Mechanistic Insights and Technical Challenges in Sulfur-Based Batteries: A Comprehensive / Monitoring Toolbox.

Batteries based on sulfur cathodes offer a promising energy storage solution due to their potential for high performance, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. However, commercial viability is challenged by issues such as polysulfide migration, volume changes, uneven phase nucleation, limited ion transport, and sluggish sulfur redox kinetics. Addressing these challenges requires insights into the structural, morphological, and chemical evolution of phases, the associated volume changes and internal stresses, and ion and polysulfide diffusion within the battery.

Regulating Strain and Suppressing Defect States Through Polymer Ionization and Chemical Chelation for Efficient Inverted Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells.

Flexible perovskite solar cells (FPSCs) have great promise for applications in wearable technology and space photovoltaics. However, the unpredictable crystallization of perovskite on flexible substrates results in significantly lower efficiency and mechanical durability than industry standards. A strategy is investigated employing the polymer electrolyte poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) to regulate crystallization and passivate defect states in perovskite films on flexible substrates.

Photothermal Catalytic Recycling of Polyester Over Magnetic Ni-MnO Nanocatalyst.

The solar-driven catalytic recycling of plastics has recently emerged as a new frontier in industry. Nevertheless, its large-scale application requires the catalysts being capable of the strong absorption of visible and near-infrared light, strengthened photothermal efficiency, high activity and selective toward target product, enhanced stability, as well as easy separation from the products. In this work, magnetic Ni-MnO nanocatalyst (MN/C) is synthesized via the pyrolysis of metal-organic framework (MOF) for the photothermal catalytic recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET).

Enhanced phase prediction of high-entropy alloys through machine learning and data augmentation.

The phase structure information of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) is critical for their design and application, as different phase configurations are associated with distinct chemical and physical properties. However, the broad range of elements in HEAs presents significant challenges for precise experimental design and rational theoretical modeling and simulation. To address these challenges, machine learning (ML) methods have emerged as powerful tools for phase structure prediction.

Triggering Oxygen Redox Cycles in Nickel Ferrite by Octahedral Geometry Engineering for Enhancing Oxygen Evolution.

Spinel-type nickel ferrite (NiFeO, x≤1) is a widely used electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Due to the lower hybridization of metal-d and oxygen-p orbitals, the OER process on NiFeO follows the sluggish adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM). Generally, activating the lattice oxygen to trigger the lattice-oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM) can enhance the OER activity.

Unveiling the Origin of the Strengthening Mechanism in a Novel Precious Metal Multi-Principal Elements Alloy.

Precious metal electrical contact materials are pivotal in microelectronic devices due to their excellent chemical stability and electrical properties. Their practical application is hindered by the strength, contact resistance, and high cost. Multi-principal elements alloys (MPEAs) provide the possibility to develop cost-effective materials with enhanced mechanical properties.

Synthesis and Investigation of the Properties of a Branched Phthalonitrile Containing Cyclotriphosphazene.

To study the properties of cyclotriphosphazene (CTP)-containing phthalonitriles, a branched phthalonitrile containing CTP (CTP-PN) with self-catalytic behavior was designed and synthesized. The structure of CTP-PN was characterized by FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), MS (mass spectroscopy), H-NMR (proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy), and C-NMR (carbon nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy). Then, the curing reaction of CTP-PN was studied using DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and DRA (dynamic rheological analysis).

Effects of the Backbone's Structures on the Curing Behaviors and Properties of Phthalonitrile Containing Benzoxazine Rings.

Phthalonitrile-based resins and benzoxazine play important roles in the field of advanced materials because of their excellent properties. In order to understand the effect of the backbone's structure on the curing kinetics and properties of the multifunctional resin matrices, different kinds of phthalonitrile containing benzoxazine with various backbone structures were designed and prepared. The curing processes and curing behaviors were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

Constructing High-Performance Yarn-Shaped Electrodes via Twisting-after-Coating Technique for Weavable Seawater Battery.

Seawater batteries (SWBs) are green aqueous power sources with great potential in marine applications. So far, SWBs are mainly built on rigid substrates, which hinders their adaptability to marine textile applications. Herein, we constructed a rechargeable yarn-shaped SWB consisting of nickel hexacyanoferrate (Ni-HCF)-modified carbon yarn (positive electrode), glass fiber diaphragm, and polyimide (PI)-modified carbon yarn (negative electrode).

Manipulating Trimetal Catalytic Activities for Efficient Urea Electrooxidation-Coupled Hydrogen Production at Ampere-Level Current Densities.

Replacing the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with the urea oxidation reaction (UOR) in conjunction with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) offers a feasible and environmentally friendly approach for handling urea-rich wastewater and generating energy-saving hydrogen. However, the deactivation and detachment of active sites in powder electrocatalysts reported hitherto present significant challenges to achieving high efficiency and sustainability in energy-saving hydrogen production. Herein, a self-supported bimetallic nickel manganese metal-organic framework (NiMn-MOF) nanosheet and its derived heterostructure composed of NiMn-MOF decorated with ultrafine Pt nanocrystals (Pt/NiMn-MOF) are rationally designed.

