High-performance Si-Containing anode materials in lithium-ion batteries: A superstructure of Si@Co-NC composite works effectively

To mitigate the massive volume expansion of Si-based anode during the charge/discharge cycles,we synthesized a superstructure of Si@Co±NC composite via the carbonization of zeolite imidazolate frameworks incorporated with Si nanoparticles.The Si@Co±NC is comprised of Sinanoparticle core and N-doped/Co-incorporated carbon shell,and there is void space between the core and the shell.When using as anode material for LIBs,Si@Co±NC displayed a super performance with a charge/discharge capacity of 191.6/191.4 mA h g^(-1)and a coulombic efficiency of 100.1%at 1000 mA g^(-1)after 3000 cycles,and the capacity loss rate is 0.022%per cycle only.The excellent electrochemical property of Si@Co±NC is because its electronic conductivity is enhanced by doping the carbon shell with N atoms and by incorporating with Co particles,and the pathway of lithium ions transmission is shortened by the hollow structure and abundant mesopores in the carbon shell.Also,the volume expansion of Si nanoparticles is well accommodated in the void space and suppressed by the carbon host matrix.This work shows that,through designing a superstructure for the anode materials,we can synergistically reduce the work function and introduce the confinement effect,thus significantly enhancing the anode materials’electrochemical performance in LIBs.

Interfacial engineering of transition-metal sulfides heterostructures with built-in electric-field effects for enhanced oxygen evolution reaction

Developing highly efficient,durable,and non-noble electrocatalysts for the sluggish anodic oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is the pivotal for meeting the practical demand in water splitting.However,the current transition-metal electrocatalysts still suffer from low activity and durability on account of poor interfacial reaction kinetics.In this work,a facile solid-state synthesis strategy is developed to construct transition-metal sulfides heterostructures(denoted as MS_(2)/NiS_(2),M=Mo or W)for boosting OER electrocatalysis.As a result,MoS2/NiS2 and WS2/NiS2 show lower overpotentials of 300 mV and 320 mV to achieve the current density of 10 mA·cm^(-2),and smaller Tafel slopes of 60 mV.dec^(-1) and 83 mV.dec^(-1)in 1 mol·L^(-1) KOH,respectively,in comparison with the single MoS2,WS2,NiS2,as well as even the benchmark RuO2.The experiments reveal that the designed heterostructures have strong electronic interactions and spontaneously develop a built-in electric field at the heterointerface with uneven charge distribution based on the difference of band structures,which promote interfacial charge transfer,improve absorptivity of OH-,and modulate the energy level more comparable to the OER.Thus,the designed transition-metal sulfides heterostructures exhibit a remarkably high electrocatalytic activity for OER.This study provides a simple strategy to manipulate the heterostructure interface via an energy level engineering method for OER and can be extended to fabricate other heterostructures for various energy-related applications.

Novel magnetic carbon supported molybdenum disulfide catalyst and its application in residue upgrading

A novel hybrid material consisted of carbon covered Fe_(3)O_(4)nanoparticles and MoS_(2)nanoflower(FCM)was designed and prepared by micelle-assisted hydrothermal methods.Multiple techniques,including X-Ray diffraction(XRD),high-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HRTEM)and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS)were employed to characterize it.The results show that FCM has a flower-like morphology with a 330 nm Fe_(3)O_(4)core as well as 70 nm highly crystalline MoS_(2)shell.FCM is superparamagnetic with a saturation magnetization of 35 emu g-1.Then hydrocracking of Canadian bitumen residue(CBR)was applied to estimate its catalytic activity.The results show that FCM exhibits superior catalytic hydrocracking activity compared to bulk MoS_(2)and commercial oil-dispersed Mo(CO)6 by the same Mo loading.Further measurement by elemental analysis,XPS and XRD reveals that the MoS_(2)nanoflower with abundant catalytic active sites and covered carbon layer with anti-coke ability donate to the superior upgrading performance.Besides,the catalysts can be easily recovered by the external magnetic field.This work provides a novel kind magnetic nanocatalyst which is potential for slurry-phase hydrocracking applications.■2020,Institute of Process Engineering,Chinese Academy of Sciences.Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.on behalf of KeAi Communications Co.,Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Boosting oxygen evolution reactivity by modulating electronic structure and honeycomb-like architecture in Ni_(2)P/N,P-codoped carbon hybrids

Oxygen evolution reaction(OER)as the foremost stumbling block to generate cost-effective clean fuels has received extensive attention in recent years.But,it still maintains the challenge to manipulate the geometric and electronic structure during single reaction process under the same conditions.Herein,we report a simple self-template strategy to generate honeycomb-like Ni_(2)P/N,P-C hybrids with preferred electronic architecture.Experiments coupled with theoretical results revealed that the synthesized catalyst has two characteristics:firstly,the unique honeycomb-like morphology not only enables the fully utilization of catalytic active sites but also optimizes the mass/electron transportation pathway,which favor the diffusion of electrolyte to accessible active sites.Secondly,N,P-C substrate,on the one hand,largely contributes the electronic distribution near Fermi level(E_(F))thus boosting its electrical conductivity.On the other hand,the support effect result in the upshift of d-band center and electropositivity of Ni sites,which attenuates the energy barrier for the adsorption of OH~àand the formation of*OOH.In consequence,the optimized Ni_(2)P/N,P-C catalysts feature high electrocatalytic activity towards OER(a low overpotential of 252 m V to achieve10 m A cm^(-2))and 10 h long-term stability,the outstanding performance is comparable to most of transition metal catalysts.This work gives a innovative tactics for contriving original OER electrocatalysts,inspirng deeper understanding of fabricating catalysts by combining theoretical simulation and experiment design.