An in-situ catalytic-insoluble strategy enabled by sulfurized polyacrylonitrile-based composite cathode for potassium–sulfur batteries

Owing to the insoluble organosulfur mechanism and stable cycling life, sulfurized polyacrylonitrile (SPAN) developed as a promising cathode material for high-energy potassium–sulfur batteries (KSBs). However, it is yet a major challenge to achieve fast catalytic kinetics and high reversible capacity in SPAN-based cathodes. Here, one-step electrospun SPAN nanofibers embedded with Fe[Formula: see text]Nb[Formula: see text]O metal oxide nanoparticles (FeNb@SPAN) have been successfully developed to construct sulfur electrodes with high electrochemical activity, high sulfur utilization, and high cycling stability. The as-prepared freestanding FeNb@SPAN composite cathode, which featuring interwoven nanofibers with Fe[Formula: see text]Nb[Formula: see text]O nanoparticles homogeneously implanted, possesses high storage space for volume expansion and suppresses polysulfide dissolution during potassiation/depotassiation. Benefiting from its unique structure and composition in electrode design, the FeNb@SPAN cathode is endowed with outstanding energy storage performances with a high initial specific capacity of 776 mAh [Formula: see text] g[Formula: see text] under 50 mA [Formula: see text] g[Formula: see text] and an excellent cycling capability of 201 mAh [Formula: see text] g[Formula: see text] after 80 charge/discharge processes. This work heralds a feasible strategy toward SPAN-based sulfur host materials in the structural design of next-generation high-performance cathode materials for KSBs and other metal–sulfur batteries.

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CNFs/S1-xSex Composites as Promising Cathode Materials for High-Energy Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

MRS Advances ◽

10.1557/adv.2019.144 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (14) ◽

pp. 821-828 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gaind P. Pandey ◽

Kobi Jones ◽

Lamartine Meda

Keyword(s):

Cathode Material ◽

High Performance ◽

Coulombic Efficiency ◽

Specific Capacity ◽

Rate Capability ◽

Composite Cathode ◽

High Energy ◽

High Mass ◽

High Performance Composite ◽

Lithium Sulfur

ABSTRACTHigh-energy lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries still suffer from poor rate capability and short cycle life caused by the polysulfides shuttle and insulating nature of S (and the discharge product, Li2S). Selenium disulfide (SeS2), with a theoretical specific capacity of 1342 mAh g−1, is a promising cathode material as it has better conductivity compared to sulfur. The electrochemical reaction kinetics of CNFs-S/SeS2 composites (denoted as CNFs/S1-xSex, where x ≤ 0.1) are expected to be remarkably improved because of the better conductivity of SeS2 compared to sulfur. Here, a high-performance composite cathode material of CNFs/S1-xSex for novel Li-S batteries is reported. The CNFs/S1-xSex composites combine the higher conductivity and higher density of SeS2 with high specific capacity of sulfur. The CNFs/S1-xSex electrode shows good initial discharge capacity of ∼1050 mAh g−1 at 0.05 C rate with high mass loading of materials (∼6-7 mg cm−2 of composites) and > 97% initial coulombic efficiency. The CNFs/S1-xSex electrode shows more than 600 mAh g-1 specific capacity after 50 charge-discharge cycles at 0.5C rate, much higher compared to the CNFs/S cathodes.

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Carbon Anode Materials for Rechargeable Alkali Metal Ion Batteries and in-situ Characterization Techniques

Frontiers in Chemistry ◽

10.3389/fchem.2020.607504 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Ruida Ding ◽

Yalan Huang ◽

Guangxing Li ◽

Qin Liao ◽

Tao Wei ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Conditions ◽

Carbon Material ◽

High Performance ◽

Carbon Materials ◽

Specific Capacity ◽

High Energy ◽

Ex Situ ◽

Working Mechanism ◽

Active Materials

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), used for energy supply and storage equipment, have been widely applied in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems. However, the urgent demand for high energy density batteries and the shortage of lithium resources is driving scientists to develop high-performance materials and find alternatives. Low-volume expansion carbon material is the ideal choice of anode material. However, the low specific capacity has gradually become the shortcoming for the development of LIBs and thus developing new carbon material with high specific capacity is urgently needed. In addition, developing alternatives of LIBs, such as sodium ion batteries and potassium-ion batteries, also puts forward demands for new types of carbon materials. As is well-known, the design of high-performance electrodes requires a deep understanding on the working mechanism and the structural evolution of active materials. On this issue, ex-situ techniques have been widely applied to investigate the electrode materials under special working conditions, and provide a lot of information. Unfortunately, these observed phenomena are difficult to reflect the reaction under real working conditions and some important short-lived intermediate products cannot be captured, leading to an incomplete understanding of the working mechanism. In-situ techniques can observe the changes of active materials in operando during the charge/discharge processes, providing the concrete process of solid electrolyte formation, ions intercalation mechanism, structural evolutions, etc. Herein, this review aims to provide an overview on the characters of carbon materials in alkali ion batteries and the role of in-situ techniques in developing carbon materials.

