Premium
Understanding Aqueous Electrolyte Stability through Combined Computational and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A Case Study on Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Electrolytes
Author(s) -
Vijayakumar Murugesan,
Nie Zimin,
Walter Eric,
Hu Jianzhi,
Liu Jun,
Sprenkle Vincent,
Wang Wei
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chempluschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.801
H-Index - 61
ISSN - 2192-6506
DOI - 10.1002/cplu.201402139
Subject(s) - vanadium , electrolyte , solvation , chemistry , flow battery , inorganic chemistry , density functional theory , redox , molecule , computational chemistry , organic chemistry , electrode
The investigation of the vanadium electrolyte stability issue on the molecular‐level solvation structure and the dynamics has led to the successful designing of mixed acid‐based vanadium electrolytes. This new mixed‐acid based electrolyte system render approximately 70 % increase in energy density (≈40 Wh L −1 ) and approximately 80 % increase in stable temperature window (−10 to +50 °C) compared with conventional sulfuric acid‐based vanadium electrolyte. Through a comprehensive study by density functional theory and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, the improved stability is attributed to the hydrochloric acid as optimal cosolvent providing chloride anions for a ligand‐exchange process in the vanadium solvation structure. The role of the chloride counteranion in the solvation structure and dynamics of vanadium species was studied using combined magnetic resonance spectroscopy and DFT‐based theoretical methods. The solvation phenomenon of multiple vanadium species and their impact on vanadium redox flow battery electrolyte chemical stability are discussed.