Various polytypes of van der Waals (vdW) materials can be formed by sulfur and tin, which exhibit distinctive and complementary electronic properties. Hence, these materials are attractive candidates for the design of multifunctional devices. This work demonstrates direct selective growth of tin sulfides by laser irradiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRedox flow batteries (RFBs) are a prospective energy storage platform to mitigate the discrepancy between barely adjustable energy production and fluctuating demand. The energy density and affordability of RFBs can be improved significantly through the transition from aqueous systems to non-aqueous (NAq) due to their wider electrochemical stability window and better solubility of active species. However, the NAqRFBs suffer from a lack of effective membranes with high ionic conductivity (IC), selectivity (low permeability), and stability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAll-solid-state batteries primarily focus on macrocrystalline solid electrolyte/cathode interfaces, and little is explored on the growth and stability of nanograined Li-garnet and cathode ones. In this work, a thin (∼500 nm) film of LiCoO (LCO) has been grown on top of the polycrystalline layer of Ta-doped LiLaZrO (Ta-LLZO) solid electrolyte using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Scanning transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and electron tomography demonstrated that the LCO film is formed by columnar elements with the shape of inverted cones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrospinning is a well-established method for the fabrication of polymer biomaterials, including those with core-shell nanofibers. The variability of structures presents a great range of opportunities in tissue engineering and drug delivery by incorporating biologically active molecules such as drugs, proteins, and growth factors and subsequent control of their release into the target microenvironment to achieve therapeutic effect. The object of study is non-woven core-shell PVA-PEG-SiO@PVA-GO fiber mats assembled by the technology of coaxial electrospinning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLi-ion battery performance and life cycle strongly depend on a passivation layer called solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI). Its structure and composition are studied in great details, while its formation process remains elusive due to difficulty of in situ measurements of battery electrodes. Here we provide a facile methodology for in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements of SEI formation on cross-sectioned composite battery electrodes allowing for direct observations of SEI formation on various types of carbonaceous negative electrode materials for Li-ion batteries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSuccessful direct route production of silicon nanostructures from diatomaceous earth (DE) on a single crystalline silicon wafer via the magnesiothermic reduction reaction is reported. The formed porous coating of 6 µm overall thickness contains silicon as the majority phase along with minor traces of Mg, as evident from SEM-EDS and the Focused Ion Beam (FIB) analysis. Raman peaks of silicon at 519 cm and 925 cm were found in both the film and wafer substrate, and significant intensity variation was observed, consistent with the SEM observation of the directly formed silicon nanoflake layer.
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