Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Rapid in-silico Battery Electrolyte Electrochemical Reaction Generation using 3T-VASP Multi-Scale Energy Minimization
Published on: August 22, 2025
Solvent-Dominated or Salt-Controlled? Mechanistic Insights and Design Principles for Water-in-Salt and Deep Eutectic
Balaraman Vedhanarayanan1, Jagadesh Nagaraj1, Tsung-Wu Lin2
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chengalpattu, India.
None:
Aqueous energy storage technologies are gaining renewed attention due to their safety, low cost, and environmental compatibility. Highly concentrated electrolytes, including water-in-salt (WIS) and deep eutectic solvent (DES) systems, significantly expand the electrochemical stability window (ESW) of water, enabling higher operating voltages. However, reported improvements often conflate thermodynamic, kinetic, and interfacial effects. This review presents a mechanistic analysis of ESW expansion by distinguishing bulk solvation behavior from interfacial chemistry, ion transport limitations, and solid-electrolyte interphase formation. WIS electrolytes are predominantly salt-controlled, whereas DES systems are solvent-dominated through hydrogen-bond networks. This framework clarifies their distinct transport and stability characteristics. The review further evaluates common experimental methodologies for ESW, conductivity, and interfacial analysis. By integrating literature trends, practical performance limits are defined, and standardized evaluation protocols are proposed. Finally, actionable design principles and an experimental checklist are provided to improve reproducibility and guide the rational development of advanced aqueous energy storage systems.
Related Concept Videos
Theory of Strong Electrolytes
Solvents
A...
Electrolyte and Nonelectrolyte Solutions
Energetics of Solution Formation
When the strengths of the intermolecular forces of attraction between solute and solvent species in a solution are no different than those present in the separated components, the solution is formed with no accompanying energy change. Formation of the solution requires the solute–solute and solvent–solvent electrostatic forces to...
Aqueous Solutions and Heats of Hydration
When ionic compounds dissolve in water, the ions in the solid separate and disperse uniformly throughout the solution because water molecules surround and solvate the ions, reducing the strong electrostatic forces between them. This process...
Entropy and Solvation

