%0 Journal Article
%A Wettstein, Alina
%A Diddens, Diddo
%A Heuer, Andreas
%T Controlling Li + transport in ionic liquid electrolytes through salt content and anion asymmetry: a mechanistic understanding gained from molecular dynamics simulations
%J Physical chemistry, chemical physics
%V 24
%N 10
%@ 1463-9076
%C Cambridge
%I RSC Publ.
%M FZJ-2024-02266
%P 6072 - 6086
%D 2022
%Z Unterstützt durch den MWIDE Grant: “GrEEn” project (funding code: 313-W044A)
%X 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 (TFSI−) anion or its asymmetric analogue 2,2,2-(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl-N-cyanoamide (TFSAM−). Relating lithium's coordination environment to anion mean residence times and diffusion constants confirms the remarkable transport behaviour of the TFSAM−-based ILEs that has been observed in recent experiments: for increased salt doping, the lithium ions must compete for the more attractive cyano over oxygen coordination and a fragmented landscape of solvation geometries emerges, in which lithium appears to be less strongly bound. We present a novel, yet statistically straightforward methodology to quantify the extent to which lithium and its solvation shell are dynamically coupled. By means of a Lithium Coupling Factor (LCF) we demonstrate that the shell anions do not constitute a stable lithium vehicle, which suggests for this electrolyte material the commonly termed “vehicular” lithium transport mechanism could be more aptly pictured as a correlated, flow-like motion of lithium and its neighbourhood. Our analysis elucidates two separate causes why lithium and shell dynamics progressively decouple with higher salt content: on the one hand, an increased sharing of anions between lithium limits the achievable LCF of individual lithium-anion pairs. On the other hand, weaker binding configurations naturally entail a lower dynamic stability of the lithium-anion complex, which is particularly relevant for the TFSAM−-containing ILEs.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ 35212346
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000760909900001
%R 10.1039/D1CP04830A
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1024592