Publications by authors named "Xiaofan Du"

Article Synopsis
  • Safety issues and dendrite growth have slowed down the development of lithium-metal batteries (LMBs), but a new deep-eutectic-polymer electrolyte with thermal shutdown capabilities shows promise.
  • This electrolyte uses methylcellulose to create dense polymer networks at high temperatures, which helps solidify the electrolyte and halts dangerous electrochemical reactions.
  • Tests show that this electrolyte raises the self-heating temperature of batteries significantly and allows them to maintain high capacity over many charge cycles, suggesting an improvement in both safety and performance for LMBs.
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Owing to the ionic bond nature of the Pb-I bond, the iodide at the interface of perovskite polycrystalline films was easily lost during the preparation process, resulting in the formation of a large number of iodine vacancy defects. The presence of iodine vacancy defects can cause nonradiative recombination, provide a pathway for iodide migration, and be harmful to the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (HPSCs). Here, in order to increase the robustness of iodides at the interface, a strategy to introduce anion binding effects was developed to stabilize the perovskite films.

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Seawater electrolysis to generate hydrogen offers a clean, green, and sustainable solution for new energy. However, the catalytic activity and durability of anodic catalysts are plagued by the corrosion and competitive oxidation reactions of chloride in high concentrations. In this study, we find that the additive CrO anions in the electrolyte can not only promote the formation and stabilization of the metal oxyhydroxide active phase but also greatly mitigate the adverse effect of Cl on the anode.

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Aqueous sodium-ion batteries are known for poor rechargeability because of the competitive water decomposition reactions and the high electrode solubility. Improvements have been reported by salt-concentrated and organic-hybridized electrolyte designs, however, at the expense of cost and safety. Here, we report the prolonged cycling of ASIBs in routine dilute electrolytes by employing artificial electrode coatings consisting of NaX zeolite and NaOH-neutralized perfluorinated sulfonic polymer.

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Background And Aims: Exposure to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) has been widely confirmed to impair the normal functioning of the human body system. However, there is a paucity of study on the effects of serum BFRs on bone mineral density (BMD). This study aims to investigate the relationship between exposure to BFRs and BMD in a nationally representative sample of U.

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Nanosecond pulsed laser induced photoporation has gained increasing attention from scholars as an effective method for delivering the membrane-impermeable extracellular materials into living cells. Compared with femtosecond laser, nanosecond laser has the advantage of high throughput and low costs. It also has a higher delivery efficiency than continuous wave laser.

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Li-SOCl batteries possess ultrahigh energy densities and superior safety features at a wide range of operating temperatures. However, the Li-SOCl battery system suffers from poor reversibility due to the sluggish kinetics of SOCl reduction during discharging and the oxidation of the insulating discharge products during charging. To achieve a high-power rechargeable Li-SOCl battery, herein we introduce the molecular catalyst I into the electrolyte to tailor the charging and discharging reaction pathways.

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Hydrogel electrolytes hold great promise in developing flexible and safe batteries, but the presence of free solvent water makes battery chemistries constrained by H evolution and electrode dissolution. Although maximizing salt concentration is recognized as an effective strategy to reduce water activity, the protic polymer matrices in classical hydrogels are occupied with hydrogen-bonding and barely involved in the salt dissolution, which sets limitations on realizing stable salt-concentrated environments before polymer-salt phase separation occurs. Inspired by the role of protein methylation in regulating intracellular phase separation, here we transform the "inert" protic polymer skeletons into aprotic ones through methylation modification to weaken the hydrogen-bonding, which releases free hydrogen bond acceptors as Lewis base sites to participate in cation solvation and thus assist salt dissolution.

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Significance: Resealing time based loading efficiency of optoporation is the key parameter for drug or gene delivery. This work describes a comparatively simple optical approach to directly measure the cell membrane resealing time of the gold nanoparticle mediated photoporation.

Aim: To establish a membrane potential detection optical system, which can provide a direct measurement of resealing time of the optoporated cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • Lithium difluoro(oxalato) borate (LiDFOB) is a popular choice for lithium-ion batteries due to its thermal stability and aluminum protection, but it often decomposes and produces harmful gases like CO.
  • A new lithium borate salt, lithium difluoro(1,2-dihydroxyethane-1,1,2,2-tetracarbonitrile) borate (LiDFTCB), has been created to improve resistance to oxidation and reduce gas production.
  • Using LiDFTCB as an electrolyte significantly enhances the battery performance, allowing for better capacity retention over many cycles while forming strong protective layers at the electrodes, highlighting the benefits of cyano-functionalized anions for
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COVID-19 vaccination is effective for cancer patients without safety concerns. However, COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy is common among cancer patients. This study investigated factors affecting primary COVID-19 vaccination series completion rate among cancer patients in China.

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The Germanium (Ge), as a fast-charging and high specific capacity (1568 mAh g ) alloy anode, is greatly hampered in practical application by poor cyclability. To date, the understanding of cycling performance degradation remains elusive. This study illustrates that, contrary to conventional beliefs, most of the Ge material in failed anodes still retains good integrity and does not undergo severe pulverization.

