Mechanistic studies of magnesium electrodeposition and oxygen reduction for energy storage applications

Energy storage research is critical for advancing the world’s energy storage technologies in order to meet the needs of the future generations. Global warming due to CO2 production and diminishing reserves of fossil fuels necessitate a transition to intermittent renewable energy production. Renewable energy will require the storage of energy for load leveling and energy usage off the grid. Towards this goal there are two chemical means of energy storage that are ideal: batteries and fuel cells. This work describes advances in fundamental understandings of important, rate limiting reactions for both batteries and fuel cells. The oxygen reduction reaction can be catalyzed to undergo reduction via two pathways. Oxygen binding energy to the catalyst has previously been shown to determine the activity of the catalyst. Here we use a novel set of comparative experiments to measure the strain in the platinum catalyst due to oxygen binding in in situ measurements over a wide potential range. Reduction is also a concern for magnesium battery anodes, as is re-oxidation of deposited thin films. This work describes fundamental studies of passivation, corrosion, and rate limiting reactions within two magnesium battery electrolytes: ethylmagnesium bromide and magnesium borohydride. These studies provide further insight into reaction rates in these complex systems and can be further used in computational studies or the design of future technologies