Friendly Environmental Strategies to Recycle Zinc-Carbon Batteries for Excellent Gel Polymer Electrolyte (PVA-ZnSO-HSO) and Carbon Materials for Symmetrical Solid-State Supercapacitors.

In this report, we introduce a novel idea to prepare a redox additive in a gel polymer electrolyte system of PVA-ZnSO-HSO based on zinc-carbon battery recycling. Here, zinc cans from spent zinc-carbon batteries are dissolved completely in 1 M HSO to obtain a redox additive in an aqueous electrolyte of ZnSO-HSO. Moreover, carbon nanoparticles and graphene nanosheets were synthesized from carbon rod and carbon powder from spent zinc-carbon batteries by only one step of washing and electrochemical exfoliation, respectively, which have good electrochemical capability.

A High-Rate and Stable Quasi-Solid-State Zinc-Ion Battery with Novel 2D Layered Zinc Orthovanadate Array.

Zinc-ion batteries are under current research focus because of their uniqueness in low cost and high safety. However, it is still desirable to improve the rate performance by improving the Zn (de)intercalation kinetics and long-cycle stability by eliminating the dendrite formation problem. Herein, the first paradigm of a high-rate and ultrastable flexible quasi-solid-state zinc-ion battery is constructed from a novel 2D ultrathin layered zinc orthovanadate array cathode, a Zn array anode supported by a conductive porous graphene foam, and a gel electrolyte.

In Situ Grown Epitaxial Heterojunction Exhibits High-Performance Electrocatalytic Water Splitting.

Electrocatalytic performance can be enhanced by engineering a purposely designed nanoheterojunction and fine-tuning the interface electronic structure. Herein a new approach of developing atomic epitaxial in-growth in Co-Ni N nanowires array is devised, where a nanoconfinement effect is reinforced at the interface. The Co-Ni N heterostructure array is formed by thermal annealing NiCo O precursor nanowires under an optimized condition, during which the nanowire morphology is retained.

Ultrathin MoSe@N-doped carbon composite nanospheres for stable Na-ion storage.

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides are widely studied as anode materials for metal ion batteries. This application requires high electric conductivity which can be achieved by forming composites with conductive carbon. In this work, we demonstrate the creation of nanospheres composed of Mo-based thin nanosheets (MoS, MoSe and MoC) uniform embedded within a N-doped carbon matrix.

A mesoporous nickel counter electrode for printable and reusable perovskite solar cells.

A mesoporous nickel layer is used as the counter electrode in printable perovskite solar cells. A unique reuse process is realized in such perovskite solar cell devices by repeated loading of the perovskite material. Under standard AM1.