MXene-Based Nanocomposites for Energy Conversion and Storage Applications.

Novel nanomaterials and advanced nanotechnology continuously push forward the rapid development of sustainable energy conversion and storage equipment. An emerging family of two-dimensional transition-metal carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides, also known as MXenes, have attracted increasing attention and in depth investigation. Benefitting from their unique intrinsic properties, MXenes have attracted significant attention and they have been considered as promising candidate materials for the development of environmentally friendly energy resources. A large number of studies show that MXenes have great potential in energy conversion and storage fields. Despite of their exceptional properties, MXenes also have some inherent characteristics, such as low capacities and unstable retention performances, which severely hinder their prospect applications in energy conversion and storage fields. In this Minireview, the latest progress on MXenes and their hybrid composites with small molecules, polymers, carbon or metal ions, and their applications in energy conversion and storage fields is highlighted, including their use in different types of batteries, supercapacitors, hydrogen/oxygen evolution reactions, electromagnetic interference absorption/shielding and solar steam generation. In addition, the critical challenges and further development prospects of MXene-based materials are also introduced.

Hollow 3D Frame Structure Modified with NiCo2 S4 Nanosheets and Spinous Fe2 O3 Nanowires as Electrode Materials for High-Performance All-Solid-State Asymmetric Supercapacitors.

Supercapacitors have attracted tremendous research interest, since they are expected to achieve battery-level energy density, while having a long calendar life and short charging time. Herein, a novel asymmetric supercapacitor has been successfully assembled from NiCo2 S4 nanosheets and spinous Fe2 O3 nanowire modified hollow melamine foam decorated with polypyrrole as positive and negative electrodes, respectively. Owing to the well-designed nanostructure and suitable matching of electrode materials, the assembled asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) exhibits an extended operation voltage window of 1.6 V with an energy density of 20.1 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 159.4 kW kg-1 . Moreover, the ASC shows stable cycling stability, with 81.3 % retention after 4000 cycles and a low internal resistance of 1.03 Ω. Additionally, a 2.5 V light-emitting diode indicator can be lit up by three ASCs connected in series; this provides evidence of the practical application potential of the assembled energy-storage system. The excellent electrochemical performances should be credited to the significant enhancement of the specific surface area, charge transport, and mechanical stability resulting from the unique 3D morphology.

Fabrication of Cobaltosic Oxide Nanoparticle-Doped 3 D MXene/Graphene Hybrid Porous Aerogels for All-Solid-State Supercapacitors.

MXenes are a new family of 2 D transition metal carbides and nitrides, which have attracted enormous attention in electrochemical energy storage, sensing technology, and catalysis owing to their good conductivity, high specific surface area, and excellent electrochemical properties. In this work, a series of Co3 O4 -doped 3 D MXene/RGO hybrid porous aerogels is designed and prepared through a facile in situ reduction and thermal annealing process, in which the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) conductive network can electrically link the separated Co3 O4 -MXene composite nanosheets, leading to enhanced electronic conductivity. It is found that upon using the Co3 O4 -MXene/RGO hybrid porous aerogel prepared with a mass ratio of Co3 O4 -MXene/RGO of 3:1 (CMR31) as an electrode for a supercapacitor, a superior specific capacitance of 345 F g-1 at the current density of 1 A g-1 is achieved, which is significantly higher than those of Ti3 C2 Tx MXene, RGO, and MXene/RGO electrodes. In addition, a high capacitance retention (85 % of the initial capacitance after 10 000 cycles at a high current density of 3 A g-1 ) and a low internal resistance Rs (0.44 Ω) can be achieved. An all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) device is assembled using CMR31, and it has the ability to light up a blue LED indicator for 5 min if four ASCs are connected in series. Therefore, these novel Co3 O4 -MXene/RGO hybrid porous aerogels have potential practical applications in high-energy storage devices.

