Publications by authors named "Luis Miguel Varela"

Polymer-based solid-like gel electrolytes have emerged as a promising alternative to improve battery performance. However, there is a scarcity of studies on the behavior of these media at the electrochemical interface. In this work, we report classical MD simulations of ternary polymer electrolytes composed of poly(ethylene oxide), a lithium salt [lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide], and different ionic liquids [1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide] confined between two charged and uncharged graphene-like surfaces.

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We combined both density functional theory and classical molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the molecular mechanisms governing hydrogen solvation in a total of 12 ionic liquids. Overall, the analysis of the structural properties under high temperature and pressure conditions revealed weak interactions between hydrogen and the ionic liquids, with a slight preference of this gas to be placed at the apolar domains. Interestingly, those ionic liquids comprising nitrate anions allow the accommodation of hydrogen molecules also in the polar areas.

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The applicability of ionic liquids (ILs) has increased over the last years, and even new opportunities are becoming a reality, i.e. mixtures of pure IL and inorganic salt as electrolytes for smart electrochemical devices, yet the effects on the environment are almost unknown.

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We investigate the effect of adding different molecular cosolvents, water or imidazole, to the protic ionic liquid 1-ethylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, i.e., [CHIm][TFSI].

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In this paper we apply spectrally resolved white light interferometry to measure refractive and group index over a wide spectral band from 400 to 1000 nm. The output of a Michelson interferometer is spectrally decomposed by a homemade prism spectrometer with a high resolution camera. The group index is determined directly from the phase extracted from the spectral interferogram while the refractive index is estimated once its value at a given wavelength is known.

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