Structural Effects of Magnesium Dialkoxides as Precursors for Magnesium-Ion Electrolytes

A challenge for magnesium ion battery research is the development of electrolytes that are capable of reversible magnesium electrodeposition through multiple cycles. Magnesium alkoxide chlorides and aryloxide chlorides are known magnesium ion electrolytes when used in conjunction with aluminum chloride. Herein we report the effects of structural variation in several dialkoxy and diaryloxy magnesium complex aggregates with aluminum chloride, Mg(OR)2:AlCl3 (R = iPr, t-Bu, phenyl), on electrochemical characteristics of their solutions and on compositions of the magnesium-containing deposits they yield. We also report the synthesis of a magnesium phenoxide-based electrolyte directly from magnesium metal. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. [DOI: 10.1149/2.0031506eel] All rights reserved.