Preparation of CoS2 supported flower-like NiFe layered double hydroxides nanospheres for high-performance supercapacitors.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are a kind of classic pseudocapacitive materials with lamellar structure and large specific surface area, which have attracted swinging attention in the electrochemical energy storage area. The CoS2@Ni is synthesized through a hydrothermal process, followed by surface generation of the flower-like nickel-iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) nanospheres through a hydrothermal process, which is directly used to design a binder-free electrode with a splendid capacitance capability. The as-synthesized NiFe-LDH@CoS2@Ni electrode presents an outstanding specific capacitance of 11.28 F cm-2 (3880 F g-1) at 2 mA cm-2 (1.17 A g-1) in a three electrodes system. Also, the all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) is combined utilizing the NiFe-LDH@CoS2@Ni hybrid as the positive electrodes and active carbon covered Ni foam as negative electrodes, respectively. The as-fabricated ASC exhibits a high energy density of 15.84 Wh kg-1 at the power density of 375.16 W kg-1 and can be able to lighten a blue LED indicator for more than 30 min, revealing that the prepared NiFe-LDH@CoS2@Ni owns great potential in the aspect of practical applications. Therefore, the prepared NiFe-LDH@CoS2@Ni with outstanding electrochemical properties could be applied for high-performance supercapacitors.

A novel comb-typed poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methylether acrylate) as an excellent aqueous lubricant.

HYPOTHESIS: Aqueous lubricants exhibit versatile advantages over oil-based lubricants. However, it still remains a challenge for the aqueous solutions to obtain excellent lubrication properties with high contact pressure on macroscale. EXPERIMENTS: In this work, a comb-typed poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methylether acrylate) (P(OEGMA)) was successfully synthesized via RAFT polymerization. Rheological, morphological and tribological properties of prepared P(OEGMA) aqueous solutions were characterized via a rheometer, cryo-SEM and ball-on-disk tribometer, respectively. FINDINGS: The synthesized P(OEGMA) exhibited a uniformly smaller size than that of the commercial linear polyethylene glycol (PEG), leading to reduced viscosities in aqueous solutions. The obtained P(OEGMA) aqueous solutions achieved outstandingly ultralow friction coefficients (µâ€¯< 0.01) and a good wear-resistance under high pressure (>300 MPa, two-fold increase than reported in the previous literature). The desirable lubricating performances can be attributed to the well-established running-in period, a good interfacial adsorption property between polymer molecules and solid surfaces, the hydration effect as well as the hydrodynamic effect. The current finding reveals the excellent aqueous lubrication properties possessed by the synthesized comb-typed P(OEGMA), which can broaden the development of aqueous lubricants in practical engineering fields.

Synthesis of polypyrrole coated melamine foam by in-situ interfacial polymerization method for highly compressible and flexible supercapacitor.

Compressible and flexible supercapacitors have aroused enormous interest of many scientific researchers for potential applications in wearable electronic products. However, the design and construction of the electrode with superior mechanical as well as electrical properties still face a lot of challenges. In present work, melamine foam/polypyrrole (MF/PPy) electrode with high deformation-tolerance and excellent electrochemical performance is prepared by in-situ interfacial polymerization of polypyrrole on commercial melamine foam, where PPy nanoparticles with size of 700 nm are uniformly anchored on the MF skeletons. The electrochemical characterizations show that the electrode exhibits excellent specific area capacitance of 2.685 F cm-2 at 2 mA cm-2 and good cyclic stability with more than 80% of capacitance remained after 3000 cycles. Furthermore, a symmetrical aqueous supercapacitor is assembled and exhibits an excellent energy density up to 75.95 µWh cm-2 at the power density of 5.82 mW cm-2 and excellent cycling stability as the current density increases by 10 times. Even under a high strain of 70%, about 95.76% of the initial capacitance is retained after 500 consecutive compressions. These outstanding performances enable the MF/PPy composite a promising candidate for potential applications in compressible and flexible electrochemical energy storage devices.