November 23, 2021, Research Highlights

Li+ hopping mechanism in LiTFSI water-in-salt electrolyte identified by molecular dynamics simulations

The high Li+ apparent transference number in the LiTFSI water-in-salt electrolyte was captured by MD simulations and the dominant Li+ conduction mechanism in the highly concentrated LiTFSI water-in-salt electrolyte was identified to be hopping between water and TFSI- anions. Read More

November 19, 2021, Research Highlights

High-Efficiency Zinc-Metal Anode Enabled by Liquefied Gas Electrolytes

A liquefied gas electrolyte was developed for the 1st time for a bivalent chemistry. It displays an excellent Zn conductivity (>3.4 mS cm-1) across a broad temperature range (-60 to +20 °C), enables highly reversible Zn cycling with no evidence of shorting behavior at both room temperature and -20 °C for over 200 cycles (>400 h) with a high Coulombic efficiency (CE > 99%) at high utilization (20% Zn per cycle) for Zn plating/stripping at both room temperature and -20°C. Read More

November 17, 2021, Research Highlights

Limited Accessibility to Surface Area Generated by Thermal Pretreatment of Electrodes Reduces Its Impact on Redox Flow Battery Performance

A systematic study on thermally pretreated electrodes for redox flow batteries (RFBs) leveraging gas adsorption techniques, physicochemical spectroscopy, in situ flow cells, and a convection-reaction model suggests diminishing returns in RFB performance at longer pretreatment times due to hindered active species transport to recessed regions of the electrode. Read More

November 16, 2021, Research Highlights

First-principles calculations predict Ca cathodes based on layered calcium transition metal oxide materials

First-principles calculations are used to demonstrate that P-type layered CaTM2O4 materials with a range of TM substitutions (TM = Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) have excellent battery-related properties including thermodynamic stability, average voltage, energy density, synthesizability, ionic mobility, and electronic structure. Read More

November 11, 2021, Research Highlights

Understanding Solvation Behavior of the Saturated Electrolytes with Small/Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering and Raman Spectroscopy

A combined SAXS/WAXS and Raman spectroscopy are employed to study the global and local solvation structure. This work demonstrates a method for detecting the structure of liquids, which will facilitate the study of structure-performance relationships and the screening of new electrolytes. Read More

November 11, 2021, Research Highlights

Pulsed Field Gradient Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Diffusion Analysis in Battery Research (Review)

A pedagogical overview of Pulsed Field Gradient Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (PFG-NMR) analysis for battery electrolytes provides a guide for new and seasoned practitioners, while demonstrating the many uses of diffusion measurements through a review of selected examples. Read More

November 11, 2021, Research Highlights

Multiple charging of tripodal catholyte redoxmers

Redox-active oligomer molecules can become more (100x) stable when they are fully charged compared to their partially charged states. This is the first time this effect was observed in chemistry. Read More

November 9, 2021, Research Highlights

Combining electrochemical and imaging analyses to understand the effect of electrode microstructure and electrolyte properties on redox flow batteries

Through a combined experimental and modeling approach, we show that, of the many physical properties associated with fibrous electrodes, permeability best correlates with electrochemical performance in a flow cell. Read More

November 8, 2021, Research Highlights

Role of Multivalent Ion – Solvent Interaction on Restricted Mg2+ Diffusion in Dimethoxyethane (DME) Electrolytes

Comparison of the diffusion behaviors of Mg2+, TFSI-, DME, and Li+ reveals a relative restriction to Mg2+ diffusion that is caused by the long-range interaction between Mg2+ and solvent molecules, especially those with suppressed motions at high concentrations and low temperatures. Read More

October 31, 2021, Research Highlights

Tabc Li+ in Sulfolane-and Tetraglyme-based Electrolytes by Very Low Frequency Impedance Spectroscopy (VLF-IS)

A systematic study of the effect of concentration on Li+ transference number under anion-blocking conditions (_(〖〗^+)^) in sulfolane (SL) and tetraglyme (G4) using VLF-IS showed that SL is a more superior solvent than G4 for Li+ transport, even though the viscosity of the former is higher but with similar ionic conductivity. Read More