Unification of insertion and supercapacitive storage concepts: Storage profiles in titania.

Insertion storage in battery electrodes and supercapacitive storage are typically considered to be independent phenomena and thus are dealt with in separate scientific communities. Using tailored experiments on titanium oxide thin films of various thicknesses, we demonstrate the simultaneous occurrence of both processes. For the interpretation of the entire storage profile encompassing both contributions, the (free) energies of the charge carriers in the mixed conductor and the neighboring phase are the only materials parameters required.

Enhanced ion transport in LiO and LiS films.

Films of LiO and LiS grown by sputter deposition exhibit Li conductivity values at room temperature which are enhanced by 3-4 orders of magnitude relative to bulk samples. Possible mechanisms are discussed. The results may help explain the ion transport pathway through passivation layers containing these chalcogenides in batteries.

Guidelines for optimizing the architecture of battery insertion electrodes based on the concept of wiring lengths.

The kinetics of storing mass in a battery electrode are typically limited by slow diffusion in storage particles. The diffusion timescale can be made faster by decreasing the size of the particles, but then it becomes more difficult to efficiently contact each particle with ionic and electronic current collectors, e.g.

Platinum-decorated carbon nanotubes for hydrogen oxidation and proton reduction in solid acid electrochemical cells.

Pt-decorated carbon nanotubes (Pt-CNTs) were used to enhance proton reduction and hydrogen evolution in solid acid electrochemical cells based on the proton-conducting electrolyte CsHPO. The carbon nanotubes served as interconnects to the current collector and as a platform for interaction between the Pt and CsHPO, ensuring minimal catalyst isolation and a large number density of active sites. Particle size matching was achieved by using electrospray deposition to form sub-micron to nanometric CsHPO.