Ultrasmall α-MnO with Low Aspect Ratio: Applications to Electrochemical Multivalent-Ion Intercalation Hosts and Aerobic Oxidation Catalysts.

Hollandite-type α-MnO exhibits exceptional promise in current industrial applications and in advancing next-generation green energy technologies, such as multivalent (Mg, Ca, and Zn) ion battery cathodes and aerobic oxidation catalysts. Considering the slow diffusion of multivalent cations within α-MnO tunnels and the catalytic activity at edge surfaces, ultrasmall α-MnO particles with a lower aspect ratio are expected to unlock the full potential. In this study, ultrasmall α-MnO (<10 nm) with a low aspect ratio (c/a ≈ 2) is synthesized using a newly developed alcohol solution process.

Redox-Mediated Pyrene Electrolytes for Enhancing the Reversibility of Vertically Arranged Tin Electrodes in Seawater Batteries.

Seawater batteries (SWBs) have emerged as a next-generation battery technology that does not rely on lithium, a limited resource essential for lithium-ion batteries. Instead, SWBs utilize abundant sodium from seawater, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional battery technologies. Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of achieving high energy densities in SWB anodes using vertically aligned electrodes.

Revisiting Intercalation Anode Materials for Potassium-Ion Batteries.

Potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) have attracted significant attention in recent years as a result of the urgent necessity to develop sustainable, low-cost batteries based on non-critical raw materials that are competitive with market-available lithium-ion batteries. KIBs are excellent candidates, as they offer the possibility of providing high power and energy densities due to their faster K diffusion and very close reduction potential compared with Li/Li. However, research on KIBs is still in its infancy, and hence, more investigation is required both at the materials level and at the device level.

Discovery and Characterization of a Metastable Cubic Interstitial Nickel-Carbon System with an Expanded Lattice.

Metastable, , kinetically favored but thermodynamically not stable, interstitial solid solutions of carbon in iron are well-understood. Carbon can occupy the interstitial atoms of the host metal, altering its properties. Alloying of the host metal results in the stabilization of the FeC phases, widening its application.

Low-Temperature Lithium Metal Batteries Achieved by Synergistically Enhanced Screening Li Desolvation Kinetics.

Lithium metal anode is desired by high capacity and low potential toward higher energy density than commercial graphite anode. However, the low-temperature Li metal batteries suffer from dendrite formation and dead Li resulting from uneven Li behaviors of flux with huge desolvation/diffusion barriers, thus leading to short lifespan and safety concern. Herein, differing from electrolyte engineering, a strategy of delocalizing electrons with generating rich active sites to regulate Li desolvation/diffusion behaviors are demonstrated via decorating polar chemical groups on porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).

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.

Slow Voltage Relaxation of Silicon Nanoparticles with a Chemo-Mechanical Core-Shell Model.

Silicon presents itself as a high-capacity anode material for lithium-ion batteries with a promising future. The high ability for lithiation comes along with massive volume changes and a problematic voltage hysteresis, causing reduced efficiency, detrimental heat generation, and a complicated state-of-charge estimation. During slow cycling, amorphous silicon nanoparticles show a larger voltage hysteresis than after relaxation periods.

Printed High-Entropy Prussian Blue Analogs for Advanced Non-Volatile Memristive Devices.

Non-volatile memristors dynamically switch between high (HRS) and low resistance states (LRS) in response to electrical stimuli, essential for electronic memories, neuromorphic computing, and artificial intelligence. High-entropy Prussian blue analogs (HE-PBAs) are promising insertion-type battery materials due to their diverse composition, high structural integrity, and favorable ionic conductivity. This work proposes a non-volatile, bipolar memristor based on HE-PBA.

Influence of Chloride and Electrolyte Stability on Passivation Layer Evolution at the Negative Electrode of Mg Batteries Revealed by operando EQCM-D.

Rechargeable magnesium batteries are promising for future energy storage. However, among other challenges, their practical application is hindered by low coulombic efficiencies of magnesium plating and stripping. Fundamental processes such as the formation, structure, and stability of passivation layers and the influence of different electrolyte components on them are still not fully understood.

Scalable Li-Ion Battery with Metal/Metal Oxide Sulfur Cathode and Lithiated Silicon Oxide/Carbon Anode.

A Li-ion battery combines a cathode benefitting from Sn and MnO with high sulfur content, and a lithiated anode including fumed silica, few layer graphene (FLG) and amorphous carbon. This battery is considered a scalable version of the system based on lithium-sulfur (Li-S) conversion, since it exploits at the anode the Li-ion electrochemistry instead of Li-metal stripping/deposition. Sn and MnO are used as cathode additives to improve the electrochemical process, increase sulfur utilization, while mitigating the polysulfides loss typical of Li-S devices.

Metal-Free Polymer-Based Current Collector for High Energy Density Lithium-Metal Batteries.

