New layered metal oxides as positive electrode materials for room-temperature sodium-ion batteries

In order to achieve better Na storage performance, most layered oxide positive electrode materials contain toxic and expensive transition metals Ni and/or Co, which are also widely used for lithium-ion batteries. Here we report a new quaternary layered oxide consisting of Cu, Fe, Mn, and Ti transition metals with O3-type oxygen stacking as a positive electrode for room-temperature sodium-ion batteries. The material can be simply prepared by a high-temperature solidstate reaction route and delivers a reversible capacity of 94 m Ah/g with an average storage voltage of 3.2 V. This paves the way for cheaper and non-toxic batteries with high Na storage performance.

Sucrose pyrolysis assembling carbon nanotubes on graphite felt using for vanadium redox flow battery positive electrode

In the present paper, multi-walled carbon nanotubes（MWCNTs） are successfully assembled on graphite felt（GF） using sucrose pyrolysis method for the first time. The in situ formed pyrolytic carbon is chosen as the binder because it is essentially carbon materials as well as CNTs and GF which has a natural tendency to achieve high bonding strength and low contact resistance. The MWCNTs/GF electrode is demonstrated to increase surface area, reduce polarization, lower charge transfer resistance and improve energy conversion efficiency comparing with GF. This excellent electrochemical performance is mainly ascribed to the high electro-catalytic activity of MWCNTs and increasing surface area.

The detailed characteristics of positive corona current pulses in the line-to-plane electrodes

The corona current pulses generated by corona discharge are the sources of the radio interference from transmission lines and the detailed characteristics of the corona current pulses from conductor should be investigated in order to reveal their generation mechanism.In this paper,the line-to-plane electrodes are designed to measure and analyze the characteristics of corona current pulses from positive corona discharges.The influences of inter-electrode gap and line diameters on the detail characteristics of corona current pulses,such as pulse amplitude,rise time,duration time and repetition frequency,are carefully analyzed.The obtained results show that the pulse amplitude and the repetition frequency increase with the diameter of line electrode when the electric fields on the surface of line electrodes are same.With the increase of inter-electrode gap,the pulse amplitude and the repetition frequency first decrease and then turn to be stable,while the rise time first increases and finally turns to be stable.The distributions of electric field and space charges under the line electrodes are calculated,and the influences of inter-electrode gap and line electrode diameter on the experimental results are qualitatively explained.

Electrodeposited Cobalt-Iron Alloy Thin-Film for Potentiometric Hydrogen Phosphate-Ion Sensor

A cobalt-iron alloy thin-film electrode-based electrochemical hydrogen-phosphate-ion sensor was prepared by electrodepositing on an Au-coated Al2O3 substrate from an aqueous solution of metal-salts. The use of a cobalt-iron alloy electrode greatly improved the hydrogen-ion sensor response performance, i.e., the sensor worked stably for more than 7 weeks and showed a quick response time of several seconds. Among the cobalt and iron alloy systems tested, the electrodeposited Co58Fe42 thin-film electrode showed the best EMF response characteristics, i.e., the sensor exhibited a linear potentiometric response to hydrogen-phosphate ion at the concentration range between 1.0 × 10–5 and 1.0 × 10–2 M with the slope of –43 mV/decade at pH 5.0 and at 30℃. A sensing mechanism of the Co-based potentiometric hydrogen-phosphate ion sensor was proposed on the basis of results of instrumental analysis.

CoO AS ADDITIVE IN POSITIVE ELECTRODE OF NICKEL-METAL HYDRIDE BATTERY

A series of positive electrodes for Ni/MH battery were fabricated by addition of CoO.The morphology and microstructure of the electrodes were examined by SEM and EDS, and electrochemical behavior was investigated in three-compartment appliances at room temperature.The electrochemical performance of the positive electrodes with CoO was improved. Under the same charge-discharge cycle, the electrodes with CoO showed higher specific capacity, lower charge mean voltage and higher discharge mean voltage. But ...

