Phosphorus-induced interfacial chemistry electrolyte design for dense and highly stable potassium metal anodes.

Potassium (K) metal anodes have attracted widespread attention in the realm of energy storage due to their cost-effectiveness, abundance, and high theoretical capacity. However, the undesirable K-dendrite growth accompanied by void formation upon prolonged cycling presents formidable obstacles to their real-world applications. Herein, phosphorus-based electrolytes are developed based on the electrolyte additive design criteria of steric hindrance, polar ability, and decomposition preference to enhance the anode/electrolyte interface stability.

Fabricating 2D MoS with Edge Sulfur Vacancy Defects by Heavy Ion Bombardment Shear-Exfoliation for Enhanced Sodium Storage.

Vacancy engineering is widely considered an effective approach to modulate the internal electronic structure of electrode materials, enhancing charge-transfer processes/reactions and leading to excellent energy storage properties. Nevertheless, several current techniques of vacancy engineering, such as controlled solvent thermal growth, plasma bombardment, and chemical etching, suffer from high energy inputs and uncontrollable processing kinetics. Herein, a facile and energy-efficient technique of metal ion-assisted shear exfoliation is proposed to synthesize 2D MoS with edge S-vacancies as an anode for sodium ion batteries.

Regulating the Coordination Environment of HO in Hydrogel Electrolyte for a High-Environment-Adaptable and High-Stability Flexible Zn Devices.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries are promising candidates as stationary storage systems for power-grid applications due to their high safety and low cost. The practical implementation of Zn-ion batteries currently still faces formidable challenges because of Zn dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and inadequate environmental adaptability. Herein, to address these challenges, a strategy of regulation of water molecules coordination in electrolyte is proposed via developing a cross-linked hydrophilic hydrogel polymer electrolyte.

Quenching-Induced Three-Phase Heterostructured Catalysts for Oxygen Electrocatalysis with Lattice Oxygen Participation.

Lattice oxygen-mediated mechanism of oxygen evolution reaction can overcome the scaling relations-induced limitations imposed by conventional adsorption evolution mechanism, but faces challenges in maximizing activation of lattice oxygen species. The flexible structure of three-phase heterostructured catalysts provides the possibility for high-performance electrocatalysis, yet still face the bottleneck of synthesis difficulty and insufficient regulation. Herein, a facile quenching route is proposed for the synthesis of core-shell catalysts, and the influence mechanism of three-phase heterostructure on quenching engineering is elucidated.

Deep Eutectic Solvent-Based Gel Electrolyte with Fast Na Ions Transport in Sodium-Metal Batteries.

Deep eutectic electrolyte (DEE) with intrinsic nonflammability is deemed as a promising electrolyte candidate for high safety sodium-metal batteries (SMBs). Nevertheless, the leakage risk and inferior electrode compatibility impede their further application toward high-performance SMBs. Herein, a novel DEE based on sodium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (NaFSi) and ethyl-2-cyano-3-ethoxyacrylate (ECE) is developed through their Lewis acid-base interaction and the further ECE-based deep eutectic gel electrolyte (GE) is constructed with cross-linked ploy(vinylene carbonate) (PVC) as matrix network.

Weakly solvated perfluorinated electrolyte for high-temperature sodium-layered oxide cathodes.

The stability of the electrode-electrolyte interface in layered oxides is enhanced by electrolyte design criteria. A weakly-solvated electrolyte containing ethyl trifluoroacetate solvents with perfluorinated functional groups can restrain electrolyte decomposition and structural degradation when subjected to heat attack, exhibiting superior cycling durability at 60 °C compared to other fluorinated electrolytes.

Atomically dispersed dinuclear iridium active sites for efficient and stable electrocatalytic chlorine evolution reaction.

The electrochemical chlorine evolution reaction (CER) is a critical anode reaction in chlor-alkali electrolysis. Although precious metal-based mixed metal oxides (MMOs) have long been used as CER catalysts, they suffer from high cost and poor selectivity due to the competing oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Single-atom catalysts (SACs), featuring high atom utilization efficiency, have captured widespread interest in diverse applications.

Novel Quasi-Liquid K-Na Alloy as a Promising Dendrite-Free Anode for Rechargeable Potassium Metal Batteries.

Rechargeable potassium metal batteries are promising energy storage devices with potentially high energy density and markedly low cost. However, eliminating dendrite growth and achieving a stable electrode/electrolyte interface are the key challenges to tackle. Herein, a novel "quasi-liquid" potassium-sodium alloy (KNA) anode comprising only 3.

