An Intrinsically Nonflammable Electrolyte for Prominent-Safety Lithium Metal Batteries with High Energy Density and Cycling Stability

Nex-generation high-energy-density storage battery, assembled with lithium (Li)-metal anode and nickel-rich cathode, puts forward urgent demand for advanced electrolytes that simultaneously possess high security, wide electrochemical window, and good compatibility with electrode materials. Herein an intrinsically nonflammable electrolyte is designed by using 1 M lithium difluoro(oxalato)borate (LiDFOB) in triethyl phosphate (TEP) and N-methyl-N-propyl-pyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [Pyr₁₃][TFSI] ionic liquid (IL) solvents. The introduction of IL can bring plentiful organic cations and anions, which provides a cation shielding effect and regulates the Li⁺ solvation structure with plentiful Li⁺-DFOB⁻ and Li⁺-TFSI⁻ complexes. The unique Li⁺ solvation structure can induce stable anion-derived electrolyte/electrode interphases, which effectively inhibit Li dendrite growth and suppress side reactions between TEP and electrodes. Therefore, the LiNi_0.9Co_0.05Mn_0.05O₂ (NCM90)/Li coin cell with this electrolyte can deliver stable cycling even under 4.5 V and 60 °C. Moreover, a Li-metal battery with thick NCM90 cathode (≈ 15 mg cm⁻²) and thin Li-metal anode (≈ 50 µm) (N/P ≈ 3), also reveals stable cycling performance under 4.4 V. And a 2.2 Ah NCM90/Li pouch cell can simultaneously possess prominent safety with stably passing the nail penetration test, and high gravimetric energy density of 470 Wh kg⁻¹ at 4.4 V.     

Comprehensively Strengthened Metal-Oxygen Bonds for Reversible Anionic Redox Reaction

Introducing anionic redox in layered oxides is an effective approach to breaking the capacity limit of conventional cationic redox. However, the anionic redox reaction generally suffers from excessive oxidation of lattice oxygen to O₂ and O₂ release, resulting in local structural deterioration and rapid capacity/voltage decay. Here, a Na_0.71Li_0.22Al_0.05Mn_0.73O₂ (NLAM) cathode material is developed by introducing Al³⁺ into the transition metal (TM) sites. Thanks to the strong Al–O bonding strength and small Al³⁺ radius, the TMO₂ skeleton and the holistic TM–O bonds in NLAM are comprehensively strengthened, which inhibits the excessive lattice oxygen oxidation. The obtained NLAM exhibits a high reversible capacity of 194.4 mAh g^-1 at 20 mA g^-1 and decent cyclability with 98.6% capacity retention over 200 cycles at 200 mA g⁻¹. In situ characterizations reveal that the NLAM experiences phase transitions with an intermediate OP4 phase during the charge–discharge. Theoretical calculations further confirm that the Al substitution strategy is beneficial for improving the overlap between Mn 3d and O 2p orbitals. This finding sheds light on the design of layered oxide cathodes with highly reversible anionic redox for sodium storage.     

Metal Single-Site Molecular Complex–MXene Heteroelectrocatalysts Interspersed Graphene Nanonetwork for Efficient Dual-Task of Water Splitting and Metal–Air Batteries

Development of multifunctional electrocatalysts with high efficiency and stability is of great interest in recent energy conversion technologies. Herein, a novel heteroelectrocatalyst of molecular iron complex (Fe_MC)-carbide MXene (Mo₂TiC₂T_x) uniformly embedded in a 3D graphene-based hierarchical network (GrH) is rationally designed. The coexistence of Fe_MC and MXene with their unique interactions triggers optimum electronic properties, rich multiple active sites, and favorite free adsorption energy for excellent trifunctional catalytic activities. Meanwhile, the highly porous GrH effectively promotes a multichannel architecture for charge transfer and gas/ion diffusion to improve stability. Therefore, the Fe_MC–MXene/GrH results in superb performances towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline medium. The practical tests indicate that Zn/Al–air batteries derived from Fe_MC–MXene/GrH cathodic electrodes produce high power densities of 165.6 and 172.7 mW cm⁻², respectively. Impressively, the liquid-state Zn–air battery delivers excellent cycling stability of over 1100 h. In addition, the alkaline water electrolyzer induces a low cell voltage of 1.55 V at 10 mA cm⁻² and 1.86 V at 0.4 A cm⁻² in 30 wt.% KOH at 80 °C, surpassing recent reports. The achievements suggest an exciting multifunctional electrocatalyst for electrochemical energy applications.     

