Topic:
Scientific Achievement
Correlated motions of water molecules and salt ions in real space and time were visualized through the Van Hove function.
Significance and Impact
Understanding the correlated motions of ions in liquid is a key to improving the mobility of ions in liquid electrolytes in many energy storage devices.
Research Details
- Researchers established an approach to describe the correlated motions in real space and time for electrolytes using the Van Hove function based on high-resolution inelastic X-ray scattering and molecular dynamics simulation.
- The Van Hove function describes the local correlated dynamics of liquids, which heretofore was experimentally inaccessible.
- The ion-specific water–anion correlated motion was identified for the aqueous solutions of NaCl, NaBr, and NaI. This finding bridges the knowledge gap between microscopic molecular/ionic motions and macroscopic transport properties
Y. Shinohara, R. Matsumoto, M. W. Thompson, C. W. Ryu, W. Dmowski, T. Iwashita, D. Ishikawa, A. Q. R. Baron, P. T. Cummings, and T. Egami, “Identifying Water–Anion Correlated Motion in Aqueous Solutions through Van Hove Functions,” J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10, 7119 (2019); DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b02891.
