Phones, devices, and car batteries rely on metals like lithium and cobalt, using intensive, invasive mining so discontinuing metal-based solutions is critical. An organic industrial-scale waste product has been transformed into an efficient storage agent. While many of these redox flow batteries iterations are in production or being researched for grid-scale applications, using a waste molecule–triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO)—is new–thousands of tons of the chemical byproduct are produced yearly (i.e. vitamins) by many organic industrial synthesis processes, but it’s rendered useless, needing careful disposal. Now chemists can turn TPPO into a usable product with powerful energy storage potential, increasing viability of waste-derived organic redox flow batteries.
news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/01/trash-to-treasure-industrial-waste-battery/?fj=1