Physical Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Physics

This project funded by Academy of Finland focuses on demonstrating the concept of solid boosters for flow batteries, as well as developing tools to characterize charge transfer with the solid boosters. 

BioFlow-project develops safe and sustainable flow batteries for large-scale energy storage, based on bio-inspired organic molecules, in collaboration with Prof. Petri Pihko, University of Jyväskylä. This project is funded by Academy of Finland.

PhysElectrochemPhys is coordinating this EU-project. CompBat will focus on developing tools for discovery of new prospective candidates for next generation flow batteries, based on machine learning assisted high-throughput screening. Density functional theory calculations will be used to obtain data on solubilities and redox potentials of different molecules, and machine learning methods are used to develop high-throughput screening tools based on the obtained data. The results of the high-throughput screening are validated with experimental results. Target molecules will be bio-inspired organic compounds, as well as derivatives of the redox active specialty chemical already manufactured in bulk quantities. Stability and reversibility of the molecules will also be investigated by DFT calculation, experimental investigations and machine learning methods, for a selected group of interesting molecules.

Numerical modelling of flow battery systems will be performed with finite element method, and with more general zero-dimensional models based on mass-transfer coefficients. The models will be verified experimentally, and the modelling will generate a data-set to allow prediction of the flow battery cell performance based on properties of the prospective candidates obtained from high-throughput screening. This data is used then to predict the flow battery system performance from the stack level modelling. Freely available cost estimation tools are then adapted to estimate the system performance also in terms of cost. This approach will allow prediction of the battery performance from molecular structure to cost.

Furthermore, the concept of using solid boosters to enhance the battery capacity will be investigated by developing models to simulate the performance of such a systems, and validating the models experimentally with the candidates already reported in the literature.

Partners: Dr. Imre Papai (Természettudományi Kutatóközpont, Hungary), Prof. Kari Laasonen (Aalto University, Finland), Prof. Daniel Brandell (Uppsala Universitet, Sweden), Prof. Umberto Desideri (Universita de Pisa, Italy), Prof. Keith Stevenson (Skolkova Institute of Science and Technology, Russia) and Prof. Petri Pihko (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation awarded us a homing grant in 2019 to help to improve the research infrastructure in our lab. We will use this grant to improve our flow battery testing systems, and to build a scanning electrochemical microscope.

This  project will develop digital technology enablers based on advanced computational modelling and machine learning to screen prospective molecular candidates to realize scalable, inexpensive and sustainable energy storage based on redox flow batteries, focusing on metal compexes. It is funded by the Future makers program of Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation and Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation. The collaborators include Prof. Kari Laasonen (Aalto University) and Prof. Petri Pihko (University of Jyväskylä).

We are starting again some work on photoproduction of hydrogen at liquid-liquid interfaces! We will collaborate with Prof. Marcin Opallo (Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences), and Prof. Hubert Girault (EPFL), with our part focusing on development of photoelectrochemical flow cells for such systems. This project is funded from the  Solar-Driven Chemistry  network initiated by the German Research Foundation - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). From Finland the funding organization is Academy of Finland.