To
achieve sustainable development, the development and utilization
of redox-active organic species in aqueous redox flow batteries provide
broad prospects for large-scale and sustainable energy storage. Herein,
we report a sulfonated ferrocene derivative, ferrocene ammonium sulfonate,
that is stable and easy to synthesize. We applied it as a catholyte
in zinc hybrid flow batteries. Through the adjustment of the electrolyte,
the battery showed high capacity retention and efficiency. When the
current density was 20 mA/cm2 and 0.5 M NaCl + 0.5 M NH4Cl solution was used as the supporting electrolyte, the capacity
retention reached 92.55% after 100 consecutive charge/discharge cycles.
In addition, the coulombic efficiency, energy efficiency, and voltage
efficiency stayed at 98.33, 83.19, and 84.60%, respectively. This
battery design puts forward an idea for developing low-cost materials
and improving capacity retention.