A New Class of Room Temperature Molten Salts for Battery Applications.

Salts which are molten at and below room temperature could be used as the electrolyte in a battery which might have the high energy density typical of molten salt thermal batteries, but have none of the problems associated with the elevated operating temperatures of thermal batteries. This presentation describes some physical, chemical, and electrochemical properties of a room temperature molten salt formed by combining aluminum chloride with 1-methyl-3-ethylimidazolium chloride. (Author)