The glowing dye that could enable liquid-based batteries for powering homes and cars

Researchers at the University at Buffalo say BODIPY – short for boron-dipyrromethene – hides two "unusual" chemical properties that make it a potential candidate for stockpiling energy in a redox flow battery: storing electrons and participating in electron transfer. This discovery is potentially significant because next-gen batteries need to do these two things very well in order to store and deliver energy at grid scale. BODIPY, which is also used as a sensor to identify proteins, is "very good" at performing these functions, say the researchers led by Dr. Timothy Cook and first author Anjula M. Kosswattaarachchi.

http://newatlas.com/bodipy-dye-redox-flow-batteries/46526/