Ideal electrolyte solutes

An ideal electrolyte solute for ambient rechargeable lithium batteries should meet the following minimal requirements (1) It should be able to completely dissolve and dissociate in the nonaqueous media, and the solvated ions (especially lithium cation) should be able to move in the media with high mobility. (2) The anion should be stable against oxidative decomposition at the cathode. (3) The anion should be inert to electrolyte solvents. (4) Both the anion and the cation should remain inert toward the other cell components such as separator, electrode substrate. 

In the ideal electrolyte solutions all three interactions are present ... 

The situation for electrolyte solutions is more complex theory confimis the limiting expressions (originally from Debye-Htickel theory), but, because of the long-range interactions, the resulting equations are non-analytic rather than simple power series.) It is evident that electrolyte solutions are ideally dilute only at extremely low concentrations. Further details about these activity coefficients will be found in other articles. 

The standard state of an electrolyte is the hypothetical ideally dilute solution (Henry s law) at a molarity of 1 mol kg (Actually, as will be seen, electrolyte data are conventionally reported as for the fonnation of mdividual ions.) Standard states for non-electrolytes in dilute solution are rarely invoked. 

The calomel electrode Hg/HgjClj, KCl approximates to an ideal non-polarisable electrode, whilst the Hg/aqueous electrolyte solution electrode approximates to an ideal polarisable electrode. The electrical behaviour of a metal/solution interface may be regarded as a capacitor and resistor in parallel (Fig. 20.23), and on the basis of this analogy it is possible to distinguish between a completely polarisable and completely non-polarisable... 

Chapters 7 to 9 apply the thermodynamic relationships to mixtures, to phase equilibria, and to chemical equilibrium. In Chapter 7, both nonelectrolyte and electrolyte solutions are described, including the properties of ideal mixtures. The Debye-Hiickel theory is developed and applied to the electrolyte solutions. Thermal properties and osmotic pressure are also described. In Chapter 8, the principles of phase equilibria of pure substances and of mixtures are presented. The phase rule, Clapeyron equation, and phase diagrams are used extensively in the description of representative systems. Chapter 9 uses thermodynamics to describe chemical equilibrium. The equilibrium constant and its relationship to pressure, temperature, and activity is developed, as are the basic equations that apply to electrochemical cells. Examples are given that demonstrate the use of thermodynamics in predicting equilibrium conditions and cell voltages. 

The idea in these papers67,223,224 was to identify the potential of the capacitance minimum in dilute electrolyte solutions with the actual value of Ea=o (i.e., <7ge0m( min) = Ofor the whole surface) and to obtain the value of R as the inverse slope of the Parsons-Zobel plot at min.72 Extrapolation of Cwom vs- to Cgg0m = 0 provides the inner-layer capacitance in the / C geom, and not C ea as assumed in several papers.67,68,223,224 In the absence of ion-specific adsorption and for ideally smooth surfaces, these plots are expected to be linear with unit slope. However, data for Hg and single-crystal face electrodes have shown that the test is somewhat more complicated.63,74,219,247-249 More specifically,247,248 PZ plots for Hg/... 

In concentrated NaOH solutions, however, the deviations of the experimental data from the Parsons-Zobel plot are quite noticeable.72 These deviations can be used290 to find the derivative of the chemical potential of a single ion with respect to both the concentration of the given ion and the concentration of the ion of opposite sign. However, in concentrated electrolyte solutions, the deviations of the Parsons-Zobel plot can be caused by other effects,126 279"284 e.g., interferences between the solvent structure and the Debye length. Thus various effects may compensate each other for distances of molecular dimensions, and the Parsons-Zobel plot can appear more straight than it could be for an ideally flat interface. 

Cu crystallizes in the fee and its melting point is 1356 K. The experimental data for single-crystal Cu/H20 interfaces are also controversial. 567 570,572 57X The first studies with Cu(l 11), Cu(100), and Cu(l 10) in surface-inactive electrolyte solutions (NaF, Na2S04) show a capacitance minimum at E less negative than the positive limit of ideal polarizability of Cu electrodes (Table 11). depends on the method of surface... 

The electrical double layer at pc-Zn/fyO interfaces has been studied in many works,154 190 613-629 but the situation is somewhat ambiguous and complex. The polycrystalline Zn electrode was found to be ideally polarizable for sufficiently wide negative polarizations.622"627 With pc-Zn/H20, the value of Eg was found at -1.15 V (SCE)615 628 (Table 14). The values of nun are in reasonable agreement with the data of Caswell et al.623,624 Practically the same value of Eff was obtained by the scrape method in NaC104 + HjO solution (pH = 7.0).190 Later it was shown154,259,625,628 that the determination of Eo=0 by direct observation of Emin on C,E curves in dilute surface-inactive electrolyte solutions is not possible in the case of Zn because Zn belongs to the group of metals for which E -o is close to the reversible standard potential in aqueous solution. 

