Enhanced cycle performance of Li/S battery with the reduced graphene oxide/activated carbon functional interlayer

The high-energy lithium/sulfur(Li/S) battery has become a very popular topic of research in recent years due to its high theoretical capacity of 1672 m Ah/g. However, the polysulfide shuttle effect remains of great concern with a great number of publications dedicated to its mitigation. In this contribution, a three-dimensional(3D) reduced graphene oxide/activated carbon(RGO/AC) film, synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method and convenient mechanical pressing, is sandwiched between the separator and the sulfur-based cathode, acting as a functional interlayer to capture and trap polysulfide species. Consequently, the Li/S cell with this interlayer shows an impressive initial discharge capacity of 1078 m Ah/g and a reversible capacity of 655 m Ah/g even after 100 cycles. The RGO/AC interlayer impedes the movement of polysulfide while providing unimpeded channels for lithium ion mass transfer. Therefore, the RGO/AC interlayer with a well-designed structure represents strong potential for high-performance Li/S batteries.

Proteins as functional interlayer in organic field-effect transistor

The paper summarizes and discusses the recent advances of proteins as functional interlayers in organic field-effect transistors（OFETs）.Specific focus is given on the proteins integrated into the device structure,either to act as dielectric materials or to perform as the functional interlayer between the dielectric and the organic semiconductor（OSC）.The main emphasis is give to the location and the specific effect of protein layers in the structure of OFETs.Besides,the possibility of amyloid serving as useful building blocks for OFET is discussed.

Band structures of elastic SH waves in nanoscale multi-layered functionally graded phononic crystals with/without nonlocal interface imperfections by using a local RBF collocation method

A meshless radial basis function （RBF） collocation method based on the Eringen nonlocal elasticity theory is developed to calculate the band structures of ternary and quaternary nanoscale multi-layered phononic crystals （PNCs） with functionally graded （FG） interlayers. Detailed calculations are performed for anti-plane transverse waves propagating in such PNCs. The influences of FG and homogeneous interlayers, component number, nonlocal interface imperfections and nanoscale size on cut-off frequency and band structures are investigated in detail. Numerical results show that these factors have significant effects on band structures at the macroscopic and microscopic scales.