A comparative study on the reactivity of charged Ni-rich and Ni-poor positive electrodes with electrolyte at elevated temperatures using accelerating rate calorimetry

The reactivity between charged Li(Li_(0.115)Mn_(0.529)Ni_(0.339)Al_(0.017))O_(2)(Li-rich),single crystal Li(Ni_(0.8)Mn_(0.1)Co_(0.1))O_(2)(SC-NMC811),LiFePO_(4)(LFP) and LiMn_(0.8)Fe_(0.2)PO_(4)(LMFP) positive electrodes at different states of charge(SOCs) and traditional carbonate-based electrolyte at elevated temperatures is systematically studied using accelerating rate calorimetry(ARC).The results show that the SOC greatly affects the thermal stability of the Li-rich and SC-NMC811 when traditional carbonate-based electrolyte is used.Although an increase in the SOC increases the energy density of lithium-ion cells,it also increases the reactivity between charged Li-rich and SC-NMC811 samples with electrolyte at elevated temperatures.In comparison with SC-NMC811,the Li-rich samples are much more stable at elevated temperatures,and the latter have higher specific capacity.SC-NMC811 samples are less reactive than traditional polycrystalline NMC811.Both LFP and LMFP samples show excellent thermal stability at elevated temperatures.The substitution of Fe by Mn in the olivine series positive materials does not impact the reactivity with electrolyte.

Response of the low-pressure hot-filament discharge plasma to a positively biased auxiliary disk electrode

In a steady-state plasma,the loss rate of plasma particles to the chamber wall and surfaces in contact with plasma is balanced by the ionization rate of background neutrals in the hot-filament discharges.The balance between the loss rate and ionization rate of plasma particles(electrons and ions)maintains quasi-neutrality of the bulk plasma.In the presence of an external perturbation,it tries to retain its quasi-neutrality condition.In this work,we studied how the properties of bulk plasma are affected by an external DC potential perturbation.An auxiliary biased metal disk electrode was used to introduce a potential perturbation to the plasma medium.A single Langmuir probe and an emissive probe,placed in the line of the discharge axis,were used for the characterization of the bulk plasma.It is observed that only positive bias to the auxiliary metal disk increases the plasma potential,electron temperature,and plasma density but these plasma parameters remain unaltered when the disk is biased with a negative potential with respect to plasma potential.The observed plasma parameters for two different-sized,positively as well as negatively biased,metal disks are compared and found inconsistent with the existing theoretical model at large positive bias voltages.The role of the primary energetic electrons population in determining the plasma parameters is discussed.The experimentally observed results are qualitatively explained on the basis of electrostatic confinement arising due to the loss of electrons to a biased metal disk electrode.

Phosphorus Based Ceramics for Positive Electrode Synthesis and Characterization

Historically, the LiCoO2 is the most used as active material for battery positive electrode because of its great potential (3.7 - 4.2 V), its interesting specific capacity (150 mA·h·g-1) and its excellent life cycle [1] 08D0C9EA79F9BACE118C8200AA004BA90B02000000080000000E0000005F005200650066003300390038003500370036003700340032000000 . However, its toxicity, the cobalt cost and its structural instability oriented research towards new materials more stable that can replace it. In another context, hybrid, electrical vehicles and communication (computers and mobile phones...) have increased the scientific and technological research for new materials capable of storing and return energy through a system called accumulator. And research has identified the phosphate olivine structure as the most prolific ceramic material for positive electrode. LiFePO4 is a promising cathode material for Lithium-ion batteries. It provides high thermal stability and is synthesized using low cost materials. Unfortunately LiFePO4 suffers from a low electrical conductivity, which is harmful to its electrochemical performance. Decreasing the particle size, coating the particles with carbon or doping with metal atoms can increase the conductivity of the material. In this paper, we present the synthesis, physico-chemical and electrical characterization of lithium and iron doped Al-phosphorrus-based ceramic. The NPK Fertiliser was used as Al and phosphorus precursors. The powder XRD spectrum shows a possible presence of LiFePO4 and Fe2(PO)3 in theheterostrcture. An important quantity of Al is found by EDX spectra which supposed that the most important based atom is Aluminum and not Phosphorus. This can explain the increase of the conductivity value 102 times more important than those found in the literature for LiFePO4.