A hypothetical solution that obeys Raoult s law exactly at all concentrations is called an ideal solution. In an ideal solution, the interactions between solute and solvent molecules are the same as the interactions between solvent molecules in the pure state and between solute molecules in the pure state. Consequently, the solute molecules mingle freely with the solvent molecules. That is, in an ideal solution, the enthalpy of solution is zero. Solutes that form nearly ideal solutions are often similar in composition and structure to the solvent molecules. For instance, methylbenzene (toluene), C6H5CH, forms nearly ideal solutions with benzene, C6H6. Real solutions do not obey Raoult s law at all concentrations but the lower the solute concentration, the more closely they resemble ideal solutions. Raoult s law is another example of a limiting law (Section 4.4), which in this case becomes increasingly valid as the concentration of the solute approaches zero. A solution that does not obey Raoult s law at a particular solute concentration is called a nonideal solution. Real solutions are approximately ideal at solute concentrations below about 0.1 M for nonelectrolyte solutions and 0.01 M for electrolyte solutions. The greater departure from ideality in electrolyte solutions arises from the interactions between ions, which occur over a long distance and hence have a pronounced effect. Unless stated otherwise, we shall assume that all the solutions that we meet are ideal. 

In electrolyte solutions, nonideality of the system is much more pronounced than in solutions with uncharged species. This can be seen in particular from the fact that electrolyte solutions start to depart from an ideal state at lower concentrations. Hence, activities are always used in the thermodynamic equations for these solutions. It is in isolated instances only, when these equations are combined with other equations involving the number of ions per unit volume (e.g., equations for the balance of charges), that concentrations must be used and some error thus is introduced. 

In contrast to nonelectrolyte solutions, in the case of electrolyte solutions the col-ligative properties depart appreciably from the values following from the equations above, even in highly dilute electrolyte solutions that otherwise by all means can be regarded as ideal (anomalous colligative properties). 

Nucleation Consider an idealized spherical nucleus of a gas with the radius on the surface of an electrode immersed in an electrolyte solution. Because of the small size of the nucleus, the chemical potential, of the gas in it will be higher than that ( To) in a sufficiently large phase volume of the same gas. Let us calculate this quantity. 

LCEC is a special case of hydrodynamic chronoamperometry (measuring current as a function of time at a fixed electrode potential in a flowing or stirred solution). In order to fully understand the operation of electrochemical detectors, it is necessary to also appreciate hydrodynamic voltammetry. Hydrodynamic voltammetry, from which amperometry is derived, is a steady-state technique in which the electrode potential is scanned while the solution is stirred and the current is plotted as a function of the potential. Idealized hydrodynamic voltammograms (HDVs) for the case of electrolyte solution (mobile phase) alone and with an oxidizable species added are shown in Fig. 9. The HDV of a compound begins at a potential where the compound is not electroactive and therefore no faradaic current occurs, goes through a region... 

The results of the simple DHH theory outlined here are shown compared with DH results and corresponding Monte Carlo results in Figs. 10-12. Clearly, the major error of the DH theory has been accounted for. The OCP model is greatly idealized but the same hole correction method can be applied to more realistic electrolyte models. In a series of articles the DHH theory has been applied to a one-component plasma composed of charged hard spheres [23], to local correlation correction of the screening of macroions by counterions [24], and to the generation of correlated free energy density functionals for electrolyte solutions [25,26]. The extensive results obtained bear out the hopeful view of the DHH approximation provided by the OCP results shown here. It is noteworthy that in... 

When a small amount of a strong molten electrolyte is dissolved in another strong molten electrolyte, the laws of ideal dilute solutions are obeyed until relatively high concentrations are attained, assuming occurrence of a virtually complete dissociation. 

Thus, the deviation in the behaviour of electrolyte solutions from the ideal depends on the composition of the solution, and the activity of the components is a function of their mole fractions. For practical reasons, the form of this function has been defined in the simplest way possible ... 

In view of the electrostatic nature of forces that primarily lead to deviation of the behaviour of electrolyte solutions from the ideal, the activity coefficient of electrolytes must depend on the electric charge of all the ions present. G. N. Lewis, M. Randall and J. N. Br0nsted found experimentally that this dependence for dilute solutions is described quite adequately by the relationship... 

The osmotic pressure of an electrolyte solution jt can be considered as the ideal osmotic pressure jt decreased by the pressure jrel resulting from electric cohesion between ions. The work connected with a change in the concentration of the solution is n dV = jt dV — jrel dV. The electric part of this work is then JteldV = dWcl, and thus jzc] = (dWei/dV)T,n. The osmotic coefficient 0 is given by the ratio jt/jt, from which it follows that... 

The electrical double layer has also been investigated at the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions and at the solid electrolyte-electrolyte solution interface. Under certain conditions, the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES) has the properties of an ideally polarized interphase. The dissolved electrolyte must have the following properties ... 

---