Ni-P-SBR composite-electroless-plating enables Si anode with high conductivity and elasticity for high performance Li-ion batteries application

Silica-based anode is widely employed for high energy density Li-ion batteries owing to their high theoretical specific capacity(4200 m A h g-1).However,it is always accompanied by a huge volume expansion(300%)and shrinks during the lithiation/delithiation process,further leading to low cycle stability.Efforts to mitigate the adverse effects caused by volume expansion such as robust binder matrix,Coreshell structure,etc.,inevitably affect the electronic conductivity within the electrode.Herein,a high conductivity and elasticity Si anode(Ni-P-SBR(styrene-butadiene rubber)@Si)was designed and fabricated via the Ni-P-SBR composite-electroless-plating process.In this design,the Si particles are surrounded by SBR polymer and Ni particles,where the SBR can adapt to the volume change and Ni particles can provide the electrode with high electronic conductivity.Therefore,the Ni-P-SBR@Si delivers a high initial capacity of 3470 m A h g-1and presents capacity retention of 49.4%within 200 cycles at 600 m A g-1.Additionally,a high capacity of 1153 m A h g-1can be achieved at 2000 m A g-1and can be cycled stably under bending conditions.This strategy provides feasible ideas to solve the key issues that limit the practical application of Si anodes.

Effect of fluid elasticity on the numerical stability of high-resolution schemes for high shearing contraction flows using OpenFOAM

Viscoelastic fluids due to their non-linear nature play an important role in process and polymer industries. These non-linear characteristics of fluid, influence final outcome of the product. Such processes though look simple are numerically challenging to study, due to the loss of numerical stability. Over the years, various methodologies have been developed to overcome this numerical limitation. In spite of this, numerical solutions are considered distant from accuracy, as first-order upwind-differencing scheme （UDS） is often employed for improving the stability of algorithm. To elude this effect, some works been reported in the past, where high-resolution-schemes （HRS） were employed and Deborah number was varied. However, these works are limited to creeping flows and do not detail any information on the numerical stability of HRS. Hence, this article presents the numerical study of high shearing contraction flows, where stability of HRS are addressed in reference to fluid elasticity. Results suggest that all I-IRS show some order of undue oscillations in flow variable profiles, measured along vertical lines placed near contraction region in the upstream section of domain, at varied elasticity number E ~ 5. Furthermore, by E, a clear relationship between numerical stability of HRS and E was obtained, which states that the order of undue oscillations in flow variable profiles is directly proportional to E.

Design and Preparation of High Elastic Modulus Self-compacting Concrete for Pre-stressed Mass Concrete Structures

Requirements of self-compacting concrete （SCC） applied in pre-stressed mass concrete structures include high fluidity, high elastic modulus, low adiabatic temperature rise and low drying shrinkage, which cannot be satisfied by ordinary SCC. In this study, in order to solve the problem, a few principles of SCC design were proposed and the effects of binder amount, fly ash （FA） substitution, aggregate content and gradation on the workability, temperature rise, drying shrinkage and elastic modulus of SCC were investigated. The results and analysis indicate that the primary factor influencing the fluidity was paste content, and the main methods improving the elastic modulusof SCC were a lower sand ratio and an optimized coarse aggregate gradation. Lower adiabatic temperature rise and drying shrinkage were beneficial for decreasing the cement content. Further, based on the optimization of mixture, a C50 grade SCC （with binder amount of only 480 kg/ m3, fly ash substitution of 40%, sand ratio of 51% and proper coarse aggregate gradation （Vs.~0 mm： V10-16 ram： V16.20 mm= 30%： 30%：40%）） with superior workability was successfully prepared. The temperature rise and drying shrinkage of the prepared SCC were significantly reduced, and the elastic modulus reached 37.6 GPa at 28 d.

