In Situ Reaction Fabrication of a Mixed-Ion/Electron-Conducting Skeleton Toward Stable Lithium Metal Anodes

Lithium metal batteries are emerging as a strong candidate in the future energy storage market due to its extremely high energy density.However,the uncontrollable lithium dendrites and volume change of lithium metal anodes severely hinder its application.In this work,the porous Cu skeleton modified with Cu_(6)Sn_(5)layer is prepared via dealloying brass foil following a facile electroless process.The porous Cu skeleton with large specific surface area and high electronic conductivity effectively reduces the local current density.The Cu_(6)Sn_(5)can react with lithium during the discharge process to form lithiophilic Li_(7)Sn_(2)in situ to promote Li-ions transport and reduce the nucleation energy barrier of lithium to guide the uniform lithium deposition.Therefore,more than 300 cycles at 1 mA cm^(−2)are achieved in the half-cell with an average Coulombic efficiency of 97.5%.The symmetric cell shows a superior cycle life of more than 1000 h at 1 mA cm^(−2)with a small average hysteresis voltage of 16 mV.When coupled with LiFePO_(4)cathode,the full cell also maintains excellent cycling and rate performance.

Amorphous Se species anchored into enclosed carbon skeleton bridged by chemical bonding toward advanced K-Se batteries

Potassium-selenium(K-Se)batteries have attracted significant attention as one of the most promising alternatives of lithium-ion storage systems owing to high energy density and low cost.In the design of Se-based cathode materials,however,the low utilization rate of active Se and the rapid dissolution of polyselenides seriously weaken the capacity and cycle stability.Therefore,how to make full use of Se species without loss during the charge and discharge process is the key to design high-performance Se-based cathode.In this paper,a 3 D"water cube"-like Se/C hybrid(denoted as Se-O-PCS)is constructed with the assistance of Na_(2)CO_(3) templates.Thanks to the abundant carbonate groups(CO_(3)^(2-))originated from the Na_(2)CO_(3) templates,the molten Se species are firmly anchored into the pore of carbon skeleton by strong C-O-Se bonding.Thus,this unique Se-O-PCS model not only improves the utilization of active Se species,but also can reduce the contact with the electrolyte to inhibit the shuttle effect of polyselenides.Moreover,flexible carbon skeleton gives Se-O-PCS hybrid a good electrical conductivity and excellent structural robustness.Consequently,the resultant Se-O-PCS hybrid is endowed with an obviously enhanced K-ions storage property.

A nonwoven supported mixed matrix membrane for CH4/N2 separation

Efficiently enriching low-concentration CH4 is pivotal for enhancing the utilization of unconventional energy sources and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.This study focuses on modifying the overall performance of CH_(4)/N_(2)separation membranes.A novel mixed matrix membrane(MMM)with a reinforced substrate structure was developed through a straightforward dip-coating technique.This MMM incorporates a polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)porous membrane as the supporting framework,while a composite of block polymer(styrene-butadiene-styrene)and metal-organic framework(Ni-MOF-74)forms the selective separation layer.Comprehensive characterization of Ni-MOF-74 and the fabricatedmembranes was conducted using X-rays diffraction,scanning electron microscope,Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis,and gas permeance tests.The findings indicate a robust integration of the PTFE porous support with the membrane layer,enhancing the mechanical stability of theMMM.Under optimal conditions,the mechanical strength of the PM20 membrane(containing 20%Ni-MOF-74)was observed to be 37.7 MPa,representing remarkable increase compared to the non-reinforcedMMM.Additionally,thePM20membrane exhibited an impressive CH4 permeation rate of 92 barrer(1 barrer﹦3.35×10^(-16)mol·m·m^(-2)·s^(-1)·Pa^(-1))alongside a CH_(4)/N_(2)selectivity of 4.18.These results underscore the MMM's substantial performance and its promising potential in methane enrichment applications.

3D uniform nitrogen-doped carbon skeleton for ultra-stable sodium metal anode

Sodium metal batteries are arousing extensive interest owing to their high energy density,low cost and wide resource.However,the practical development of sodium metal batteries is inherently plagued by the severe volume expansion and the dendrite growth of sodium metal anode during long cycles under high current density.Herein,a simple electrospinning method is applied to construct the uniformly nitrogen-doped porous carbon fiber skeleton and used as three-dimensional(3D)current collector for sodium metal anode,which has high specific surface area(1,098 m^2/g)and strong binding to sodium metal.As a result,nitrogen-doped carbon fiber current collector shows a low sodium deposition overpotential and a highly stable cyclability for 3,500 h with a high coulombic effciency of 99.9%at 2 mA/cm^2 and 2 mAh/cm^2.Moreover,the full cells using carbon coated sodium vanadium phosphate as cathode and sodium pre-plated nitrogen-doped carbon fiber skeleton as hybrid anode can stably cycle for 300 times.These results illustrate an effective strategy to construct a 3D uniformly nitrogen-doped carbon skeleton based sodium metal hybrid anode without the formation of dendrites,which provide a prospect for further development and research of high performance sodium metal batteries.

High-performance porous carbon foams via catalytic pyrolysis of modified isocyanate-based polyimide foams for electromagnetic shielding

Porous carbon skeletons(PCSs)derived from isocyanate-based aromatic polyimide foams(PIFs)by high-temperature pyrolysis are very promising in the fabrication of high-performance polymer composite foams for electromagnetic interference(EMI)shielding due to their efficient conductive networks and facile preparation process.However,severe volumetric shrinkage and low graphitization degree is not conducive to enhancing the shielding efficiency of the PCSs.Herein,ferric acetylacetonate and carbon-nanotube coating have been introduced in isocyanate-based PIFs to greatly suppress the serious shrinkage during pyrolysis and improve the graphitization degree of the final carbon foams through the Fe-catalytic graphitization process,thereby endowing them with better EMI-shielding performance even at lower pyrolysis temperature compared to the control samples.Moreover,compressible polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)composite foams with the as-prepared carbon foams as prefabricated PCSs have also been fabricated,which could provide not only stable shielding effectiveness(SE)performance even after a thousand compressions,but also multiple functions of Joule heating,thermal insulation and infrared stealth.This study offers a feasible route to prepare high-performance PCSs in a more energy-efficient manner via PIF pyrolysis,which is very promising in the manufacture of multifunctional conductive polymer composite foams.