Among
the examined organic electrodes for aqueous mono and multivalent
ions batteries, polyimide is considered a promising candidate because
of its high capacity and good cyclability in different electrolyte
solutions. While most of the studies so far were focused on the energetic
performance of polyimide anodes, much less is known about their charge
storage mechanism and particularly how such electrodes are affected
by the solvation properties of the inserted cations. Using in situ
EQCM-D, a direct assessment of the cationic fluxes and their hydration
shells inserted/extracted to/from PI electrodes upon potential application
was performed for a large variety of mono and multivalent cations.
Our observations demonstrated a pronounced withdrawal of water molecules
from the polymeric electrodes during insertion of chaotropic cations
and significantly less water withdrawal upon insertion of kosmotropic
cations. These findings are well correlated with the capacity and
the rate capability of the polyimide electrodes in the examined systems
and shed light on their charge storage mechanism.
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