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Dual-ion batteries involving anion intercalation into graphite cathodes represent promising battery technologies for low-cost and high-power energy storage. However, the fundamental origins regarding much lower capacities of graphite cathodes in earth abundant and inexpensive multivalent electrolytes than in Li-ion electrolytes remain elusive. Herein, we reveal that the limited anion-storage capacity of a graphite cathode in multivalent electrolytes is rooted in the abnormal multivalent-cation co-intercalation with anions in the form of large-sized anionic complexes.

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In lithium-metal batteries (LMBs), the compatibility of Li anode and conventional lithium hexafluorophosphate-(LiPF ) carbonate electrolyte is poor owing to the severe parasitic reactions. Herein, to resolve this issue, a delicately designed additive of potassium perfluoropinacolatoborate (KFPB) is unprecedentedly synthesized. On the one hand, KFPB additive can regulate the solvation structure of the carbonate electrolyte, promoting the formation of Li FPB and K PF ion pairs with lower lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels.

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Magnesium (Mg) metal secondary batteries have attracted much attention for their high safety and high energy density characteristics. However, the significant issues of the cathode/electrolyte interphase (CEI) in Mg batteries are still being ignored. In this work, a significant CEI layer on the typical Mo S cathode surface has been unprecedentedly constructed through the oxidation of the chloride-free magnesium tetrakis(hexafluoroisopropyloxy)borate (Mg[B(hfip) ] ) salt under a proper charge cut-off voltage condition.

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The interfacial chemistry during plating/stripping between electrolytes with different concentrations and Li metal is firstly visualized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and simulated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It is verified that different Li-solvent interaction evolutions at interfaces during the Li stripping and plating processes result in different interfacial stability. This work uncovers the critical role of Li-solvent interaction evolution for the stability of the interface between the solvent and Li metal anode.

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Metal-cation defects and halogen-anion defects in perovskite films are critical to the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this work, a random polymer, poly(methyl methacrylate-co-acrylamide) (PMMA-AM), was synthesized to serve as an interfacial passivation layer for synergistically passivating the under-coordinated Pb and anchor the I of the [PbI ] octahedron. Additionally, the interfacial PMMA-AM passivation layer cannot be destroyed during the hole transport layer deposition because of its low solubility in chlorobenzene.

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Herein, we report the metal-free synthesis of imidized methylene cyclobutane derivatives via a strain-release driven addition reaction of [1.1.1]propellane.

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Aqueous sodium batteries are one of the awaited technologies for large-scale energy storage, but remain poorly rechargeable because of the reactivity issues of water. Here, we present a hydrated eutectic electrolyte featuring a water-locked effect, which is exceptional in that the O-H bond of water is essentially strengthened via weak hydrogen bonding (relative to the original HO-HO hydrogen bonds) to low-donor-number anions and ligands. Even without interphase protection, both the anodic and cathodic water electrodecomposition reactions are delayed, extending the aqueous potential window to 3.

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Background: Gut microbiota plays an important role in the development of atopic dermatitis (AD). We aimed to elucidate research trends in gut microbiota and AD in children, to provide evidence and insights to the clinical prevention and treatment of AD in children.

Methods: A scoping literature review on the studies of gut microbiota and AD were conducted.

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High-voltage sodium metal batteries are a highly intriguing battery technology in view of their resource sustainability, cost efficiency, and ultrahigh energy density. However, developing a high-performance electrolyte, compatible with both high-voltage cathodes and highly reactive sodium metal anodes, is extremely challenging. In this work, we delicately formulate a ternary phosphate electrolyte, composing of a cost-effective sodium bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl) imide salt, a nonflammable triethyl phosphate (TEP) solvent, and a fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) co-solvent.

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Graphitic carbon that allows reversible anion (de)intercalation is a promising cathode material for cost-efficient and high-voltage dual-ion batteries (DIBs). However, one notorious but overlooked issue is the incomplete interfacial anion desolvation, which not only reduces the oxidative stability of electrolytes, but also results in solvent co-intercalation into graphite layers. Here, an "anion-permselective" polymer electrolyte with abundant cationic quaternary ammonium motif is developed to weaken the PF -solvent interaction and thus facilitates PF desolvation.

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In solution-processed organic-inorganic halide perovskite films, halide-anion related defects including halide vacancies and interstitial defects can easily form at the surfaces and grain boundaries. The uncoordinated lead cations produce defect levels within the band gap, and the excess iodides disturb the interfacial carrier transport. Thus these defects lead to severe nonradiative recombination, hysteresis, and large energy loss in the device.

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Solid-state zinc (Zn) batteries offer a new candidate for emerging applications sensitive to volume, safety and cost. However, current solid polymeric or ceramic electrolyte structures remain poorly conductive for the divalent Zn , especially at room temperature. Constructing a heterogeneous interface which allows Zn percolation is a viable option, but this is rarely involved in multivalent systems.

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Delivering extracellular materials into adherent cells presents several challenges. A homemade photoporation platform, mediated by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), was constructed to find a suitable method for finding all adherent cells in this process with high delivery efficiency. The thermal dynamics of AuNPs could be monitored.

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