archetype for other emerging systems.