At the A.N. Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (MIEM HSE University), a new model for calculating the conductivity of aqueous electrolyte solutions has been developed. The model will help create more efficient energy storage devices and calculate conductivity without conducting experiments.
Based on the Debye-Hückel-Onsager theory, scientists have suggested that the charges of ions are not concentrated at a single point, but are distributed in the form of clouds, which can be described using a special mathematical function.
The new model not only accurately reproduces the experimental dependencies of conductivity on concentration at a fixed temperature, but also well predicts the conductivity of aqueous electrolytes at various temperatures and ion charges. For solutions of sodium, potassium, and lithium chloride salts, the data obtained agree with experimental data up to concentrations of 4 mol/liter, which is the best result to date.
The study has already been published in The Journal of Chemical Physics. However, research in this direction does not end there. Scientists plan to refine the model for non-aqueous electrolyte solutions and adapt it for multicomponent electrolyte systems in batteries, supercapacitors, and other energy storage devices. Accurate calculations of the conductivity of such devices will help make them more efficient and durable.
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