Physiochemical properties of nonaqueous amine-containing electrolytes

Recent developments in Li-CO2 batteries have demonstrated the viability of using amines to electrochemically activate CO2 before reduction and yield kinetic benefits, but little research has been done to optimize this new system. This thesis investigates the reduction of amine-activated CO2 and the properties of nonaqueous amine-containing electrolytes. The equilibrium voltage of the discharge reaction was found to be greater than 3.1 V versus Li/Lie, which is significantly higher than the thermodynamic potential of direct CO2 reduction (2.8 V versus Li/Lie). The equilibrium voltage can be used in future research to determine cell overpotentials, which are key indicators of cell performance. The research also found that varying the electrolyte salt and the type of amine can greatly increase the ionic conductivity of the electrolyte. Specifically, solutions containing salts with larger cations and larger anions were generally found to have larger ionic conductivities. These findings indicate that there is room to improve on and optimize the recently demonstrated amine-promoted Li-CO2 battery through more research into electrolyte and amine properties.

Name thesis:degree_name

Bachelor

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Mutty, Christopher(Christopher B.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Betar M. Gallant.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123276

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123276