A Pore-Forming Strategy Toward Porous Carbon-Based Substrates for High Performance Flexible Lithium Metal Full Batteries

Self-standing carbon-based substrates with satisfied structural stability and property adjustability have promising applications in flexible lithium(Li)metal batteries(FLMBs).Current strategies for modifying carbon materials are normally carried out on powder carbon,and very few of them are suitable for self-standing carbon substrates.Herein,a pore-forming strategy based on the redox chemistry of metallic oxide nanodots is developed to prepare two porous carbon substrates for anode and cathode.Starting with cotton cloth,the resulting hollow carbon fibers substrate with nanopores effectively prevents from Li dendrites formation and large volume change in lithium metal anode(LMA).Simulations indicate that the porous structure leads to homogeneous ion flux,Li-ion concentration,and electric field during Li deposition.Li symmetrical cell based on this substrate remains stable for 8300 h with an ultralow voltage hysteresis of 9 mV.Via a similar route,porous carbon cloth substrate is obtained for subsequently seeding V_(2)O_(5)nanowires to prepare the cathode.The assembled FLMBs pouch cell delivers a capacity of 8.2 mAh with a high capacity retention of~100%even under dramatic deformation.The demonstrated strategy has far-reaching potential in preparing free-standing porous carbon-based materials for flexible energy storage devices.

Three dimensional carbon substrate materials for electrolysis of water

Water splitting is an important approach for energy conversion to obtain hydrogen and oxygen. Apart from solar water splitting, electrochemical method plays a key role in the booming field, and it is urgent to develop novel and efficient catalysts to accelerate water splitting reaction. Recently, newly emerging self-supported materials, especially three dimensional（3D） carbon substrate electrochemical catalysts, have attracted great attention benefiting from their fantastic catalytic performances, such as large surface area,enhanced conductivity, tunable porosity, and so on. This review summarizes the outstanding materials used for hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction. And catalysts that acted as both anode and cathode in two-electrode systems for overall water splitting are introduced systematically. The opportunities and challenges of 3D carbon substrate materials for electrochemical water splitting are proposed.

Deposition of Amorphous Carbon Films using ECR Plasma byVarying the Substrate Temperature

Amorphous hydrogenated carbon thin films have been deposited with benzene plasma in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. The characteristic of Benzene discharge plasma has been monitored by Mast spectrometry. It shows that the majority of the plasma species in the downstream ECR Plasma with benzene as gas source are acetylene, ethylene and higher mass species. In the experiments, the effects of the substrate temperature on the deposition rates have been emphatically studied. The structures of the films were analyzed by FTIR and Ramam spectrum.The results show that when the substrate temperature rises, the deposition rate drops down, the hydrogen Foment decreases, with the higher SP3 content being presented in the film.

Influence of different substrates on the formation and characteristics of aerobic granules in sequencing batch reactors

The effects of different substrates on the aerobic granulation process were studied using laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors （SBRs）. Four parallel granules sequencing batch reactors （GSBR）： R1, R2, R3, and R4 were fed with acetate, glucose, peptone and fecula, respectively. Stable aerobic granules were successfully cultivated in R1, R2, R4, and smaller granules less than 500 μm were formed in R3. Morphology and the physic-chemical characteristics of aerobic granules fed with different carbon substrates were investigated by the four reactors operated under the same pressure. The aerobic granules in the four reactors were observed and found that peptone was the most stable one due to its good settleability even after a sludge age as short as 10 d. A strong correlation was testified between the characteristics of aerobic granules and the properties of carbon substrates. The stability of aerobic granules was affected by extracellular polymer substances （EPS） derived from microorganism growth during feast time fed with different carbon substrates, and the influence of the property of storage substance was greater than that of its quantity. Optimal carbon substrates, which are helpful in the cultivation and retention of well-settling granules and in the enhancement of the overall ability of the aerobic granules reactors, were found.

Microbial community structure and functional metabolic diversity are associated with organic carbon availability in an agricultural soil

