Electroreduction of nitrogen with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency.

In addition to its use in the fertilizer and chemical industries, ammonia is currently seen as a potential replacement for carbon-based fuels and as a carrier for worldwide transportation of renewable energy. Implementation of this vision requires transformation of the existing fossil-fuel-based technology for NH production to a simpler, scale-flexible technology, such as the electrochemical lithium-mediated nitrogen-reduction reaction. This provides a genuine pathway from N to ammonia, but it is currently hampered by limited yield rates and low efficiencies.

Identification and elimination of false positives in electrochemical nitrogen reduction studies.

Ammonia is of emerging interest as a liquefied, renewable-energy-sourced energy carrier for global use in the future. Electrochemical reduction of N (NRR) is widely recognised as an alternative to the traditional Haber-Bosch production process for ammonia. However, though the challenges of NRR experiments have become better understood, the reported rates are often too low to be convincing that reduction of the highly unreactive N molecule has actually been achieved.

Self-Rearrangement of Silicon Nanoparticles Embedded in Micro-Carbon Sphere Framework for High-Energy and Long-Life Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Despite its highest theoretical capacity, the practical applications of the silicon anode are still limited by severe capacity fading, which is due to pulverization of the Si particles through volume change during charge and discharge. In this study, silicon nanoparticles are embedded in micron-sized porous carbon spheres (Si-MCS) via a facile hydrothermal process in order to provide a stiff carbon framework that functions as a cage to hold the pulverized silicon pieces. The carbon framework subsequently allows these silicon pieces to rearrange themselves in restricted domains within the sphere.

Coating lithium titanate with nitrogen-doped carbon by simple refluxing for high-power lithium-ion batteries.

Nitrogen-doped carbon is coated on lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12, LTO) via a simple chemical refluxing process, using ethylenediamine (EDA) as the carbon and nitrogen source. The process incorporates a carbon coating doped with a relatively high amount of nitrogen to form a conducting network on the LTO matrix. The introduction of N dopants in the carbon matrix leads to a higher density of C vacancies, resulting in improved lithium-ion diffusion.