Polyacrylamide-based hydrogel electrolyte for modulating water activity in aqueous hybrid batteries.

While zinc-ion and hybrid aqueous battery systems have emerged as potential substitutes for expensive lithium-ion batteries, issues like side reactions, limited electrochemical stability, and electrolyte leakage hinder their commercialization. Due to their low cost, high stability, minimal leakage risks, and a wide variety of modification opportunities, hydrogel electrolytes are considered the most promising solution compared to liquid or solid electrolytes. Here, we synthesized a dual-function hydrogel electrolyte based on polyacrylamide and poly(ethylene dioxythiophene):polystyrene (PPP).

Nickel and nickel oxide nanoparticle-embedded functional carbon nanofibers for lithium sulfur batteries.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are attracting tremendous attention owing to their critical advantages, such as high theoretical capacity of sulfur, cost-effectiveness, and environment-friendliness. Nevertheless, the vast commercialisation of Li-S batteries is severely hindered by sharp capacity decay upon operation and shortened cycle life because of the insulating nature of sulfur along with the solubility of intermediate redox products, lithium polysulfides (LiPSs), in electrolytes. This work proposes the use of multifunctional Ni/NiO-embedded carbon nanofibers (Ni/NiO@CNFs) synthesized by an electrospinning technique with the corresponding heat treatment as promising free-standing current collectors to enhance the kinetics of LiPS redox reactions and to provide prolonged cyclability by utilizing more efficient active materials.

Exploiting High-Voltage Stability of Dual-Ion Aqueous Electrolyte Reinforced by Incorporation of Fiberglass into Zwitterionic Hydrogel Electrolyte.

Rechargeable zinc aqueous batteries are key alternatives for replacing toxic, flammable, and expensive lithium-ion batteries in grid energy storage systems. However, these systems possess critical weaknesses, including the short electrochemical stability window of water and intrinsic fast zinc dendrite growth. Hydrogel electrolytes provide a possible solution, especially cross-linked zwitterionic polymers that possess strong water retention ability and high ionic conductivity.

Catalytic effects of Ni nanoparticles encapsulated in few-layer N-doped graphene and supported by N-doped graphitic carbon in Li-S batteries.

Although lithium-sulfur batteries possess the highest theoretical capacity and lowest cost among all known rechargeable batteries, their commercialization is still hampered by the intrinsic disadvantages of low conductivity of sulfur and polysulfide shuttle effect, which is most critical. Considerable research efforts have been dedicated to solving these difficulties for every part of Li-S batteries. Separator modification with metal electrocatalysts is a promising approach to overcome the major part of these disadvantages.

KTi (PO ) Electrode with a Long Cycling Stability for Potassium-Ion Batteries.

In this work, rhombohedral KTi (PO ) is introduced to investigate the related theoretical, structural, and electrochemical properties in K cells. The suggested KTi (PO ) modified by electro-conducting carbon brings about a flat voltage profile at ≈1.6 V, providing a large capacity of 126 mAh (g-phosphate) , corresponding to 98.

P2-NaMnO by Co Incorporation: As a Cathode Material of High Capacity and Long Cycle Life for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

The P2-NaMnO compound is one of the attractive cathodes for sodium-ion batteries due to its high initial capacity and abundance of Na and Mn elements in nature. The existence of Mn Jahn-Teller ion, however, impedes electrode performance for long term. Here, we challenge to minimize the effect of the Jahn-Teller distortion caused by Mn in the structure, via substitution of Mn by Co in P2-Na[MnCo]O ( = 0-0.

Binding mechanism and electrochemical properties of M13 phage-sulfur composite.

Self-assembly of nanostructured materials has been proven a powerful technique in material design and synthesis. By phage display screening, M13 phage was found to strongly bind sulfur particles. Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements indicated that the strong sulfur-binding ability of M13 phage derives from newly generated S-O and C-S bonds.