Direct Intermediate Regulation Enabled by Sulfur Containers in Working Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Polysulfide intermediates (PSs), the liquid-phase species of active materials in lithium–sulfur (Li-S) batteries, connect the electrochemical reactions between insulative solid sulfur and lithium sulfide and are key to full exertion of the high-energy-density Li-S system. Herein, the concept of sulfur container additives is proposed for the direct modification on the PSs species. By reversible storage and release of the sulfur species, the container molecule converts small PSs into large organosulfur species. The prototype di(tri)sulfide-polyethylene glycol sulfur container is highly efficient in the reversible PS transformation to multiply affect electrochemical behaviors of sulfur cathodes in terms of liquid-species clustering, reaction kinetics, and solid deposition. The stability and capacity of Li-S cells was thereby enhanced. The sulfur container is a strategy to directly modify PSs, enlightening the precise regulation on Li-S batteries and multi-phase electrochemical systems.     

Thermoelastic interactions without energy dissipation in an unbounded body with a spherical cavity subjected to harmonically varying temperature

The present work is concerned with the thermally induced vibration in a homogeneous and isotropic unbounded body with a spherical cavity. The Green and Nagdhi model of thermoelasticity without energy dissipation is employed. The closed form solutions for distributions of displacement, temperature and stresses are obtained. The solutions valid in the case of small frequency are deduced and the results are compared with the corresponding results obtained in other generalized thermoelasticity theories. Numerical results applicable to a copper-like material are also presented graphically and the nature of variations of the physical quantities with radial coordinate and with frequency of vibration is analyzed.     

Interpolation on spherical geodesic grids: A comparative study

Most operational models in atmospheric physics, meteorology and climatology nowadays adopt spherical geodesic grids and require “ad hoc” developed interpolation procedures. The author does a comparison between chosen representatives of linear, distance-based and cubic interpolation schemes outlining their advantages and drawbacks in this specific application field. Numerical experiments on a standard test problem, while confirming a good performance of linear and distance-based schemes in a single interpolation step, also show their minor accuracy with respect to the cubic scheme in the more realistic simulation of advection of a meteorological field.     

Representations, convolution square roots and spherical vectors

We extend results on square integrable representations of a locally compact group to subrepresentations of a representations induced from a character of a closed subgroup. We do so working in the framework of quotient representations of ∗-algebras.     

Analysis of combined conduction and radiation heat transfer in presence of participating medium by the development of hybrid method

The current study addresses the mathematical modeling aspects of coupled conductive and radiative heat transfer in the presence of absorbing, emitting and isotropic scattering gray medium within two-dimensional square enclosure. A blended method where the concepts of modified differential approximation employed by combining discrete ordinate method and spherical harmonics method, has been developed for modeling the radiative transport equation. The gray participating medium is bounded by isothermal walls of two-dimensional enclosure which are considered to be opaque, diffuse and gray. The effect of various influencing parameters i.e., radiation-conduction parameter, surface emissivity, single scattering albedo and optical thickness has been illustrated. The adaptability of the present method has also been addressed.     

球形木素基离子交换树脂的合成及其对Cr3+的吸附特性

以木素磺酸钙为原料,利用反相悬浮聚合技术在一种价廉无毒的介质相中制备出球状木质素基离子交换树脂,并讨论了它对Cr3 的吸附性能。结果表明,树脂对低浓度Cr3 的吸附效果好,前期吸附速度快,40min后吸附速率趋缓;升高温度能明显提高前期吸附速率,饱和吸附量约为60mgCr3 /g干树脂,而且树脂在较宽的弱酸性范围内表现出良好的吸附性能。     

球形SiO2-Al2O3的制备、结构和性能

将Na2SiO3·9H2O 溶液通过强酸性阳离子树脂进行离子交换得到酸性硅溶胶,再将硅溶胶与铝溶胶及六次甲基四胺混合后采用油柱成型法制备了球形SiO2-Al2O3复合氧化物. 通过XRD、BET 及TPD等手段对样品进行测试和表征, 结果表明, 600 ℃焙烧得到的SiO2-Al2O3中SiO2以无定型形式存在, 其比表面、孔容与表面酸性随SiO2含量的增加而提高, 孔径、堆密度随SiO2含量的提高而减小, 压碎强度基本保持不变.     

Preparation of spherical spinel LiMn2O4 cathode material for lithium ion batteries

A novel process is proposed for synthesis of spinel LiMn₂O₄ with spherical particles from the inexpensive materials MnSO₄, NH₄HCO₃, and NH₃H₂O. The successful preparation started with carefully controlled crystallization of MnCO₃, leading to particles of spherical shape and high tap density. Thermal decomposition of MnCO₃ was investigated by both DTA and TG analysis and XRD analysis of products. A precursor of product, spherical Mn₂O₃, was then obtained by heating MnCO₃. A mixture of Mn₂O₃ and Li₂CO₃ was then sintered to produce LiMn₂O₄ with retention of spherical particle shape. It was found that if lithium was in stoichiometric excess of 5% in the calcination of spinel LiMn₂O₄, the product had the largest initial specific capacity. In this way spherical particles of spinel LiMn₂O₄ were of excellent fluidity and dispersivity, and had a tap density as high as 1.9 g cm^–3 and an initial discharge capacity reaching 125 mAh g^–1. When surface-doped with cobalt in a 0.01 Co/Mn mole ratio, although the initial discharge capacity decreased to 118 mAh g^–1, the 100th cycle capacity retention reached 92.4% at 25°C. Even at 55°C the initial discharge capacity reached 113 mAh g^–1 and the 50th cycle capacity retention was in excess of 83.8%.     

Potential distribution around a charged spherical colloidal particle in a medium containing its counterions and a small amount of added salts

A theory is developed for the potential distribution around a charged spherical colloidal particle carrying ionized groups on the particle surface in a medium containing its counterions (i.e., counterions produced from dissociation of the particle surface groups) and a small amount of added salts on the basis of the theory of Imai and Oosawa. Numerical solutions to the Poisson–Boltzmann equation for the potential distribution are obtained for the case of dilute (but not infinitely dilute) particle suspensions of volume fraction 1 for a1 (where is the Debye–Hückel parameter and a is the particle radius). Here we have taken into account the effects of (i) counterions from the particle surface groups, and (ii) the finite particle volume fraction. These effects, which are usually neglected in the conventional Poisson–Boltzmann equation, are found to be important. It is found that, as in the case of completely salt-free media, there is a certain critical value of the particle charge (which is the same as that for the completely salt-free case). When the particle charge is lower than the critical value, the potential is given by a Coulomb potential. If the particle charge is higher than the critical value, then counterions are accumulated in the vicinity of the particle surface (counterion condensation) and the potential becomes less dependent on the particle charge. The above behaviors can be observed even for the case where the electrolyte concentration is higher than the concentration of counterions from the particle surface groups, if the conditions 1 and a1are both satisfied.