constructed polymer-layer-modified solid electrolyte enables high-performance all-solid-state batteries.

Side reactions between electrolyte and anode hinder the application of solid-state batteries. Here, a polymer-containing composite solid-state electrolyte (LiPSCl@PCSSE) was obtained through polymerization on LiPSCl. The novel electrolyte was indicated to inhibit side reactions, and the pouch cell showed excellent performance, demonstrating its practical application owing to the employment of LiPSCl@PCSSE.

Defect-Mediated Formation of Oriented Phase Domains in a Lithium-Ion Insertion Electrode.

The performance and robustness of electrodes are closely related to transformation-induced nanoscale structural heterogeneity during (de)lithiation. As a result, it is critical to understand at atomic scale the origin of such structural heterogeneity and ultimately control the transformation microstructure, which remains a formidable task. Here, by performing in situ studies on a model intercalation electrode material, anatase TiO, we reveal that defects─both preexisting and as-formed during lithiation─can mediate the local anisotropic volume expansion direction, resulting in the formation of multiple differently oriented phase domains and eventually a network structure within the lithiated matrix.

Ion-Sieving Separator Functionalized by Natural Mineral Coating toward Ultrastable Zn Metal Anodes.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) exhibit promising prospects in becoming large-scale energy storage systems due to environmental friendliness, high security, and low cost. However, the growth of Zn dendrites and side reactions remain heady obstacles for the practical application of AZIBs. To solve these challenges, a functionalized Janus separator is successfully constructed by coating halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) on glass fiber (GF).

Unlocking Ultrahigh Initial Coulombic Efficiency of MXene Anode via Presodiation and Electrolyte Optimization.

The low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) greatly hinders the practical application of MXenes in sodium-ion batteries. Herein, theoretical calculations confirm that -F and -OH terminations as well as the tetramethylammonium ion (TMA) intercalator in sediment TiCT (s-TiCT) MXene possess strong interaction with Na, which impedes Na desorption during the charging process and results in low ICE. Consequently, Na-intercalated sediment TiCT (Na-s-TiCT) is constructed through NaS·9HO treatment of s-TiCT.

From Liquid to Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries: Fundamental Issues and Recent Developments.

The widespread adoption of lithium-ion batteries has been driven by the proliferation of portable electronic devices and electric vehicles, which have increasingly stringent energy density requirements. Lithium metal batteries (LMBs), with their ultralow reduction potential and high theoretical capacity, are widely regarded as the most promising technical pathway for achieving high energy density batteries. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of fundamental issues related to high reactivity and migrated interfaces in LMBs.

Fast Ionic Conducting Hydroxyapatite Solid Electrolyte Interphase Enables Ultra-Stable Zinc Metal Anodes.

Zn metal has been extensively utilized as an anode in aqueous zinc-ion batteries attributed to its affordable cost and superior theoretical capacity. Nevertheless, the presence of dendrites and undesirable side reactions poses challenges to its widespread commercialization. To address these issues, herein, a surface coating composed of hydroxyapatite (HAP) was developed on the Zn anode to create an artificial solid electrolyte interphase.

Recent Advances and Perspectives of Lewis Acidic Etching Route: An Emerging Preparation Strategy for MXenes.

Since the discovery in 2011, MXenes have become the rising star in the field of two-dimensional materials. Benefiting from the metallic-level conductivity, large and adjustable gallery spacing, low ion diffusion barrier, rich surface chemistry, superior mechanical strength, MXenes exhibit great application prospects in energy storage and conversion, sensors, optoelectronics, electromagnetic interference shielding and biomedicine. Nevertheless, two issues seriously deteriorate the further development of MXenes.

Freestanding and Flexible Interfacial Layer Enables Bottom-Up Zn Deposition Toward Dendrite-Free Aqueous Zn-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous rechargeable zinc ion batteries are regarded as a competitive alternative to lithium-ion batteries because of their distinct advantages of high security, high energy density, low cost, and environmental friendliness. However, deep-seated problems including Zn dendrite and adverse side reactions severely impede the practical application. In this work, we proposed a freestanding Zn-electrolyte interfacial layer composed of multicapsular carbon fibers (MCFs) to regulate the plating/stripping behavior of Zn anodes.

Facile Synthesis of Hybrid Anodes with Enhanced Lithium-Storage Performance Realized by a "Synergistic Effect".

