Calcium Chemistry as A New Member of Post-Lithium Battery Family: What Can We Learn from Sodium and Magnesium Systems.

The development of next-generation battery technologies needs to consider their environmental impact throughout the whole cycle life, which has brought new chemistries based on earth-abundant elements into the spotlight. Rechargeable calcium batteries are such an emerging technology, which shows the potential to provide high cell voltage and high energy density close to lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, the use of Ca as a charge carrier renders significant sustainable values.

Understanding the Cathode-Electrolyte Interfacial Chemistry in Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries.

Rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs) have garnered significant attention due to their potential to provide high energy density, utilize earth-abundant raw materials, and employ metal anode safely. Currently, the lack of applicable cathode materials has become one of the bottleneck issues for fully exploiting the technological advantages of RMBs. Recent studies on Mg cathodes reveal divergent storage performance depending on the electrolyte formulation, posing interfacial issues as a previously overlooked challenge.

Improving rechargeable magnesium batteries through dual cation co-intercalation strategy.

The development of competitive rechargeable Mg batteries is hindered by the poor mobility of divalent Mg ions in cathode host materials. In this work, we explore the dual cation co-intercalation strategy to mitigate the sluggishness of Mg in model TiS material. The strategy involves pairing Mg with Li or Na in dual-salt electrolytes in order to exploit the faster mobility of the latter with the aim to reach better electrochemical performance.

Long Cycle-Life Ca Batteries with Poly(anthraquinonylsulfide) Cathodes and Ca-Sn Alloy Anodes.

Calcium (Ca) batteries are attractive post-lithium battery technologies, due to their potential to provide high-voltage and high-energy systems in a sustainable manner. We investigated herein 1,5-poly(anthraquinonylsulfide) (PAQS) for Ca-ion storage with calcium tetrakis(hexafluoroisopropyloxy)borate Ca[B(hfip) ] [hfip=OCH(CF ) ] electrolytes. It is demonstrated that PAQS could be synthesized in a cost-effective approach and be processed environmentally friendly into the electrodes.

Long-Cycle-Life Calcium Battery with a High-Capacity Conversion Cathode Enabled by a Ca/Li Hybrid Electrolyte.

Calcium (Ca) batteries represent an attractive option for electrochemical energy storage due to physicochemical and economic reasons. The standard reduction potential of Ca (-2.87 V) is close to Li and promises a wide voltage window for Ca full batteries, while the high abundance of Ca in the earth's crust implicates low material costs.

Calcium-tin alloys as anodes for rechargeable non-aqueous calcium-ion batteries at room temperature.

Rechargeable calcium batteries possess attractive features for sustainable energy-storage solutions owing to their high theoretical energy densities, safety aspects and abundant natural resources. However, divalent Ca-ions and reactive Ca metal strongly interact with cathode materials and non-aqueous electrolyte solutions, leading to high charge-transfer barriers at the electrode-electrolyte interface and consequently low electrochemical performance. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility and elucidate the electrochemical properties of calcium-tin (Ca-Sn) alloy anodes for Ca-ion chemistries.

Dual Role of Mo S in Polysulfide Conversion and Shuttle for Mg-S Batteries.

Magnesium-Sulfur batteries are one of most appealing options among the post-lithium battery systems due to its potentially high energy density, safe and sustainable electrode materials. The major practical challenges are originated from the soluble magnesium polysulfide intermediates and their shuttling between the electrodes, which cause high overpotentials, low sulfur utilization, and poor Coulombic efficiency. Herein, a functional Mo S modified separator is designed to effectively address these issues.

Growth and Optical Properties of the Whole System of Li(Mn,Ni)PO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) Single Crystals.

A series of single crystals of Li(Mn,Ni)PO ( = 0.00, 0.01, 0.

New Insight into Desodiation/Sodiation Mechanism of MoS: Sodium Insertion in Amorphous Mo-S Clusters.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS) is a promising anode material for sodium batteries due to its high theoretical capacity. While significantly improved electrochemical performance has been achieved, the reaction mechanism is still equivocal. Herein, we applied electron pair distribution function and X-ray absorption spectroscopy to investigate the desodiation/sodiation mechanism of MoS electrodes.

