RESUMEN
The concept of water-in-salt electrolytes was introduced recently, and these systems have been successfully applied to yield extended operation voltage and hence significantly improved energy density in aqueous Li-ion batteries. In the present work, results of X-ray scattering and Fourier-transform infrared spectra measurements over a wide range of temperatures and salt concentrations are reported for the LiTFSI (lithium bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl)imide)-based water-in-salt electrolyte. Classical molecular dynamics simulations are validated against the experiments and used to gain additional information about the electrolyte structure. Based on our analyses, a new model for the liquid structure is proposed. Specifically, we demonstrate that at the highest LiTFSI concentration of 20 m the water network is disrupted, and the majority of water molecules exist in the form of isolated monomers, clusters, or small aggregates with chain-like configurations. On the other hand, TFSI- anions are connected to each other and form a network. This description is fundamentally different from those proposed in earlier studies of this system.
RESUMEN
We report that a porous, electron-rich, covalent, organonitridic framework (PECONF-4) exhibits an unusually high hydrogen uptake at 77 K, relative to its specific surface area. Chahine's rule, a widely cited heuristic for hydrogen adsorption, sets a maximum adsorptive uptake of 1 wt % hydrogen at 77 K per 500 m2 of the adsorbent surface area. High-pressure hydrogen adsorption measurements in a Sieverts apparatus showed that PECONF-4 exceeds Chahine's rule by 50%. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area of PECONF-4 was measured redundantly with nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide and found to be between 569 ± 2 and 676 ± 13 m2 g-1. Furthermore, hydrogen on PECONF-4 has a high heat of adsorption, in excess of 9 kJ mol-1.