Emerging high-entropy strategy: A booster to the development of cathode materials for power batteries

The coordinated development of new energy vehicles and the energy storage industry has become essential for reducing carbon emissions.The cathode material is the key material that determines the energy density and cost of a power battery,but currently developed and applied cathode materials cannot meet the requirements for high specific capacity,low cost,safety,and good stability.High-entropy materials(HEMs)are a new type of single-phase material composed of multiple principal elements in equimolar or near-equimolar ratios.The interaction between multiple elements can play an important role in improving the comprehensive properties of the material,which is expected to solve the limitations of battery materials in practical applications.Therefore,this review provides a comprehensive overview of the current development status and modification strategies of power batteries(lithium-ion batteries(LiBs)and sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)),proposes a high-entropy design strategy,and analyses the structure-activity relationship between the high-entropy effects and battery performance.Finally,future research topics related to high-entropy cathode materials,including computational guide design,specific synthesis methods,high-entropy electrochemistry,and high-throughput databases,are proposed.This review aims to provide practical guidance for the development of high-entropy cathode materials for next-generation power batteries.

A high entropy silicide by reactive spark plasma sintering

A high-entropy silicide(HES),(Ti_(0.2) Zr_(0.2) Nb_(0.2) Mo_(0.2) W_(0.2))Si_2 with close-packed hexagonal structure is successfully manufactured through reactive spark plasma sintering at 1300 ℃ for 15 min.The elements in this HES are uniformly distributed in the specimen based on the energy dispersive spectrometer analysis except a small amount of zirconium that is combined with oxygen as impurity particles. The Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio,and Vickers hardness of the obtained(Ti_(0.2) Zr_(0.2) Nb_(0.2) Mo_(0.2) W_(0.2))Si_2 are also measured.

Structural integrity and damage of ZrB_(2) ceramics after 4 MeV Au ions irradiation

Ultra-high temperature ceramics have been considered as good candidates for plasma facing materials due to their combination of high melting point,high strength and hardness,high thermal conductivity as well as good chemical inertness.In this study,zirconium diboride has been chosen to investigate its irradiation damage behavior.Irradiated by 4 MeV Au^(2+)with a total fluence of 2.5×10^(16)cm^(-2),zirconium diboride ceramic shows substantial resilience to irradiation-induced damage with its structural integrity well maintained but mild damage at lattice level.Grazing incident X-ray diffraction evidences no change of the hexagonal structure in the irradiated region but its lattice parameter a increased and c decreased,giving a volume shrinkage of 0.46%.Density functional theory calculation shows that such lattice shrinkage corresponds to a non-stoichiometric compound as ZrB1.97.Electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope revealed an increase of valence electrons in zirconium,suggesting boron vacancies were indeed developed by the irradiation.Alo ng the irradiation depth,long dislocations were observed inside top layer with a depth of 750 nm where the implanted Au ions reached the peak concentration.Underneath the top layer,a high density of Frank dislocations is formed by the cascade collision down to a depth of 1150 nm.All the features show the potential of ZrB_(2) to be used as structural material in nuclear system.