Alloying-type anodes including Si- and Sn-based materials are considered the most exploitable anodes for high-performance lithium-ion batteries. However, problems of poor kinetics properties and structural failures such as grain pulverization and coarsening hinder their large-scale application. Herein, SnO/Si@graphite hybrid anodes, with nano-SnO and nano-Si thoroughly mixed with each other and loaded onto graphite flakes, have been prepared by a facile ball milling method.

Electrochemical Performance Enhancement of Micro-Sized Porous Si by Integrating with Nano-Sn and Carbonaceous Materials.

Silicon is investigated as one of the most prospective anode materials for next generation lithium ion batteries due to its superior theoretical capacity (3580 mAh g), but its commercial application is hindered by its inferior dynamic property and poor cyclic performance. Herein, we presented a facile method for preparing silicon/tin@graphite-amorphous carbon (Si/Sn@G-C) composite through hydrolyzing of SnCl on etched Fe-Si alloys, followed by ball milling mixture and carbon pyrolysis reduction processes. Structural characterization indicates that the nano-Sn decorated porous Si particles are coated by graphite and amorphous carbon.

Dual Immobilization of SnO Nanoparticles by N-Doped Carbon and TiO for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes.

The grain aggregation engendered kinetics failure is regarded as the main reason for the electrochemical decay of nanosized anode materials. Herein, we proposed a dual immobilization strategy to suppress the migration and aggregation of SnO nanoparticles and corresponding lithiation products through constructing SnO/TiO@PC composites. The N-doped carbon could anchor the tin oxide particles and inhibit their aggregation during the preparation process, leading to a uniform distribution of ultrafine SnO nanoparticles in the matrix.

Rational Design of an Electron/Ion Dual-Conductive Cathode Framework for High-Performance All-Solid-State Lithium Batteries.

All-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) have been paid increasing attention because of the better security compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries with flammable organic electrolytes. However, the poor ion transport between the cathode materials greatly hinders the capacity performance of ASSLBs. Herein, an electron/ion dual-conductive electrode framework is proposed for superior performance ASSLBs.

Recent advances in MXenes and their composites in lithium/sodium batteries from the viewpoints of components and interlayer engineering.

Since their discovery in 2011, MXenes have attracted considerable interest in the fields of energy storage due to their unique combination of properties, such as metallic conductivity, hydrophilic nature, large interlayer spacing, and rich surface chemistries. Although there have been extensive reports on MXenes, the most distinguishing features of MXenes have been ignored, namely larger, adjustable interlayer spacing and rich surface chemistry (adsorbed functional groups on the surface and surface electronegativity), which make MXenes different from other two-dimensional materials. By changing the type of active materials, substituting graphene with MXenes to prepare MXene-based composites in a sequential manner is easy, which does not make much sense for the development of MXenes.

Partial Atomic Tin Nanocomplex Pillared Few-Layered TiCT MXenes for Superior Lithium-Ion Storage.

MXenes have attracted great interest in various fields, and pillared MXenes open a new path with larger interlayer spacing. However, the further study of pillared MXenes is blocked at multilayered state due to serious restacking phenomenon of few-layered MXene nanosheets. In this work, for the first time, we designed a facile NH method to fundamentally solve the restacking issues of MXene nanosheets and succeeded in achieving pillared few-layered MXene.

Flowerlike Ti-Doped MoO Conductive Anode Fabricated by a Novel NiTi Dealloying Method: Greatly Enhanced Reversibility of the Conversion and Intercalation Reaction.

Anodes made of molybdenum trioxide (MoO) suffer from insufficient conductivity and low catalytic reactivity. Here, we demonstrate that by using a dealloying method, we were able to fabricate anode of Ti-doped MoO (Ti-MoO), which exhibits high catalytic reactivity, along with enhanced rate performance and cycling stability. We found that after doping, interestingly, the Ti-MoO forms nanosheets and assembles into a micrometer-sized flowerlike morphology with enhanced interlayer distance.

Fast and Universal Solution-Phase Flocculation Strategy for Scalable Synthesis of Various Few-Layered MXene Powders.

