SEMINAR: Understanding Redox Flow Battery and Ammonia Synthesis via Advanced Magnetic Resonance
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Magnetic resonance methods, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), are non-invasive, atom-specific, quantitative, and are applicable for liquid and solid-state materials. These features make magnetic resonance ideal tools for operando measurement of an electrochemical device, and for establishing structure-function relationships of materials under device-operating conditions.
For the first part of my talk, I will present how we develop and apply coupled (benchtop) NMR and EPR methods to unravel molecular-level physical and chemical processes in redox flow batteries. I will present case studies on anthraquinone, viologen and iron-based RFBs and demonstrate how we monitor the state of charge, unravel degradation reaction mechanisms as well as ion transport through membranes. For the second part, I will present new in situ NMR methods for studying Li-mediated ammonia synthesis, and the direct observation of lithium plating and its concurrent corrosion, nitrogen splitting on lithium metal and protonolysis of lithium nitride. Built upon these insights, we have developed a new alkaline electrochemical ammonia synthetic method. By the end of this talk, I hope to show that magnetic resonance is powerful and general, and can be applied for understanding various energy storage and conversion materials and chemistry.
References
1. Zhao E W et al. “In situ NMR metrology reveals reaction mechanisms in redox flow batteries” Nature 2020, 579, 224-228.
2. Silva Testa G et al. “Operando benchtop NMR study of ion transport through fluorine-free polymer membranes in a symmetric redox flow cell” J. Mater. Chem. A in press
3. Luo R et al. “A parallel line probe for spatially selective electrochemical NMR spectroscopy” J. Magn. Reson. 2024, 361, 107666.
4. Luo R et al. “In situ NMR guided design of alkaline electrochemical ammonia synthesis” Science Advances, 2025, 11, eady8858.
Dr. Evan Wenbo Zhao is a tenured assistant professor at the Magnetic Resonance Research Center at Radboud University in the Netherlands. Evan completed his postdoctoral research with Prof. Dame. Clare Grey at Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry of University of Cambridge, earned his PhD degree in Chemistry with Prof. Russ Bowers at the University of Florida and his Bachelor degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Nanyang Technological University. Evan is a Dutch Vidi awardee and ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellow.