Abstract
Electrolytes are an essential component of all electrochemical storage and conversion devices, such as batteries. In the history of battery development, the complex nature of electrolytes has often been a bottleneck. Fundamental knowledge of electrolyte systems encompasses elucidation of structure–property relationships of the solution species. Recently, nanometric aggregates have been observed in several classes of electrolytes, including super-concentrated, redox-flow, multivalent, polymer, and ionic liquid-based electrolytes. Compared with the well-studied local solvation structures such as contact ion pairs and solvent-separated ions, these aggregates impose unique effects on the ion distribution and transport both within bulk electrolytes and at electrode/electrolyte interfaces. This Perspective highlights the discovery of the aggregates in various battery electrolytes and their impact on electrolyte properties. We also present an outlook for future studies of this emerging field of nanometric aggregates and the need for the development of new experimental and computational tools to study their properties.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 461-470 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | ACS Energy Letters |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 14 2022 |
Funding
This research was supported by the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Innovation Hub. The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. This research was supported by the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Innovation Hub. The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (?Argonne?). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy?s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.