Insight into the Solvation Structure of Tetraglyme-Based Electrolytes via First-Principles Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Solvent-dependent iodide interactions in LiO2 electrolytes - a molecular dynamics study

Iodide-based redox mediation in Li-O2 batteries is regarded as a promising system due to its relatively high round-trip efficiency, compared to alternative systems. Here we explore the role of electrolyte composition in the solvation of I-, which has been shown to be critical for the efficient operation of this redox mediator, using a molecular dynamics approach. A combinatorial exploration of I- and H2O concentrations was performed, for a fixed concentration of Li+, across a series of glymes, with increasing chain length (mono- to tetraglyme). The resulting radial distribution functions show that shorter glymes allow for a closer packing of the I- redox mediator. Furthermore, increasing the I- concentration also reduces the solvation of Li+ in the glymes, especially in G2. The presence of water further pulls the I- and Li+ together. With increasing water content, its presence in the iodide's coordination shell increases markedly - an effect most pronounced for monoglyme. Competition between Li+ and I- for the coordination of water is modulated by the different solvents as they perturb the local coordination shell of these important complexes, with longer chain lengths being less affected by increases in water concentrations.

Infrared Spectroscopy of Li+ Solvation in Diglyme: Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics and Experiment

Infrared (IR) spectra of solutions of the lithium salt LiBF4 in diglyme, CH3O(CH2CH2O)2CH3, are studied via IR spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. Experiments show that the major effects of LiBF4, compared to neat diglyme, are the appearance of a new broad band in the 250-500 cm-1 frequency region and a broadening and intensity enhancement of the diglyme band in the 900-1150 cm-1 region accompanied by a red-shift. Computational analysis indicates that hindered translational motions of Li+ in its solvation cage are mainly responsible for the new far-IR band, while the changes in the mid-IR are due to Li+-coordination-dependent B-F stretching vibrations of BF4- anions coupled with diglyme vibrations. Molecular motions in these and lower frequency regions are generally correlated, revealing the collective nature of the vibrational dynamics, which involve multiple ions/molecules. Herein, a detailed analysis of these features via AIMD simulations of the spectrum and its components, combined with analysis of the generalized normal modes of the solution components, is presented. Other minor spectral changes as well as diglyme conformational changes induced by the lithium salt are also discussed.

Active learning and neural network potentials accelerate molecular screening of ether-based solvate ionic liquids

Solvate ionic liquids (SIL) have promising applications as electrolyte materials. Despite the broad design space of oligoether ligands, most reported SILs are based on simple tri- and tetraglyme. Here, we describe a computational search for complex ethers that can better stabilize SILs. Through active learning, a neural network interatomic potential is trained from density functional theory data. The learned potential fulfills two key requirements: transferability across composition space, and high speed and accuracy to find low-energy ligand-ion poses across configurational space. Candidate ether ligands for Li⁺, Mg²⁺ and Na⁺ SILs with higher binding affinity and electrochemical stability than the reference compounds are identified. Lastly, their properties are related to the geometry of the coordination sphere.

Effect of Salt Concentration, Solvent Donor Number and Coordination Structure on the Variation of the Li/Li+ Potential in Aprotic Electrolytes

The use of concentrated aprotic electrolytes in lithium batteries provides numerous potential applications, including the use of high-voltage cathodes and Li-metal anodes. In this paper, we aim at understanding the effect of salt concentration on the variation of the Li/Li+ Quasi-Reference Electrode (QRE) potential in Tetraglyme (TG)-based electrolytes. Comparing the obtained results to those achieved using Dimethyl sulfoxide DMSO-based electrolytes, we are now able to take a step forward and understand how the effect of solvent coordination and its donor number (DN) is attributed to the Li-QRE potential shift. Using a revised Nernst equation, the alteration of the Li redox potential with salt concentration was determined accurately. It is found that, in TG, the Li-QRE shift follows a different trend than in DMSO owing to the lower DN and expected shorter lifespan of the solvated cation complex.