Synthesis of Ferrocenes as Novel Electrolytes for Energy Storage

Anna-Maria Habak’s PhD thesis defense will take place on Monday, 16 November 2026. Her research focuses on aqueous organic redox flow batteries (AORFBs), a promising technology for stationary energy storage.

The development of aqueous organic redox flow batteries relies on the design of soluble and stable electrolytes with suitable electrochemical properties. This thesis focuses on the synthesis, characterisation and evaluation of new ferrocene derivatives for this application.

An original family of ferrocenes bearing one or two solubilising groups was developed to improve their solubility in water. All synthesised compounds underwent physicochemical characterisation, including the determination of their redox potential, solubility and stability, making it possible to identify the most promising candidates for battery testing.

Finally, a new family of ferrocenes was designed to improve the stability of redox species. These compounds exhibit enhanced stability, particularly under strongly alkaline conditions (pH 12), demonstrating the potential of this molecular structure for the design of high-performance electrolytes for aqueous organic redox flow batteries.

These results, obtained as part of the DISCOVERY project under the PEPR Batteries programme, will be the subject of a patent application and will benefit from a project funded by CampuStart.

Jury:
Agnès Labande, CNRS Researcher, University of Toulouse / Reviewer
Emmanuel Baudrin, Professor, University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens / Reviewer
Jean-Cyrille Hierso, Professor, University of Bourgogne / Examiner

Supervisors
William Erb, Associate Professor, University of Rennes, ISCR
Florence Geneste, CNRS Research Director, University of Rennes, ISCR
Florence Mongin, Professor, University of Rennes, ISCR

Invited
Charlotte Bodin, Associate Professor, University of Rennes, ISCR