New Perspectives in Science Education

Wind, solar and other renewable energies are intermittent energy sources. For example the availability of electric power from solar plants depends on the amount of available sunlight. Hence renewable energy sources generate electrical power in the case of solar power plants according to the availability of sunlight and in case of wind generators according to the weather depending availability of wind. For this reason the increasing amount of power from renewable energy sources has to be combined with innovative energy storage systems. Due to the expansion of power generation from renewable sources, there is a need for more and more flexible, efficient energy storage systems.    

Redox flow batteries provide a high efficiency and a high amount of reversible charge/discharge cycles. Therefore they are discussed as a possible energy storage system to solve the problem mentioned above. All redox flow batteries use different redox couples as reacting species and store energy in liquid electrolyte solutions of the reacting species which flows through the electrochemical cells during charge and discharge [1]. Up to now different metal ion couples like vanadium and iron have been investigated. Aziz et al [1] and Narayanan et al [2] discuss redox flow batteries which make use of organic redox couples like quinones and hydroquinones.

In this contribution we present different everyday life chemicals that could be used as redox couples in flow batteries. We also discuss how to use these organic redox flow batteries in the field of education for sustainable development in school curricula und also in extra-curricular settings.