Boosting High-Rate Sodium Storage Performance of N-Doped Carbon-Encapsulated Na3 V2 (PO4 )3 Nanoparticles Anchoring on Carbon Cloth.

The further development of high-power sodium-ion batteries faces the severe challenge of achieving high-rate cathode materials. Here, an integrated flexible electrode is constructed by smart combination of a conductive carbon cloth fiber skeleton and N-doped carbon (NC) shell on Na3 V2 (PO4 )3 (NVP) nanoparticles via a simple impregnation method. In addition to the great electronic conductivity and high flexibility of carbon cloth, the NC shell also promotes ion/electron transport in the electrode. The flexible NVP@NC electrode renders preeminent rate capacities (80.7 mAh g-1 at 50 C for cathode; 48 mAh g-1 at 30 C for anode) and superior cycle performance. A flexible symmetric NVP@NC//NVP@NC full cell is endowed with fairly excellent rate performance as well as good cycle stability. The results demonstrate a powerful polybasic strategy design for fabricating electrodes with optimal performance.

Metal-Embedded Porous Graphitic Carbon Fibers Fabricated from Bamboo Sticks as a Novel Cathode for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) are deemed to be among the most prospective next-generation advanced high-energy batteries. Advanced cathode materials fabricated from biological carbon are becoming more popular due to their unique properties. Inspired by the fibrous structure of bamboo, herein we put forward a smart strategy to convert bamboo sticks for barbecue into uniform bamboo carbon fibers (BCF) via a simple hydrothermal treatment proceeded in alkaline solution. Then NiCl2 is used to etch the fibers through a heat treatment to achieve Ni-embedded porous graphitic carbon fibers (PGCF/Ni) for LSBs. The designed PGCF/Ni/S electrode exhibits improved electrochemical performances including high initial capacity (1198 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C), prolonged cycling life (1030 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C after 200 cycles), and improved rate capability. The excellent properties are attributed to the synergistic effect of 3D porous graphitic carbon fibers with highly conductive Ni nanoparticles embedded.

Smart Construction of Integrated CNTs/Li4Ti5O12 Core/Shell Arrays with Superior High-Rate Performance for Application in Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Exploring advanced high-rate anodes is of great importance for the development of next-generation high-power lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Here, novel carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) core/shell arrays on carbon cloth (CC) as integrated high-quality anode are constructed via a facile combined chemical vapor deposition-atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. ALD-synthesized LTO is strongly anchored on the CNTs' skeleton forming core/shell structures with diameters of 70-80 nm the combined advantages including highly conductive network, large surface area, and strong adhesion are obtained in the CC-LTO@CNTs core/shell arrays. The electrochemical performance of the CC-CNTs/LTO electrode is completely studied as the anode of LIBs and it shows noticeable high-rate capability (a capacity of 169 mA h g-1 at 1 C and 112 mA h g-1 at 20 C), as well as a stable cycle life with a capacity retention of 86% after 5000 cycles at 10 C, which is much better than the CC-LTO counterpart. Meanwhile, excellent cycling stability is also demonstrated for the full cell with LiFePO4 cathode and CC-CNTs/LTO anode (87% capacity retention after 1500 cycles at 10 C). These positive features suggest their promising application in high-power energy storage areas.

Pine-Needle-Like Cu-Co Skeleton Composited with Li4 Ti5 O12 Forming Core-Branch Arrays for High-Rate Lithium Ion Storage.

High-performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) rely largely on the scrupulous design of nanoarchitectures and smart hybridization of bespoke active materials. In this work, the pine-needle-like Cu-Co skeleton is reported to support highly active Li4 Ti5 O12 (LTO) forming Cu-Co/LTO core-branch arrays via a united hydrothermal-atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. ALD-formed LTO layer is uniformly anchored on the pine-needle-like heterostructured Cu-Co backbone, which consists of branched Co nanowires (diameters in 20 nm) and Cu nanowires (250-300 nm) core. The designed Cu-Co/LTO core-branch arrays show combined advantages of large porosity, high electrical conductivity, and good adhesion. Due to the unique positive features, the Cu-Co/LTO electrodes are demonstrated with enhanced electrochemical performance including excellent high-rate capacity (155 mAh g-1 at 20 C) and noticeable long-term cycles (144 mAh g-1 at 20 C after 3000 cycles). Additionally, the full cell assembled with activated carbon positive electrode and Cu-Co/LTO negative electrode exhibits high power/energy densities (41.6 Wh kg-1 at 7.5 kW kg-1 ). The design protocol combining binder-free characteristics and array configuration opens a new door for construction of advanced electrodes for application in high-rate electrochemical energy storage.