October 2, 2020, Research Highlights

Bis(diisopropylamino)cyclopropenium-arene Cations as High Oxidation Potential and High Stability Catholytes for Nonaqueous Redox Flow Batteries

Development of a new catholyte with both extremely high potential and much improved cycling stability Read More

September 9, 2020, Research Highlights

Impact of Frictional Interactions on Electrochemical Properties in Polymer Electrolytes

We introduce a new parameter, b+-, indicating the influence of cation-anion interactions on conductivity. When b+- = 1, which is true in the fluorinated system, only cation-anion interactions determine ionic conductivity. Read More

August 28, 2020, Research Highlights

A Review of Electrochemical Advances in Non-Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Batteries

Advances in electrolytes for non-aqueous redox flow batteries and computational tools for their discovery and prediction are reviewed and explored. Read More

August 14, 2020, Research Highlights

Realizing high zinc reversibility in rechargeable batteries

The first comprehensive comparison of the ~20 published studies evaluating Zn metal reversibility for rechargeable batteries shows significant variability in published test methods and parameters, and poor alignment toward commercial targets for zinc metal batteries. Significance and Impact Read More

August 7, 2020, Research Highlights

Seeing Battery Solutions Move to Assess the Health of Batteries

Organic redox-active molecules (redoxmers) are popular for flow battery fluids. Their structural variability comes with other properties that may be tailored for function. We discovered that fluorescence emission can be engineered into redoxmers, which allows real-time tracing of species crossover in a liquid flow cell, a key state of health (SOH) metric. The extracted permeability values show dependence on composition of electrolytes such as salt or redoxmer concentrations. Read More

July 29, 2020, Research Highlights

Continuum description of the role of negative transference numbers on ion motion in polymer electrolytes

This theoretical study not only reveals time and space dependence of ion motion in the PEO/LiTFSI electrolyte having negative transference number, but also provide guidance to experimentalists seeking to detect the direction of ion motion in these electrolytes. Read More

July 23, 2020, Research Highlights

Influence of Ether Solvent and Anion Coordination on Electrochemical Behavior in Calcium Battery Electrolytes

Ethereal solvent structure determines Ca2+ solvation structure and the efficiency of calcium metal plating. In a moderate-coordinating solvent such as G1, anion coordination determines whether or not reversible plating takes place while in a strongly coordinating solvent such as G3, calcium plating is frustrated by a rigid solvation shell, regardless of anion. Read More

July 21, 2020, Research Highlights

Probing calcium solvation by XAS, MD and DFT calculations

The solvation shell structures of Ca2+ in aqueous and organic solutions are probed by calcium L-edge soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and DFT/MD simulations. Read More

July 21, 2020, Research Highlights

Recent Advancements in Rational Design of Non-Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Batteries

Organic redox-active molecules are considered as next-generation materials for non-aqueous redox-flow batteries (NAqORFBs). In this review, we screen the state-of-art advancements made in NAqORFBs, shed light upon the approaches that lie behind the developments, and detail the areas of particular interest through highlighted examples. Read More

July 18, 2020, Research Highlights

Electrolytes and Additives for Batteries Part I: Fundamentals and Insights on Cathode Degradation Mechanisms

This part I review serves as a self-contained article that addresses the fundamentals of batteries and cathode degradation mechanisms. Read More