Construct Robust Epitaxial Growth of (101) Textured Zinc Metal Anode for Long Life and High Capacity in Mild Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-metal batteries are considered to have the potential for energy storage due to their high safety and low cost. However, the practical applications of zinc batteries are limited by dendrite growth and side reactions. Epitaxial growth is considered an effective method for stabilizing Zn anode, especially for manipulating the (002) plane of deposited zinc.

Unlocking the Capacity of Bismuth Oxide by a Redox Mediator Strategy for High-Performance Aqueous Zn-Ion Batteries.

Many cathode materials store zinc ions based on the intercalation reaction mechanism in neutral aqueous Zn-ion batteries, and the structural design of the cathodes has been stuck in the curing mode by extending the ion diffusion channel. Here, we first develop halide ions to unlock the electrochemical activity of conversion-type BiO in aqueous Zn-ion batteries. Notably, the iodide ion shows the best performance compatibility with the BiO cathode.

Dendrite inhibited and dead lithium activated dual-function additive for lithium metal batteries.

In this study, 2-fluoro-5-iodopyridine (2-F-5-IPy) was used as an electrolyte additive, which can not only protect the negative electrode effectively by forming a stable SEI, but also convert dead lithium into active lithium. Benefits from this are a capacity retention of a Li‖LiFePO cell after 300 cycles from 36.5% to 89.

Multifunctional electrolyte additive for realizing high-temperature and high-voltage lithium metal batteries.

Methyl 1-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxylate (MTC) was added into lithium metal batteries as an electrolyte additive, and not only did this addition lead to formation of solid electrolyte interfaces to protect both the anode and cathode, but the added MTC also served as a Lewis base in removing HF from the electrolyte to prevent the electrolyte from deteriorating. Therefore, the addition of MTC, in an appropriate amount, can be very effective at improving the electrochemical performance of lithium metal batteries.

Isolated Fe-Co heteronuclear diatomic sites as efficient bifunctional catalysts for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries.

The slow redox kinetics of polysulfides and the difficulties in decomposition of LiS during the charge and discharge processes are two serious obstacles to the practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, we construct the Fe-Co diatomic catalytic materials supported by hollow carbon spheres to achieve high-efficiency catalysis for the conversion of polysulfides and the decomposition of LiS simultaneously. The Fe atom center is beneficial to accelerate the discharge reaction process, and the Co atom center is favorable for charging process.

High-Index Faceted Nanocrystals as Highly Efficient Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Precisely regulating of the surface structure of crystalline materials to improve their catalytic activity for lithium polysulfides is urgently needed for high-performance lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Herein, high-index faceted iron oxide (FeO) nanocrystals anchored on reduced graphene oxide are developed as highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts, effectively improving the electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries. The theoretical and experimental results all indicate that high-index FeO crystal facets with abundant unsaturated coordinated Fe sites not only have strong adsorption capacity to anchor polysulfides but also have high catalytic activity to facilitate the redox transformation of polysulfides and reduce the decomposition energy barrier of LiS.

A Dynamic and Self-Adapting Interface Coating for Stable Zn-Metal Anodes.

The zinc (Zn)-ion battery has attracted much attention due to its high safety and environmental protection. At present, the critical issues of the generation of dendrites and the accumulation of dead Zn on the surface will lead to a sharp decline of the battery life. Zn dendrites can be inhibited to some extent by constructing an interface protective coating.

Basal-Plane-Activated Molybdenum Sulfide Nanosheets with Suitable Orbital Orientation as Efficient Electrocatalysts for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are one of the most promising candidates for next-generation energy storage systems because of their high theoretical energy density. However, the shuttling behavior and sluggish conversion kinetics of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) limit their practical application. Herein, B-doped MoS nanosheets are synthesized on carbon nanotubes (denoted as CNT@MoS-B) to function as catalysts to boost the performance of Li-S batteries.

Efficient Polysulfide Trapping and Conversion on N-Doped CoTe via Enhanced Dual-Anchoring Effect.

Polysulfide shuttling and sluggish sulfur redox kinetics hinder the cyclability and rate capability of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. The intrinsic redox kinetics of sulfur cathodes strongly depends on the interaction between catalysts and sulfur species. Herein, N-doped CoTe is proposed as an effective dual-anchoring electrocatalyst, which can simultaneously bind Li and S atoms in lithium polysulfides via ionic Te-Li/N-Li bonding and coordinate covalent Co-S bonding.

