A comprehensive review of pre-lithiation/sodiation additives for Li-ion and Na-ion batteries

Lithium/Sodium-ion batteries(LIB/SIB)have attracted enormous attention as a promising electrochemical energy storage system due to their high energy density and long cycle life.One of the major hurdles is the initial irreversible capacity loss during the first few cycles owing to forming the solid electrolyte interphase layer(SEI).This process consumes a profusion of lithium/sodium,which reduces the overall energy density and cycle life.Thus,a suitable approach to compensate for the irreversible capacity loss must be developed to improve the energy density and cycle life.Pre-lithiation/sodiation is a widely accepted process to compensate for the irreversible capacity loss during the initial cycles.Various strategies such as physical,chemical,and electrochemical pre-lithiation/sodiation have been explored;however,these approaches add an extra step to the current manufacturing process.Alternative to these strategies,pre-lithiation/sodiation additives have attracted enormous attention due to their easy adaptability and compatibility with the current battery manufacturing process.In this review,we consolidate recent developments and emphasize the importance of using pre-lithiation/sodiation additives(anode and cathode)to overcome the irreversible capacity loss during the initial cycles in lithium/sodium-ion batteries.This review also addresses the technical and scientific challenges of using pre-lithiation/sodiation additives and offers the insights to boost the energy density and cycle life with their possible commercial exploration.The most important prerequisites for designing effective pre-lithiation/sodiation additives have been explored and the future directions have been discussed.

2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid production via catalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural:Catalysts,processes and reaction mechanism

Biomass conversion to value-added chemicals has received tremendous attention for solving global warming issues and fossil fuel depletion.5-Hydroxymethylfurfural(HMF)is a key bio-based platform molecule to produce many useful organic chemicals by oxidation,hydrogenation,polymerization,and ring-opening reactions.Among all derivatives,the oxidation product 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid(FDCA)is a promising alternative to petroleum-based terephthalic acid for the synthesis of biodegradable plastics.This review analytically discusses the recent progress in the thermocatalytic,electrocatalytic,and photocatalytic oxidation of HMF into FDCA,including catalyst screening,synthesis processes,and reaction mechanism.Rapid fundamental advances may be possible in non-precious metal and metal-free catalysts that are highly efficient under the base-free conditions,and external field-assisted processes like electrochemical or photoelectrochemical cells.

2020 Roadmap on two-dimensional nanomaterials for environmental catalysis

Environmental catalysis has drawn a great deal ofattention due to its clean ways to produce useful chemicals or carry out some chemical processes.Photocatalysis and electrocatalysis play important roles in these fields.They can decompose and remove organic pollutants from the aqueous environment,and prepare some fine chemicals.Moreover,they also can carry out some important reactions,such as 02 reduction reaction(ORR),O2 evolution reaction(OER),H2 evolution reaction(HER),CO2 reduction reaction(C02 RR),and N2 fixation(NRR).For catalytic reactions,it is the key to develop high-performance catalysts to meet the demand fortargeted reactions.In recentyears,two-dimensional(2 D) materials have attracted great interest in environmental catalysis due to their unique layered structures,which offer us to make use of their electronic and structural characteristics.Great progress has been made so far,including graphene,black phosphorus,oxides,layered double hydroxides(LDHs),chalcogenides,bismuth-based layered compounds,MXenes,metal organic frameworks(MOFs),covalent organic frameworks(COFs),and others.This content drives us to invite many famous groups in these fields to write the roadmap on two-dimensional nanomaterials for environmental catalysis.We hope that this roadmap can give the useful guidance to researchers in future researches,and provide the research directions.

BiVO_(4)/TiO_(2) heterojunction with rich oxygen vacancies for enhanced electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction

The large-scale production of ammonia mainly depends on the Haber-Bosch process,which will lead to the problems of high energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission.Electrochemical nitrogen fixation is considered to be an environmental friendly and sustainable process,but its efficiency largely depends on the activity and stability of the catalyst.Therefore,it is imperative to develop high-efficient electrocatalysts in the field of nitrogen reduction reaction(NRR).In this paper,we developed a BiVO_(4)/TiO_(2) nanotube(BiVO_(4)/TNT)heterojunction composite with rich oxygen vacancies as an electrocatalytic NRR catalyst.The heterojunction interface and oxygen vacancy of BiVO_(4)/TNT can be the active site of N2 dynamic activation and proton transition.The synergistic effect of TiO_(2) and BiVO_(4) shortens the proton transport path and reduces the over potential of chemical reaction.BiVO_(4)/TNT has high ammonia yield of 8.54µg·h^(−1)·cm^(−2) and high Faraday efficiency of 7.70%in−0.8 V vs.RHE in 0.1 M Na_(2)SO_(4) solution.