Electrolytes are a core component of any electrochemical system and are responsible for ion conduction, interface stabilizing, and solubilizing redox-active materials. Concentrated electrolytes are an emerging family of electrolytes characterized by strong ion-ion interaction due to insufficient screening of ionic charge, which leads to ion pairing, aggregation, cluster or even network. The unique structure and properties of concentrated electrolytes have unleashed unprecedented performance in many different electrochemical technologies. Fundamental understanding by combining experimental and theoretical methods are of great importance to not only shed light on the structure-property-performance relationship but also provide the theoretical basis for accelerated electrolyte design. This talk will highlight and summarize my lab's effort in understanding the thermodynamics and transport properties of concentrated aqueous electrolytes in the past few years.