MXenes have gained great attention in various fields because of their fascinating properties; however, the preparation of few-layered MXene powders is still limited by serious restacking of MXene nanosheets. Herein, for the first time, we have demonstrated an effective ammonium ion route to fundamentally address restacking and aggregation of the MXene nanosheets, using a solution-phase flocculation method (NH method and modified NH method) for large-scale preparation of few-layered TiCT MXene powders in large quantities. The as-prepared few-layered MXene nanosheet powders show large size in the plane without the restacking phenomenon even at scanning electron microscopy measurements of 400× magnification, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Rational Design of Porous N-TiC MXene@CNT Microspheres for High Cycling Stability in Li-S Battery.

Herein, N-TiC@CNT microspheres are successfully synthesized by the simple spray drying method. In the preparation process, HCl-treated melamine (HTM) is selected as the sources of carbon and nitrogen. It not only realizes in situ growth of CNTs on the surface of MXene nanosheets with the catalysis of Ni, but also introduces efficient N-doping in both MXene and CNTs.

Novel Synthesis of Red Phosphorus Nanodot/TiCT MXenes from Low-Cost TiSiC MAX Phases for Superior Lithium- and Sodium-Ion Batteries.

MXenes, synthesized from MAX, have emerged as new energy-storage materials for a good combination of metallic conductivity and rich surface chemistry. The reported MXenes are synthesized mostly from Al-based MAX. It is still a big challenge to synthesize MXenes from abundant Si-based MAX because of its strong Ti-Si bonds.

Vapor Deposition Red Phosphorus to Prepare Nitrogen-Doped TiCT MXenes Composites for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

MXenes have great application prospect in energy storage fields due to a series of special physicochemical properties. However, the application of MXenes is greatly limited due to low intrinsic capacity. Here, through spray drying and vapor deposition methods, N-doped TiCT and phosphorus composites (N-TiCT/P) were prepared for the first time.

A New Intermetallic NiSn Phase: Induced Synthesis, Crystal Structure Resolution, and Investigation of Its Mechanism.

Benefiting from the nanoscale effect, some metastable compounds can be synthesized in nanoparticles under normal conditions. The new intermetallic NiSn phase is synthesized by us for the first time by using a seed crystal induction method. This tetragonal phase in the P4/ mcc space group has stoichiometric Ni atom defects, yielding NiSn.

New, Effective, and Low-Cost Dual-Functional Binder for Porous Silicon Anodes in Lithium-Ion Batteries.

In this work, a new effective and low-cost binder applied in porous silicon anode is designed through blending of low-cost poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(ethylene- co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) latex (PAA/EVA) to avoid pulverization of electrodes and loss of electronic contact because of huge volume changes during repeated charge/discharge cycles. PAA with a large number of carboxyl groups offers strong binding strength among porous silicon particles. EVA with high elastic property enhances the ductility of the PAA/EVA binder.

Facile Synthesis of rGO/g-CN/CNT Microspheres via an Ethanol-Assisted Spray-Drying Method for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

rGO/g-CN and rGO/g-CN/CNT microspheres are synthesized through the simple ethanol-assisted spray-drying method. The ethanol, as the additive, changes the structure of the rGO/g-CN or rGO/g-CN/CNT composite from sheet clusters to regular microspheres. In the microspheres, the pores formed by reduced graphene oxide (rGO), g-CN, and carbon nanotube (CNT) stacking provide physical confinement for lithium polysulfides (LiPSs).

Ultra-stable binder-free rechargeable Li/I batteries enabled by "Betadine" chemical interaction.

An activated carbon cloth/polymer-iodine (ACC/PVP-I2) composite was prepared by the "Betadine" method and employed as a high-performance cathode for rechargeable Li/I2 batteries. Due to the synergistic effect of ACC and PVP-I2, Li/I2 cells with ACC/PVP-I2 as the cathode exhibited superior electrochemical performance.

Polyiodide-Shuttle Restricting Polymer Cathode for Rechargeable Lithium/Iodine Battery with Ultralong Cycle Life.

Rechargeable lithium/iodine (Li/I) batteries have attracted much attention because of their high gravimetric/volumetric energy densities, natural abundance and low cost. However, problems of the system, such as highly unstable iodine species under high temperature, their subsequent dissolution in electrolyte and continually reacting with lithium anode prevent the practical use of rechargeable Li/I cells. A polymer-iodine composite (polyvinylpyrrolidone-iodine) with high thermostability is employed as cathode material in rechargeable Li/I battery with an organic electrolyte.