Progression in the Oxidation Stability of MXenes

MXenes are under the spotlight due to their versatile physicochemical characteristics. Since their discovery in 2011, significant advancements have been achieved in their synthesis and application sectors. However, the spontaneous oxidation of MXenes, which is critical to its processing and product lifespan, has gotten less attention due to its chemical complexity and poorly understood oxidation mechanism. This perspective focuses on the oxidation stability of MXenes and addresses the most recent advancements in understanding and the possible countermeasures to limit the spontaneous oxidation of MXenes. A section is dedicated to the presently accessible methods for monitoring oxidation, with a discussion on the debatable oxidation mechanism and coherently operating factors that contribute to the complexity of MXenes oxidation. The current potential solutions for mitigating MXenes oxidation and the existing challenges are also discussed with prospects to prolong MXene's shelf-life storage and expand their application scope.

Soft carbon-coated bulk graphite for improved potassium ion storage

Potassium-ion batteries(PIBs) have attracted tremendous attention for large-scale energy storage fields based on abundant potassium resources. Graphite is a promising anode material for PIBs due to its low potassium ion intercalation voltage and mature industrialized preparation technology. However, the inability of graphitic structures to endure large volume change during charge/discharge cycles is a major limitation in their advancement for practical PIBs. Herein, a soft carbon-coated bulk graphite composite is synthesized using PTCDA as a carbon precursor. The PTCDA-derived soft carbon coating layer with large interlayer distance facilities fast potassium ion intercalation/extraction in the BG@C composite and buffers severe volume change during the charge/discharge cycles. When tested as anode for PIBs, the composite realizes enhanced rate capability(131.3 mAh/g at 2 C, 1 C=279 m A/g) and cycling performance(capacity retention of 76.1% after 150 cycles at 0.5 C). In general, the surface modification route to engineer graphite anode could inherently improve the electrochemical performance without any structural alteration.

Se-decorated SnO_(2)/rGO composite spheres and their sodium storage performances

SnO_(2) is considered a promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries due to its high theoretical capacity and low cost.However,the poor electrical conductivity and dramatic volume variation during cha rge/discharge cycling is a major limitation in its practical applicability.Here we propose a simple onepot spray pyrolysis process to construct unique pomegranate-like SnO_(2)/rGO/Se spheres.The ideal structural configuration of these architectures was effective in alleviating the large volume variation of SnO_(2),besides facilitating rapid electron transfer,allowing the devised anode to exhibit superior sodium sto rage performances in terms of capacity(506.7 mAh/g at 30 mA/g),cycle performance(397 mAh/g after100 cycles at 50 mA/g) and rate capability(188.9 mAh/g at an ultrahigh current density of 10 A/g).The experimental evidence confirms the practical workability of p-SnO_(2)/rGO/Se spheres in SIBs.