A Full Flexible NH4+ Ion Battery Based on the Concentrated Hydrogel Electrolyte for Enhanced Performance

Non-metal ammonium ( ) ions have recently been explored as effective charge carriers in battery systems due to their abundancy, light weight, small hydration shells in water. The research concerning the use of redox chemistry in batteries, particularly in flexible batteries, is still in its infancy. For the first time, we report a flexible full ion battery (AIB) composed of a concentrated hydrogel electrolyte sandwiched between NH₄V₃O₈ ⋅ 2.9H₂O nanobelts cathode and polyaniline (PANI) anode, for enhanced performance. The hydrogel electrolyte is simply synthesized by using ammonium sulfate, xanthan gum and water. As a reference, the AIB based on the liquid aqueous electrolyte is prepared first, which exhibits a capacity of 121 mAh g⁻¹ and a capacity retention of 95 % after 400 cycles at a specific current of 0.1 A g⁻¹. On the other hand, the simple synthesis of the hydrogel electrolyte allows us to facilely tune and optimize the salt contents in the electrolyte, to maximize the ionic conductivity, transport kinetics, mechanical characteristics, and consequently the battery performance. It is found that the flexible battery based on the hydrogel electrolyte prepared from 3 M ammonium sulfate solution shows the best electrochemical performance, i. e., a capacity of 60 mAh g⁻¹ while maintaining a capacity retention of 88 % after 250 cycles at a specific current of 0.1 A g⁻¹. Moreover, the flexible AIB retains excellent electrochemical performance when bent at different angles, demonstrating remarkable mechanical strength and flexibility. Therefore, this study sheds new light on the utilization of concentrated hydrogel electrolyte in the AIB chemistry, for developments of novel electrochemical energy storage technology with high safety and low cost.     

Tailoring heterogeneous polymer networks through polymerization‐induced phase separation: influence of composition and processing conditions on reaction kinetics and optical properties

Polymerization‐induced phase separation from an all‐monomeric system by direct copolymerization offers the formation of heterogeneous polymeric structures without reliance on polymer blends, block copolymers, or interpenetrating polymer networks. This study examines the potential for the formation of compositional heterogeneity in copolymer networks obtained by free‐radical photopolymerizations of initially homogeneous mixtures of bisphenol A glycidyl dimethacrylate and isodecyl methacrylate as the comonomer ratios and polymerization conditions are varied. Comonomer proportions that control thermodynamic stability prior to (as determined by cloud point measurements) and during [as determined by turbidity measurements coupled with near‐infrared (IR) spectroscopy] polymerization were shown to be a more influential factor on phase separation than irradiance‐imposed kinetic control of the photopolymerization process. Through photorheometry coupled with near‐IR and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis), the onset of phase separation was shown to occur at very low conversions and always prior to gelation (as estimated by the crossover of G′/G″). © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 1796–1806     

Solvent-dependent modulation of metal-metal electronic interactions in a dinuclear cyanoruthenate complex: a detailed electrochemical, spectroscopic and computational study

The dinuclear complex [{Ru(CN)(4)}(2)(μ-bppz)](4-) shows a strongly solvent-dependent metal-metal electronic interaction which allows the mixed-valence state to be switched from class 2 to class 3 by changing solvent from water to CH(2)Cl(2). In CH(2)Cl(2) the separation between the successive Ru(ii)/Ru(iii) redox couples is 350 mV and the IVCT band (from the UV/Vis/NIR spectroelectrochemistry) is characteristic of a borderline class II/III or class III mixed valence state. In water, the redox separation is only 110 mV and the much broader IVCT transition is characteristic of a class II mixed-valence state. This is consistent with the observation that raising and lowering the energy of the d(π) orbitals in CH(2)Cl(2) or water, respectively, will decrease or increase the energy gap to the LUMO of the bppz bridging ligand, which provides the delocalisation pathway via electron-transfer. IR spectroelectrochemistry could only be carried out successfully in CH(2)Cl(2) and revealed class III mixed-valence behaviour on the fast IR timescale. In contrast to this, time-resolved IR spectroscopy showed that the MLCT excited state, which is formulated as Ru(III)(bppz˙(-))Ru(II) and can therefore be considered as a mixed-valence Ru(ii)/Ru(iii) complex with an intermediate bridging radical anion ligand, is localised on the IR timescale with spectroscopically distinct Ru(ii) and Ru(iii) termini. This is because the necessary electron-transfer via the bppz ligand is more difficult because of the additional electron on bppz˙(-) which raises the orbital through which electron exchange occurs in energy. DFT calculations reproduce the electronic spectra of the complex in all three Ru(ii)/Ru(ii), Ru(ii)/Ru(iii) and Ru(iii)/Ru(iii) calculations in both water and CH(2)Cl(2) well as long as an explicit allowance is made for the presence of water molecules hydrogen-bonded to the cyanides in the model used. They also reproduce the excited-state IR spectra of both [Ru(CN)(4)(μ-bppz)](2-) and [{Ru(CN)(4)}(2)(μ-bppz)](4-) very well in both solvents. The reorganization of the water solvent shell indicates a possible dynamical reason for the longer life time of the triplet state in water compared to CH(2)Cl(2).     

