Related papers: What dictates soft clay-like Lithium superionic co…
Antagonistic salts are composed of hydrophilic and hydrophobic ions. In a mixture solvent (water-oil) such ion pairs are preferentially attracted to water or oil, giving rise to a coupling between the charge density and the composition.…
Phase transitions in polar binary mixtures can be drastically altered even by a small amount of salt. This is because the preferential solvation strongly depends on the ambient composition. Together with a summary of our research in this…
Soft materials, such as colloidal suspensions, polymer solutions, and biological systems, are typically multicomponent mixtures of macromolecules and simpler components (e.g., microions, monomers, solvent) that can assemble into complex…
Correlated anion and cation motion can significantly reduce the overall ion conductivity in electrolytes versus the ideal conductivity calculated based on the diffusion constants alone. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations,…
We study the salt-dependent conformations of dilute flexible polyelectrolytes in solution via computer simulations. Low concentrations of multivalent salt induce the known conformational collapse of individual polyelectrolyte chains, but as…
Clays control carbon, water and nutrient transport in the lithosphere, promote cloud formation5 and lubricate fault slip through interactions among hydrated mineral interfaces. Clay mineral properties are difficult to model because their…
We discover many new crystalline solid materials with fast single crystal Li ion conductivity at room temperature, discovered through density functional theory simulations guided by machine learning-based methods. The discovery of new solid…
In superionic compounds one component pre-melts providing high ionic conductivity to solid state electrolytes. Here, we find sublattice melting in colloidal crystals of oppositely charged particles that are highly asymmetric in size and…
Ionic liquids, salts in the liquid state under ambient conditions, are of great interest as precision lubricants. Ionic liquids form layered structures at surfaces, yet it is not clear how this nano-structure relates to their lubrication…
In this work, we report the results from molecular dynamics simulations of lithium salt-ionic liquid electrolytes (ILEs) based either on the symmetric bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide ($\text{TFSI}^-$) anion or its asymmetric analog…
Porous magnetic silica beads are promising materials for biological and environmental applications due to their enhanced adsorption and ease of recovery. This work aims to develop a new, inexpensive and environmentally friendly approach…
Solid-ion conductors (SICs) comprising non-ionic plastic crystals and lithium salts often require compositing with polymers to render them processable for use in solid-state lithium-metal batteries. Here, we show that polymer-doped plastic…
Efficient and safe energy storage technologies are essential for realizing a sustainable and electrified society. Among the key challenges, the design of superionic conductors for all-solid-state batteries often faces a fundamental…
We review our recent studies on selective solvation effects in phase separation in polar binary mixtures with a small amount of solutes. Such hydrophilic or hydrophobic particles are preferentially attracted to one of the solvent…
We compile data and machine learned models of solid Li-ion electrolyte performance to assess the state of materials discovery efforts and build new insights for future efforts. Candidate electrolyte materials must satisfy several…
Ionic solids and melts are compounds in which the interactions are dominated by electrostatic effects. However, the polarization of the ions also plays an important role in many respects as has been clarified in recent years thanks to the…
Solid state lithium- and sodium-ion batteries utilize solid ionicly conducting compounds as electrolytes. However, the ionic conductivity of such materials tends to be lower than their liquid counterparts, necessitating research efforts…
Enhancing the ion conduction in solid electrolytes is critically important for the development of high-performance all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Lithium thiophosphates are among the most promising solid electrolytes, as they…
Conventional lithium-ion batteries, and many next-generation technologies, rely on organic electrolytes with multiple solvents to achieve the desired physicochemical and interfacial properties. The complex interplay between these properties…
The intricate role of shear viscosity and ion-pair relaxations on ionic conductivity mechanisms and the underlying changes induced by salt concentration ($c$) in organic liquid electrolytes remain poorly understood despite their widespread…