Lately, the field of redox flow batteries is flourishing because of the emergence of new redox chemistries, including organic compounds, new electrolytes, and innovative designs. Recently, we reported an original membrane-free battery concept based on the mutual immiscibility of an aqueous catholyte containing hydroquinone and an ionic liquid anolyte containing para-benzoquinone as redox species. Here, we investigate the versatility of this concept exploring the electrochemical performance of 10 redox electrolytes based on different solvents, such as propylene carbonate, 2-butanone, or neutral-pH media, and containing different redox organic molecules, such as 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl, 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine1-oxyl (OH-TEMPO), or substituted anthraquinones. The most representative electrolytes were paired and used as immiscible anolyte-catholyte in 5 different membrane-free batteries. Those batteries with substituted anthraquinones in the anolyte exhibited up to 50% improved open-circuit voltage (2.1 V), an operating voltage of 1.75 V, and 62% higher power density compared with our previous work. On the other hand, the partition coefficient of redox molecules between the two immiscible phases and the inherent self-discharge occurring at the interphase are revealed as intrinsic features affecting the performance of this type of membrane-free battery. It was successfully demonstrated that the functionalization of redox molecules is an interesting strategy to tune the partition coefficients mitigating the crossover that provokes low battery efficiency. As a result, the cycling life of a battery having OH-TEMPO as active species in the catholyte and containing propylene carbonate-based anolyte was evaluated over 300 cycles, achieving 85% capacity retention. These results demonstrated the huge versatility and countless possibilities of this new membrane-free battery concept.
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