Revisiting Electrolyte Kinetics Differences in Sodium Ion Battery:Are Esters Really Inferior to Ethers?

The ether electrolytes usually outperform ester electrolytes by evaluating sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)rate performance,which is a near-unanimous conclusion of previous studies based on an essential configuration of the half-cell test.However,here we find that contrary to consensus,the ester electrolyte shows better Na storage capability than the ether electrolyte in full cells.An in-depth analysis of three-electrode,symmetric cell,and in situ XRD tests indicates that traditional half-cell test results are unreliable due to interference from Na electrodes.In particular,Na electrodes show a huge stability difference in ester and ether electrolytes,and ester electrolytes suffer more severe interference than ether electrolytes,resulting in the belief that esters are far inferior to ether electrolytes.More seriously,the more accurate three-electrode test would also suffer from Na electrode interference.Thus,a“corrected half-cell test”protocol is developed to shield the Na electrode interference,revealing the very close super rate capability of hard carbon in ester and ether electrolytes.This work breaks the inherent perception that the kinetic properties of ester electrolytes are inferior to ethers in sodium-ion batteries,reveals the pitfalls of half-cell tests,and proposes a new test protocol for reliable results,greatly accelerating the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries.

Zokor activity promotes soil water infiltration in the Mu Us sandy land of northern Shaanxi,China

Zokors are common subterranean rodents that inhabit agricultural fields, shrublands, and grasslands in the arid and semi-arid regions of China. Zokor burrowing activities can alter soil structure and affect soil hydrological processes;however, there are few studies regarding their effects on soil preferential flow in the Mu Us sandy land. An evaluation of the effects of zokor disturbance on their habitat and soil water is important for understanding the ecological role of zokors in the soil ecosystem of the Mu Us sandy land. A field dye-tracing experiment was conducted in the Gechougou watershed on the southeastern edge of the Mu Us sandy land to investigate the effect of zokor burrowing activity on soil preferential flow characteristics. Our results showed that the density of zokor tunnels was the highest(0.40–0.46 m m^(-2)) under 30%–50% vegetation coverage and that the tunnels were approximately 3 cm from the surface.Both stained area ratio and stained path number were higher at sites with zokors than without zokors. Stained path widths were 10–80 and > 80 mm at zokor-harboring sites exhibiting homogeneous flow and heterogeneous finger flow, respectively. In the absence of zokors, homogeneous flow and highly interacted macropore flow were predominant. Soil water content below the zokor tunnels was higher than that above the tunnels. Moderate disturbance of soil structure by zokor activity facilitated soil water infiltration. These results enabled a better understanding of the effect of soil fauna on soil structure and hydrological processes and provided recommendations for ecological construction and renovation in arid and semi-arid regions.

A solvothermal pre-oxidation strategy converting pitch from soft carbon to hard carbon for enhanced sodium storage

Due to its low cost and easy availability, the pitch is considered a promising precursor for soft carbon anodes. However, pitch-derived soft carbon shows a high graphitization degree and small interlayer spacing, resulting in its much lower sodium storage performance than hard carbon. We propose a novel preoxidation strategy to introduce additional oxygen atoms into the low-cost soft carbon precursor pitch to fabricate a defect-rich and large-interlayer spacing hard carbon anode(HPP-1100). Compared with the direct pyrolysis of pitch carbon, the sodium storage capacity of HPP-1100 is significantly improved from 120.3 m Ah/g to 306.7 m Ah/g, with an excellent rate and cycling capability(116.5 m Ah/g at 10 C). Moreover, when assorted with an O_(3)-Na(NiFeMn)1/3O_(2)cathode, the full cell delivers a high reversible capacity of 274.0 m Ah/g at 0.1 C with superb cycle life. This work provides a new solution for realizing the application of low-cost pitch anodes in Na-ion batteries.

High-voltage,low-temperature supercapacitors enabled by localized“water-in-pyrrolidinium chloride”electrolyte

Aqueous electrolytes offer superior prospects for advanced energy storage.“Water-in-salt”(WIS)electrolytes exhibit a wide electrochemical stability window(ESW),but their low conductivity,high viscosity,and precipitation at low temperatures restrict their application.Herein,we report a novel localized“water-in-pyrrolidinium chloride”electrolyte(LWIP;1 mol/L,N-propyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium chloride/(water and N,Ndimethylformamide,1:4 by molality))enabling high-voltage,low-temperature supercapacitors(SCs).The greatly improved ESW(3.451 V)is mainly attributed to the strong solvation between Cl-and water molecules,which broadens the negative stability.This water-binding mechanism is very different from that of a WIS electrolyte based on alkali metal salt.SCs using LWIP electrolytes not only yield a high operating voltage of 2.4 V and excellent capacity retention(82.8%after 15,000 cycles at 5 A g^(-1))but also operate stably at-20℃.This work provides new approaches for the design and preparation of novel electrolytes.