Performance of positive and negative electrodes in amorphous manganese oxide supercapacitor

Using potassium permanganate and acetic manganese as the reactants,amorphous manganese oxide was prepared with mechanochemical method. XRD was used for microstructure characterization,while cyclic voltammetry and constant current charge-discharge were used for electrochemical performance testing. The positive electrode(PE) and negative electrode(NE) were investigated respectively in amorphous manganese oxide supercapacitor,aiming to find their different performances in charging-discharging. The results show that the crystalline structure is destroyed in both the PE and NE material during charge-discharge process. Thereinto,the NE suffers a bit more seriously. When cycling,the PE potential scope diminishes while the NE potential scope enlarges. The increased inner resistance makes the NE curves almost bended to be a right angle,but not the PE curves. The cell's equivalent series resistance(ESR) is more dependent on the NE,and the capacitance is mainly determined by the rapid descent of the NE potential range. The capacitances of the NE are highly rate-dependent,decreasing from 121.3 to 53.1 F/g,by 56.2%,over the range of 5-25 mV/s. However,the PE appears to be weakly dependent and its capacitance is only dropped by 22.1%.

Radio-frequency magnetron sputtered thin-film La_(0.5)Sr_(0.5)Co_(0.95)Nb_(0.05)O_(3-δ) perovskite electrodes for intermediate temperature symmetric solid oxide fuel cell(IT-SSOFC)

The present work explores the application of La_(0.5)Sr_(0.5)Co_(0.95)Nb_(0.05)O_(3-δ)(LSCNO)perovskite as electrode material for the symmetric solid oxide fuel cell.Symmetric solid oxide fuel cells of thin-film LSCNO electrodes were prepared to study the oxygen reduction reaction at intermediate temperature.The Rietveld refinement of syn-thesized material shows a hexagonal structure with the R-3c space group of the prepared perovskite material.Lattice parameter and fractional coordinates were utilized to calculate the oxygen ion diffusion coefficient for molecular dynamic simulation.At 973 K,the oxygen ion diffusion of LSCNO was 1.407×10^(-8)cm^(2)s^(-1) higher by order of one magnitude than that of the La_(0.5)Sr_(0.5)Co_(0.95)Nb_(0.05)O_(3-δ)(7.751×10^(-9)cm^(2)^(-1)).The results suggest that the Nb doping provide the structural stability which improves oxygen anion diffusion.The enhanced structural stability was analysed by the thermal expansion coefficient calculated experimentally and from molecular dynamics simulations.Furthermore,the density functional theory calculation revealed the role of Nb dopant for oxygen vacancy formation energy at Sr-0 and La-O planes is lower than the undoped structure.To understand the rate-limiting process for sluggish oxygen diffusion kinetics,80 nm and 40 nm thin films were fabricated using radio frequency magnetron sputtering on gadolinium doped ceria electrolyte substrate.The impedance was observed to increase with an increasing thickness,suggesting the bulk diffusion as a rate-limiting step for oxygen ion diffu-sion.The electrochemical performance was analysed for the thin-flm symmetric solid oxide fuel cell,which achieved a peak power density of 390 mW cm^(-2) at 1.02 V in the presence of H_(2) fuel on the anode side and air on the cathode side.

