Insights into the Critical Materials Supply Chain of the Battery Market for Enhanced Energy Security.

This paper delves into the critical materials supply chain of the battery market with an emphasis on long-term energy security. The study recognizes electric vehicle battery packs as reservoirs of "locked reserves" for extended periods, typically 10 years or more. A comprehensive understanding of material flows and end-of-life battery management is essential to establish a sustainable, durable, and secure domestic supply chain for lithium-ion batteries.

Differences in the Interfacial Mechanical Properties of Thiophosphate and Argyrodite Solid Electrolytes and Their Composites.

Interfacial mechanics are a significant contributor to the performance and degradation of solid-state batteries. Spatially resolved measurements of interfacial properties are extremely important to effectively model and understand the electrochemical behavior. Herein, we report the interfacial properties of thiophosphate (LiPS)- and argyrodite (LiPSCl)-type solid electrolytes.

Hollow Silica Particles: A Novel Strategy for Cost Reduction.

Thermal insulation materials are highly sought after for applications such as building envelopes, refrigerators, cryogenic fuel storage chambers, and water supply piping. However, current insulation materials either do not provide sufficient insulation or are costly. A new class of insulation materials, hollow silica particles, has attracted tremendous attention due to its potential to provide a very high degree of thermal insulation.

Hybrid hollow silica particles: synthesis and comparison of properties with pristine particles.

In the past decade, interest in hollow silica particles has grown tremendously because of their applications in diverse fields such as thermal insulation, drug delivery, battery cathodes, catalysis, and functional coatings. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy to synthesize hybrid hollow silica particles having shells made of either polymer-silica or carbon-silica. Hybrid shells were characterized using electron microscopy.

Eutectic Synthesis of the P2-Type NaFeMnO Cathode with Improved Cell Design for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

An engaging area of research in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) has been focusing on discovery, design, and synthesis of high-capacity cathode materials in order to boost energy density to levels close enough to that of state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries. Of particular interest, P2-type layered oxide, NaFeMnO, has been researched as a potential cathode in SIBs based on its high theoretical capacity of 260 mA h/g and use of noncritical materials. However, the reported synthesis methods are not only complex and energy-demanding but also often yield inhomogeneous and impure materials with capacities less than 200 mA h/g under impractical test conditions.

Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Structural Composite Supercapacitor.

Carbon nanotubes exhibit mechanical properties ideally suited for reinforced structural composites and surface area and conductivity attractive for electrochemical capacitors. Here we demonstrate the multifunctional synergy between these properties in a composite material exhibiting simultaneous mechanical and energy storage properties. This involves a reinforcing electrode developed using dense, aligned carbon nanotubes grown on stainless steel mesh that is layered in an ion conducting epoxy electrolyte matrix with Kevlar or fiberglass mats.

Multifunctional Structural Ultrabattery Composite.

Here we demonstrate a composite material exhibiting dual multifunctional properties of a structural material and a redox-active battery. This incorporates three-dimensional aligned carbon nanotube interfaces that weave together a structural frame, redox-active battery materials, and a Kevlar-infiltrated solid electrolyte that facilitates ion transfer. Relative to the total measured composite material mass, we demonstrate energy density up to ∼1.

High-rate potassium ion and sodium ion batteries by co-intercalation anodes and open framework cathodes.

Here we demonstrate a full-cell battery design that bridges the energy density and rate capability between that of supercapacitors or pseudocapacitors with that of traditional lithium-ion batteries. This is accomplished by pairing an anode that enables ultrafast ion co-intercalation, an open framework cathode that allows rapid ion diffusion, and linear ether based electrolyte that sustains cell-level stability and high rate performance. We show this platform to be suitable for both sodium and potassium batteries using graphite as the co-intercalation anode, and Prussian blue as the open framework cathode.

Tunable Mechanochemistry of Lithium Battery Electrodes.

The interplay between mechanical strains and battery electrochemistry, or the tunable mechanochemistry of batteries, remains an emerging research area with limited experimental progress. In this report, we demonstrate how elastic strains applied to vanadium pentoxide (VO), a widely studied cathode material for Li-ion batteries, can modulate the kinetics and energetics of lithium-ion intercalation. We utilize atomic layer deposition to coat VO materials onto the surface of a shapememory superelastic NiTi alloy, which allows electrochemical assessment at a fixed and measurable level of elastic strain imposed on the VO, with strain state assessed through Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction.

