RQMP Research Seminar

What Role for Unconventional Electrolytes in the Development of Energy Storage Devices?

Dominic Rochefort

Département de Chimie
Université de Montréal

Ionic liquids, deep eutectics and highly concentrated solutions are good examples of alternative liquids that have been proposed to replace conventional electrolytes in energy storage devices. They are being researched actively with the goal to increase the electrochemical stability window, temperature range of operation, safety and energy density figures of such devices. These appealing properties however usually comes at the (too high?) cost of decreasing the power, due to lower transport rates of ions. While successful in research labs, very few of these advanced electrolytes translated into real applications, which is due in large part to the ill-defined goal of replacing current electrolytes. These advanced electrolytes should be researched not to improve current ones, but to open new possibilities, develop new functionalities that are unachievable with conventional systems. This presentation will provide an overview of our current research on advanced electrolytes focusing on redox-active electrolytes and highly concentrated solutions.