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Title: Self-assembled nanostructures in ionic liquids facilitate charge storage at electrified interfaces

Journal Article · · Nature Materials
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [2];  [6];  [5];  [7];  [8];  [9]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Lyon (France); Univ. of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (Czech Republic)
  4. Univ. of Chester (United Kingdom)
  5. Univ. of Western Australia, Perth, WA (Australia)
  6. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  7. Univ. of Bristol (United Kingdom)
  8. Inst. Laue–Langevin, Grenoble (France)
  9. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Lyon (France)

Driven by the potential applications of ionic liquids (ILs) in many emerging electrochemical technologies, recent research efforts have been directed at understanding the complex ion ordering in these systems, to uncover novel energy storage mechanisms at IL–electrode interfaces. Here, we discover that surface-active ILs (SAILs), which contain amphiphilic structures inducing self-assembly, exhibit enhanced charge storage performance at electrified surfaces. We report that unlike conventional non-amphiphilic ILs, for which ion distribution is dominated by Coulombic interactions, SAILs exhibit significant and competing van der Waals interactions owing to the non-polar surfactant tails, leading to unusual interfacial ion distributions. We reveal that, at an intermediate degree of electrode polarization, SAILs display optimum performance, because the low-charge-density alkyl tails are effectively excluded from the electrode surfaces, whereas the formation of non-polar domains along the surface suppresses undesired overscreening effects. This work represents a crucial step towards understanding the unique interfacial behaviour and electrochemical properties of amphiphilic liquid systems showing long-range ordering, and offers insights into the design principles for high-energy-density electrolytes based on spontaneous self-assembly behaviour.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Czech Science Foundation; Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) (United Kingdom); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; 19-04150Y
OSTI ID:
1594997
Journal Information:
Nature Materials, Vol. 18, Issue 12; ISSN 1476-1122
Publisher:
Springer Nature - Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 118 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Figures / Tables (6)


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