Novel glass-forming liquid electrolyte shows glass transition across broad range

Phys.org  September 4, 2024 Recently new ionic fluids such as super-concentrated electrolyte solutions, solvate ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents have attracted much attention in the field of liquid electrolytes for next-generation electrochemical devices and processes. The basic composition of these new ionic fluids is similar among them; a solvent and a large/excess amount of salt mixtures, though the solvent is sometimes a solid at ambient temperatures. Researchers in Japan found and demonstrated that LiTFSA (TFSA = (CF3SO2)2N−) mixtures with 1,3-propane sultone (PS) or tetrahydrothiophene-1,1-dioxide (SL) yielded a homogeneous liquid at room temperature within a wide range of compositions. In […]

Scientists open new window on the physics of glass formation

Phys.org January 24, 2023 A common feature of glasses is the “boson peak”, observed as an excess in the heat capacity over the crystal or as an additional peak in the terahertz vibrational spectrum. The microscopic origins of this peak are not well understood; the emergence of locally ordered structures has been put forward as a possible candidate. An international team of researchers (UK, Slovenia, Japan) has shown that depolarised Raman scattering in liquids consisting of highly symmetric molecules can be used to isolate the boson peak, allowing its detailed observation from the liquid into the glass. The boson peak […]