Exploration of soil environmental characteristics governing soil microbial community structure and activity may improve our understanding of biogeochemical processes and soil quality. The impact of soil environmental characteristics especially organic carbon availability after 15-yr different organic and inorganic fertilizer inputs on soil bacterial community structure and functional metabolic diversity of soil microbial communities were evaluated in a 15-yr fertilizer experiment in Changping County, Beijing, China. The experiment was a wheat-maize rotation system which was established in 1991 including four different fertilizer treatments. These treatments included： a non-amended control（CK）, a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer treatment（NPK）; a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with swine manure incorporated treatment（NPKM）, and a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with maize straw incorporated treatment（NPKS）. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis（DGGE） of the 16 S r RNA gene was used to determine the bacterial community structure and single carbon source utilization profiles were determined to characterize the microbial community functional metabolic diversity of different fertilizer treatments using Biolog Eco plates. The results indicated that long-term fertilized treatments significantly increased soil bacterial community structure compared to CK. The use of inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated for long term（NPKM, NPKS） significantly promoted soil bacterial structure than the application of inorganic fertilizer only（NPK）, and NPKM treatment was the most important driver for increases in the soil microbial community richness（S） and structural diversity（H）. Overall utilization of carbon sources by soil microbial communities（average well color development, AWCD） and microbial substrate utilization diversity and evenness indices（H＇ and E） indicated that long-term inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated（NPKM, NPKS） could significantly stimulate soil microbial metabolic activity and functional diversity relative to CK, while no differences of them were found between NPKS and NPK treatments. Principal component analysis（PCA） based on carbon source utilization profiles also showed significant separation of soil microbial community under long-term fertilization regimes and NPKM treatment was significantly separated from the other three treatments primarily according to the higher microbial utilization of carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, polymers, phenolic compounds, and amino acid, while higher utilization of amines/amides differed soil microbial community in NPKS treatment from those in the other three treatments. Redundancy analysis（RDA） indicated that soil organic carbon（SOC） availability, especially soil microbial biomass carbon（Cmic） and Cmic/SOC ratio are the key factors of soil environmental characteristics contributing to the increase of both soil microbial community structure and functional metabolic diversity in the long-term fertilization trial. Our results showed that long-term inorganic fertilizer and swine manure application could significantly improve soil bacterial community structure and soil microbial metabolic activity through the increases in SOC availability, which could provide insights into the sustainable management of China＇s soil resource.

Flammable carbon nanotube transistors on a nitrocellulose paper substrate for transient electronics

Transient electronics represent an emerging class of technology comprising materials that can vanish in a controlled manner in response to stimuli. In contrast to conventional electronic devices that are designed to operate over the longest possible period, transient electronics are defined by operation typically over a short and well-defined period; when no longer needed, transient electronics undergo self-deconstruction and disappear completely. In this work, we demonstrate the fabrication of thermally triggered transient electronic devices based on a paper substrate, specifically, a nitrocellulose paper. Nitrocellulose paper is frequently used in acts of magic because it consists of highly flammable components that are formed by nitratil^g cellulose by exposure to nitric acid. Therefore, a complete and rapid destruction of electronic devices fabricated on nitrocellulose paper is possible without producing any residue （i.e., ash）. The transience rates can be modified by controlling radio frequency signal-induced voltages that are applied to a silver （Ag） resistive heater, which is stamped on the backside of the nitrocellulose paper. The Ag resistive heater was prepared by a simple, low-cost stamping fabrication, which requires no harsh chemicals or complex thermal treatments. For the electronics on the nitrocellulose paper substrate, we employed semiconducting carbon nanotube （CNT） network channels in the transistor for superior electrical and mechanical properties.

Comparing the temperature sensitivity of organic matter decomposition in oxic and oxygen-deprived soils

No consistent variation was found in soil respiration Q10 under various O2 conditions.Substrate C quality had a strong effect on Q10 in oxic soils.N limitation had a large impact on Q10 in soils under O2 limitation.Current studies on the temperature sensitivity(Q10)of soil organic matter(SOM)decomposition mainly focus on aerobic conditions.However,varia-tions and determinants of Q10 in oxygen(O2)-deprived soils remain unclear.Here we incubated three grassland soils under oxic,suboxic,and anoxic conditions subjected to varying temperatures to compare variations in Q10 in relation to changing substrates.No consistent variation was found in Q10 under various O2 conditions.Further analysis of edaphic properties demon-strated that substrate carbon quality showed a strong influence on Q10 in oxic soils,whereas nitrogen limitation played a more important role in suboxic and anoxic soils.These results suggest that substrate carbon quality and nitrogen limitation may play roles of varying importance in determining the temperature sensitivity of SOM decomposition under various O2 conditions.

Effect of Poly（ethylene glycol）-400 and Carbon on MoOz Nanocomposite Materials and Its Catalytic Activity for Biginelli Reactions

The effect of addition of poly（ethylene glycol）-400 （PEG-400） and carbon （0, 1, 2 and 3 wt%） as substrates were investigated systematically to get the desired phase of carbon-doped MoO3 material. The carbon source was prepared from the Acacia arabica plant wood. The resulting samples were calcined at 500 ℃. The effect of PEG-400 and carbon composite on the structure, particle size and morphology were investigated. The prepared samples were characterized by XRD, SEM-EDS and FT-IR techniques. The samples with PEG-400 and carbon ad- dition give better control of particle size and porosity. The prepared catalysts were tested for the synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidones via the Biginelli-type condensation reaction. This new method consistently has the advan- tage of excellent yields （88%--93%） and short reaction times （1.5--3 h） than do classical Biginelli reaction conditions.