High Energy Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering in Reggeon-Pomeron Exchange Model

We initially propose a Reggeon-Pomeron exchange model to describe proton-proton elastic scattering at high energies in this short paper. A calculation for total cross section of proton-proton elastic scattering at high energies is performed without any free parameters. Our new finding from this work is that the Reggeon-Pomeron model gives a perfect fit to experimental data of the total cross section at the whole energy region where experimental data exist.

Highly elastic and degradable vitrimeric elastomers using polycondensation

Introducing covalently crosslinked network to polymer matrix can merge the advantages in reprocessing and durability of polymers.In this contribution,a series of high-performance vitrimeric elastomers were achieved via polycondensation.The topological structures of polymers were tuned by varying the feeding ratios of bisacetoacetate,hex–substituted bisacetoacetate,bisamine and tris(2-aminoethyl)amine.With these structural manipulations,the vitrimeric elastomers presented great elastic recovery properties(strain recovery value up to 80%)benefiting from the introduction of long chain branch.Furthermore,the elastomers exhibited excellent reprocessing property,water vapor/oxygen barrier and adhesive properties.Specially,the elastomers could be degraded into monomer under acid conditions which enabled the elastomer synthesis again in closed loop recycling system.The ease of the polycondensation in this work to prepare highly elastic and recyclable vitrimeric elastomers demonstrated exciting opportunities for the synthesis of sustainable polymers.

Highly elastic wrinkled structures for stable and low volume-expansion lithium-metal anodes

Lithium(Li)metal is promising for high energy density batteries due to its low electrochemical redox potential and high specific capacity.However,the formation of dendrites and its tendency for large volume expansion during plating/stripping restrict the application of Li metal in practical scenarios.In this work,we developed reduced graphene oxide-graphitic carbon nitride(rGO-C3N4,GCN)with highly elastic and wrinkled structure as the current collector.Lithiophilic site C3N4 in GCN could reduce the nucleation overpotential.In addition,this material effectively inhibited electrode expansion during cycling.At the same time,due to its high elasticity,GCN could release the stress induced by Li deposition to maintain structural integrity of the electrode.Limetal anodes with GCN exhibited small volume expansion,high Coulombic efficiency(CE)of 98.6%within 300 cycles and long cycling life of more than 1700 h.This work described and demonstrated a new approach to construct flexible current collectors for stable lithium-metal anodes.

Highly elastic cobweb-like SiO/CNF composites with reconstructed heterostructure for high-efficient lithium storage

The silicon-based materials are promising candidates for lithium-ion batteries owing to their high energy density.However,achieving long lifespan under realistic conditions remains a challenge because of the volume expansion and low conductivity.In this work,the highly elastic cobweb-like composite materials consisted by SiO and nanofibers are designed and fabricated for high-efficient lithium storage by ballmilling&electrostatic spinning method.The reconstructed heterostructure and highly elastic nanofibers can simultaneously increase the conductivity and inhibit the"expansion effect"of silicon-based materials.The constructed electrode of n-SiO/CNF delivers an initial capacity of 1700 m Ah/g,and maintains the capacities over 1000 m Ah/g after 100 cycles at the current density of 500 m A/g.Meanwhile,this electrode can give an initial coulombic efficiency over 85%and maintains at 98%in the following charge/discharge processes.Furthermore,it exhibits efficient long-term electrochemical performance,maintaining the capacity at about 1000 m Ah/g at a high current density of 1000 m A/g after 1000 cycles.This work could provide a promising strategy for enhancing the performance of siliconbased composite materials for practical application in lithium-ion batteries.

Biomedical titanium alloys and their additive manufacturing

Titanium and its alloys have been widely used for biomedical applications due to their better biomechanical and biochemical compatibility than other metallic materials such as stainless steels and Co-based alloys.A brief review on the development of the b-type titanium alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus is given and the use of additive manufacturing technologies to produce porous titanium alloy parts,using Ti-6Al-4V as a reference,and its potential in fabricating biomedica replacements are discussed in this paper.