Rational Design of Porous N-Ti3C2 MXene@CNT Microspheres for High Cycling Stability in Li–S Battery

Herein,N-Ti3C2@CNT microspheres are successfully synthesized by the simple spray drying method.In the preparation process,HCl-treated melamine(HTM)is selected as the sources of carbon and nitrogen.It not only realizes in situ growth of CNTs on the surface of MXene nanosheets with the catalysis of Ni,but also introduces efficient N-doping in both MXene and CNTs.Within the microsphere,MXene nanosheets interconnect with CNTs to form porous and conductive network.In addition,N-doped MXene and CNTs can provide strong chemical immobilization for polysulfides and effectively entrap them within the porous microspheres.Above-mentioned merits enable N-Ti3C2@CNT microspheres to be ideal sulfur host.When used in lithium–sulfur(Li–S)battery,the N-Ti3C2@CNT microspheres/S cathode delivers initial specific capacity of 927 mAh g−1 at 1 C and retains high capacity of 775 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles with extremely low fading rate(FR)of 0.016%per cycle.Furthermore,the cathode still shows high cycling stability at high C-rate of 4 C(capacity of 647 mAh g−1 after 650 cycles,FR 0.027%)and high sulfur loading of 3 and 6 mg cm−2 for Li–S batteries.

Effects of Al and Co doping on the structural stability and high temperature cycling performance of LiNi_(0.5)Mn_(1.5)O_(4) spinel cathode materials

The poor structural stability and capacity retention of the high-voltage spinel-type LiNi_(0.5)Mn_(1.5)O_(4)(LNMO)limits their further application.Herein,Al and Co were doped in LNMO materials for a more stable structure and capacity.The LNMO,LiNi_(0.45)Al_(0.05)Mn_(1.5)O_(4)(LNAMO)and LiNi_(0.45)Co_(0.05)Mn_(1.5)O_(4)(LNCMO)were synthesized by calcination at 900℃ for 8 h,which was called as solid-phase method and applied universally in industry.XRD,FT-IR and CV test results showed the synthesized samples have cation disordering Fd-3m space group structures.Moreover,the incorporation of Al and Co increased the cation disordering of LNMO,thereby increasing the transfer rate of Li+.The SEM results showed that the doped samples performed more regular and ortho-octahedral.The EDS elemental analysis confirmed the uniform distribution of each metal element in the samples.Moreover,the doped samples showed better electrochemical properties than undoped LNMO.The LNAMO and LNCMO samples were discharged with specific capacities of 116.3 mA·h·g^(-1)and 122.8 mA·h·g^(-1)at 1 C charge/discharge rate with good capacity retention of 95.8% and 94.8% after 200 cycles at room temperature,respectively.The capacity fading phenomenon of the doped samples at 50℃ and 1 C rate was significantly improved.Further,cations doping also enhanced the rate performance,especially for the LNCMO,the discharge specific capacity of 117.9 mA·h·g^(-1)can be obtained at a rate of 5 C.

Porous NiCo2O4 Nanowire Arrays as Supercapacitor Electrode Materials with Extremely High Cycling Stability

In this work,NiCo2O4(NCO)was svnthesized via microwave hvdrothermal method and a further annealing treatment.Research results have shown that the surface defects(Co^2+ site)and pore size of the materials can beadjusted by simply changing the calcination temperatures,and porous nanowire arrays structure can be obtained.Theporous structure is conducive to the penetration of the electrolvte and enables the NCO to fully participate in the clectrochemical reaction.What's more,the NCO material has ample space to buffer the volume change in the cvcle test,improving the cvcling stability.The NCO obtained at 350℃has better performance.It exhibits a specific capaitance of 648.69 F/g at 1 A/g and good rate capability.Especially,at 10 Ag.the specific capacitance can still be maintained at 80.00%after 10000 galvanostatic charge/discharge(GCD)cycles,showing excellent cycling stability.

Lignin‐derived carbon with pyridine N‐B doping and a nanosandwich structure for high and stable lithium storage

Biomass‐derived carbon is a promising electrode material in energy storage devices.However,how to improve its low capacity and stability,and slow diffusion kinetics during lithium storage remains a challenge.In this research,we propose a“self‐assembly‐template”method to prepare B,N codoped porous carbon(BN‐C)with a nanosandwich structure and abundant pyridinic N‐B species.The nanosandwich structure can increase powder density and cycle stability by constructing a stable solid electrolyte interphase film,shortening the Li^(+) diffusion pathway,and accommodating volume expansion during repeated charging/discharging.The abundant pyridinic N‐B species can simultaneously promote the adsorption/desorption of Li^(+)/PF_(6)^(−) and reduce the diffusion barrier.The BN‐C electrode showed a high lithium‐ion storage capacity of above 1140 mAh g^(−1) at 0.05 A g^(−1) and superior stability(96.5% retained after 2000 cycles).Moreover,owing to the synergistic effect of the nanosandwich structure and pyridinic N‐B species,the assembled symmetrical BN‐C//BN‐C full cell shows a high energy density of 234.7Wh kg^(−1),high power density of 39.38 kW kg−1,and excellent cycling stability,superior to most of the other cells reported in the literature.As the density functional theory simulation demonstrated,pyridinic N‐B shows enhanced adsorption activity for Li^(+) and PF_(6)^(−),which promotes an increase in the capacity of the anode and cathode,respectively.Meanwhile,the relatively lower diffusion barrier of pyridinic N‐B promotes Li^(+) migration,resulting in good rate performance.Therefore,this study provides a new approach for the synergistic modulation of a nanostructure and an active site simultaneously to fabricate the carbon electrode material in energy storage devices.