[Aspuru-Guzik group list] Aspuru Group Meeting tomorrow at 2:30 pm in Cabot Division Room

Hi everyone, This Thursday April 3rd, Suleyman Er will tell us about his work on organic batteries. Below are the title and abstract of his talk. Best, Felipe Title: *Organic-Based Flow Batteries for Massive Electrical Energy Storage* Abstract: Flow batteries offer promising new technologies for electrical energy storage in the face of rising electricity production from intermittent renewables such as wind and solar. Large-scale utilization of flow batteries is limited due to the cost of redox-active and electrocatalytic precious metals. In this presentation, I will introduce a special type of flow battery that does not require expensive electroactive or electrocatalytic components. This new flow battery is currently being developed at Harvard and it uses small organic molecules as electroactive materials. The extensive chemical space of these small molecules offers ample possibilities in lowering the cost and improving the battery performance. Theoretical and computational modeling that can quickly and accurately predict the properties of new molecules is accordingly highly beneficial in the search for the best performing molecular candidates. Using first-principles calculations, we study an emerging library of quinone-derived small organic molecules, with special interest on their electrochemical properties and solubilities. Our initial aim is to discover new candidate molecules with interesting redox properties.