Maltose Additive Enables Compacted Deposition of Zn Ions for Stabilizing the Zn Anode.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have emerged as one of the most promising energy storage technologies due to their high safety and cost-effectiveness. However, several challenges associated with the Zn metal anode, such as dendrite growth, corrosion, and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), have hindered further applications of AZIBs. Herein, maltose (MT) is used as a functional electrolyte additive to protect the Zn metal electrode during the interface deposition process. The additive can effectively affect the interface of Zn metal, suppressing HER and corrosion reactions. Moreover, it facilitates the uniform deposition of Zn by inducing Zn2+ to form a stable (100) crystal plane. As a result, the symmetric cell exhibited stable cycling performance for 2000 h at a current density of 2 mA cm-2, and the Zn||NH4V4O10 full cell maintained steady cycling for 1000 cycles at 2 A g-1. This study provides an approach to achieve uniform Zn deposition through additives.

The elemental pegging effect in locally ordered nanocrystallites of high-entropy oxide enables superior lithium storage.

High-entropy oxides (HEOs) can be well suited for lithium-ion battery anodes because of their multi-principal synergistic effect and good stability. The appropriate selection and combination of elements play a crucial role in designing conversion-type anode materials with outstanding electrochemical performance. In this study, we have successfully built a single-phase spinel-structured HEO material of (Mn0.23Fe0.23Co0.22Cr0.19Zn0.13)3O4 (HEO-MFCCZ). When the HEO-MFCCZ materials transform into a coexisting state of amorphous and nanocrystalline structures during the cycling process, the inert Zn element can initiate a pegging effect, causing enhanced stability. The transition also introduces many defect sites, effectively reducing the potential barrier for ion transport and accelerating ion transport. The increased electronic and ionic conductivities and pseudocapacitive contribution significantly enhance the rate performance. As a result, a unique and practical approach is provided for developing anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Synergetic Coupling of Redox-Active Sites on Organic Electrode Material for Robust and High-Performance Sodium-Ion Storage.

Organic electrode materials (OEMs), valued for their sustainability and structural tunability, have been attracting increasing attention for wide application in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and other rechargeable batteries. However, most OEMs are plagued with insufficient specific capacity or poor cycling stability. Therefore, it's imperative to enhance their specific capacity and cycling stability through molecular design. Herein, we designed and synthesized a heteroaromatic molecule 2,3,8,9,14,15-hexanol hexaazatrinaphthalene (HATN-6OH) by the synergetic coupling of catechol (the precursor of ortho-quinone)/ortho-quinone functional groups and HATN conjugated core structures. The abundance of catechol/ortho-quinone and imine redox-active moieties delivers a high specific capacity of nine-electron transfer for SIBs. Most notably, the π-π interactions and intermolecular hydrogen bond forces among HATN-6OH molecules secure the stable long-term cycling performance of SIBs. Consequently, the as-prepared HATN-6OH electrode exhibited a high specific capacity (554 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 ), excellent rate capability (202 mAh g-1 at 10 A g-1 ), and stable long-term cycling performance (73 % after 3000 cycles at 10 A g-1 ) in SIBs. Additionally, the nine-electron transfer mechanism is confirmed by systematic density functional theory (DFT) calculation, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), and Raman analysis. The achievement of the synergetic coupling of the redox-active sites on OEMs could be an important key to the enhancement of SIBs and other metal-ion batteries.

An affordable plasmid miniprep suitable for proficient microinjection in Caenorhabditis elegans.

A variety of techniques, including CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, have been developed to produce genetically modified cell lines and animal models. In many cases, the success of the genome-editing techniques is dependent on the quality of the introduced DNA. However, the preparation of high-quality plasmids required for small-scale microinjection has not been explored. Here, we compared various types of plasmid preparation methods for their microinjection proficiency and developed an efficient and affordable plasmid mini preparation method suitable for Caenorhabditis elegans microinjection. By combining the advantages of Triton X-114 and column-based mini preparation (hence, we named it TXC), the new TXC method was affordable, efficient, and equivalent to expensive plasmid midiprep method based on microinjection efficiency. Besides, TXC was compatible with general molecular biology grade reactions and worked proficiently for different types of plasmids.