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A Neutron Diffraction Study of the Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitor Electrolyte Tetrapropylammonium Bromide in Acetonitrile.


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Authors

Humphreys, Elizabeth K 
Allan, Phoebe K 
Welbourn, Rebecca JL 
Youngs, Tristan GA 
Soper, Alan K 

Abstract

Neutron diffraction with isotopic substitution has been used to characterize the bulk liquid structure of the technologically relevant electrolyte solution, 1 M tetrapropylammonium bromide (TPA Br) in acetonitrile (acn), and of pure deuterated acetonitrile. Empirical potential structure refinement modeling procedures have been used to extract detailed structural information about solvent-solvent, solvent-ion, and ion-ion correlations. Analysis of the refined data shows the expected local dipolar conformation of acn in the pure solvent. This short-range dipolar ordering is also present within the solutions of TPA Br in acn, and it affects how the solvent orders itself around the ions. The solvation numbers of the TPA cations and the bromide anions are deduced, 8 and 5, respectively, as are the orientations of the solvent molecules that surround the ions. Evidence for ion association is also presented, with nearly two-thirds of the ions in the system being in associated pairs or clusters.

Description

Keywords

Neutrons, neutron diffraction, neutron scattering, electrochemical double layer capacitors, empirical potential structure refinement, EPSR, partial structure factors, partial pair distribution functions

Journal Title

J Phys Chem B

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1520-6106
1520-5207

Volume Title

119

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)
Sponsorship
European Research Council (247411)
E.K.H. acknowledges the European Research Council ERC Grant ERC-2009-AdG-247411 for funding. P.K.A acknowledges a Junior Research Fellowship from Gonville and Caius College, an Oppenheimer Fellowship from the University of Cambridge. R.J.L.W. acknowledges the EPSRC Grant 11220426 for funding.