Investigating the properties and structures of concentrated aqueous electrolytes
Project ID: 2531bd1639
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Research Theme: Physical Sciences
Research Area(s): Chemistry
UCL Lead department: Chemistry
Lead Supervisor: Katherine Holt
Project Summary:
Electrolytes are ubiquitous. At their most basic level they can be considered as a salt dissolved in a solvent and examples include seawater and body fluids. They are also an intrinsic part of electrochemical cells and so play key roles in technologies such as sensors, supercapacitors and batteries. Basic electrolyte properties and related theories have been developed over many years and the fundamental understanding of dilute electrolytes is summarised in many textbooks. However concentrated electrolytes are less well understood, as their behaviour is more complex and simple models cannot be applied.
This project aims to develop a range of different experimental methodologies to further our understanding of the structure and properties of concentrated aqueous electrolytes.
There are various methods available to probe electrolyte structuring that will be used in this project. These include: 1) Infra-red (IR) spectroscopy provides detail on the water bond stretching wavenumbers, which can be used to infer information on intermolecular interactions. 2) Conductivity measurements give information on ion transport in the solution and its concentration and temperature dependence. 3) Electrochemical measurements using cyclic voltammetry (CV) allow measurement of diffusion coefficients and hence the viscosity of the solutions that can be related to underlying molecular interactions in the solution.