Thermodynamic equilibrium compositions, structures, and reaction energies of Pt(x)O(y) (x = 1-3) clusters predicted from first principles

As synthetic nanocatalysis strives to create and apply well-defined catalytic centers containing as few as a handful of active metal atoms, it becomes particularly important to understand the structures, compositions, and reactivity of small metal clusters as a function of size and chemical environment. As a part of our effort to better understand the oxidation chemistry of Pt clusters, we present here a comprehensive set of density functional theory simulations combined with thermodynamic modeling that allow us to map out the T-p(O)2 phase diagrams and predict the oxygen affinity of Pt(x)O(y) clusters, x = 1-3. We find that the Pt clusters have a much stronger tendency to form oxides than does the bulk metal, that these oxides persist over a wide range of oxygen chemical potentials, and that the most stable cluster stoichiometry varies with size and may differ from the stoichiometry of the stable bulk oxide in the same environment. Further, the facility with which the clusters are reduced depends both on size and on composition. These models provide a systematic framework for understanding the compositions and energies of redox reactions of discrete metal clusters of interest in supported and gas-phase nanocatalysis.     

Ferroelectric domains in nitrobenzene-nitromethane solutions measured by hyper-Rayleigh scattering

Hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) spectra were measured for liquid solutions of C6H5NO2 and CH3NO2 at T=300 K. The depolarized HRS spectra at small frequency shift are dominated by two components due to reorientation of the nitrobenzene molecules. One is a Lorentzian with spectral width nu1=0.16-0.45 cm(-1) and corresponding orientation relaxation time tau=33-12 ps. The second component is a narrow spike with spectral width <2 MHz and corresponding relaxation time tau>80 ns, attributed to HRS from slowly relaxing ferroelectric domains. The dipole order parameter g0=0.053+/-0.005, saturation parameter p=0.9+/-0.1, and volume V=20+/-6 nm3 for these domains in nitromethane were determined from measurements of the nitrobenzene-concentration dependence of the intensity ratio for these two spectral components. Orientation of the 230 nitromethane molecules within each domain is inhomogenous but highly ordered.     

Effect of particle size on the oxidizability of platinum clusters

The catalytic properties of transition metal particles often depend crucially on their chemical environment, but so far, little is known about how the effects of the environment vary with particle size, especially for clusters consisting of only a few atoms. To gain insight into this topic, we have studied the oxygen affinity of free Pt(x) clusters as a function of cluster size (x = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10) using density functional theory (DFT) calculations (GGA-PW91). DFT-based Nosé-Hoover molecular dynamics has been used to explore the configuration space of the Pt(x)O(x) and Pt(x)O(2x) clusters, leading to the discovery of several novel Pt-oxide structures. The formation of small Pt-oxide clusters by oxidizing the corresponding Pt(x) clusters is found to be significantly more exothermic than the formation of bulk Pt-oxides from Pt metal. The exothermicity generally increases as cluster size decreases but exhibits strongly nonlinear dependence on the cluster size. The nanoclusters are also structurally distinct from the bulk oxides and prefer one- and two-dimensional chain and ringlike shapes. These findings help elucidate the oxidation behavior of Pt nanoclusters and lay the foundation for understanding the reactivity of Pt nanoclusters in oxidizing chemical environments.     

Basic premises of factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Experimental Techniques -