In liquid electrolytes used for a battery, various metal complexes are formed as a result of ion–solvent and ion–ion interactions, which strongly influence the properties of the electrolyte and thus the performance of the battery. Therefore, the structural characterization of such complexes is of great importance. In this study, the anomalous X-ray scattering (AXS) technique was applied to the potassium hydroxide solution including ∼0.3 mol % zinc, which is widely used in various batteries such as the alkaline battery. In spite of the small amount of the metallic ions, we have successfully extracted a local structure around zinc after careful data analysis. The obtained pair distribution function exhibited not only the short-range correlation corresponding to the Zn–O bond within the zincate anion but also a medium-range correlation above 3.5 Å. The present study demonstrates the capability of the AXS technique to detect local structures around dilute metallic ions in liquid electrolytes, which will largely extend the applicable range of this technique, especially to the field related to batteries.

中文翻译：

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异常X射线散射方法在电池中使用的液体电解质中的应用：稀金属离子周围的局部结构分析。

在用于电池的液体电解质中，由于离子-溶剂和离子-离子相互作用而形成各种金属络合物，这些金属络合物强烈影响电解质的性能，进而影响电池的性能。因此，这类配合物的结构表征非常重要。在这项研究中，将异常X射线散射（AXS）技术应用于包含〜0.3 mol％锌的氢氧化钾溶液，该技术广泛用于各种电池（例如碱性电池）中。尽管金属离子的量很少，但经过仔细的数据分析，我们已经成功地提取了锌周围的局部结构。所获得的成对分布函数不仅表现出对应于锌酸根阴离子内Zn-O键的短程相关性，而且表现出高于3.5Å的中程相关性。