Väitös (materiaalitekniikka): MSc (Tech) Mahsa Shahsavan
MSc (Tech) Mahsa Shahsavan esittää väitöskirjansa ”DEVELOPMENT OF NAPHTHALENE DIIMIDE-BASED FLOW BATTERIES” julkisesti tarkastettavaksi Turun yliopistossa torstaina 18.12.2025 klo 13.00 (Turun yliopisto, Arcanum, Aava-luentosali, Arcanuminkuja 1, Turku).
Vastaväittäjänä toimii professori Elisabet Ahlberg (Göteborgin yliopisto, Ruotsi) ja kustoksena professori Pekka Peljo (Turun yliopisto). Tilaisuus on englanninkielinen. Väitöksen alana on materiaalitekniikka.
Väitöskirja yliopiston julkaisuarkistossa: https://www.utupub.fi/handle/10024/194474 (kopioi linkki selaimeen).
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Tiivistelmä väitöstutkimuksesta:
My research focused on a type of rechargeable battery called a flow battery, which can store extra energy from renewable sources. These batteries use liquids that contain special molecules able to hold and release electrical energy. A common problem is that many of these molecules do not dissolve well in water or decompose during use, which limits how much energy the battery can store. To address this, I synthesized two new molecules based on a structure called naphthalene diimide (NDI) and tested how well they perform inside a flow battery.
The key finding is that both new NDI molecules worked well as battery materials. They dissolved well in water, showed stable behaviour during charging and discharging, and did not decompose even after repeated cycling. One of these molecules has already been patented by our collaborator Rivus AB. Importantly, the capacity loss we observed in our flow batteries did not come from the molecules breaking down but from external factors such as membrane crossover and changes in the liquid levels of the two tanks.
The impact of this research is that it contributes to the development of safer, more affordable, and more sustainable energy-storage systems. First, it adds two promising organic molecules to the set of candidates for future flow batteries. Both show high solubility and good cycling stability at near-neutral pH, which makes the battery system safer and easier to operate. Second, the work shows clearly how small changes to the structure of NDI molecules strongly affect solubility, charge behaviour, and long-term stability. This helps guide the design of next-generation molecules that could reach commercial standards. These insights support the development of flow batteries that can store renewable energy more reliably on a large scale.
Vastaväittäjänä toimii professori Elisabet Ahlberg (Göteborgin yliopisto, Ruotsi) ja kustoksena professori Pekka Peljo (Turun yliopisto). Tilaisuus on englanninkielinen. Väitöksen alana on materiaalitekniikka.
Väitöskirja yliopiston julkaisuarkistossa: https://www.utupub.fi/handle/10024/194474 (kopioi linkki selaimeen).
***
Tiivistelmä väitöstutkimuksesta:
My research focused on a type of rechargeable battery called a flow battery, which can store extra energy from renewable sources. These batteries use liquids that contain special molecules able to hold and release electrical energy. A common problem is that many of these molecules do not dissolve well in water or decompose during use, which limits how much energy the battery can store. To address this, I synthesized two new molecules based on a structure called naphthalene diimide (NDI) and tested how well they perform inside a flow battery.
The key finding is that both new NDI molecules worked well as battery materials. They dissolved well in water, showed stable behaviour during charging and discharging, and did not decompose even after repeated cycling. One of these molecules has already been patented by our collaborator Rivus AB. Importantly, the capacity loss we observed in our flow batteries did not come from the molecules breaking down but from external factors such as membrane crossover and changes in the liquid levels of the two tanks.
The impact of this research is that it contributes to the development of safer, more affordable, and more sustainable energy-storage systems. First, it adds two promising organic molecules to the set of candidates for future flow batteries. Both show high solubility and good cycling stability at near-neutral pH, which makes the battery system safer and easier to operate. Second, the work shows clearly how small changes to the structure of NDI molecules strongly affect solubility, charge behaviour, and long-term stability. This helps guide the design of next-generation molecules that could reach commercial standards. These insights support the development of flow batteries that can store renewable energy more reliably on a large scale.
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