Roadmap for Next-Generation Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies: Secondary Batteries and Supercapacitors.

The transition from fossil fuels to environmentally friendly renewable energy sources is crucial for achieving global initiatives such as the carbon peak and carbon neutrality. The use of secondary batteries and supercapacitors based on electrochemical energy storage principles provides high energy density, conversion efficiency, and rapid response times, offering essential solutions for stabilizing and ensuring the reliability of energy supply from renewable sources despite their intermittency. In recent years, increased demands for higher energy density, improved rate performance, longer cycle life, enhanced safety, and cost-effectiveness have driven researchers to delve deeper into electrode materials, electrolytes, and storage mechanisms in secondary batteries.

Preferable single-atom catalysts enabled by natural language processing for high energy density Na-S batteries.

Employing appropriate single-atom (SA) catalysts in room-temperature sodium-sulfur (Na-S) batteries is propitious to promote the performance, whereas a universal designing strategy for the highly-efficient single-atom catalysts is absent. In this work, we adopt natural language processing techniques to screen the potential single-atom catalysts, then a binary descriptor is constructed to optimize the catalyst candidates. Atomically dispersed cobalt anchored to both nitrogen and sulfur atoms (SA Co-N/S) is selected as an ideal catalyst to significantly facilitate sulfur reduction reaction.

Strengthening Transition Metal-Oxygen Interaction in Layered Oxide Cathodes for Stable Sodium-Ion Batteries.

P2-type layered oxides, such as NaNiMnO, represent a promising class of cathode materials for Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) due to their high theoretical energy density. However, their cycling stability is often compromised by severe phase transitions and irreversible lattice oxygen redox reactions at high voltages. In this work, we develop a Zn and Al codoping approach to design a NaNiZnMnAlO (ZA-NNMO) cathode for stable SIBs.

Strong d-π Orbital Coupling of Co-C Atomic Sites on Graphdiyne Boosts Potassium-Sulfur Battery Electrocatalysis.

Potassium-sulfur (K-S) batteries are severely limited by the sluggish kinetics of the solid-phase conversion of KS/KS to KS, the rate-determining and performance-governing step, which urgently requires a cathode with facilitated sulfur accommodation and improved catalytic efficiency. To this end, we leverage the orbital-coupling approach and herein report a strong d-π coupling catalytic configuration of single-atom Co anchored between two alkynyls of graphdiyne (Co-GDY). The d-π orbital coupling of the Co-C moiety fully redistributes electrons two-dimensionally across the GDY, and as a result, drastically accelerates the solid-phase KS/KS to KS conversion and enhances the adsorption of sulfur species.

Toward Complete Transformation of Sodium Polysulfides by Regulating the Second-Shell Coordinating Environment of Atomically Dispersed Fe.

Room temperature sodium-sulfur (RT Na-S) batteries are highly competitive as potential energy storage devices. Nevertheless, their actually achieved reversible capacities are far below the theoretical value due to incomplete transformation of polysulfides. Herein, atomically dispersed Fe-N/S active center by regulating the second-shell coordinating environment of Fe single atom is proposed.

Room-Temperature Sodium-Sulfur Batteries: Rules for Catalyst Selection and Electrode Design.

Seeking an optimal catalyst to accelerate conversion reaction kinetics of room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT Na-S) batteries is crucial for improving their electrochemical performance and promoting the practical applications. Herein, theoretical calculations of interfacial interactions of catalysts and polysulfides in terms of the surface adsorption state, interfacial ions migration, and electronic concentration around the Fermi level are systematically proposed as guiding principles of catalyst selection for RT Na-S batteries. As a case, MoN catalyst is accurately selected from transition metal nitrides with different d orbital electrons, and for experiment, it is introduced into the carbon nanofibers as a dual-functioning host (MoN@CNFs).

An Open-Ended Ni S -Co S Heterostructures Nanocage Anode with Enhanced Reaction Kinetics for Superior Potassium-Ion Batteries.

Sulfides are perceived as promising anode materials for potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) due to their high theoretical specific capacity and structural diversity. Nonetheless, the poor structural stability and sluggish kinetics of sulfides lead to unsatisfactory electrochemical performance. Herein, Ni S -Co S heterostructures with an open-ended nanocage structure wrapped by reduced graphene oxide (Ni-Co-S@rGO cages) are well designed as the anode for PIBs via a selective etching and one-step sulfuration approach.