Energy & Green Tech
In a study published in Advanced Energy Materials, researchers have constructed a hydrogel electrolyte formula by using ClO4- anions and polyacrylamide chains to anchor water molecules, while glucose molecules preferentially ...
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34
Energy & Green Tech
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46
Energy & Green Tech
Lithium-ion batteries are integral to numerous applications, ranging from everyday electronics to electric vehicles. Despite their widespread use, these batteries pose safety risks due to the flammable liquid electrolytes ...
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3
Engineering
Lithium-based solid-state batteries have some advantages, such as being less flammable. But they are also much less powerful. This is because the lithium ions in this type of battery have to diffuse through a solid electrolyte, ...
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109
Energy & Green Tech
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9
Energy & Green Tech
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23
Energy & Green Tech
Lithium-ion batteries powered the device on which these words appear. From phones and laptops to electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries are critical to the technology of the modern world—but they can also explode. Comprising ...
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19
Energy & Green Tech
Solid oxide fuel cells, or SOFC, are a type of electrochemical device that generates electricity using hydrogen as fuel, with the only 'waste' product being water. Naturally, as we strive to reduce our carbon output and mitigate ...
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58
Engineering
Under the challenge of climate change and the demand for clean energy, there have been rising concerns about the manufacturing of batteries with a high level of safety and higher capacity, which is crucial for supporting ...
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28
Energy & Green Tech
A new battery technology could provide a cleaner and cheaper alternative to the toxic chemicals widely used in energy storage devices.
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21
In chemistry, an electrolyte is any substance containing free ions that make the substance electrically conductive. The most typical electrolyte is an ionic solution, but molten electrolytes and solid electrolytes are also possible.
Commonly, electrolytes are solutions of acids, bases or salts. Furthermore, some gases may act as electrolytes under conditions of high temperature or low pressure. Electrolyte solutions can also result from the dissolution of some biological (e.g., DNA, polypeptides) and synthetic polymers (e.g., polystyrene sulfonate), termed polyelectrolytes, which contain charged functional groups.
Electrolyte solutions are normally formed when a salt is placed into a solvent such as water and the individual components dissociate due to the thermodynamic interactions between solvent and solute molecules, in a process called solvation. For example, when table salt, NaCl, is placed in water, the salt (a solid) dissolves into its component ions, according to the dissociation reaction
It is also possible for substances to react with water producing ions, e.g., carbon dioxide gas dissolves in water to produce a solution which contains hydronium, carbonate, and hydrogen carbonate ions.
Note that molten salts can be electrolytes as well. For instance, when sodium chloride is molten, the liquid conducts electricity.
An electrolyte in a solution may be described as concentrated if it has a high concentration of ions, or dilute if it has a low concentration. If a high proportion of the solute dissociates to form free ions, the electrolyte is strong; if most of the solute does not dissociate, the electrolyte is weak. The properties of electrolytes may be exploited using electrolysis to extract constituent elements and compounds contained within the solution.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