Modeling of Electron-Transfer Kinetics in Magnesium Electrolytes: Influence of the Solvent on the Battery Performance.

The performance of rechargeable magnesium batteries is strongly dependent on the choice of electrolyte. The desolvation of multivalent cations usually goes along with high energy barriers, which can have a crucial impact on the plating reaction. This can lead to significantly higher overpotentials for magnesium deposition compared to magnesium dissolution.

Surface Engineering of a Mg Electrode via a New Additive to Reduce Overpotential.

In nonaqueous Mg batteries, inactive adsorbed species and the passivation layer formed from the reactive Mg with impurities in the electrolyte seriously affect the Mg metal/electrolyte interface. These adlayers can impede the passage of Mg ions, leading to a high Mg plating/stripping overpotential. Herein, we report the properties of a new additive, bismuth triflate (Bi(OTf)), for synthesizing a chlorine-free Mg electrolyte to enhance Mg plating/stripping from initial cycles.

Establishing a Stable Anode-Electrolyte Interface in Mg Batteries by Electrolyte Additive.

Simple magnesium salts with high electrochemical and chemical stability and adequate ionic conductivity represent a new-generation electrolyte for magnesium (Mg) batteries. Similar to other Mg electrolytes, the simple-salt electrolyte also suffers from high charge-transfer resistance on the Mg surface due to the adsorbed species in the solution. In the current study, we built a model Mg cell system with the Mg[B(hfip)]/DME electrolyte and Chevrel phase MoS cathode, to demonstrate the effect of such anode-electrolyte interfacial properties on the full-cell performance.

A Self-Conditioned Metalloporphyrin as a Highly Stable Cathode for Fast Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries.

Development of practical rechargeable Mg batteries (RMBs) is impeded by their limited cycle life and rate performance of cathodes. As demonstrated herein, a copper-porphyrin with meso-functionalized ethynyl groups is capable of reversible two- and four-electron storage at an extremely fast rate (tested up to 53 C). The reversible four-electron redox process with cationic-anionic contributions resulted in a specific discharge capacity of 155 mAh g at the high current density of 1000 mA g .

Rechargeable Calcium-Sulfur Batteries Enabled by an Efficient Borate-Based Electrolyte.

Rechargeable metal-sulfur batteries show great promise for energy storage applications because of their potentially high energy and low cost. The multivalent-metal based electrochemical system exhibits the particular advantage of the feasibility of dendrite-free metal anode. Calcium (Ca) represents a promising anode material owing to the low reductive potential, high capacity, and abundant natural resources.

Multi-Electron Reactions Enabled by Anion-Based Redox Chemistry for High-Energy Multivalent Rechargeable Batteries.

The development of multivalent metal (such as Mg and Ca) based battery systems is hindered by lack of suitable cathode chemistry that shows reversible multi-electron redox reactions. Cationic redox centres in the classical cathodes can only afford stepwise single-electron transfer, which are not ideal for multivalent-ion storage. The charge imbalance during multivalent ion insertion might lead to an additional kinetic barrier for ion mobility.

Fast kinetics of multivalent intercalation chemistry enabled by solvated magnesium-ions into self-established metallic layered materials.

Rechargeable magnesium batteries are one of the most promising candidates for next-generation battery technologies. Despite recent significant progress in the development of efficient electrolytes, an on-going challenge for realization of rechargeable magnesium batteries remains to overcome the sluggish kinetics caused by the strong interaction between double charged magnesium-ions and the intercalation host. Herein, we report that a magnesium battery chemistry with fast intercalation kinetics in the layered molybdenum disulfide structures can be enabled by using solvated magnesium-ions ([Mg(DME)]).

Surface modification of bacterial cellulose aerogels' web-like skeleton for oil/water separation.

The cellulose nanofibers of bacterial cellulose aerogel (BCA) are modified only on their surfaces using a trimethylsilylation reaction with trimethyichlorosilane in liquid phase followed by freeze-drying. The obtained hydrophobic bacterial cellulose aerogels (HBCAs) exhibit low density (≤6.77 mg/cm(3)), high surface area (≥169.