Background
Transition metals — Fe, Zn, Cu — form metal-ligand complexes by coordinating with anions, water, and molecules in aqueous environments. This is especially true in concentrated electrolytes and hybrid systems such as water-in-salt, super-halides (ZnCl₂), diluting electrolytes, and deep eutectic solvents (DES).
Knowledge gap
Complexation governs the activity of water and transition-metal ions (thermodynamics of mixing), the reactivity of charge-transfer reactions (potential and kinetics), and species transport. Consequently, complexation regulates the selectivity, reversibility, and rate of electrode reactions — the levers that determine the performance, life, and scalability of electrochemical technologies.
Research question
How does complexation regulate the thermodynamics and transport of the electrolyte and the reactivity of the electrode reaction?
Recent accomplishments
Supported by NSF CAREER, we revealed that TM–Cl complexation regulates both the potential and kinetics of electrodeposition, and used the insight to develop novel liquid electrolytes that deliver significantly better battery and electrowinning performance.
Current and future research
We are studying chloride electrolytes as a model system to examine how complexation regulates thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport in concentrated and hybrid chloride electrolytes. We are building a database on metal-ligand complexation and integrating AI/ML methods with automatic data collection to enable accelerated electrolyte design for energy and processing applications.