Innovative Energy Storage Smart Windows Relying on Mild Aqueous Zn/MnO Battery Chemistry.

Rechargeable mild aqueous Zn/MnO batteries are currently attracting great interest thanks to their appealing performance/cost ratio. Their operating principle relies on two complementary reversible electrodeposition reactions at the anode and cathode. Transposing this operating principle to transparent conductive windows remains an unexplored facet of this battery chemistry, which is proposed here to address with the development of an innovative bifunctional smart window, combining electrochromic and charge storage properties.

A Unified Charge Storage Mechanism to Rationalize the Electrochemical Behavior of Quinone-Based Organic Electrodes in Aqueous Rechargeable Batteries.

Due to their eco-sustainability and versatility, organic electrodes are promising candidates for large-scale energy storage in rechargeable aqueous batteries. This is notably the case of aqueous hybrid batteries that pair the low voltage of a zinc anode with the high voltage of a quinone-based (or analogue of quinone-based) organic cathode. However, the mechanisms governing their charge-discharge cycles remain poorly understood and are even a matter of debate and controversy.

Multivalent-Ion versus Proton Insertion into Nanostructured Electrochromic WO from Mild Aqueous Electrolytes.

Mild aqueous electrolytes containing multivalent metal salts are currently scrutinized for the development of ecosustainable energy-related devices. However, the role of soluble multivalent metal ions in the electrochemical reactivity of transition metal oxides is a matter of debate, especially when they are performed in protic aqueous electrolytes. Here, we have compared, by means of (spectro)electrochemistry, the reversible electrochromic reduction of transparent nanostructured γ-WO thin films in mild aqueous electrolytes of various chemical composition and pH.

Exponential amplification by redox cross-catalysis and unmasking of doubly protected molecular probes.

The strength of autocatalytic reactions lies in their ability to provide a powerful means of molecular amplification, which can be very useful for improving the analytical performances of a multitude of analytical and bioanalytical methods. However, one of the major difficulties in designing an efficient autocatalytic amplification system is the requirement for reactants that are both highly reactive and chemically stable in order to avoid limitations imposed by undesirable background amplifications. In the present work, we devised a reaction network based on a redox cross-catalysis principle, in which two catalytic loops activate each other.

An autocatalytic organic reaction network based on cross-catalysis.

Here we report a simple autocatalytic organic reaction network based on the redox chemistry of quinones and reactive oxygen species. Autocatalysis arises from the cross-activation between the HO-catalyzed deprotection of a pro-benzoquinone arylboronic ester probe and the benzoquinone-catalyzed HO production through redox cyling with ascorbate in an aerated buffered solution.