Intercalative Motifs-Induced Space Confinement and Bonding Covalency Enhancement Enable Ultrafast and Large Sodium Storage

Alloying-type metal sulfides with high theoretical capacities are promising anodes for sodium-ion batteries, but suffer from sluggish sodiation kinetics and huge volume expansion. Introducing intercalative motifs into alloying-type metal sulfides is an efficient strategy to solve the above issues. Herein, robust intercalative In S motifs are grafted to high-capacity layered Bi₂S₃ to form a cation-disordered (BiIn)₂S₃, synergistically realizing high-rate and large-capacity sodium storage. The In S motif with strong bonding serves as a space-confinement unit to buffer the volume expansion, maintaining superior structural stability. Moreover, the grafted high-metallicity Indium increases the bonding covalency of Bi S, realizing controllable reconstruction of Bi S bond during cycling to effectively prevent the migration and aggregation of atomic Bi. The novel (BiIn)₂S₃ anode delivers a high capacity of 537 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.4 C and a superior high-rate stability of 247 mAh g⁻¹ at 40 C over 10000 cycles. Further in situ and ex situ characterizations reveal the in-depth reaction mechanism and the breakage and formation of reversible Bi S bonds. The proposed space confinement and bonding covalency enhancement strategy via grafting intercalative motifs can be conducive to developing novel high-rate and large-capacity anodes.     

手持终端设备主备电池控制系统设计

手持终端设备属于一种嵌入式系统,特别在工业应用领域对其供电持续性的要求很高。为了解决单电池供电下设备续航能力不足导致传输数据丢失的问题,本文设计一种主备电池控制系统,提高了整机的续航能力和电源系统的可靠性。方案设计对切换灵敏度、功耗和可靠性方面进行了综合考虑,已经应用到实际产品中,取得了良好的效果。     

Unraveling the Charge Storage and Activity-Enhancing Mechanisms of Zn-Doping Perovskite Fluorides and Engineering the Electrodes and Electrolytes for Wide-Temperature Aqueous Supercabatteries

Herein, a trimetallic Ni–Co–Zn perovskite fluoride (ABF₃) (denoted as KNCZF) electrode material is explored for advanced aqueous supercabatteries (ASCBs), with KNCZF and activated carbon–FeBiCu@reduced graphene oxides (AC–FeBiCu@rGO) as cathode and anode, respectively, which outperform aqueous supercapacitors (ASCs) and batteries (ABs) with AC and FeBiCu@rGO anodes because of the synergistic effect of pseudocapacitive (KNCZF), capacitive (AC), and faradaic (FeBiCu@rGO) responses. One of the important findings is that the KNCZF shows a typical bulk phase conversion mechanism for charge storage in the alkaline media with the transition of ABF₃ perovskite nanocrystals into amorphous metal oxides/(oxy)hydroxides nanosheets, showing the redox-active and redox-inert roles for the Ni/Co and Zn species, respectively, which can be deduced by various ex-situ techniques. Another interesting finding is that the redox-inert Zn species largely enhance the activity of Ni/Co redox-active species in the ABF₃ materials, mainly owing to the promotion of surface electroactive sites, adsorption of OH^?, and charge transfer of surface Ni/Co atoms by Zn-doping, which can be proved by ex-situ characterizations and theoretical calculations. Overall, this study reveals the structure–activity relationship and charge storage mechanisms of Zn-doping ABF₃ materials for advanced ASCBs, showing a great impact on developing advanced electrochemical energy storage.     

