Enhanced cyclic stability of partially disordered spinel cathodes through direct fluorination with gaseous fluorine

Spinel-type cathodes are considered an optimal substitute for conventional layered oxide cathodes owing to their use of inexpensive and earth-abundant manganese as the redox-active element.Moreover,the introduction of cation disorder can effectively suppress the detrimental two-phase reaction to realize high capacities in a wide voltage range.However,the continuous capacity decay during cycles has hindered the widespread application of these cathode materials.Inorganic fluorides exhibit excellent electrochemical stability at high voltage;therefore,in this study,the direct F2 gas reaction with a partially disordered spinel cathode(Li_(1.6)Mn_(1.6)O_(3.7)F_(0.3,)LMOF1.6)was initially applied to investigate the impacts of fluorination on the surface structure and electrochemical performances.The inorganic fluorinated layer,mainly containing LiF,was distributed uniformly on the surface of LMOF1.6nanoparticles after fluorination for an appropriate time without the turbulence caused by the valency of manganese cation,which improved the capacity retention and rate capability by the suppression of structural damage,parasitic reaction,and cation dissolution.The LMOF1.6cathode fluorinated for 0.5 h exhibited a capacity of283.6 mAh·g^(-1)at 50 mA·g^(-1)and an enhanced capacity retention of 29.6%after 50 cycles in the voltage range of1.5-4.8 V,as compared to the pristine LMOF1.6 with only27.9%capacity retention.

Novel dye-sensitized solar cell architecture using TiO2-coated Ag nanowires array as photoanode

With the aim of reducing series resistance and increasing dye loading,novel dye-sensitized solar cell architecture was designed with TiO2 nanoparticle-coated Ag nanowires array as the photoanode.Ag nanowire array was prepared by anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templateassisted electrochemical deposition route.Then,Ag nanowires were coated by TiO2 nanoparticles in hydrothermal process.The structures of the photoanode were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).Ag nanowires are covered by a layer of very fine nanoparticles with a diameter of less than 5 nm.X-ray diffraction (XRD) and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) show that Ag nanowires have a strong preferred orientation in (220) direction and the TiO2 coating layer is a polycrystalline structure.With this photoanode,3.2 % conversion efficiency is achieved for the cell sensitized with N3 dye.

Highly selective synthesis of 3-methylindole from glycerol and aniline over Cu/NaY modifed by K_2O

The vapor-phase synthesis of 3-methylindole from glycerol and aniline over Cu/NaY modified by K2O was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD） and the temperature- programmed desorption of ammonia （NH3-TPD）. The effect of the reaction temperature on the activity and selectivity of Cu]NaY-K2O catalyst was also investigated. The results indicated that the addition of K2O to Cu/NaY increased the selectivity of the catalyst remarkably because the amount of middle-strong acid sites decreased clearly. The decrease of the reaction temperature was beneficial for the increase of 3- methylindole selectivity. Over Cu/NaY-K2O, the selectivity of 3-methylindole reached 75% and the yield of the target product was up to 47% at 220 ℃. A probable catalytic mechanism for the synthesis of 3- methylindole from glycerol and aniline was proposed.