Amylopectin from Glutinous Rice as a Sustainable Binder for High-Performance Silicon Anodes

Silicon(Si)has been investigated as a promising anode material because of its high theoretical capacity(4200 m Ah g^(-1)).However,silicon anode suffers from huge volume changes during repeated charge–discharge cycles.In this work,inspired by a remarkable success of the glutinous rice mortar in the Great Wall with ca.2000-year history,amylopectin(AP),the key ingredient responsible for the strong bonding force,is extracted from glutinous rice and utilized as a flexible,aqueous,and resilient binder to address the most challenging drastic volume-expansion and pulverization issues of silicon anode.Additionally,the removal of toxic N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone(NMP)organic solvent makes the electrode fabrication process environmentally friendly and healthy.The as-prepared Si-AP electrode with 60 wt%of Si can uphold a high discharge capacity of 1517.9 m Ah g^(-1)at a rate of 0.1 C after 100 cycles.The cycling stability of the Si-AP has been remarkably improved in comparison with both traditional polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF)and aqueous carboxymethylcellulose(CMC)binders.Moreover,when the content of silicon in the Si-AP electrode increases to 70 wt%,a high discharge capacity of 1463.1 m Ah g^(-1)can still be obtained after 50 cycles at 0.1°C.These preliminary results suggest that the sustainably available and environmentally benign amylopectin binders could be a promising choice for the construction of highly stable silicon anodes.

Study on Production Process of Roselle Rice Wine

[Objectives]This study was conducted to more systematically explore the traditional brewing process of roselle rice wine. [Methods] With local high-quality white glutinous rice and sun-dried roselle as raw materials for brewing rice wine, on the premise of extensive research on traditional rice wine technology in China, the addition amount of roselle extract, the addition amount of distiller’s yeast, the variation range of after-fermentation temperature and the starting time of after-fermentation were investigated. [Results] The best traditional processing and brewing parameters were the ratio of glutinous rice and roselle extract(mass to volume ratio) at about 1∶1.55, the addition amount of distiller’s yeast of 0.55%, and the fermentation temperature at 30 ℃, and the starting time at 72 h. The sensory quality of the high-quality roselle rice wine that was produced under the best brewing conditions was about(87.7±2.45) points. [Conclusions] A number of hygiene inspection technical indexes in the product all met the current relevant national safety standards in China, providing another technical research direction for the development of a variety of new green healthy beverage projects.