Zhou Meiqi, Bo Zheng, Ostrikov Kostya Ken
State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Institute for Thermal Power Engineering, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310027, P. R. China.
School of Chemistry and Physics, Centre for Materials Science, Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices, Centre for Waste-free World, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia.
Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2022 Sep 14;24(35):20674-20688. doi: 10.1039/d2cp02795j.
Aqueous electrolytes have attracted widespread attention as they are safe, environmentally benign and cost effective, holding great promise for future low-cost and sustainable energy storage devices. Nonetheless, the narrow electrochemical stability window caused by water electrolysis, as well as the trade-off between the stability window and other properties remain the bottleneck problem for the practical applications of aqueous electrolytes. Deep insights into the correlations between the microscopic physicochemical and electrochemical mechanisms and the macroscopic properties of aqueous electrolyte are essential for the envisaged applications, yet a systematic analysis of the recent progress in this area is still lacking. In this Perspective article, the basic mechanisms and influencing factors of water electrolysis including the hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions is critically examined. We systematically review the current state-of-the-art on high-voltage aqueous electrolytes focusing on the fundamental mechanisms of ion kinetics leading to dynamic electrolyte restructuring. Recent advances on the optimization of high-voltage aqueous electrolytes are also summarized. The existing challenges are identified and perspectives for exploring and developing future high-voltage aqueous electrolytes are provided.
水系电解质因其安全、环境友好且成本效益高而备受广泛关注，对未来低成本和可持续的储能装置具有巨大潜力。尽管如此，水电解导致的狭窄电化学稳定窗口，以及稳定窗口与其他性能之间的权衡，仍然是水系电解质实际应用的瓶颈问题。深入了解微观物理化学和电化学机制与水系电解质宏观性能之间的相关性，对于预期的应用至关重要，但目前仍缺乏对该领域最新进展的系统分析。在这篇观点文章中，我们批判性地审视了水电解的基本机制和影响因素，包括析氢反应和析氧反应。我们系统地综述了高压水系电解质的当前研究现状，重点关注导致动态电解质重构的离子动力学基本机制。还总结了高压水系电解质优化方面的最新进展。识别了现有挑战，并提供了探索和开发未来高压水系电解质的展望。
