A Comparative Review of Metal-Based Charge Carriers in Nonaqueous Flow Batteries.

Energy storage is becoming the chief barrier to the utilization of more renewable energy sources on the grid. With independent service operators aiming to acquire gigawatts in the next 10-20 years, there is a large need to develop a suite of new storage technologies. Redox flow batteries (RFB) may be part of the solution if certain key barriers are overcome. Herein we focus on a particular kind of RFB based on nonaqueous media that promises to meet the challenge thru higher voltages than the organic and aqueous variants. This class of RFB will be divided into three groups, molecular, macromolecular, and redox-targeted based systems. The growing field of theoretical modeling will also be reviewed and discussed.