Precise Synthesis of Fe-N Sites with High Activity and Stability for Long-Life Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Precisely tuning the coordination environment of the metal center and further maximizing the activity of transition metal-nitrogen carbon (M-NC) catalysts for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries are greatly desired. Herein, we construct an Fe-NC material with uniform and stable Fe-N coordination structure. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that the unsaturated Fe-N center can act as a multifunctional site for anchoring lithium polysulfides (LiPSs), accelerating the redox conversion of LiPSs and reducing the reaction energy barrier of LiS decomposition.

Intercalation Pseudocapacitive Zn Storage with Hydrated Vanadium Dioxide toward Ultrahigh Rate Performance.

The weak van der Waals interactions enable ion-intercalation-type hosts to be ideal pseudocapacitive materials for energy storage. Here, a methodology for the preparation of hydrated vanadium dioxide nanoribbon (HVO) with moderate transport pathways is proposed. Out of the ordinary, the intercalation pseudocapacitive reaction mechanism is discovered for HVO, which powers high-rate capacitive charge storage compared with the battery-type intercalation reaction.

Building High Rate Capability and Ultrastable Dendrite-Free Organic Anode for Rechargeable Aqueous Zinc Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are an alternative energy storage system for large-scale grid applications compared with lithium-ion batteries, when the low cost, safety, and durability are taken into consideration. However, the reliability of the battery systems always suffers from the serious challenge of the large Zn dendrite formation and "dead Zn," thus bringing out the inferior cycling stability, and even cell shorting. Herein, a dendrite-free organic anode, perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI) polymerized on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (PTCDI/rGO) utilized in ZIBs is reported.

Constructing the Efficient Ion Diffusion Pathway by Introducing Oxygen Defects in MnO for High-Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Mn-based cathodes are admittedly the most promising candidate to achieve the practical applications of aqueous zinc-ion batteries because of the high operating voltage and economic benefit. However, the design of Mn-based cathodes still remains challenging because of the vulnerable chemical architecture and strong electrostatic interaction that lead to the inferior reaction kinetics and rapid capacity decay. These intrinsic drawbacks need to be fundamentally addressed by rationally decorating the crystal structure.

Redox Mediator: A New Strategy in Designing Cathode for Prompting Redox Process of Li-S Batteries.

The multistep redox reactions of lithium-sulfur batteries involve undesirably complex transformation between sulfur and LiS, and it is tough to spontaneously fragmentate polysulfides into shorter chains LiS originating from the sluggish redox kinetics of soluble polysulfide intermediates, causing serious polarization and consumption of sulfur. In this work, 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI)/G is employed as sulfur host to accelerate the conversion process between polysulfides and sulfur, which could facilitate the process of both charging and discharging. Moreover, PTCDI has strong adsorption capacity with polysulfides to restrain shuttle effect, resulting in promotional kinetics and cycle stability.

A Class of Catalysts of BiOX (X = Cl, Br, I) for Anchoring Polysulfides and Accelerating Redox Reaction in Lithium Sulfur Batteries.

The lithium-sulfur battery system contains a complex reaction process of sulfur involving multielectron reactions and phase conversions. Moreover, the diffusion of intermediate polysulfides during reduction and sluggish kinetic conversion of polysulfides into insoluble LiS still plague the use of Li-S batteries. Herein, BiOX was employed as sulfur host material in Li-S batteries, which could integrate suppression of the shuttle effect and promote kinetics redox reactions of lithium polysulfides.

Hierarchical Mn O Anchored on 3D Graphene Aerogels via C-O-Mn Linkage with Superior Electrochemical Performance for Flexible Asymmetric Supercapacitor.

Flexible asymmetric supercapacitors are more appealing in flexible electronics because of high power density, wide cell voltage, and higher energy density than symmetric supercapacitors in aqueous electrolyte. In virtues of excellent conductivity, rich porous structure and interconnected honeycomb structure, three dimensional graphene aerogels show great potential as electrode in asymmetric supercapacitors. However, graphene aerogels are rarely used in flexible asymmetric supercapacitors because of easily re-stacking of graphene sheets, resulting in low electrochemical activity.

Blocking Polysulfide with CoB@CNT via "Synergetic Adsorptive Effect" toward Ultrahigh-Rate Capability and Robust Lithium-Sulfur Battery.

