Bifunctional Li6CoO4 serving as prelithiation reagent and pseudocapacitive electrode for lithium ion capacitors

Lithium ion capacitors(LICs)have been widely used as energy storage devices due to their high energy density and high power density.For LICs,pre-lithiation of negative electrode is necessary.In this work,we employ a bifunctional Li6CoO4(LCO)as cathodic pre-lithiation reagent to improve the electrochemical performance of LICs.The synthesized LCO exhibited high first charge specific capacity of 721 mAh g-1and extremely low initial coulombic efficiency of 3.19%,providing sufficient Li+ for the pre-lithiation of negative electrode in the first charge.Simultaneously,Li6–xCoOy is generated from LCO during the first charge process,which exhibits pseudocapacitive property and contributes to capacity in form of surface capacitance during subsequent cycles,increasing the capacity of capacitive positive electrode.With the appropriate amounts of addition to the positive side in LICs,this bifunctional prelithiation reagent LCO shows significantly improved the electrochemical performance with the energy density of 78.5 Wh kg-1after 300 cycles between 2.0 and 4.2 V at 250 mA g-1.

Free-standing ultrathick LiMn_(2)O_(4)@single-wall carbon nanotubes electrode with high areal capacity

The ever-increasing demands for advanced lithium-ion batteries with high energy density have greatly stimulated the pursuit of thick electrodes with high active material loading.However,it is not feasible to prepare thick electrodes with traditional coating methods due to mechanical instability.Herein,using single-wall carbon nanotubes(SWCNT)as conductive carbon and binder,free-standing LiMn_(2)O_(4) thick electrodes(F-LMO)with ultrahigh-mass loading up to~190 mg cm^(-2)were prepared by vacuum filtration combined with freeze-drying.The thick electrodes with~30 mg cm^(-2)mass loading achieved a high specific capacity of 106.7 mAh g^(-1)with a good capacity retention of 94%over 50 cycles at 0.5 C,which was superior to the traditional coating electrodes(~20 mg cm^(-2))of 99.3 mAh g^(-1)with 95%because of the enhanced electronic conductivity originated from SWCNT.In addition,the high active material ratio of 97.5 wt%,near-theoretical reversible capacity,and high mass loading gave ultrathick F-LMO electrodes(600μm)of~190 mg cm^(-2)with a remarkable areal capacity of 20 mAh cm^(-2).Moreover,the concentration polarization that occurred in the thick F-LMO electrodes under high current density was discussed via electrochemical stimulation.

Oxidative modifications and structural changes of human serum albumin in response to air dielectric barrier discharge plasma

In this work,the air dielectric barrier discharge plasma was applied to a model of protein human serum albumin to explore plasma‐mediated protein damage from a biomolecular perspective.Carbonylation and side chain modifications of protein in solution were observed by Fourier transform infrared(FT‐IR)spectroscopy and mass spectrometry(MS).Protein backbone cleavage is proved by Bradford assay,sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis,and MS.Typical fragments are in the range of 10–12 kDa.The decrease inα‐helix and increase inβ‐sheet indicated by FT‐IR are major protein secondary structure changes.Accordingly,a whole map of protein oxidative damage and structural changes in response to the plasma was postulated.

Direct thrust test and asymmetric performance of porous ionic liquid electrospray thruster

In order to meet the demand of CubeSats for low power and high-performance micro-propulsion system,a porous ionic liquid electrospray thruster prototype is developed in this study.1010 conical emitter arrays are fabricated on an area of 3.24 cm^(2) by computer numerical control machining technology.The propellant is 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate.The over-all dimension of the assembled prototype is 3 cm×3 cm×1 cm,with a total weight of about 15 g(with propellant).The performance of this prototype is tested under vacuum.The results show that it can work in the voltage range of±2.0 kV to±3.0 kV,and the maximum emission current and input power are about 355 lA and 1.12 W.Time of Flight(TOF)mass spectrometry results show that cationic monomers and dimers dominate the beam in positive mode,while a higher proportion of higher-order solvated ion clusters in negative mode.The maximum specific impulse is 2992 s in positive mode and 849 s in negative mode.The thrust is measured in two methods:one is calculated by TOF results and the other is directly measured by high-precision torsional thrust stand.The thrust(T)obtained by these two methods conforms to a certain scaling law with respect to the emis-sion current(I_(em))and the applied voltage(V_(app)),following the scale of T-Iem_(Vapp)^(0.5),and the thrust range is from 2.1 lN to 42.6 lN.Many thruster performance parameters are significantly different in positive and negative modes.We speculate that due to the higher solvation energy of the anion,more solvated ion clusters are formed rather than pure ions under the same electric field.It may help to improve thruster performance if porous materials with smaller pore sizes are used as reservoirs.Although there are still many problems,most of the performance parameters of ILET-3 are good,which can theoretically meet the requirements of CubeSats for micro-propulsion system.