Ideal electrolyte solvents

In accordance with the basic requirements for electrolytes, an ideal electrolyte solvent should meet... 

An ideal electrolyte solvent for Li-ion cells shall meet the following minimal criteria, namely, high dielectric constant, to be able to dissolve salts of sufficient concentration, lower viscosity for facile ion transport, inert to all cell components, especially the charged surfaces of the electrodes, lower melting point, and higher boiling point to remain liquid in a wide temperature range. 

For graphitic carbon, as mentioned in Section Z4.2.2, PC is usually not regarded as an ideal electrolyte solvent therefore, EC-based electrol5de solution is commonly used. However, the melting point of PC (-49°C) is lower than that of EC (38°C) [1]. In order to broaden the application fields of liquid electrolyte-based lithium-ion batteries, one should try to improve their performance at low temperatures such as -30°C. One may achieve this by coating with additional carbon. There is still some room for the enhancement of the reversible capacity of carbon negative electrode materials, and coating with additional carbon is one possible choice. 

Of course these requirements cannot be fulfilled simultaneously. For example, a low vapor pressure of the liquid electrolyte is obtained only by using more viscous dipolar aprotic solvents such as propylene carbonate, but high solvent viscosity generally entails a low conductivity. Nevertheless, a large number of useful solvents and electrolytes is available, allowing a sufficiently good approximation to an ideal electrolyte. 

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. 

Electrolyte. The ideal electrolyte, ie, the fluid part of the cell, for organic synthesis would give high solubility to the organic, possess good conductivity, have low cost, contain easy recovery and purification, and be noncorrosive. Quaternary ammonium salts provide many of the above criteria in aqueous systems. A concise compilation of solvents and salts used in electroorganic chemistry is available (40). 

From the current-voltage characteristic it is seen that the current is inversely proportional to the electrode spacing, since h. At low values of FV/RT the current is linear in the applied voltage, and at sufficiently high values it approaches the limiting current exponentially. This behavior is sketched in Fig. 6.1.2. The ideal electrolytic cell behavior will be modified with a real electrolyte as a consequence of dissociation of the solvent, say water, at sufficiently high voltages. This will result in a plateau and then a subsequent current increase, as sketched in Fig. 6.1.2. 

It can be seen from the above discussion so far no ideal single solvent has been found that can replace commercially used solvents such as ACN in terms of overall performance such as viscosity, conductivity, and thermal stability. Although some promising solvents with higher electrochemical stability have been explored, they generally suffered from poorer conductivity, lower salt solubility, and higher viscosity compared to ACN-based electrolytes. 

To be able to understand how computational approaches can and should be used for electrochemical prediction we first of all need to have a correct description of the precise aims. We start from the very basic lithium-ion cell operation that ideally involves two well-defined and reversible reduction and oxidation redox) reactions - one at each electrode/electrolyte interface - coordinated with the outer transport of electrons and internal transport of lithium ions between the positive and negative electrodes. However, in practice many other chemical and physical phenomena take place simultaneously, such as anion diffusion in the electrolyte and additional redox processes at the interfaces due to reduction and/or oxidation of electrolyte components (Fig. 9.1). Control of these additional phenomena is crucial to ensure safe and stable ceU operation and to optimize the overall cell performance. In general, computations can thus be used (1) to predict wanted redox reactions, for example the reduction potential E ) of a film-forming additive intended for a protective solid electrolyte interface (SEI) and (2) to predict unwanted redox reactions, for example the oxidation potential (Eox) limit of electrolyte solvents or anions. As outlined above, the additional redox reactions involve components of the electrolyte, which thus is a prime aim of the modelling. The working agenda of different electrolyte materials in the cell -and often the unwanted reactions - are addressed to be able to mitigate the limitations posed in a rational way. 

Ideal liquids are mutually soluble in all proportions, while the solubilities of ideal solids in ideal liquid solvents are limited by the energy required to liquify the solute. Real solutions of non-electrolytes in non-conducting solvents can be subdivided into regular solutions and solutions in which association occurs. The former have been the subject of extensive study by Hildebrand and Scott [43], who have developed methods of predicting regular solubilities from theoretical considerations. Tliey introduced the term solubility parameter (5), which is constant for a given solute or solvent, and dependent on intermolecular attraction and molar volume. Deviation from ideal solubility is calculated from an expression containing the term (Si-Sj), where the suffixes 1 and 2 represent solvent and solute respectively. When the solubility parameters of solvent and... 

