Evaluating a Dual-Ion Battery with an Antimony-Carbon Composite Anode.

Dual-ion batteries (DIBs) are attracting attention due to their high operating voltage and promise in stationary energy storage applications. Among various anode materials, elements that alloy and dealloy with lithium are assumed to be prospective in bringing higher capacities and increasing the energy density of DIBs. In this work, antimony in the form of a composite with carbon (Sb-C) is evaluated as an anode material for DIB full cells for the first time.

Insights into Electrolytic Pre-Lithiation: A Thorough Analysis Using Silicon Thin Film Anodes.

Pre-lithiation via electrolysis, herein defined as electrolytic pre-lithiation, using cost-efficient electrolytes based on lithium chloride (LiCl), is successfully demonstrated as a proof-of-concept for enabling lithium-ion battery full-cells with high silicon content negative electrodes. An electrolyte for pre-lithiation based on γ-butyrolactone and LiCl is optimized using boron-containing additives (lithium bis(oxalato)borate, lithium difluoro(oxalate)borate) and CO with respect to the formation of a protective solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on silicon thin films as model electrodes. Reversible lithiation in Si||Li metal cells is demonstrated with Coulombic efficiencies (C ) of 95-96% for optimized electrolytes comparable to 1 m LiPF /EC:EMC 3:7.

Advanced Dual-Ion Batteries with High-Capacity Negative Electrodes Incorporating Black Phosphorus.

Dual-graphite batteries (DGBs), being an all-graphite-electrode variation of dual-ion batteries (DIBs), have attracted great attention in recent years as a possible low-cost technology for stationary energy storage due to the utilization of inexpensive graphite as a positive electrode (cathode) material. However, DGBs suffer from a low specific energy limited by the capacity of both electrode materials. In this work, a composite of black phosphorus with carbon (BP-C) is introduced as negative electrode (anode) material for DIB full-cells for the first time.

Synergistic Effects of Surface Coating and Bulk Doping in Ni-Rich Lithium Nickel Cobalt Manganese Oxide Cathode Materials for High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Invited for this month's cover is a combined work of the Helmholtz Institute Münster together with the MEET Battery Research Center and the Universities of Münster and Mainz. The cover shows multiple treatment choices for the modification of cathode active materials for lithium-ion batteries. Similar to a car wash program, the treatment will typically result in an improvement of the status quo.

Synergistic Effects of Surface Coating and Bulk Doping in Ni-Rich Lithium Nickel Cobalt Manganese Oxide Cathode Materials for High-Energy Lithium Ion Batteries.

Ni-rich layered oxide cathodes are promising candidates to satisfy the increasing energy demand of lithium-ion batteries for automotive applications. Thermal and cycling stability issues originating from increasing Ni contents are addressed by mitigation strategies such as elemental bulk substitution ("doping") and surface coating. Although both approaches separately benefit the cycling stability, there are only few reports investigating the combination of two of such approaches.

Scalable Synthesis of MAX Phase Precursors toward Titanium-Based MXenes for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

MXenes have emerged as one of the most interesting material classes, owing to their outstanding physical and chemical properties enabling the application in vastly different fields such as electrochemical energy storage (EES). MXenes are commonly synthesized by the use of their parent phase, , MAX phases, where "M" corresponds to a transition metal, "A" to a group IV element, and "X" to carbon and/or nitrogen. As MXenes display characteristic pseudocapacitive behaviors in EES technologies, their use as a high-power material can be useful for many battery-like applications.