Texture ZnO Thin-Films and their Application as Front Electrode in Solar Cells

In this paper, three kinds of textured ZnO thin-films (the first kind has the textured structure with both columnar and polygon, the second posses pyramid-like textured structure only, and the third has the textured structure with both crater-like and pyramid-like), were prepared by three kinds of methods, and the application of these ZnO thin-films as a front electrode in solar cell was studied, respectively. In the first method with negative bias voltage and appropriate sputtering parameters, the textured structure with columnar and polygon on the surface of ZnO thin-film are both existence for the sample prepared by direct magnetron sputtering. Using as a front electrode in solar cell, the photoelectric conversion efficiency Eff of 7.00% was obtained. The second method is that by sputtering on the ZnO:Al self-supporting substrate, and the distribution of pyramid-like was gained. Moreover, the higher (8.25%) photoelectric conversion efficiency of solar cell was got. The last method is that by acid-etching the as-deposited ZnO thin-film which possesses mainly both columnar and polygon structure, and the textured ZnO thin-film with both crater-like and pyramid-like structure was obtained, and the photoelectric conversion efficiency of solar cell is 7.10% when using it as front electrode. These results show that the textured ZnO thin-film prepared on self-supporting substrate is more suitable for using as a front electrode in amorphous silicon cells.

Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Calcium Folinate on Carboxyl Graphene Modified CuxO/Cu Electrode

Carboxyl graphene 修改了 Cu x O/Cu 电极被制作。赤裸的铜电极是第一阳极的在 1.0 mol/L NaOH 答案极化了以便得到 Cu x O nanoparticles，当时， carboxyl graphene (CG ) 是 Cu x 由周期的潜在的扫的 O/Cu 电极。在 graphene 的钙 folinate (CF ) 的 electrocatalytic 氧化行为修改了 Cu x O/Cu 电极被周期的 voltammetry 调查。积极扫描极化颠倒催化 voltammetry 被用来获得纯催化氧化水流。graphene 修改了 Cu x O/Cu 电极作为 CF 的电气化学的传感器被服务，一高度 22.0

Calibration method for electrode gains in an axially symmetric stripline BPM

The four electrodes in the stripline beam position monitor(BPM) for Hefei Light Source(HLS II) storage ring are of axially symmetric type. We have derived a new calibration method of electrode gains for this type stripline BPM. The gain fit error of different data grids was analyzed, and the ±5 mm by ±5 mm grid is the best.The electrode gains of two stripline BPMs(HLS II SR-BD-STLB1 and HLS II SR-BD-STLB2) were obtained based on offline calibrated data. The results show that data after fitting gains are improved, with the electrode gains being between 0.94 and 1.15.

Generation of reactive atomic species of positive pulsed corona discharges in wetted atmospheric flows of nitrogen and oxygen

The emission spectra of excited radicals（OH（A^2E）,O（3p^3 P）,Hα（3P）） and emissive species（N2^＋（B^2∑u^＋）,N2（C3Πu）） produced by positive pulsed high-voltage needle-plane corona discharges in atmospheric N2 and O2 flows wetted with 10%H2O at 80 ℃ are used to investigate the relative concentrations of the produced radicals.The results indicate that the tendencies of the concentrations of radicals with discharge conditions are similar to each other due to their similar excitation processes by electron collision.The influence of oxygen flow mixed with the nitrogen flow on the emission intensities of O（3p^5P → 3s^5S2^0.）,Hα（3P → 2S）,N2＋（B^2∑u^＋ → X^2∑g＋0-0）,and N2（C^3Πu → B^3Πg 1-0） is presented.When the flow rate of oxygen addition is varied from 0-30 ml min^-1,the emission intensities of O（3p^5P → 3s^5S2^0.）,Hα（3P → 2s）,and N2^＋（B^2∑u^＋ →X^2∑g 0-0） increase and reach a maximum.Then,if the oxygen flow rate increases further,the emission intensities tend to decrease.However,the intensity of N2（C^3Πu → B^3Πg1-0） decreases monotonously with the increasing oxygen flow,which indicates that the electron density decreases with the increasing oxygen flow.By the tendencies of the relative intensities to N2（C^3Πu → B^3Πg 1-0）,the concentrations of the total produced O,H,and N2^＋ are shown to increase with the oxygen flow.Based on the reactions for the production of H and O without and with the addition of O2,the analytic solutions for H and O production are derived in accordance with the experimental results.