Selective nitrogen doping on carbon cloth to enhance the performance of zinc anode

Metallic zinc is attractive anode material of rechargeable aqueous Zn-based batteries due to its ambient stability,high volumetric capacity,and abundant reserves.Nonetheless,Zn anodes suffer from issues such as low coulombic efficiency(CE),large polarization and dendrite formation.Herein,uniform Zn electrodeposition is reported on carbon substrates by selective nitrogen doping.Combined experimental and theoretical investigations demonstrate that pyrrolic and pyridinic nitrogen doped in carbon play beneficial effect as zinc-philic sites to direct nucleation and growth of metallic Zn,while negligible effect is observed for graphite nitrogen in Zn plating.The carbon cloth with modified amount of doped pyrrolic and pyridinic nitrogen stabilizes Zn plating/stripping with 99.3%CE after 300 cycles and significantly increases the deliverable capacity at high depth of charge and discharge compared to undoped carbon substrate and Zn foil.This work provides a better understanding of heteroatom doping effect in design and preparation of stable 3 D carbon-supported zinc anode.

Revisiting the anodic stability of nickel-cobalt hydroxide/carbon composite electrodes for rechargeable Ni-Zn battery

Aqueous rechargeable Ni−Zn batteries are considered as a new generation of safe and reliable electro-chemical energy storage system.However,low electronic conductivity of Ni-based cathodes hinders the practical application of Ni-Zn batteries.This problem can be overcome by compositing the Ni-based cath-ode with highly conductive carbon substrates.A chemical oxidation pre-treatment is popularly applied to the carbon substrates to increase their hydrophilicity and thus facilitate the growth of active materials in aqueous systems.However,the anodic stability of the oxidized carbon substrates is greatly challenged,which has never been addressed in previous reports.In this work,we first compared the anodic stabil-ity of carbon fiber paper with and without oxidation treatment and find that carbon substrate with the chemical treatment caused remarkable oxidization current in the required voltage range.To take both anodic stability and fine growth of active materials into account,here we demonstrated a facile physical surface-treatment method of ethanol wetting to replace the chemical treatment.The ethanol infiltration removes gas adsorption on carbon substrates and thus promotes their hydrophilicity.This cost-effective strategy simultaneously achieves a high anodic stability and a fine growth and uniform distribution of nickel-cobalt hydroxide on the carbon microfibers.The resulting Ni-Zn battery provides a high discharge capacity of 219 mAh/g with an operation cell voltage of 1.75 V.

Assembly of flower-like VS_(2)/N-doped porous carbon with expanded(001)plane on rGO for superior Na-ion and K-ion storage

VS2 with natural layered structure and metallic conductivity is a prospective candidate for sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)and potassium-ion batteries(PIBs).However,due to large radius of Na+and K+,the limited interlayer spacing(0.57 nm)of VS2 generally determines high ion diffusion barrier and large volume variation,resulting in unsatisfactory electrochemical performance of SIBs and PIBs.In this work,flower-like VS_(2)/N-doped carbon(VS_(2)/N-C)with expanded(001)plane is grown on reduced graphene oxide(rGO)via a solvothermal and subsequently carbonization strategy.In the VS_(2)/N-C@rGO nanohybrids,the ultrathin VS2"petals"are alternately intercalated by the N-doped porous carbon monolayers to achieve an expanded interlayer spacing(1.02 nm),which can effectively reduce ions diffusion barrier,expose abundant active sites for Na+/K+intercalation,and tolerate large volume variation.The N-C and rGO carbonous materials can significantly promote the electrical conductivity and structural stability.Benefited from the synergistic effect,the VS2/N-C@rGO electrode exhibits large reversible capacity(Na+:407 mAh·g^(-1) at 1 A·g^(-1);K^(+):334 mAh·g^(-1) at 0.2 A·g^(-1)),high rate capacity(Na+:273 mAh·g^(-1) at 8 A·g^(-1);K+:186 mAh·g^(-1) at 5 A·g^(-1)),and remarkable cycling stability(Na+:316 mAh·g^(-1) at 2 A·g^(-1) after 1,400 cycles;K^(+):216 mAh·g^(-1) at 1 A·g^(-1) after 500 cycles).

Effect of substrates and underlayer on CNT synthesis by plasma enhanced CVD

Due to their unique thermal, electronic and mechanical properties, carbon nanotubes （CNTs） have aroused various attentions of many researchers. Among all the techniques to fabricate CNTs, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition （PECVD） has been extensively developed as one growth technique to produce verticallyaligned car bon nanotubes （VACNTs）. Though CNTs show a trend to be integrated into nanoelectromechanical system （NEMS）, CNT growth still remains a mysterious technology. This paper attempts to reveal the effects of substrates and un derlayers to CNT synthesis. We tried five different substrates by substituting intrinsic Si with high resistivity ones and byincreasing the thickness of SiO2 insulativity layer. And also, we demonstrated an innovative way of adjusting CNT den sity by changing the thickness of Cu underlayer.