Theoretical investigations of transition metal atom-doped MoSiN monolayers as catalysts for electrochemical CO reduction reactions.

Following the principle of single-atom catalysts (SACs), the fourth-period transition metals (TM) were designed as active sites on a MoSiN monolayer surface with N vacancy, and the catalytic mechanisms of these single-atom active sites for the conversion of CO to CO were investigated by first-principles calculations. Our results showed that the doped TM atoms on the MoSiN surface significantly enhanced the CO reduction reaction (CORR) activity compared with the pristine MoSiN monolayer. Our findings after analyzing all the doped structures in our work were as follows: (1) the Sc-, Ti-, and Mn-doped structures exhibited very low limiting potentials; (2) out of Sc-, Ti- and Mn-doped structures, the Mn@MoSiN-N structure showed the best catalytic performance with a limiting potential of only -0.

Simultaneous Regulating the Surface, Interface, and Bulk via Phosphating Modification for High-Performance Li-Rich Layered Oxides Cathodes.

Li-rich Mn-based layered oxides (LRMOs) are regarded as the leading cathode materials to overcome the bottleneck of higher energy density. Nevertheless, they encounter significant challenges, including voltage decay, poor cycle stability, and inferior rate performance, primarily due to irreversible oxygen release, transition metal dissolution, and sluggish transport kinetics. Moreover, traditionally single modification strategies do not adequately address these issues.

αh-GeSe: a multifunctional semiconductor combining auxeticity and piezoelectricity.

Multifunctional materials with outstanding performance have enormous potential applications in the next generation of nanodevices. Using first principles calculations, we design a series of multifunctional two-dimensional materials in monolayer αh-GeSe (, = 1, 2) that combine auxeticity and piezoelectricity. Due to the similar local structures of α-GeSe and h-GeSe, monolayer αh-GeSe can be designed through the combination of these two materials.

Correction: A bottlebrush-architectured dextran polyprodrug as an acidity-responsive vector for enhanced chemotherapy efficiency.

Correction for 'A bottlebrush-architectured dextran polyprodrug as an acidity-responsive vector for enhanced chemotherapy efficiency' by Tian Zhang, , , 2020, , 473-484, https://doi.org/10.1039/C9BM01692A.

Regulated solvation structure and solid electrolyte interfaces via imidazolium ionic gel electrolytes with high Li-ion transference number for Li-metal batteries.

Solid lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are faced with problems such as the solvation structure of lithium ion and the instability of solid electrolyte interface (SEI), which lead to poor cycling stability and anode interface damage. Here, the introduced 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide ([EMIM][FSI]) ionic liquid (IL) interacts strongly with Lithium salt to form a new ionic gel electrolyte (IGE) based on the poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP), which facilitates the excellent Li-ion transference number up to 0.506 and improves the mechanical properties.

Multifunctional High-Entropy Alloy Nanolayer Toward Long-Life Anode-Free Sodium Metal Battery.

Anode-free sodium metal batteries (AFSMBs) hold great promise due to high energy density and low cost. Unfortunately, their practical applications are hindered by poor cycling stability, which is attributed to Na dendrite growth and inferior Na plating/stripping reversibility on conventional sodiophobic current collectors. Here, a thin high-entropy alloy (HEA, NbMoTaWV) interfacial layer composed of densely packed nanoplates is constructed on commercial aluminum foil (NbMoTaWV@Al) for AFSMBs.

Quantitative Unraveling of Exsolved Heteroboundaries for High-Temperature Electrocatalysis.

The application of perovskite oxide for high-temperature electrocatalysis is hindered by its limited activity. Exsolution is a smart strategy that allows the enrichment of the perovskite's surface with highly reactive phases, yielding heteroboundaries. However, the identification of the exact catalytic role of this complex architecture is still elusive.

Exploiting Seeded RAFT Polymerization for the Preparation of Graft Copolymer Nanoparticles.

Although seeded reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization is explored as a unique method for the preparation of block copolymer nanoparticles with diverse structures, the preparation of nonlinear polymer nanoparticles by seeded RAFT polymerization is rarely reported. Herein, linear block copolymer nanoparticles are first prepared by RAFT dispersion copolymerization of benzyl methacrylate (BzMA) and 2-(2-(n-butyltrithiocarbonate)propionate)ethyl methacrylate (BTPEMA) with different [BzMA]/[BTPEMA] ratios, and employed as seeds for seeded RAFT polymerization of isobornyl acrylate (IBOA) to prepare graft copolymer nanoparticles with different numbers of PIBOA side chains. Comparing with linear triblock copolymers with the same chemical composition, the graft copolymers can promote the formation of higher-order morphologies (e.