Dielectric investigations of associate formation process in thin nitrobenzene interlayers formed between metal substrates

Studies of thickness and temperature dependencies of the dielectric susceptibility of nitrobenzene interlayers formed on conductive substrates were carried out. The obtained data were processed under the assumption of the existence of dimers (with opposite directions of molecular dipole moments) in orientationally ordered wall-adjacent layers. The results were treated on the basis of Lifshits theory.     

Effect of nickel coating on electrochemical performance of graphite anodes for lithium ion batteries

Among the different materials often studied and proposed as negative electrodes for lithium-ion batteries, graphite anodes are the most used in commercial batteries. For this study, synthetic graphite was tested. During the first discharge 0.2 Li ions were consumed for the formation of the SEI film and the capacity reaches about 387 mAh/g. But at the end of the first charge only 72% of the initial charge was recovered (the reversible capacity is about 279 mAh/g). In order to improve this performance we have deposited metallic nickel on graphite with the intention to obtain a homogeneous thin layer able to modify the nature of the SEI film, to allow the diffusion of lithium ions through the protective layer, and also to increase the performance of graphite electrodes. The results show a decrease of the irreversible capacity loss (16% instead of 28% for pure graphite electrodes) as well as better cycleability for a nickel-deposited graphite electrode with only 11% weight ratio of nickel. On the other hand, an increase of the nickel content decreases this performance.