Fervent Hype behind Magnesium Batteries: An Open Call to Synthetic Chemists-Electrolytes and Cathodes Needed.

Magnesium metal is a superior anode which has double the volumetric capacity of lithium metal and has a negative reduction potential of -2.37 V vs. the standard hydrogen electrode.

Confession of a Magnesium Battery.

Magnesium is an ideal metal anode that has nearly double the volumetric capacity of lithium metal with a very negative reduction potential of -2.37 vs SHE. A significant advantage of magnesium is the apparent lack of dendrite formation during charging, which overcomes major safety and performance challenges encountered with using lithium metal anodes.

Hydration contributions to association in polyelectrolyte multilayers and complexes: visualizing hydrophobicity.

Thin films of polyelectrolyte complex were assembled using the multilayering method with direct, in situ observation of all multilayer components using attenuated total internal reflectance FTIR (ATR-FTIR). Buildup and ion doping of two representative combinations of positive and negative polyelectrolytes are controlled by salt type. The internal hydration of multilayers, measured precisely by ATR-FTIR, depends on the chemical identities of the polymers and the salt ions.

Ideal mixing in polyelectrolyte complexes and multilayers: entropy driven assembly.

Calorimetry and variable temperature equilibrium doping methods independently show complexation of common polyelectrolytes to be essentially entropy-driven. The complimentary techniques provide enthalpy and free energies of formation or mixing. These findings highlight the importance of polyelectrolyte complexes as ideally mixed polymer blends.

Electrogenerated chemiluminescence in polyelectrolyte multilayers: efficiency and mechanism.

The presence of an ultrathin film of polyelectrolyte complex, formed by the multilayering method, on an electrode was shown to enhance the intensity of electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) from the tris(2,2')bipyridylruthenium(II)/tripropylamine system. Platinum electrodes coated with up to 17 layers of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) or poly(vinylmethylpyridine), alternately layered with poly(styrenesulfonate), revealed significant differences in enhancement of ECL, depending on the identity of the multilayer. ECL following deposition of each layer showed an oscillating intensity of light emission, which alludes to the importance of surface and bulk charge.