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PPy coated nanoflower like CuCo2O4 based on in situ growth of nanoporous copper for high-performance supercapacitor electrodes

Nanotechnology ◽

10.1088/1361-6528/ac4660 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

zongchen zhao ◽

Lili Zheng ◽

Haoran Li ◽

Zeyin He ◽

Dong Han ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Power Density ◽

High Performance ◽

Reversible Capacity ◽

High Energy ◽

Cycling Stability ◽

High Energy Density ◽

Carbon Anode ◽

Nanoporous Copper ◽

Potential Electrode

Abstract General CuCo2O4 electrodes suffer a very low reversible capacity and poor cycling stability because of easily fading phenomena and volume change during cycling. To optimize the electrode, a facile method is conducted to fabricate a novel electrode of Cu@CuCo2O4@polypyrrole (Cu@CCOP) nanoflowers. Due to larger specific surface area and more electrochemical reactive areas of Cu@CCOP nanoflowers, the pseudocapacitance of the in-situ grown Cu@CCOP (912 F g-1 at 2 A g-1) is much higher than the pristine CuCo2O4 (CCO) (618 F g-1 at 2 A g-1). Remarkably, the Cu@CCOP (cathode) and active carbon (anode) are used to assemble an asymmetric supercapacitor, which exhibits a relatively high energy density of 90 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 2519 W kg-1 and 35 Wh kg-1 at a high-power density of 9109 W kg-1, and excellent cycling stability (about 90.4% capacitance retention over 10000 cycles). The prominent performance of Cu@CCOP makes it as a potential electrode for supercapacitor.

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Hierarchical Mg-Birnessite Nanowall Arrays with Enriched (010) Planes for High Performance Aqueous Mg-Ion Batteries

Journal of The Electrochemical Society ◽

10.1149/1945-7111/ac4548 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zhengyi Shi ◽

Liang Xue ◽

Jianghua Wu ◽

Qiubo Guo ◽

Qiuying Xia ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

Negative Electrode ◽

Reversible Capacity ◽

High Energy ◽

High Energy Density ◽

Dimensional Growth ◽

Mg Content ◽

Aqueous Batteries ◽

A Current

Abstract Birnessite MnO2 is a promising cathode material for aqueous Mg-ion batteries due to its layered structure with large interlayer distance. However, the two-dimensional growth mode of birnessite induces nanosheet morphology with preferred growth of inactive (001) planes with sluggish ion transport kinetics. In this work, a high Mg content birnessite with hierarchical nanowall arrays morphology is prepared by in situ electro-conversion using spinel Mn3O4 nanowall arrays. The electro-conversion Mg-birnessite (ECMB) nanowall arrays are assembled by ultrasmall nanosheets with reduced (001) planes but increased active (010) planes, affording enriched open intercalation channels and shortened Mg2+ diffusion length. Consequently, the ECMB cathode exhibits a large specific reversible capacity of about 255.1 mAh/g at a current density of 200 mA/g, and outstanding cycling stability with 73.6% capacity retention after 3000 cycles. Finally, a 2.2 V aqueous full cell is constructed by using ECMB as positive electrode and polyimide as negative electrode, which achieves a high energy density of 65.2 Wh/kg at a power density of 96 W/kg. This work demonstrates effective crystal plane modulation for Mg-birnessite to achieve superior Mg2+ storage in aqueous batteries.

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Efficient Catalytic Conversion of Polysulfides by Biomimetic Design of “Branch-Leaf” Electrode for High-Energy Sodium–Sulfur Batteries

Nano-Micro Letters ◽

10.1007/s40820-020-00563-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Wenyan Du ◽

Kangqi Shen ◽

Yuruo Qi ◽

Wei Gao ◽

Mengli Tao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Active Sites ◽

High Performance ◽

Electrochemical Reaction ◽

Molecular Layer ◽

Specific Capacity ◽

High Energy ◽

Reduction Reaction ◽

Biomimetic Design ◽

Co Nanoparticles ◽

Sodium Sulfur

AbstractRechargeable room temperature sodium–sulfur (RT Na–S) batteries are seriously limited by low sulfur utilization and sluggish electrochemical reaction activity of polysulfide intermediates. Herein, a 3D “branch-leaf” biomimetic design proposed for high performance Na–S batteries, where the leaves constructed from Co nanoparticles on carbon nanofibers (CNF) are fully to expose the active sites of Co. The CNF network acts as conductive “branches” to ensure adequate electron and electrolyte supply for the Co leaves. As an effective electrocatalytic battery system, the 3D “branch-leaf” conductive network with abundant active sites and voids can effectively trap polysulfides and provide plentiful electron/ions pathways for electrochemical reaction. DFT calculation reveals that the Co nanoparticles can induce the formation of a unique Co–S–Na molecular layer on the Co surface, which can enable a fast reduction reaction of the polysulfides. Therefore, the prepared “branch-leaf” CNF-L@Co/S electrode exhibits a high initial specific capacity of 1201 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and superior rate performance.

