title: Aqueous Lithium-Iodine Solar Flow Battery for the Simultaneous Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy.
abstract: Integrating both photoelectric-conversion and energy-storage functions into one device allows for the more efficient solar energy usage. Here we demonstrate the concept of an aqueous lithium-iodine (Li-I) solar flow battery (SFB) by incorporation of a built-in dye-sensitized TiO2 photoelectrode in a Li-I redox flow battery via linkage of an I3(-)/I(-) based catholyte, for the simultaneous conversion and storage of solar energy. During the photoassisted charging process, I(-) ions are photoelectrochemically oxidized to I3(-), harvesting solar energy and storing it as chemical energy. The Li-I SFB can be charged at a voltage of 2.90 V under 1 sun AM 1.5 illumination, which is lower than its discharging voltage of 3.30 V. The charging voltage reduction translates to energy savings of close to 20% compared to conventional Li-I batteries. This concept also serves as a guiding design that can be extended to other metal-redox flow battery systems.
authors.forename: Mingzhe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: McCulloch
authors.forename: Damian R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Beauchamp
authors.forename: Zhongjie
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xiaodi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Yiying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu