Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) develops high-efficiency all-iron flow battery

Key facts

• A research team at the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has advanced all-iron flow battery technology.
• The battery prototype demonstrated a 99.4 per cent leak-proof efficiency over 6,000 cycles, which is equivalent to more than 16 years of daily operation.
• The system retained 78.5 per cent of its energy efficiency even at high power outputs.
• The technology employs an alkaline-based chemistry and a synergistic molecular design to prevent active material degradation and leakage.
• The research notes that lithium currently trades at over 80 times the cost of iron, positioning iron-based batteries as a budget-friendly alternative for grid-scale renewable energy storage.
• The findings of this development were published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.