Redox flow battery efficiency and performance may be improved with a high energy density bipyridinium based ionic room-temperature liquid electrolyte. Current electrolytes require solvent to dissolve the redox-active material and a supporting electrolyte to maintain charge balance. A room temperature redox-active electrolyte having intrinsic charge balancing would not need a solvent to form a liquid and would therefore have a higher density of anions and cations involved with charge storage. As such, creating redox-active bipyridinium core ionic materials that are in a liquid form at room temperature or, more particularly, are liquids across the range at which a redox flow battery would operate permit smaller and less costly flow battery design than conventional flow batteries.