Strategically Modified Ligand Incorporating Mixed Phosphonate and Carboxylate Groups to Enhance Performance in All-Iron Redox Flow Batteries
Iron redox flow batteries (Fe-RFBs) hold significant promise for achieving cost-effectiveness and utilizing abundant materials for stationary energy storage applications. Here, a design of a novel Fe complex utilizing a nitrogenous phosphonate/carboxylate mixed ligand, N,N-Bis(phosphonomethyl)glycine (BMPG), is presented to achieve high performance Fe anolyte. Compared to its all-phosphonate form, nitrilotri(methylphosphonic acid) (NTMPA), the new complex Fe(BPMG) 2 demonstrates a negatively shifted redox potential, resulting in ≈0.07 V (≈10%) increase in battery output voltage. Full battery testing paired with ferrocyanide catholyte demonstrates stable cycling (capacity degradation <0.0001%/cycle) over 730 consecutive charge/discharge cycles with Coulombic Efficiency of 100% at a current density of 20 mA cm -2 under near neutral pH (≈8). Of particular interest, density functional theory (DFT) studies and operando Raman measurements provide strong evidence supporting a molecular structure in BPMG, which reveals the mixed phosphonate/carboxylate groups in BPMG maintain the octahedral coordination of the Fe ion center with phosphonates exclusively, while leaving the carboxylate unbound for both Fe(II) and Fe(III) complexes. This structural similarity between BPMG-based Fe(II) and Fe(III) complexes effectively mitigates the slow redox reaction kinetics observed in Fe(NTMPA) 2 anolyte, where significant ligand reorientation occurs between Fe(II) and Fe(III) complexes.