Ambient temperature liquid salt electrolytes
Journal article, 2023

Alkali metal salts usually have high melting points due to strong electrostatic interactions and solvents are needed to create ambient temperature liquid electrolytes. Here, we report on six phosphate-anion-based alkali metal salts, Li/Na/K, all of which are liquids at room temperature, with glass transition temperatures ranging from −61 to −29 °C, and are thermally stable up to at least 225 °C. While the focus herein is on various physico-chemical properties, these salts also exhibit high anodic stabilities, up to 6 V vs. M/M+ (M = Li/Na/K), and deliver some battery performance - at elevated temperatures as there are severe viscosity limitations at room-temperature. While the battery performance arguably is sub-par, solvent-free electrolytes based on alkali metal salts such as these should pave the way for conceptually different Li/Na/K-batteries, either by refined anion design or by using several salts to create eutectic mixtures.

Room temperature

Electric batteries

Glass transition

Alkali metal salts

Author

Sourav Bhowmick

Luleå University of Technology

Mukhtiar Ahmed

Luleå University of Technology

Andrei Filippov

Luleå University of Technology

Laura Loaiza Rodriguez

Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics

Faiz Ullah Shah

Luleå University of Technology

Patrik Johansson

Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics

Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)

Chemical Communications

1359-7345 (ISSN) 1364-548X (eISSN)

Vol. 59 18 2620-2623

Subject Categories

Ceramics

Materials Chemistry

Other Chemical Engineering

DOI

10.1039/d3cc00318c

PubMed

36757288

More information

Latest update

3/17/2023