Nitrate Additives Coordinated with Crown Ether Stabilize Lithium Metal Anodes in Carbonate Electrolyte

Lithium metal anodes (LMAs) are promising for next-generation batteries but have poor compatibility with the widely used carbonate-based electrolytes, which is a major reason for their severe dendrite growth and low Coulombic efficiency (CE). A nitrate additive to the electrolyte is an effective solution, but its low solubility in carbonates is a problem that can be solved using a crown ether, as reported. A rubidium nitrate additive coordinated with 18-crown-6 crown ether stabilizes the LMA in a carbonate electrolyte. The coordination promotes the dissolution of NO₃⁻ ions and helps form a dense solid electrolyte interface that is Li₃N-rich which guides uniform Li deposition. In addition, the Rb (18-crown-6)⁺ complexes are adsorbed on the dendrite tips, shielding them from Li deposition on the dendrite tips. A high CE of 97.1% is achieved with a capacity of 1 mAh cm⁻² in a half cell, much higher than when using the additive-free electrolyte (92.2%). Such an additive is very compatible with a nickel-rich ternary cathode at a high voltage, and the assembled full battery with a cathode material loading up to 10 mg cm⁻² shows an average CE of 99.8% over 200 cycles, indicating a potential for practical use.     

Inhibiting Surface Diffusion to Synthesize 3D Bicontinuous Nanoporous N-Doped Carbon for Boosting Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Flexible All-Solid-State Al-Air Batteries

Catalyzing oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and accelerating oxygen diffusion are two key challenges for the requirements of the cathode catalysts in the metal-air batteries. A promising strategy for improving both ORR performance and mass diffusion simultaneously is to build carbon-based catalysts with ORR-active chemical dopants and 3D interconnected porosity. Herein, a 3D nanoporous N-doped carbon with bicontinuous porosity and interconnected open-pore channels is reported, which is prepared by a polyaniline-assisted template method. The polyaniline can efficiently inhibit the surface diffusion-caused template coarsening, achieving a small pore size of 35 nm. The small porous morphology gives rise to a high N-dopant concentration up to 7.20 at.%, which in turn exhibits a commercial Pt/C-comparable ORR performance together with satisfied durability in alkaline media. Using these nanoporous carbon catalysts as air electrodes, an all-solid-state flexible Al-air battery is assembled with the measured maximum power density reaching 130.5 mW cm⁻², as compared to 106.2 mW cm⁻² when the commercial Pt/C standard is used. This study provides an efficient method to synthesize 3D N-doped carbon with bicontinuous nano-sized pore channels for wide-ranging applications in portable and flexible devices.     

电动汽车充电模式及方式浅析

电动汽车是未来新能源汽车的发展方向,能实现交通领域能源利用的多元化和清洁化。充电设施的建设是电动汽车产业发展的重要支撑和前提。文中介绍了三种充电模式及各类电动汽车适用的充电方式,以深圳市为例分析了充电设施的现状及问题,并对其规划布局和规范接口提出了原则性建议。     

Scalable Construction of Multifunctional Protection Layer with Low-Cost Water Glass for Robust and High-Performance Zinc Anode

Zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) have recently attracted tremendous interest for being low-cost, environmentally benign, and high energy density. However, the large-scale practical application of ZIBs is hampered by well-known undesirable dendrite growth and serious side reactions of the Zn anode during the long-term cycling process. Herein, a multifunctional water-glass artificial protection layer with enormous Si─O functional groups is constructed on Zn anode through a simple spin-coating method. The theoretical and experimental investigation suggests that the as-constructed interface with rich Si─O hydrophilic functional groups on Zn anode could facilitate the even distribution of electric field distribution and homogeneous wettability, navigate uniform zinc deposition/stripping along the (002) plane, and subsequently lead to well-suppressed dendrite growth and effective prohibition of oxygen-involved corrosion. Consequently, the water glass-modified anode achieves highly reversible Zn plating/stripping over 1500 h at a high current density of 10 mA cm⁻² in symmetrical cells, and a high capacity retention ratio of 79.4% at the current density of 5 A g⁻¹ in full cells paired with V₂O₅ cathode. This proposed water glass coating layer design is cheap, up-scalable, and facile, which could substantially accelerate the rapid commercialization of zinc anodes and unleash the full potential of renewable ZIBs for next-generation large-scale energy storage.     

多功能太阳能供电设备的设计与实现

根据太阳能电池以及蓄电池的充放电特性,设计并实现了一个利用太阳能电池的多功能供电设备,该供设备具有充电功能,防止过充过放,延长蓄电池的使用寿命。它可以作为无线传感节点的电源,还能将直流电逆变成市电供家用电器,并具有自动控制照明开关、显示及监控等功能。     

A blockchain-based trustworthy collaborative power trading scheme for 5G-enabled social internet of vehicles

Social Internet of Vehicles (SIoV) falls under the umbrella of social Internet of Things (IoT), where vehicles are socially connected to other vehicles and roadside units that can reliably share information and services with other social entities by leveraging the capabilities of 5G technology, which brings new opportunities and challenges, e.g., collaborative power trading can address the mileage anxiety of electric vehicles. However, it relies on a trusted central party for scheduling, which introduces performance bottlenecks and cannot be set up in a distributed network, in addition, the lack of transparency in state-of-the-art Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) power trading schemes can introduce further trust issues. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based trustworthy collaborative power trading scheme for 5G-enabled social vehicular networks that uses a distributed market mechanism to introduce trusted power trading and avoids the dependence on a centralized dispatch center. Based on the game theory, we design the pricing and trading matching mechanism for V2V power trading to obtain maximum social welfare. We use blockchain to record power trading data for trusted pricing and use smart contracts for transaction matching. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in improving social welfare and reducing the load on the grid.     

