How do nanoconfinement and applied electric fields affect the miscibility of ionic liquid electrolytes?

How do nanoconfinement and applied electric fields affect the miscibility of ionic liquid electrolytes?

Dr. Jose Banuelos, jlbanuelos@utep.edu

Project Description:

Supercapacitors rely on the reversible adsorption of electrolyte ions on a porous
high-surface- area carbon electrode. Small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), a
technique to measure structure on length scales of 0.5 – 200 nm, will be used to
study the properties of ionic liquid-based electrolyte ions as they respond to the
changing electric field of the porous nanometer-scale conductive pores in which
they are contained. This project will include the development of an
electrochemical sample cell as well SAXS experiments to understand ion/charged
pore interactions in this energy storage project.