A stable liquid-solid interface of a lithium metal anode enabled by micro-region meshing.

Although lithium metal is regarded as the most promising anode for high energy density lithium ion batteries, the unstable solid-liquid interface during cycling severely shortens the battery lifetime. The Li deposition behavior is greatly influenced by the current density distribution on the surface of the electrode, which is significantly associated with the electrode structure. A well-designed electrode structure plays a key role in stabilizing the solid-liquid interface of the Li metal anode.

An amorphous hierarchical MnO/acetylene black composite with boosted rate performance as an anode for lithium-ion batteries.

Amorphization is considered to be an effective way to enhance the electrochemical performances of electrode materials due to the existence of isotropy and numerous defects. Herein, an amorphous hierarchically structured MnO/acetylene black (a-MnO/AB) composite is successfully fabricated via a redox method and subsequent mechanical ball milling. The a-MnO/AB composite is composed of approximately 300 nm flower-like amorphous MnO submicron spheres and acetylene black particles with a diameter of about 50 nm.

Petal-like metal-organic framework stabilized Si@C with long cycle life and excellent kinetics.

Poor electrochemical kinetics caused by the unstable structure for the dramatically volumetric expansion (>300%) hinders the application of silicon in rechargeable lithium ion batteries. Si@C-Ni-MOF composites with petal-like Ni-MOFs as the skeleton and Si@C nanoparticles as the active center were synthesized via facile solvothermal process. The resulting Ni-MOF-Si@C material maintains admirable stability on cycling, and its capacity remains 1545.

TiO quantum dots confined in 3D carbon framework for outstanding surface lithium storage with improved kinetics.

Pseudocapacitive lithium storage is an effective way to promote the improvement of electrochemical performance for lithium ion batteries. However, the intrinsically sluggish lithium ionic diffusion and the low electronic conductivity of TiO limit its capability of pseudocapacitive behavior with fast surface redox reaction. In this work, TiO quantum dots confined in 3-dimensional carbon framework have been synthesized by a facile process of reverse microemulsion method combined with heat treatment.

Highly compacted TiO/C micospheres via in-situ surface-confined intergrowth with ultra-long life for reversible Na-ion storage.

TiO as the promising anode material candidate of sodium-ion battery suffers from poor conductivity and slow ion diffusion rate, which severely hampers its development. Highly compacted TiO/C microspheres without inner pores/tunnels are synthesized by a very facile one-pot rapid processing method based on novel in-situ surface-confined inter-growth mechanism. This highly compacted TiO/C microspheres exhibit an excellent electrochemical performance of reversible Na storage despite with relatively large particle/aggregation size from submicrometer to micrometer.

Microsized Porous SiO@C Composites Synthesized through Aluminothermic Reduction from Rice Husks and Used as Anode for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Microsized porous SiO@C composites used as anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are synthesized from rice husks (RHs) through low-temperature (700 °C) aluminothermic reduction. The resulting SiO@C composite shows mesoporous irregular particle morphology with a high specific surface area of 597.06 m/g under the optimized reduction time.

In-situ Liquid Phase Epitaxy: Another Strategy to Synthesize Heterostructured Core-shell Composites.

Core-shell Nb2O5/TiO2 composite with hierarchical heterostructure is successfully synthesized In-situ by a facile template-free and acid-free solvothermal method based on the mechanism of liquid phase epitaxy. The chemical circumstance change induced by the alcoholysis of NbCl5 is utilized tactically to trigger core-shell assembling In-situ. The tentative mechanism for the self-assembling of core-shell structure and hierarchical structure is explored.