Aqueous, Rechargeable Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier Battery for High-Capacity, Safe Energy Storage

Energy storage is critical for the widespread adoption of renewable energy. Hydrogen gas batteries have been used to address the safety and environmental concerns of conventional lithium-ion batteries. However, hydrogen storage and delivery pose safety concerns; thus, the concept of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs) has emerged. Herein, we demonstrate an LOHC battery concept as a safer alternative by using cyclohexanol (CHOL) and isopropanol (IPA) as anode materials, which can be interconverted with their redox counterparts with reversibility and selectivity under Pt catalysis with potential control. The CHOL-based coin cell achieves 374 mAh/g of charge capacity at 1C and 90% charge–discharge efficiency for over 300 h. The IPA-based cell delivers 525 mAh/g charge capacity at 1C and maintains 95% charge–discharge efficiency. The LOHC battery has significant potential for energy storage applications and enables the assembly of the battery under ambient conditions, providing a promising outlook for high-performance and safe energy storage systems.