The energy density of lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) relies substantially on the thickness of the lithium-metal anode. However, a bare, thin lithium foil electrode is vulnerable to fragmentation due to the inhomogeneity of the lithium stripping/plating process, disrupting the electron conduction pathway along the electrode. Accordingly, the current collector is an integral part to prevent the resulting loss of electronic conductivity.

Overcoming Ion Trapping in Chevrel Phase Compounds via Tailored Anion Substitution: An Integrated Study of Theory, Synthesis, and In Operando Techniques for Reversible Aqueous Zn-Ion Batteries.

Sustainable batteries are key for powering electronic devices of the future, with aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) standing out for their use of abundant, readily available elements, and safer production processes. Among the various electrode materials studied for AZIBs, the Chevrel Phase, MoS has shown promise due to its open framework, but issues with zinc ion trapping have limited its practical application. In this work, we employed computational methods to investigate the insertion-deinsertion mechanism in a series of isostructural MoSSe ( = 0-8) solid solutions as materials that could balance the gravimetric capacity and reversible cycling for AZIBs.

Recent Advances in Electrolytes for Magnesium Batteries: Bridging the gap between Chemistry and Electrochemistry.

Rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs) have the potential to provide a sustainable and long-term solution for large-scale energy storage due to high theoretical capacity of magnesium (Mg) metal as an anode, its competitive redox potential (Mg/Mg:-2.37 V vs. SHE) and high natural abundance.

Gel Polymer Electrolyte Enables Low-Temperature and High-Rate Lithium-Ion Batteries via Bionic Interface Design.

Traditional ethylene carbonate (EC)-based electrolytes constrain the applications of silicon carbon (Si-C) anodes under fast-charging and low-temperature conditions due to sluggish Li migration kinetics and unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). Herein, inspired by the efficient water purification and soil stabilization of aquatic plants, a stable SEI with a 3D desolvation interface is designed with gel polymer electrolyte (GPE), accelerating Li desolvation and migration at the interface and within stable SEI. As demonstrated by theoretical simulations and experiment results, the resulting poly(1,3-dioxolane) (PDOL), prepared by in situ ring-opening polymerization of 1,3-dioxolane (DOL), creates a 3D desolvation area, improving the Li desolvation at the interface and yielding an amorphous GPE with a high Li ionic conductivity (5.

Nanosized Chevrel phases for dendrite-free zinc-ion based energy storage: unraveling the phase transformations.

The nanoscale form of the Chevrel phase, MoS, is demonstrated to be a highly efficient zinc-free anode in aqueous zinc ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZIHSCs). The unique morphological characteristics of the material when its dimensions approach the nanoscale result in fast zinc intercalation kinetics that surpass the ion transport rate reported for some of the most promising materials, such as TiS and TiSe. Raman spectroscopy, post-mortem X-ray diffraction, Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were combined to understand the overall mechanism of the zinc ion (de)intercalation process.

K-Doping Suppresses Oxygen Redox in P2-NaNiCuMnO Cathode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

In P2-type layered oxide cathodes, Na site-regulation strategies are proposed to modulate the Na distribution and structural stability. However, their impact on the oxygen redox reactions remains poorly understood. Herein, the incorporation of K in the Na layer of NaNiCuMnO is successfully applied.

Engineering of Aromatic Naphthalene and Solvent Molecules to Optimize Chemical Prelithiation for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

A cost-effective chemical prelithiation solution, which consists of Li, polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), and solvent, is developed for a model hard carbon (HC) electrode. Naphthalene and methyl-substituted naphthalene PAHs, namely 2-methylnaphthalene and 1-methylnaphthalene, are first compared. Grafting an electron-donating methyl group onto the benzene ring can decrease electron affinity and thus reduce the redox potential, which is validated by density functional theory calculations.

Porous Azatruxene Covalent Organic Frameworks for Anion Insertion in Battery Cells.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) containing well-defined redox-active groups have become competitive materials for next-generation batteries. Although high potentials and rate performance can be expected, only a few examples of p-type COFs have been reported for charge storage to date with even fewer examples on the use of COFs in multivalent ion batteries. Herein, we report the synthesis of a p-type highly porous and crystalline azatruxene-based COF and its application as a positive electrode material in Li- and Mg-based batteries.

Capacity Degradation of Zero-Excess All-Solid-State Li Metal Batteries Using a Poly(ethylene oxide) Based Solid Electrolyte.

Solid-state polymer electrolytes (SPEs), such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), have good flexibility when compared to ceramic-type solid electrolytes. Therefore, it could be an ideal solid electrolyte for zero-excess all-solid-state Li metal battery (ZESSLB), also known as anode-free all-solid-state Li battery, development by offering better contact to the Cu current collector. However, the low Coulombic efficiencies observed from polymer type solid-state Li batteries (SSLBs) raise the concern that PEO may consume the limited amount of Li in ZESSLB to fail the system.