Professors Shelley Minteer and Matthew Sigman, along with Melanie Sanford (University of Michigan) and coworkers have been working with redox flow batteries (RFBs), special batteries that store wind and solar energy, returning it to the electrical grid when there is a shortage of wind and sunlight. As a valuable resource for storing natural energy, Minteer and Sigman are researching ways to make these batteries more compact, cost effective, and last longer. Their progress has been featured in C&EN, and can be read in full here.

Structural modifications predicted by multidimensional analysis calculations significantly
improved a pyridinium-based anolyte’s energy capacity and its ability to maintain
its original energy-storage capacity over numerous charge-discharge cycles.
Credit: C&EN