Polysulfide Anchoring Mechanism Revealed by Atomic Layer Deposition of VO and Sulfur-Filled Carbon Nanotubes for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Despite the promise of surface engineering to address the challenge of polysulfide shuttling in sulfur-carbon composite cathodes, melt infiltration techniques limit mechanistic studies correlating engineered surfaces and polysulfide anchoring. Here, we present a controlled experimental demonstration of polysulfide anchoring using vapor phase isothermal processing to fill the interior of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) after assembly into binder-free electrodes and atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating of polar VO anchoring layers on the CNT surfaces. The ultrathin submonolayer VO coating on the CNT exterior surface balances the adverse effect of polysulfide shuttling with the necessity for high sulfur utilization due to binding sites near the conductive CNT surface.

A Sugar-Derived Room-Temperature Sodium Sulfur Battery with Long Term Cycling Stability.

We demonstrate a room-temperature sodium sulfur battery based on a confining microporous carbon template derived from sucrose that delivers a reversible capacity over 700 mAh/g at 0.1C rates, maintaining 370 mAh/g at 10 times higher rates of 1C. Cycling at 1C rates reveals retention of over 300 mAh/g capacity across 1500 cycles with Coulombic efficiency >98% due to microporous sulfur confinement and stability of the sodium metal anode in a glyme-based electrolyte.

Anode-Free Sodium Battery through in Situ Plating of Sodium Metal.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been pursued as a more cost-effective and more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but these advantages come at the expense of energy density. In this work, we demonstrate that the challenge of energy density for sodium chemistries can be overcome through an anode-free architecture enabled by the use of a nanocarbon nucleation layer formed on Al current collectors. Electrochemical studies show this configuration to provide highly stable and efficient plating and stripping of sodium metal over a range of currents up to 4 mA/cm, sodium loading up to 12 mAh/cm, and with long-term durability exceeding 1000 cycles at a current of 0.

Catalyst morphology matters for lithium-oxygen battery cathodes.

The effectiveness of using catalyst nanoparticles to reduce the overpotential and energy efficiency of lithium-oxygen (or lithium-air) batteries (LOBs) is usually attributed to the inherent catalytic properties of individual nanoparticles. Here, we demonstrate that the morphology of the catalyst layer is equally important in maintaining integrity of the catalyst coating during product formation in LOBs. We demonstrate this by comparing the performance of smooth, conformal coated MnO catalyst nanoparticles prepared by electric field-assisted deposition, and more irregular coatings using conventional film assembly techniques both on three-dimensional mesh substrates.

Electrically Conductive Hierarchical Carbon Nanotube Networks with Tunable Mechanical Response.

Small diameter carbon nanotube (CNTs) are synthesized directly from a parent CNT forest using a floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. To support a new CNT generation from an existing forest, an alumina coating was applied to the CNT forest using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The new generation of small diameter CNTs (8 nm average) surround the first generation, filling the interstitial regions.

Noncovalent Pi-Pi Stacking at the Carbon-Electrolyte Interface: Controlling the Voltage Window of Electrochemical Supercapacitors.

A key parameter in the operation of an electrochemical double-layer capacitor is the voltage window, which dictates the device energy density and power density. Here we demonstrate experimental evidence that π-π stacking at a carbon-ionic liquid interface can modify the operation voltage of a supercapacitor device by up to 30%, and this can be recovered by steric hindrance at the electrode-electrolyte interface introduced by poly(ethylene oxide) polymer electrolyte additives. This observation is supported by Raman spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry that each independently elucidates the signature of π-π stacking between imidazole groups in the ionic liquid and the carbon surface and the role this plays to lower the energy barrier for charge transfer at the electrode-electrolyte interface.

Strain Engineering to Modify the Electrochemistry of Energy Storage Electrodes.

Strain engineering has been a critical aspect of device design in semiconductor manufacturing for the past decade, but remains relatively unexplored for other applications, such as energy storage. Using mechanical strain as an input parameter to modulate electrochemical potentials of metal oxides opens new opportunities intersecting fields of electrochemistry and mechanics. Here we demonstrate that less than 0.

Ultrafast triggered transient energy storage by atomic layer deposition into porous silicon for integrated transient electronics.

Here we demonstrate the first on-chip silicon-integrated rechargeable transient power source based on atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating of vanadium oxide (VOx) into porous silicon. A stable specific capacitance above 20 F g(-1) is achieved until the device is triggered with alkaline solutions. Due to the rational design of the active VOx coating enabled by ALD, transience occurs through a rapid disabling step that occurs within seconds, followed by full dissolution of all active materials within 30 minutes of the initial trigger.