Analysis of Failure in Miniature X‐ray Tubes with Gated Carbon Nanotube Field Emitters

We correlate the failure in miniature X‐ray tubes with the field emission gate leakage current of gated carbon nanotube emitters. The miniature X‐ray tube, even with a small gate leakage current, exhibits an induced voltage on the gate electrode by the anode bias voltage, resulting in a very unstable operation and finally a failure. The induced gate voltage is apparently caused by charging at the insulating spacer of the miniature X‐ray tube through the gate leakage current of the field emission. The gate leakage current could be a criterion for the successful fabrication of miniature X‐ray tubes.     

Gradient “Single-Crystal” Li-Rich Cathode Materials for High-Stable Lithium-Ion Batteries

As one of the high-energy cathode materials of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), lithium-rich-layered oxide with “single-crystal” characteristic (SC-LLO) can effectively restrain side reactions and cracks due to the reduced inner boundaries and enhanced mechanical stabilities. However, there are still high challenges for SC-LLO with diverse performance requirements, especially on their cycle stability improvement. Herein, a novel concentration gradient “single-crystal” LLO (GSC-LLO), with gradually decreasing Mn and increasing Ni contents from center to surface, is designed and prepared by combining co-precipitation and molten-salt sintering methods, yielding a capacity retention of 97.6% and an energy density retention of 95.8% within 100 cycles at 0.1 C. The enhanced performance is mostly attributed to the gradient-induced stabilized structure, free of cracks and less spinel-like structure formation after long-term cycling. Furthermore, the gradient design is also beneficial to the safety of LLOs as suggested by the improved thermal stability and reduced gas release. This study provides an effective strategy to prepare high-energy, high-stability, and high-safety LLOs for advanced LIBs.     

Pre-Protonated Vanadium Hexacyanoferrate for High Energy-Power and Anti-Freezing Proton Batteries

Proton batteries have been considered as an innovative energy storage technology owing to their high safety and cost-effectiveness. However, the development of fast-charging proton batteries with high energy/power density is greatly limited by feasible material selection. Here, the pre-protonated vanadium hexacyanoferrate (H-VHCF) is developed as a proton cathode material to alleviate the capacity loss of proton-free electrode materials during electrochemical tests. The pre-protonation process realizes fast and long-distance transport of protons by shortening diffusion path and reducing migration barriers. Benefitting from the enhanced hydrogen bonding network combined with dual redox reactions of V and Fe in protonated H-VHCF cathode, a high energy density of 74 Wh kg⁻¹ at 1.1 kW kg⁻¹, and a maximum power density of 54 kW kg⁻¹ at 65 Wh kg⁻¹ is achieved for the asymmetric proton batteries coupling with MoO₃/MXene anode. Proton transport and double oxidation-reduction center are verified by theoretical calculations and ex situ experimental measurements. Considering the anti-freezing availability of proton batteries, 82.5% of its initial capacity is maintained after 10000 cycles under −40 °C at 0.5 A g⁻¹. As a proof-of-concept, flexible device fabricated by optimized electrodes and hydrogel electrolytes can power up a light-emitting diode even under a bent state.     

Air-Stable Li2S Cathode for Quasi-Solid-State Anode-Free Batteries with High Volumetric Energy

Anode-free batteries can maximize the energy density but their development is hindered by a lack of Li-rich cathodes for compensating the irreversible Li loss. Li₂S cathode is particularly appealing to this desire due to 2.6–4.7 folds more Li content and 4.2–6.8 times higher capacity than conventional intercalation cathodes. But its practical application is hindered by poor stability against moisture attacking in the air. Herein, a facile expendable polymer sheathing strategy toward air-stable Li₂S cathodes with high capacities for developing high-performance quasi-solid-state anode-free batteries without risk of cell leakage is reported. Tight protection by dense polymer barrier dramatically prolongs the lifetime of Li₂S cathode by 2,000 times at least in the air. Such air-stable Li₂S cathode allows for high compatibility of anode-free battery production with commercial schemes. More attractively, the polymer protective layer can in situ transform to multifunctional gel polymer electrolyte for releasing ionic pathways and enhancing cell performance by inhibiting LiPS loss and smoothing Li plating. With air-stable Li₂S cathode, the quasi-solid-state anode-free cells are assembled in ambient environment to deliver superb volumetric energy density of 1093 Wh L⁻¹. This study may shed new light to push the commercialization of high-energy and reliable anode-free batteries forward.