Progress and prospects of electrolyte chemistry of calcium batteries.

The increasing energy storage demand of portable devices, electric vehicles, and scalable energy storage has been driving extensive research for more affordable, more energy dense battery technologies than Li ion batteries. The alkaline earth metal, calcium (Ca), has been considered an attractive anode material to develop the next generation of rechargeable batteries. Herein, the chemical designs, electrochemical performance, and solution and interfacial chemistry of Ca2+ electrolytes are comprehensively reviewed and discussed. In addition, a few recommendations are presented to guide the development and evaluation of Ca2+ electrolytes in future.

Development of interface-/surface-specific two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy.

Structures, kinetics, and chemical reactivities at interfaces and surfaces are key to understanding many of the fundamental scientific problems related to chemical, material, biological, and physical systems. These steady-state and dynamical properties at interfaces and surfaces require even-order techniques with time-resolution and spectral-resolution. Here, we develop fourth-order interface-/surface-specific two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, including both two-dimensional electronic sum frequency generation (2D-ESFG) spectroscopy and two-dimensional electronic second harmonic generation (2D-ESHG) spectroscopy, for structural and dynamics studies of interfaces and surfaces. The 2D-ESFG and 2D-ESHG techniques were based on a unique laser source of broadband short-wave IR from 1200 nm to 2200 nm from a home-built optical parametric amplifier. With the broadband short-wave IR source, surface spectra cover most of the visible light region from 480 nm to 760 nm. A translating wedge-based identical pulses encoding system (TWINs) was introduced to generate a phase-locked pulse pair for coherent excitation in the 2D-ESFG and 2D-ESHG. As an example, we demonstrated surface dark states and their interactions of the surface states at p-type GaAs (001) surfaces with the 2D-ESFG and 2D-ESHG techniques. These newly developed time-resolved and interface-/surface-specific 2D spectroscopies would bring new information for structure and dynamics at interfaces and surfaces in the fields of the environment, materials, catalysis, and biology.

Interface-Specific Two-Dimensional Electronic Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy.

High even-order surface/interface specific spectroscopy has the potential to provide more structural and dynamical information about surfaces and interfaces. In this work, we developed a novel fourth-order interface-specific two-dimensional electronic sum frequency generation (2D-ESFG) for structures and dynamics at surfaces and interfaces. A translating wedge-based identical pulses encoding system (TWINs) was introduced to generate phase-locked pulse pairs for coherent pump beams in 2D-ESFG. As a proof-of-principle experiment, fourth-order 2D-ESFG spectroscopy was used to demonstrate couplings of surface states for both n-type and p-type GaAs (100). We found surface dark state within the bandgap of the GaAs in 2D-ESFG spectra, which could not be observed in one-dimensional ESFG spectra. To our best knowledge, this is a first demonstration of interface-specific two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy. The development of the 2D-ESFG spectroscopy will provide new structural probes of spectral diffusion, conformational dynamics, energy transfer, and charge transfer for surfaces and interfaces.

Understanding the intramolecular vibrational energy transfer and structural dynamics of anionic ligands in a photo-catalytic CO2 reduction catalyst.

The knowledge of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) and structural dynamics of rhenium photo-catalysts is essential for understanding the mechanism of the photo-catalytic process of CO2 reduction. In this study, the rhenium compound Re(dcbyp)(CO)3NCS (Re-NCS), which served as a model CO2 reduction catalyst, was investigated using two dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy. The vibrational relaxation dynamics and rotational dynamics of Re-NCS were measured by monitoring both the CO and NCS vibrational modes. The rotational dynamics measurement of the CO vibrational stretch shows a single exponential decay with a time constant of 140 ± 10 ps. In contrast, a bi-exponential decay is needed to describe the rotational dynamics of the NCS stretching mode with time constants of 1.5 ± 0.3 ps and 189 ± 15 ps. The 2D IR experiment indicated that the carbonyl CO vibrational modes in Re-NCS are strongly coupled. Furthermore, the intramolecular vibrational energy transfer between CO and NCS stretching modes was observed and analyzed based on an energy exchange model. The energy down flowing transfer from CN to CO stretching mode was determined using time constants of 50 ps. The relatively slow intramolecular vibrational energy transfer rate suggests that there is a weak coupling between CO and NCS ligands. Further theoretical calculation showed that the coupling strength between CO and CN is relatively weak and is about 5-6 times smaller than the coupling strength between the CO vibrational modes in Re-NCS. The distinct structural dynamics of the NCS ligand in Re-NCS presented in this study should provide a fundamental understanding of the role of an anionic ligand in rhenium photo-catalysts, which is believed to play an important role in the photo-catalytic reduction of CO2.

Ultrafast Hydrogen Bond Exchanging between Water and Anions in Concentrated Ionic Liquid Aqueous Solutions.