Li-S batteries have attracted great interest as the next-generation secondary batteries due to their high energy density, being environmentally friendly, and low price. However, the road to commercialization of lithium-sulfur batteries remains limited owing to the "shuttle effect" of soluble polysulfides, which results in the inferior cycle stability. Herein, a potent functional separator is developed to restrain the "shuttle effect" by coating CoB@carbon nanotube layer on the commercialized polypropylene separator.

MoP hollow nanospheres encapsulated in 3D reduced graphene oxide networks as high rate and ultralong cycle performance anodes for sodium-ion batteries.

Molybdenum phosphide (MoP), regarded as a promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries due to its superior conductivity and high theoretical specific capacity, still suffers from rapid capacity decay because of a large volume change and weak diffusion kinetics. Hollow nano-structures will be an effective solution to alleviate structural strain and improve cycling stability. Yet the preparation of MoP needs a high temperature phosphorization procedure which would cause agglomeration and structure collapse, making it difficult to achieve hollow nano-structures.

SnS /SnO Heterostructures towards Enhanced Electrochemical Performance of Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have been recognized as outstanding candidates for energy storage systems due to their superiority in terms of energy density. To meet the requirements for practical use, it is necessary to develop an effective method to realize Li-S batteries with high sulfur utilization and cycle stability. Here, a strategy to construct heterostructure composites as cathodes for high performance Li-S batteries is presented.

Ion-Selective Prussian-Blue-Modified Celgard Separator for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Battery.

Application of Li-S batteries has been restricted because of their major problem, that is, shuttling of soluble polysulfides between electrodes, which results in serious capacity fading. For the development of high-performance Li-S batteries, we first time utilize a simple growth method to introduce a Prussian blue (PB)-modified Celgard separator as an ion-selective membrane. The unique structure of PB could effectively suppress the shuttle of polysulfides but scarcely affect the transfer ability of lithium ions, which is beneficial to achieve high sulfur conversion efficiency and capacity retention.

A Conductive Ni P Nanoporous Composite with a 3D Structure Derived from a Metal-Organic Framework for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Sulfur cathodes have attracted significant attention as next-generation electrode material candidates due to their considerable theoretical energy density. The main challenge in developing long-life Li-S batteries is to simultaneously suppress the shuttle effect and high areal mass loading of sulfur required for practical applications. To solve this problem, we have designed a novel nickel phosphide nanoporous composite derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as sulfur host materials.

In Situ Synthesis of CuCoS@N/S-Doped Graphene Composites with Pseudocapacitive Properties for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries.

To satisfy the demand of high power application, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with high power density have gained extensive research effort. The pseudocapacitive storage of LIBs is considered to offer high power density through fast faradic surface redox reactions rather than the slow diffusion-controlled intercalation process. In this work, CuCoS anchored on N/S-doped graphene is in situ synthesized and a typical pseudocapacitive storage behavior is demonstrated when applied in the LIB anode.

N doped carbon coated VO nanobelt arrays growing on carbon cloth toward enhanced performance cathodes for lithium ion batteries.

Highly flexible, binder-free cathodes for lithium ion batteries were fabricated by utilizing N doped carbon to coat VO (VO@N-C) nanobelt arrays growing on carbon cloth. Such a robust architecture endows the electrode with effective ion diffusion and charge transport, resulting in high rate capability (135 mA h g at 10C) and excellent cycling performance (215 mA h g after 50 cycles at 0.5C).

Coupled flower-like BiS and graphene aerogels for superior sodium storage performance.

A hierarchically structured BiS/graphene aerogel composite is constructed that shows excellent sodium storage properties. Specifically, the composite delivers a stable reversible capacity of 397 mA h g at 100 mA g after 50 cycles and 348 mA h g at 1 A g after 120 cycles. Furthermore, even at a high current density of 2 A g, a reversible capacity of 336 mA h g is achieved.

Long-Life Lithium-Sulfur Battery Derived from Nori-Based Nitrogen and Oxygen Dual-Doped 3D Hierarchical Biochar.

Due to restrictions on the low conductivity of sulfur and soluble polysulfides during discharge, lithium sulfur batteries are unsuitable for further large scale applications. The current carbon based cathodes suffer from poor cycle stability and high cost. Recently, heteroatom doped carbons have been considered as a settlement to enhance the performance of lithium sulfur batteries.