Publications by authors named "Minfei Fei"
Water-enabled electricity generation (WEG), which harvests energy from the natural water cycle, is a novel strategy for producing green electricity. Taking advantage of the ion sieving effect based on evaporation-induced water flows in charged nanopores, various WEG devices have been developed. Here, we report that a carbonized mushroom produces a record-high current output of up to 96.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreformation of Insoluble Solid-Electrolyte Interphase for Highly Reversible Na-Ion Batteries.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
October 2024
Article Synopsis
- - A stable solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) is essential for Na-ion batteries to improve cycling stability and efficiency by reducing side reactions during usage.
- - This research reveals that the solubility of organic-rich SEI is significantly higher (3.26 times) than that of inorganic-rich SEI, highlighting a critical relationship between SEI components and their solubility.
- - The study proposes a method to create insoluble inorganic-rich SEI, demonstrating a functional Na-ion battery that retains 80% capacity after 900 cycles and achieves a high Coulombic efficiency of 99.95%, making it a promising approach for more durable Na-ion batteries.
Harvesting water from air in sorption-based devices is a promising solution to decentralized water production, aiming for providing potable water anywhere, anytime. This technology involves a series of coupled processes occurring at distinct length scales, ranging from nanometer to meter and even larger, including water sorption/desorption at the nanoscale, condensation at the mesoscale, device development at the macroscale and water scarcity assessment at the global scale. Comprehensive understanding and bespoke designs at every scale are thus needed to improve the water-harvesting performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - Green hydrogen production is essential for developing a hydrogen-based economy, primarily through water electrolysis using renewable energy sources and solar-to-hydrogen conversion.
- - The study explores how functionalizing graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) can enhance their catalytic properties for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), revealing an inverse relationship between catalytic activity and the strength of the electrical double layer.
- - Using density functional theory (DFT) modeling, researchers explain the electrocatalytic activity and suggest that reducing the electrical double layer strength could improve the catalysts' performance in hydrogen production.
The durability issue of a carbon supported PtNi3 alloy catalyst (PtNi3/C) under acidic conditions has been solved by introducing an N-doped graphitic carbon (NGC) layer to coat the surface of the PtNi3/C catalyst. The as-prepared PtNi3/C@NGC catalyst exhibits superior durability, being able to undergo 10 000 voltage cycles with negligible activity decay.
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