Boronium ions are arguably one of the most promising yet understudiedtypes of cations of potential utility in ionic liquids and theirelectrochemical applications. While most mono-boron compoundsare highly sensitive to air and water, boronium ions tend to berobust to both, as well as being comparable in thermal stability toclassical organic electrolyte ions such as quaternary ammoniumsand imidazoliums. Using boronium ions, we have recently creatednew room-temperature liquid electrolytes, cf., ionic liquids, that arecompetitive (in terms of the width of their electrochemicalwindow) with widely-used ILs such as N,N-dialkylpyrrolidiniums;Furthermore, high-level ab initio calculations have shed light intothe origin of their stability towards reduction, and provide insightsinto how modifications to their basic structures might lead to ionswith even better performance.
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