A Pyrophosphate Bifunctional Cathode with Inductive Effect for High-Voltage and Self-Charging Zinc Ion Battery.

With the growing demand for new energy storage devices, rechargeable aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted widespread attention due to their low cost and high safety. Among the cathode materials for ZIBs, polyanionic-based cathode materials with high voltage, high stability, and low cost have great potential. In this paper, tetragonal Na2VOP2O7 was prepared using a simple sol-gel method. The discharge platform voltage amounted to 1.8 V and had good rate and cycle performance due to the inductive effect of pyrophosphate. Then, a protective layer of Zn-hydroxyapatite (ZnHAP) modification was applied to the cathode surface, which can inhibit the hydrolysis of vanadium ions. The capacity was enhanced by 19 % after modification and the capacity retention after 100 cycles was also higher. Interestingly, the Na2VOP2O7 cathode also possesses a self-charging effect, recovering to 48 % of its initial capacity with an open-circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.1 V within a certain period, and light exposure can reduce the self-charging time by 83 %. These beneficial results indicate that the pyrophosphate bifunctional cathode with inductive effect has a great potential to construct high-voltage and multifunctional zinc ion battery.

Tunable hydrogen enhancement of Ce3+ doped CdS with different Poisson's ratio support.

In this article, a 3D photocatalytic support with different Poisson's ratio was used for the first time to control the photocatalytic production rate of hydrogen. It was created by a stereo-lithography method, and the support with the most negative Poisson's ratio got the best result. The Poisson's ratio of the 3D structure influences the rate of hydrogen production, and it is important for the photocatalyst supports to be porous for light to penetrate into them. A series of Ce doped CdS photocatalysts were produced and immobilized on 3D multicellular Al2O3 supports. By changing the proportion of Ce3+ doped into the CdS photocatalysts 1 % of Ce3+ exhibited optimal hydrogen production, which was 222.9 % compared to that of the pure CdS. Using the 3D photocatalytic support with different Poisson's ratio, the photocatalytic production rate of hydrogen increased by 128 %.