ConspectusResearch at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
started with humble beginnings by G. W. Carver at Tuskegee Institute
AL, the nation’s first HBCU. He is now remembered as the man
who transformed one crop, peanuts to more than 300 useful products
such as food, beverages, medicines, cosmetics, and chemicals. However,
research was not the focus of most of the newly founded HBCUs to provide,
primarily, liberal arts education and training in agriculture for
the black minority. HBCUs remained segregated, lacking facilities
such as libraries and scientific/research equipment comparable to
those at traditionally white institutions. While the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 heralded the dawn of “equal opportunity”
and progressive desegregation in the South, many public HBCUs had
to close or merge with white institutions due to loss of funding and/or
students. In order to remain competitive in enrollment and financial
support of the best talents, HBCUs have been expanding their research
and federal contracts by working in collaboration with research-intensive
institutions and/or minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Albany State
University (ASU), an HBCU with a great tradition of in-house and extramural
undergraduate research, has partnered with the laboratory of Dr. John
Miller at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) to offer the best training
and mentorship to our undergraduates. Students synthesized and performed
conductivity measurements on a new generation of ion-pair salts. One
of these constitutes, potentially, a nonaqueous electrolyte for the
next generation of high-energy-density batteries owing to its electrochemical
properties.The quest for rechargeable batteries with greater
energy density
and capable of shorter recharge time at the “pump” for
electrical vehicles (EVs) is leading the development of electrolytes
with higher ionic mobility and greater limiting conductivity. In order
to achieve high energy density, it is vital for an electrolyte to
be electrochemically stable while operating at high voltages.The development of a weakly coordinating anion/cation electrolyte
for energy storage applications offers a challenge of technological
significance. This class of electrolytes is advantageous for the investigation
of electrode processes in low-polarity solvents. The improvement arises
from the optimization of both ionic conductivity and solubility of
the ion pair formed between a substituted tetra-arylphosphonium
(TAPR) cation and tetrakis-fluoroarylborate (TFAB),
a weakly coordinating anion. The chemical “push–pull”
between cation and anion affords a highly conducting ion pair in low-polarity
solvents such as tetrahydrofuran (THF) andtert-butyl
methyl ether (TBME). The limiting conductivity value of the salt,
namely, tetra-p-methoxy-phenylphosphonium-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate
or TAPR/TFAB (R =p-OCH3),
is in the range of lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6) used in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). This TAPR/TFAB
salt can improve the efficiency and stability of batteries over those
of existing and commonly used electrolytes by optimizing the conductivity
tailored to the redox-active molecules. LiPF6dissolved
in carbonate solvents is unstable with high-voltage electrodes that
are required to achieve greater energy density. In contrast, the TAPOMe/TFAB salt is stable and has a good solubility profile in
low-polarity solvents given its relatively great size. And it constitutes
a low-cost supporting electrolyte capable of bringing nonaqueous energy
storage devices to compete with existing technologies.