The mixtures of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([BMIM]BF4) ionic liquids (ILs) and water as a function of IL concentrations have been investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and ultrafast two-dimensional IR (2D IR) spectroscopy. FTIR spectra of the mixtures resolve two different types of water species, one interacting with the BF4- anions and the other associated with bulklike water molecules. These two water species are in a dynamic equilibrium through forming different hydrogen bonding configurations which are separated by more than 100 cm-1 in the IR spectra. The structural dynamics of the IL mixtures are further revealed by monitoring the vibrational relaxation dynamics of the OD stretching group of interfacial water molecules hydrogen bonded to BF4- anions. With the increase of the IL bulk concentration, vibrational population and rotational dynamics of the interfacial water molecules can be described by a biexponential decay function and are strongly dependent on the IL concentrations. Furthermore, the ultrafast hydrogen bond exchanging between water and BF4- anions in the ILs are also measured using 2D IR spectroscopy. The average hydrogen bond exchanging rate is determined to be 19 ± 4 ps, which is around 3 times slower than that in the NaBF4 electrolyte aqueous solution. The much slower hydrogen bond exchanging rate indicates that the local structure of ILs and water molecules are strongly mediated by the steric effect of the cationic group in the ILs, which is proposed to be responsible for the formation of the heterogeneous structure in the IL mixtures. By using SCN- as the anionic probe, the structural inhomogeneity in the IL solutions can be confirmed from the distinct rotational dynamics of the SCN-, which is segregated from the rotational dynamics of water molecules in the IL mixtures.

Counterion Effect on Vibrational Relaxation and the Rotational Dynamics of Interfacial Water and an Anionic Vibrational Probe in the Confined Reverse Micelles Environment.

Vibrational relaxation and the rotational dynamics of water molecules encapsulated in reverse micelles (RMs) have been investigated by ultrafast infrared (IR) spectroscopy and two-dimensional IR (2D IR) spectroscopy. By changing the counterion of the hydrophilic headgroup in the RMs formed by Aerosol-OT (AOT) from Na+ to K+, Cs+ and Ca2+, we could determine the specific counterion effects on the rotational dynamics of water molecules. The orientational relaxation time constant of water decreases in the order Ca2+ > Na+ > K+ > Cs+. The SCN- anionic probe and counterion can form ion pairs at the interfacial region of the RMs. The rotational dynamics of SCN- anion significantly decreases because of the synergistic effects of confinement and the surface interactions in the interfacial region of the RMs. The results can provide a new understanding of the cationic Hofmeister effect at the molecular level observed in biological studies.

Structural Dynamics of Dimethyl Sulfoxide Aqueous Solutions Investigated by Ultrafast Infrared Spectroscopy: Using Thiocyanate Anion as a Local Vibrational Probe.

The microscopic structure of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) aqueous solutions was investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and ultrafast IR spectroscopy. The structural dynamics of the binary mixtures were reflected by using thiocyanate anion (SCN-) as a local vibrational probe. FTIR spectra of SCN- anion showed that the hydrogen bond networks of water are affected by the presence of DMSO molecules, and the peak position and bandwidth of SCN- anions are red shifted and narrowed accordingly because of the weak hydration in the binary mixture. The vibrational lifetime of the SCN- anion showed almost linear enhancement with the increase of DMSO, which can be explained by the weak interaction between SCN- and the hydrophobic groups in the DMSO molecule. However, the rotational dynamics of SCN- are slowing down significantly and showed a maximum response at XDMSO (mole fraction) of 0.35, which is mainly caused by the confinement of SCN- anions positioned in the vicinity of the complex structure formed between DMSO and water molecules. The concentration-dependent rotational dynamics of water molecules and SCN- anions are having similar behavior, indicating that the complex structure can be formed between water and DMSO molecules because of the strong interaction. The result also demonstrates that the structural inhomogeneity in aqueous solution can be unraveled by monitoring the vibrational relaxation dynamics of SCN- anion serving as the local vibrational probe.

Molecular structure and adsorption of dimethyl sulfoxide at the air/aqueous solution interface probed by non-resonant second harmonic generation.

In this study, non-resonant second harmonic generation (SHG) was used to investigate the molecular structure and adsorption of DMSO at the air/neat DMSO liquid and air/DMSO aqueous solution interfaces. The molecular orientation of interfacial DMSO as a function of the bulk DMSO concentration was investigated by quantitative polarization SHG analysis. For the air/neat DMSO liquid interface, the transition dipole moment of the S[double bond, length as m-dash]O group of DMSO is oriented 140° from the surface normal, where the S[double bond, length as m-dash]O group of DMSO is estimated to be 30° from the surface plane. The orientation of the S[double bond, length as m-dash]O group of interfacial DMSO is not dependent on the bulk DMSO concentration. Furthermore, the concentration-dependent SHG signal confirmed that the antiparallel double layer structure does not form at the air/DMSO water interface. The free energy of adsorption of DMSO at the air/DMSO aqueous solution interface was determined to be ΔGads = -5.6 ± 0.4 kJ mol-1.