Nitrogen-Doped Hierarchical Porous Carbon-Promoted Adsorption of Anthraquinone for Long-Life Organic Batteries.

Organic quinone molecules are attractive electrochemical energy storage devices because of their high abundance, multielectron reactions, and structural diversity compared with transition metal-oxide electrode materials. However, they have problems like poor cycle stability and low rate performance on account of the inherent low conductivity and high solubility in the electrolyte. Solving these two key problems at the same time can be challenging.

Deeply Nesting Zinc Sulfide Dendrites in Tertiary Hierarchical Structure for Potassium Ion Batteries: Enhanced Conductivity from Interior to Exterior.

Transition metal sulfides are deemed as attractive anode materials for potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) due to their high theoretical capacities based on conversion and alloying reaction. However, the main challenges are the low electronic conductivity, huge volume expansion, and consequent formation of unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) upon potassiation/depotassiation. Herein, zinc sulfide dendrites deeply nested in the tertiary hierarchical structure through a solvothermal-pyrolysis process are designed as an anode material for KIBs.

Metallic Octahedral CoSe Threaded by N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes: A Flexible Framework for High-Performance Potassium-Ion Batteries.

Due to the abundant and low-cost K resources, the exploration of suitable materials for potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) is advancing as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries. However, the large-sized and sluggish-kinetic K ions cause poor battery behavior. This work reports a metallic octahedral CoSe threaded by N-doped carbon nanotubes as a flexible framework for a high-performance KIBs anode.

A Praline-Like Flexible Interlayer with Highly Mounted Polysulfide Anchors for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

The development of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries is dogged by the rapid capacity decay arising from polysulfide dissolution and diffusion in organic electrolytes. To solve this critical issue, a praline-like flexible interlayer consisting of high-loading titanium oxide (TiO ) nanoparticles and relatively long carbon nanofibers is fabricated. TiO nanoparticles with a size gradient occupy both the external and internal of carbon fiber and serve as anchors that allow the chemical adsorption of polysulfides through a conductive nanoarchitecture.