PEO is found to be an ideal solvent for alkali-metal, alkaline-earth metal, transition-metal, lanthanide, and rare-earth metal cations. Its solvating properties parallel those of water, since water and ethers have very similar donicites and polarizabilities. Unlike water, ethers are unable to solvate the anion, which consequently plays an important role in polyether polymer-electrolyte formation. 

Since a metal is immersed in a solution of an inactive electrolyte and no charge transfer across the interface is possible, the only phenomena occurring are the reorientation of solvent molecules at the metal surface and the redistribution of surface metal electrons.6,7 The potential drop thus consists only of dipolar contributions, so that Eq. (5) applies. Therefore the potential of zero charge is directly established at such an interface.3,8-10 Experimentally, difficulties may arise because of impurities and local microreactions,9 but this is irrelevant from the ideal point of view. 

Carnie and Chan and Blum and Henderson have calculated the capacitance for an idealized model of an electrified interface using the mean spherical approximation (MSA). The interface is considered to consist of a solution of charged hard spheres in a solvent of hard spheres with embedded point dipoles, while the electrode is considered to be a uniformly charged hard wall whose dielectric constant is equal to that of the electrolyte (so that image forces need not be considered). 

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. 

First attempts to study the electrical double layer at A1 electrodes in aqueous and nonaqueous solutions were made in 1962-1965,182,747,748 but the results were not successful.190 The electrical double-layer structure at a renewed Al/nonaqueous solution of surface-inactive electrolytes such as (CH3)4NBF4) (CH3)4NC104, (CH3>4NPF6, and (C4H9)4NBF4, has been investigated by impedance.749-751 y-butyrolactone (y-BL), DMSO, and DMF have been used as solvents. In a wide region of E [-2.5 [Pg.128]

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. 

The simplest way to treat the solvent molecules of an electrolyte explicitly is to represent them as hard spheres, whereas the electrostatic contribution of the solvent is expressed implicitly by a uniform dielectric medium in which charged hard-sphere ions interact. A schematic representation is shown in Figure 2(a) for the case of an idealized situation in which the cations, anions, and solvent have the same diameters. This is the solvent primitive model (SPM), first named by Davis and coworkers [15,16] but appearing earlier in other studies [17]. As shown in Figure 2(b), the interaction potential of a pair of particles (ions or solvent molecule), i and j, in the SPM are ... 

Kakiuchi and Senda [36] measured the electrocapillary curves of the ideally polarized water nitrobenzene interface by the drop time method using the electrolyte dropping electrode [37] at various concentrations of the aqueous (LiCl) and the organic solvent (tetrabutylammonium tetraphenylborate) electrolytes. An example of the electrocapillary curve for this system is shown in Fig. 2. The surface excess charge density Q, and the relative surface excess concentrations T " and rppg of the Li cation and the tetraphenylborate anion respectively, were evaluated from the surface tension data by using Eq. (21). The relative surface excess concentrations and of the d anion and the... 

Samec et al. [15] used the AC polarographic method to study the potential dependence of the differential capacity of the ideally polarized water-nitrobenzene interface at various concentrations of the aqueous (LiCl) and the organic solvent (tetrabutylammonium tetra-phenylborate) electrolytes. The capacity showed a single minimum at an interfacial potential difference, which is close to that for the electrocapillary maximum. The experimental capacity was found to agree well with the capacity calculated from Eq. (28) for 1 /C,- = 0 and for the capacities of the space charge regions calculated using the GC theory,... 

The activity coefficient of the solvent remains close to unity up to quite high electrolyte concentrations e.g. the activity coefficient for water in an aqueous solution of 2 m KC1 at 25°C equals y0x = 1.004, while the value for potassium chloride in this solution is y tX = 0.614, indicating a quite large deviation from the ideal behaviour. Thus, the activity coefficient of the solvent is not a suitable characteristic of the real behaviour of solutions of electrolytes. If the deviation from ideal behaviour is to be expressed in terms of quantities connected with the solvent, then the osmotic coefficient is employed. The osmotic pressure of the system is denoted as jz and the hypothetical osmotic pressure of a solution with the same composition that would behave ideally as jt. The equations for the osmotic pressures jt and jt are obtained from the equilibrium condition of the pure solvent and of the solution. Under equilibrium conditions the chemical potential of the pure solvent, which is equal to the standard chemical potential at the pressure p, is equal to the chemical potential of the solvent in the solution under the osmotic pressure jt,... 

The ideal electropolymerization scheme (Eq. (5.5.39)) is further complicated by the fact that lower oligomers can react with nucleophilic substances (impurities, electrolyte anions, and solvent) and are thus deactivated for subsequent polymerization. The rate of these undesired side reactions apparently increases with increasing oxidation potential of the monomer, for example, in the series ... 

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