Structure of Molten Alkali Chlorides at Charged Interfaces and the Prediction and Interpretation of Their X‑ray Reflectivity

Waruni V Karunaratne; Shobha Sharma; Benjamin M Ocko; Claudio J Margulis

doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c07135

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Structure of Molten Alkali Chlorides at Charged Interfaces and the Prediction and Interpretation of Their X‑ray Reflectivity

Journal article

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Structure of Molten Alkali Chlorides at Charged Interfaces and the Prediction and Interpretation of Their X‑ray Reflectivity

Waruni V Karunaratne, Shobha Sharma, Benjamin M Ocko and Claudio J Margulis

Journal of physical chemistry. C, Vol.125(45), pp.25227-25242

11/18/2021

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c07135

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Abstract

The fundamental properties of molten salts have been the subject of research that spans a century. Yet, in the past few years, there has been an unprecedented surge in interest for these systems in the bulk and under confinement by walls and interfaces including under applied potentials. This is driven by the prospect of exciting and very practical energy technologies, including those in the solar and nuclear fields. This article sets to answer two simple but fundamental questions. How does the liquid structure of alkali chlorides change at a real interface when it is charged? Also, how would such changes on the liquid side of the interface be detected in X-ray reflectivity experiments? We use an interface mimicking conductive diamond, which because of its lattice spacing, is an excellent choice for reflectivity experiments. The reason for our interest in X-ray reflectivity is that, as opposed to electrochemical measurements alone, this is likely the only technique in which atomic level information at the liquid side of the interface can be gained under the extreme temperature environments of molten salts. As it will become apparent, the interpretation of reflectivity results in terms of atomic positions is complex when multiple species with different X-ray contrasts on the liquid side are considered. A theoretical scheme termed “the peaks and antipeaks analysis of reflectivity” originally introduced in our prior work (J. Phys. Chem. C 2019, 123 (8), 4914–4925) is expanded to interpret the structural changes at the interface as a function of applied electrical bias.

C: Physical Properties of Materials and Interfaces

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Details

Title: Subtitle: Structure of Molten Alkali Chlorides at Charged Interfaces and the Prediction and Interpretation of Their X‑ray Reflectivity
Creators: Waruni V Karunaratne - Department of Chemistry
Shobha Sharma - Department of Chemistry
Benjamin M Ocko - National Synchrotron Light Source II
Claudio J Margulis - Department of Chemistry
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of physical chemistry. C, Vol.125(45), pp.25227-25242
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c07135
ISSN: 1932-7447
eISSN: 1932-7455
Publisher: American Chemical Society
Language: English
Date published: 11/18/2021
Academic Unit: Chemistry
Record Identifier: 9984216715602771

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