层状LiMnO2的固相合成及电化学性能

以Mn₂O₃和氢氧化锂为原料，通过焙烧合成出o-LiMnO₂。用X射线衍射和扫描电镜对不同温度下合成的粉末样品进行了表征，并研究了材料的电化学性能。通过对不同温度条件下烧结样品的晶胞参数、布拉格(110)晶面峰半高宽及电化学性能研究发现：600 ℃下合成样品的半高宽最大，堆垛层错率高，同时电化学性能也最好，首次放电容量达到156 mAh·g^-1，20次循环后仍保持在140 mAh·g^-1以上。中高温固相合成的o-LiMnO₂材料，在晶粒范围大小相近时，材料电化学性能与材料堆垛层错率相关。     

Facile hydrothermal construction of Nb_2CT_x/Nb_2O_5 as a hybrid anode material for high-performance Li-ion batteries

Herein,a simple yet efficient hydrothermal strategy is developed to in-situ convert multi-layered niobium-based MXene(Nb_2 CT_x) to hierarchical Nb2 CTx/Nb_2O_5 composite.In the hybrid,the Nb_2O_5 nanorods are well dispersed in and/or on the Nb_2 CTx.Thanks to the synergetic contributions from the high capacity of Nb_2O_5 and superb electrical conductivity of the two-dimensional Nb_2 CT_x itself,the resultant Nb_2 CTx/Nb_2O_5 hybrid exhibits excellent rate behaviors and stable long-term cycling behaviors,when evaluated as anodes for Li-ion batteries.     

Synthesis and phase transition of Li-Mn-O spinels with high Li/Mn ratio by thermo-decomposition of LiMnC2O4(Ac)

LiMnC₂O₄(Ac) precursor in which Li⁺ and Mn²⁺ were amalgamated in one molecule was prepared by solid-state reaction at room-temperature using manganese acetate, lithium hydroxide and oxalic acid as raw materials. By thermo-decomposition of LiMnC₂O₄(Ac) at various temperatures, a series of Li_1+y[Mn_2−xLi_x]_16dO₄ spinels were prepared with Li₂MnO₃ as impurities. The structure and phase transition of these spinels were investigated by XRD, TG/DTA, average oxidation state of Mn and cyclic voltammeric techniques. Results revealed that the Li-Mn-O spinels with high Li/Mn ratio were unstable at high temperature, and the phase transition was associated with the transfer of Li⁺ from octahedral 16c sites to 16d sites. With the sintering temperature increasing from 450 to 850 °C, the phase structure varied from lithiated-spinel Li₂Mn₂O₄ to Li₄Mn₅O₁₂-like to LiMn₂O₄-like and finally to rock-salt LiMnO₂-like. A way of determining x with average oxidation state of Mn and the content of Li₂MnO₃ was also demonstrated.     

Apparent Molar Volume, Heat Capacity, and Conductance of Lithium Bis(trifluoromethylsulfone)imide in Glymes and Other Aprotic Solvents

Lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfone)imide (LiTFSI) is a promising electrolyte for high-energy lithium batteries due to its high solubility in most solvents and electrochemical stability. To characterize this electrolyte in solution, its conductance and apparent molar volume and heat capacity were measured over a wide range of concentration in glymes, tetraethylsulfamide (TESA), acetonitrile, -butyrolactone, and propylene carbonate at 25°C and were compared with those of LiClO₄ in the same solvents. The glymes or n(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ethers (nEGDME), which have the chemical structure CH₃–O–(CH₂–CH₂–O) _n –CH₃ for n = 1 to 4, are particularly interesting since they are electrochemically stable, have a good redox window, and are analogs of the polyethylene oxides used in polymer-electrolyte batteries. TESA is a good plasticizer for polymer-electrolyte batteries. Whenever required, the following properties of the pure solvents were measured: compressibilities, expansibilities, temperature and pressure dependences of the dielectric constant, acceptor number, and donor number. These data were used in particular to calculate the limiting Debye-Hückel parameters for volumes and heat capacities. The infinite dilution properties of LiTFSI are quite similar to those of other lithium salts. At low concentrations, LiTFSI is strongly associated in the glymes and moderately associated in TESA. At intermediate concentrations, the thermodynamic data suggests that a stable solvate of LiTFSI in EGDME exists in the solution state. At high concentrations, the thermodynamic properties of the two lithium salts approach those of the molten salts. These salts have a reasonably high specific conductivity in most of the solvents. This suggests that the conductance of ions at high concentration in solvents of low dielectric constant is due to a charge transfer process rather than to the migration of free ions.