Potential solvents and electrolytes for energy storage applications: A Review

Abstract

Abstract Since the industrial sector leans more on fossil fuels to pace up with the required energy needs. To overcome increasing demand for electricity, it is important to store the energy generated from natural resources so that energy can be used as and when required. Energy storage devices are one such means used worldwide for conserving different forms of energies and need of the hour is to discover and explore strong and secure electrical energy storage technologies. In this review an effort is made to do a comparative analysis of various types of materials and solvents used for energy storage applications during last two decades. Attempt has also been made to explore and discover different class of solvents and electrolytes that are environment friendly and have minimal impact on living organisms. As salts and the solvents are significant ingredients in the energy storage devices, so this analysis will also provide a first-hand perspective of many solvent candidates for energy storage applications. From the analysis and detailed review, it has been observed that the solvents exhibiting large electrochemical window, high thermal and chemical stability, low toxicity, and volatility are the important features which makes them important constituent of different energy storage devices like flow batteries, supercapacitors, and rechargeable batteries. Advancement of cutting-edge battery innovation is important in view of various applications like hybrid cars, smartphones, laptops etc.