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Vacancies-engineered MoO3 and Na+-preinserted MnO2 in-situ grown N-doped graphene nanotubes as electrode materials for high-performance asymmetric supercapacitor

Journal of Materials Chemistry A ◽

10.1039/d1ta04769h ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jian Zhao ◽

He Cheng ◽

Huanyu Li ◽

Yan-Jie Wang ◽

Qingyan Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

Electrode Materials ◽

High Energy ◽

Cooperative Effect ◽

Electrochemical Energy Storage ◽

Asymmetric Supercapacitor ◽

Asymmetric Supercapacitors ◽

Doped Graphene ◽

Power Densities

Developing advanced negative and positive electrode materials for asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) as the electrochemical energy storage can enable the device to reach high energy/power densities resulting from the cooperative effect...

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Computational and experimental investigations of one-step conversion of poly(carbonate)s into value-added poly(aryl ether sulfone)s

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1600924113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 113 (28) ◽

pp. 7722-7726 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Gavin O. Jones ◽

Alexander Yuen ◽

Rudy J. Wojtecki ◽

James L. Hedrick ◽

Jeannette M. García

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

Density Functional ◽

Value Added ◽

Single Step ◽

Nucleophilic Attack ◽

Experimental Investigations ◽

Aryl Ether ◽

One Step ◽

Poly Carbonate

It is estimated that ∼2.7 million tons poly(carbonate)s (PCs) are produced annually worldwide. In 2008, retailers pulled products from store shelves after reports of bisphenol A (BPA) leaching from baby bottles, reusable drink bottles, and other retail products. Since PCs are not typically recycled, a need for the repurposing of the PC waste has arisen. We report the one-step synthesis of poly(aryl ether sulfone)s (PSUs) from the depolymerization of PCs and in situ polycondensation with bis(aryl fluorides) in the presence of carbonate salts. PSUs are high-performance engineering thermoplastics that are commonly used for reverse osmosis and water purification membranes, medical equipment, as well as high temperature applications. PSUs generated through this cascade approach were isolated in high purity and yield with the expected thermal properties and represent a procedure for direct conversion of one class of polymer to another in a single step. Computational investigations performed with density functional theory predict that the carbonate salt plays two important catalytic roles in this reaction: it decomposes the PCs by nucleophilic attack, and in the subsequent polyether formation process, it promotes the reaction of phenolate dimers formed in situ with the aryl fluorides present. We envision repurposing poly(BPA carbonate) for the production of value-added polymers.

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In Situ One-Step Synthesis of Hierarchical Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon for High-Performance Supercapacitors

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces ◽

10.1021/am500339x ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 (10) ◽

pp. 7214-7222 ◽

Cited By ~ 221

Author(s):

Ju-Won Jeon ◽

Ronish Sharma ◽

Praveen Meduri ◽

Bruce W. Arey ◽

Herbert T. Schaef ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Porous Carbon ◽

High Performance ◽

Nitrogen Doped ◽

One Step

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Synthesis of Si/Fe2O3-Anchored rGO Frameworks as High-Performance Anodes for Li-Ion Batteries

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms222011041 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (20) ◽

pp. 11041

Author(s):

Yajing Yan ◽

Yanxu Chen ◽

Yongyan Li ◽

Xiaoyu Wu ◽

Chao Jin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

Melt Spinning ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

High Capacity ◽

Reversible Capacity ◽

High Energy ◽

High Specific Surface Area ◽

High Energy Density ◽

Active Components ◽

Li Ion

By virtue of the high theoretical capacity of Si, Si-related materials have been developed as promising anode candidates for high-energy-density batteries. During repeated charge/discharge cycling, however, severe volumetric variation induces the pulverization and peeling of active components, causing rapid capacity decay and even development stagnation in high-capacity batteries. In this study, the Si/Fe2O3-anchored rGO framework was prepared by introducing ball milling into a melt spinning and dealloying process. As the Li-ion battery (LIB) anode, it presents a high reversible capacity of 1744.5 mAh g−1 at 200 mA g−1 after 200 cycles and 889.4 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1 after 500 cycles. The outstanding electrochemical performance is due to the three-dimensional cross-linked porous framework with a high specific surface area, which is helpful to the transmission of ions and electrons. Moreover, with the cooperation of rGO, the volume expansion of Si is effectively alleviated, thus improving cycling stability. The work provides insights for the design and preparation of Si-based materials for high-performance LIB applications.

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