Lithium-Ion Conductor LiZrO-Coated Primary Particles To Optimize the Performance of Li-Rich Mn-Based Cathode Materials.

A lithium-rich manganese-based cathode material (LRMC) is currently considered as one of the most promising next-generation materials for lithium-ion batteries, which has received much attention, but the LRMC still faces some key scientific issues to break through, such as poor rate capacity, rapid voltage, capacity decay, and low first coulomb efficiency. In this work, homogeneous LiZrO (LZO) was successfully coated on the surface of LiMnNiCoO (LRO) by molten salt-assisted sintering technology. LiZrO has good chemical and electrochemical stability, which can effectively inhibit the side reaction between electrode materials and electrolytes and reduce the dissolution of transition metal ions.

Engineering a TiNbO-Based Electrocatalyst on a Flexible Self-Supporting Sulfur Cathode for Promoting Li-S Battery Performance.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are considered a prospective energy storage system because of their high theoretical specific capacity and high energy density, whereas Li-S batteries still face many serious challenges on the road to commercialization, including the shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs), their insulating nature, the volume change of the active materials during the charge-discharge process, and the tardy sulfur redox kinetics. In this work, double transition metal oxide TiNbO (TNO) nanometer particles are tactfully deposited on the surface of an activated carbon cloth (ACC), activating the surface through a hydrothermal reaction and high-temperature calcination and finally forming the flexible self-supporting architecture as an effective catalyst for sulfur conversion reaction. It has been found that ACC@TNO possesses many catalytic activity sites, which can inhibit the shuttle effect of LiPSs and increase the Coulombic efficiency by boosting the redox reaction kinetics of LiPS transformation reaction.

Atomically Dispersed and O, N-Coordinated Mn-Based Catalyst for Promoting the Conversion of Polysulfides in LiS-Based Li-S Battery.

Nowadays, Li-S batteries are facing many thorny challenges like volume expansion and lithium dendrites on the road to commercialization. Due to the peculiarity of complete lithiation and the capability to match non-lithium anodes, LiS-based Li-S batteries have attracted more and more attention. Nevertheless, the same notorious shuttle effect of polysulfides as in traditional Li-S batteries and the poor conductivity of LiS lead to sluggish conversion reaction kinetics, poor Coulombic efficiency, and cycling performance.

LiS In Situ Grown on Three-Dimensional Porous Carbon Architecture with Electron/Ion Channels and Dual Active Sites as Cathodes of Li-S Batteries.

LiS-based Li-S batteries are taken as promising energy storage systems due to the high theoretical specific capacity/energy density and nature of a matching Li-metal-free anode. However, the cyclic stability of the LiS-based Li-S battery is seriously prevented by the shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs). Meanwhile, due to the poor electrical conductivity of LiS, the Li-S battery displays slow reaction kinetics.

Photo-induced self-catalysis of nano-BiMoO for solar energy harvesting and charge storage.

Efficient, sustainable, and integrated energy systems require the development of novel multifunctional materials to simultaneously achieve solar energy harvesting and charge storage. Bi-based oxysalt aurivillius phase materials are potential candidates due to their typical photovoltaic effect and their pseudo-capacitance charge storage behavior. Herein, we synthesized nano-BiMoO as a material for both solar energy harvesting and charge storage due to its suitable band gap for absorption of visible light and its well-defined faradaic redox reaction from Bi metal to Bi.