Electrolyte Regulation of Bio-Inspired Zincophilic Additive toward High-Performance Dendrite-Free Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries hold attractive potential for large-scale energy storage devices owing to their prominent electrochemical performance and high security. Nevertheless, the applications of aqueous electrolytes have generated various challenges, including uncontrolled dendrite growth and parasitic reactions, thereby deteriorating the Zn anode's stability. Herein, inspired by the superior affinity between Zn and amino acid chains in the zinc finger protein, a cost-effective and green glycine additive is incorporated into aqueous electrolytes to stabilize the Zn anode.

Controlling the quantity of γ-Fe inside multiwall carbon nano-onions: the key role of sulfur.

One of the most interesting structural features of multiwall carbon onions (MWCNOs) and nanotubes (MWCNTs) is the excellent chemical stability, which allows encapsulation of chosen magnetic materials of interest and multifunctional applications. In this letter, we present an innovative chemical vapour synthesis (CVS) approach, in which the inclusion of small quantities of sulfur during the pyrolysis of ferrocene/dichlorobenzene mixtures allows for an important control in the relative abundance of FCC γ-Fe, up to a maximum value of ∼86.5% (structural- and phase-control).

Construction of Bio-inspired Film with Engineered Hydrophobicity to Boost Interfacial Reaction Kinetics of Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries typically suffer from sluggish interfacial reaction kinetics and drastic cathode dissolution owing to the desolvation process of hydrated Zn and continual adsorption/desorption behavior of water molecules, respectively. To address these obstacles, a bio-inspired approach, which exploits the moderate metabolic energy of cell systems and the amphiphilic nature of plasma membranes, is employed to construct a bio-inspired hydrophobic conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) film decorating α-MnO cathode. Like plasma membranes, the bio-inspired film can "selectively" boost Zn migration with a lower energy barrier and maintain the integrity of the entire cathode.

High-Efficiency Non-Fullerene Acceptors Developed by Machine Learning and Quantum Chemistry.

Y6 and its derivatives have greatly improved the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics (OPVs). Further developing high-performance Y6 derivative acceptor materials through the relationship between the chemical structures and properties of these materials will help accelerate the development of OPV. Here, machine learning and quantum chemistry are used to understand the structure-property relationships and develop new OPV acceptor materials.

Tuning the carrier type and density of monolayer tin selenide via organic molecular doping.

Utilizing first-principles calculations, charge transfer doping process of single layer tin selenide (SL-SnSe) via the surface adsorption of various organic molecules was investigated. Effective p-type SnSe, with carrier concentration exceeding 3.59 × 10 cm, was obtained upon adsorption of tetracyanoquinodimethane or 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyano-quinodimethane on SL-SnSe due to their lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals acting as shallow acceptor states.

Artificial Intelligence Designer for Highly-Efficient Organic Photovoltaic Materials.

Designing efficient organic photovoltaic (OPV) materials purposefully is still challenging and time-consuming. It is of paramount importance in material development to identify basic functional units that play the key roles in material performance and subsequently establish the substructure-property relationship. Herein, we describe an automatic design framework based on an in-house designed La FREMD Fingerprint and machine learning (ML) algorithms for highly efficient OPV donor molecules.

Vacancy-induced interfacial ferromagnetic features in SmFeO-filled graphitic carbon foam.

We report a novel structural and magnetic investigation of carbon foam (CFM) materials filled with SmFeO crystals produced by (1) high temperature fusion between SmO- and FeC-filled carbon onions and (2) annealing of iron filled CFM with nanosized SmO. Presence of a defect-rich monolayer-like CFM arrangement characterized by sharp interfaces with a SmFeO single-crystal phase is demonstrated through TEM and HRTEM. Further, the presence of intense sp-rich features with variable carbonate content is evidenced by XPS and Raman spectroscopy.