NiFeO nanoparticles coated on 3D graphene capsule as electrode for advanced energy storage applications.

Current energy crises are inspiring researchers to focus intensively on development of feasible ways to produce high performing composite electrode materials for increasing energy demands. The present work addresses this objective by developing a novel structure of NiFe2O4 (NFO) nanoparticles coated on graphene capsules (GCs) by a simple hydrothermal technique. This NFO-GCs electrode material was subjected to different types of electrochemical performance evaluations to investigate its feasibility as a supercapacitor electrode.

Boosting potassium-ion batteries by few-layered composite anodes prepared via solution-triggered one-step shear exfoliation.

Earth-abundant potassium is a promising alternative to lithium in rechargeable batteries, but a pivotal limitation of potassium-ion batteries is their relatively low capacity and poor cycling stability. Here, a high-performance potassium-ion battery is achieved by employing few-layered antimony sulfide/carbon sheet composite anode fabricated via one-step high-shear exfoliation in ethanol/water solvent. Antimony sulfide with few-layered structure minimizes the volume expansion during potassiation and shortens the ion transport pathways, thus enhancing the rate capability; while carbon sheets in the composite provide electrical conductivity and maintain the electrode cycling stability by trapping the inevitable by-product, elemental sulfur.

An All-Integrated Anode via Interlinked Chemical Bonding between Double-Shelled-Yolk-Structured Silicon and Binder for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

The concept of an all-integrated design with multifunctionalization is widely employed in optoelectronic devices, sensors, resonator systems, and microfluidic devices, resulting in benefits for many ongoing research projects. Here, maintaining structural/electrode stability against large volume change by means of an all-integrated design is realized for silicon anodes. An all-integrated silicon anode is achieved via multicomponent interlinking among carbon@void@silica@silicon (CVSS) nanospheres and cross-linked carboxymethyl cellulose and citric acid polymer binder (c-CMC-CA).

Few Atomic Layered Lithium Cathode Materials to Achieve Ultrahigh Rate Capability in Lithium-Ion Batteries.

The most promising cathode materials, including LiCoO (layered), LiMn O (spinel), and LiFePO (olivine), have been the focus of intense research to develop rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for portable electronic devices. Sluggish lithium diffusion, however, and unsatisfactory long-term cycling performance still limit the development of present LIBs for several applications, such as plug-in/hybrid electric vehicles. Motivated by the success of graphene and novel 2D materials with unique physical and chemical properties, herein, a simple shear-assisted mechanical exfoliation method to synthesize few-layered nanosheets of LiCoO , LiMn O , and LiFePO is used.

Smart design of free-standing ultrathin Co-Co(OH)2 composite nanoflakes on 3D nickel foam for high-performance electrochemical capacitors.

Ultrathin Co-Co(OH)2 composite nanoflakes have been fabricated through electrodeposition on 3D nickel foam. As electrochemical capacitor electrodes, they exhibit a high specific capacitance of 1000 F g(-1) at the scan rate of 5 mV s(-1) and 980 F g(-1) at the current density of 1 A g(-1), respectively, and the retention of capacitance is 91% after 5000 cycles.

Facile synthesis of Ag/GNS-g-PAA nanohybrids for antimicrobial applications.

A facile and efficient aqueous phase-based strategy to synthesize silver nanocrystal/graphene nanosheet (GNS) nanohybrids at room temperature, via in situ poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) grafting followed by attachment of Ag nanocrystals, was reported. In the presence of PAA-grafted GNSs, Ag nanoparticles were in situ generated from AgNO(3) aqueous solution without any additional reducing agent or complicated treatment. They readily attached to the GNS surfaces, leading to Ag/GNS-g-PAA nanohybrids.

Fabrication of carbon nanofiber-polyaniline composite flexible paper for supercapacitor.

In this work we report a low cost technique, via simple rapid-mixture polymerization of aniline using an electrospun carbon nanofiber (CNF) paper as substrate, to fabricate free-standing, flexible CNF-PANI (PANI=polyaniline) composite paper. The morphology and microstructure of the obtained products are characterized by FESEM, FTIR, Raman and XRD. As results, PANI nanoparticles are homogeneously deposited on the surface of each CNF, forming a thin, light-weight and flexible composite paper.