Electrolyte Solvation Structure at Solid/Liquid Interface Probed by Nanogap Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy
Abstract
Understanding the fundamental factors that drive ion solvation structure and transport is key to design high performance, stable battery electrolytes. Reversible ion solvation and desolvation are critical to the interfacial charge transfer process across the solid-liquid interface as well as the resulting stability of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). Here in this paper, we report the first study of Li+ salt solvation structure in aprotic solution in the immediate vicinity (~ 20 nm) of the solid electrode-liquid interface using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) from a gold nanoparticle (Au NP) monolayer. The plasmonic coupling between Au NPs produces strong electromagnetic field enhancement in the gap region, leading to 5 orders of magnitude increase in Raman intensity for electrolyte components and their mixtures namely, lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC), ethylene carbonate (EC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC). Further, we estimate and compare the lithium-ion solvation number derived from SERS and Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy experiments to monitor and ascertain the changes in the solvation shell diameter in the confined nanogap region where there is maximum enhancement of the electric field. Our findings provide a new multi-modal spectroscopic approach to gain fundamental insights into the molecular structure of the electrolyte at the solid-liquid interface.
- Authors:
-
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Comenius Univ., Bratislava (Slovakia). Dept. of Nuclear Physics and Biophysics
- Florida A&M Univ.-Florida State Univ. College of Engineering (FAMU-FSU), Tallahassee, FL (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center (FIRST); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (EE-3V)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1471928
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Nano
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 1936-0851
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 25 ENERGY STORAGE; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; interface; ion solvation; gold nanoparticle; SERS; FDTD; solvation number; Liion battery
Citation Formats
Yang, Guang, Ivanov, Ilia N., Ruther, Rose E., Sacci, Robert L., Subjakova, Veronika, Hallinan, Daniel T., and Nanda, Jagjit. Electrolyte Solvation Structure at Solid/Liquid Interface Probed by Nanogap Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b05038.
Yang, Guang, Ivanov, Ilia N., Ruther, Rose E., Sacci, Robert L., Subjakova, Veronika, Hallinan, Daniel T., & Nanda, Jagjit. Electrolyte Solvation Structure at Solid/Liquid Interface Probed by Nanogap Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. United States. doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b05038.
Yang, Guang, Ivanov, Ilia N., Ruther, Rose E., Sacci, Robert L., Subjakova, Veronika, Hallinan, Daniel T., and Nanda, Jagjit. Tue .
"Electrolyte Solvation Structure at Solid/Liquid Interface Probed by Nanogap Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy". United States. doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b05038. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1471928.
@article{osti_1471928,
title = {Electrolyte Solvation Structure at Solid/Liquid Interface Probed by Nanogap Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy},
author = {Yang, Guang and Ivanov, Ilia N. and Ruther, Rose E. and Sacci, Robert L. and Subjakova, Veronika and Hallinan, Daniel T. and Nanda, Jagjit},
abstractNote = {Understanding the fundamental factors that drive ion solvation structure and transport is key to design high performance, stable battery electrolytes. Reversible ion solvation and desolvation are critical to the interfacial charge transfer process across the solid-liquid interface as well as the resulting stability of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). Here in this paper, we report the first study of Li+ salt solvation structure in aprotic solution in the immediate vicinity (~ 20 nm) of the solid electrode-liquid interface using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) from a gold nanoparticle (Au NP) monolayer. The plasmonic coupling between Au NPs produces strong electromagnetic field enhancement in the gap region, leading to 5 orders of magnitude increase in Raman intensity for electrolyte components and their mixtures namely, lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC), ethylene carbonate (EC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC). Further, we estimate and compare the lithium-ion solvation number derived from SERS and Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy experiments to monitor and ascertain the changes in the solvation shell diameter in the confined nanogap region where there is maximum enhancement of the electric field. Our findings provide a new multi-modal spectroscopic approach to gain fundamental insights into the molecular structure of the electrolyte at the solid-liquid interface.},
doi = {10.1021/acsnano.8b05038},
journal = {ACS Nano},
number = 10,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {9}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

Works referencing / citing this record:
High‐Curvature Transition‐Metal Chalcogenide Nanostructures with a Pronounced Proximity Effect Enable Fast and Selective CO 2 Electroreduction
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- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 132, Issue 22
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- Gao, Fei‐Yue; Hu, Shao‐Jin; Zhang, Xiao‐Long
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Understanding the Role of Fluorination on the Interaction of Electrolytic Carbonates with Li + through an Electronic Structure Approach
journal, January 2019
- Kushwaha, Anoop Kumar; Sahoo, Mihir Ranjan; Nayak, Saroj Kumar
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journal, January 2019
- Yang, Guang; Sacci, Robert L.; Ivanov, Ilia N.
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 166, Issue 2