Electronic Excitation Temperature in DC Positive Streamer Discharge

The electronic excitation temperature in a direct current positive streamer discharge based on ultra-thin sheet electrodes was measured by optical emission spectrometry in order to deposit materials for potential future applications. It was remarkable that the electronic excitation temperature （Text） did not vary monotonically with the discharge current, but demonstrated a peak at a certain position. In a mixture of oxygen and argon （80% oxygen）, the maximum Texc reached about 6300 K at an average current of 600 pA. Both the positive ions accumulation in the discharge region and the increase of the local temperature around the streamer channel caused by Joule heating are considered to be the main reasons for the variations of Texc.

Determination of the Antiretroviral Drug Zidovudine in Diluted Alkaline Electrolyte by Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetry at the Mercury Film Electrode

This paper describes a stripping method for the determination of zidovudine at the submicromolar concentration levels. This method is based on the controlled adsorptive accumulation of zidovudine at the thin-film mercury electrode, followed by a linear-sweep stripping voltammetry measurement of the surface species. Optimal experimental conditions include a NaOH solution of 2.0 × 10–3 mol●L–1 (sup-porting electrolyte), an accumulation potential of –0.30 V and a scan rate of 100 mV?s–1. The response of zidovudine is linear over the concentration range 0.01 - 0.08 ppm. After an accumulation time of 5 minutes, the detection limit was found to be 0.67 ppb (2.5 × 10–9 mol●L–1). More convenient methods to measure zidovudine concentration in the presence of the didanosine, acyclovir, nevirapine, lamivudine, and efavirenz, were also investigated. The presence of zidovudine together with ATP or ssDNA demonstrates the utility of this method.

LiB Electrode Ageing Observed from PVdF Binder

Ageing behaviors of the positive electrode of lithium ion battery are characterized by measuring mechanical properties of the electrode reeds, such as resonance frequency and internal friction, as a function of temperature. In the measurements of the electrode reeds with a sandwich structure of active material film and current collector of Al foil, two thermally-activated relaxation processes can be observed on the polyvinylidene difluoride binder in the active material film. Namely, a surface-related relaxation at ~150 K and a relaxation corresponding to the β-phase transition at ~240 K in the polymer binder can be observed at high signal/noise ratio. The resonance frequency decreases and the internal friction increases after charge/discharge cycling. The changes in activation energies of the relaxation processes also indicate that the measurement of mechanical properties of the positive electrode is an effective method for characterizing ageing behaviors of the positive electrode as a whole.

Photoelectrocatalytic Oxidation of Ethinylestradiol on a Ti/TiO₂Electrode: Degradation Efficiency and Search for By-Products

The degradation of ethinylestradiol (EE, an orally bio-active estrogen) in an aqueous-methanolic solution using a Ti/TiO2 thin-film electrode and UV radiation (a photoelectrocatalytic system) was evaluated. Hence, HPLC/UV analysis shows that EE (at 0.34 mmol) is totally consumed after 30 minutes of exposure to the photoelectrocatalytic system in the presence of Na2SO4 (0.1 mol·L-1) and with an applied bias potential of +1.0 V versus the Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Moreover, monitoring by direct infusion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and SPME-GC/ MS (solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) reveals that apparently no degradation products are formed under these conditions. Hence, this study demonstrates that the photoelectrocatalytic system can be efficiently used to promote the complete degradation (and likely mineralization) of this hormone under these conditions.

Arc Stability Characterization of Double Coated Electrodes for Hardfacing

The aim of this work is to establish the influence of the relative position of the alloy charge C-Cr-Mn in the structure of the coating of rutile electrodes for hardfacing,on the operational behavior(arc stability).For this,three variants of electrodes with similar chemical composition are elaborated in the metallic core and the coating,differentiating only in the relative position that occupies the alloy charge(C-Cr-Mn)in the structure of the coating:internal,external and homogeneous.For the development of the research,a completely random design is used.The operative characterization of the electrodes is performed in terms of the arc stability.In conclusion,it can be seen that the position of the alloy load influences the operation behavior(stability of the arc).The variant of internal alloy charge in the coating presents the better arc stability performance.