Enhanced Performance of a Lithium-Sulfur Battery Using a Carbonate-Based Electrolyte.

The lithium-sulfur battery is regarded as one of the most promising candidates for lithium-metal batteries with high energy density. However, dendrite Li formation and low cycle efficiency of the Li anode as well as unstable sulfur based cathode still hinder its practical application. Herein a novel electrolyte (1 m LiODFB/EC-DMC-FEC) is designed not only to address the above problems of Li anode but also to match sulfur cathode perfectly, leading to extraordinary electrochemical performances. Using this electrolyte, lithium|lithium cells can cycle stably for above 2000 hours and the average Coulumbic efficiency reaches 98.8 %. Moreover, the Li-S battery delivers a reversible capacity of about 1400 mAh g(-1) sulfur with retention of 89 % for 1100 cycles at 1 C, and a capacity above 1100 mAh g(-1) sulfur at 10 C. The more advantages of this cell system are its outstanding cycle stability at 60 °C and no self-discharge phenomena.

Metal-injection and interface density engineering induced nickel diselenide with rapid kinetics for high-energy sodium storage.

The key to the innovation of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) is to find efficient sodium-storage electrode. Here, metal Mo doping of NiSe2 is proposed by modified electrospinning strategy followed by in situ conversion process. The Mo-NiSe2 anchoring on hollow carbon nanofibers (HCNFs) would make full use of the multi-channel HCNFs in the inner layer and the active sites of Mo-NiSe2 in the outer layer, which plays an important role in buffering the volume stress of Na+ (de)insertion and reducing the adsorption energy barrier of Na+. Innovatively, it is proposed to jointly regulate the SIBs performance of NiSe2 by both metal atom doping and interface effects, thereby adjusting the sodium ion adsorption barrier of NiSe2. The Mo-NiSe2@HCNFs exhibits remarkable performance in SIBs, demonstrating a high specific capacity of 396 mAh/g after 100 cycles at 1 A/g. Moreover, it maintains outstanding cycling stability, retaining 77.6 % of its capacity (211 mAh/g) even after 1000 cycles at 10 A/g. This comprehensive electrochemical performances are due to the structural stability and outstanding electronic conductance of the Mo-NiSe2@HCNFs, as evidenced by the diffusion analysis and ex situ charge-discharge process characterization. Furthermore, coupled with the Na3V2(PO4)2O2F cathodes, the full cell also achieves a high energy density of 123 Wh kg-1. The theoretical calculation of the hypervalent Mo doing further proves the benefit of its Na+ adsorption and denser conduction band distribution. This study provides a reference for the construction of transition metal selenide via doping and interface engineering in sodium storage.

Interfacial covalent bonding of the MXene-stabilized Sb2Se3 nanotube hybrid with fast ion transport for enhanced sodium-ion half/full batteries.

An interfacial covalent bonding strategy is proposed for the synthesis of the MXene-stabilized Sb2Se3 nanotube hybrid. As an anode material, the prepared Sb2Se3@NC/MXene exhibits an enhanced sodium-ion battery performance in half/full batteries in terms of a high specific and cycling stability.

Crystal growth behavior of LiFePO4 in microwave-assisted hydrothermal condition: from nanoparticle to nanosheet.

By using microwave-assisted hydrothermal crystallization approach, LiFePO4 nanoparticles have been synthesized in several minutes without the use of any organic reducing agent and argon protection. The crystal structure and lattice parameters have been analyzed by using the X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) and Rietveld refined analysis, and the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the characteristic peaks. A preferential orientation of crystal growth occurs upon microwave hydrothermal field. The SEM and TEM images show that the LiFePO4 crystals present a change from nanoparticle to nanosheet with the increasing reaction time from 5 to 20 min. All the samples present a couple of redox peaks in their CV profiles. The peak pair corresponds to the charge/discharge reaction of the Fe3+/Fe2+ redox couple, and evidencing the absence of electroactive iron impurities. Because of the LiFePO4 samples prepared without any carbon, the initial charge/discharge capacities and cycleability of absolutely are affected by the crystal structure which is controlled by the microwave irradiation condition. The relation among the microwave reaction condition, crystal morphology, and the electrochemical properties are presented and discussed in the electrochemical test.

Preparation and characterization of the Li1.12K0.05Mn0.57Ni0.24Nb0.02O2 cathode material with highly improved rate cycling performance for lithium ion batteries.

In this work, Li1.12K0.05Mn0.57Ni0.24Nb0.02O2 (LMN-K/Nb) as a novel and high energy density cathode material is successfully synthesized and applied in lithium ion batteries. By combining interlayer exchange and elemental analysis, it can be confirmed that K+ and Nb5+ substitution is respectively in the lithium layer and transition metal (TM) layer since H+ replaces the cations that remain in the lithium layer rather than those in the TM layer. The effect of K+ and Nb5+ co-substitution on the kinetic behavior of insertion/extraction of Li+ is evaluated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) and galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD). LMN-K/Nb delivers an initial capacity of 145 mA h g-1 at 5C rate and 112 mA h g-1 at 10C rate, and maintains 83.1% after 400 cycles at 5C rate and 82.5% at 10C rate. By post-mortem analysis of long-term cycled LMN-K/Nb, K+ and Nb5+ are recognized to play a role in suppressing the irreversible side reactions in LLOs during cycling. This work demonstrates that dual elemental substitution into the lithium layer and TM layer is a feasible strategy to enhance the performance of LLO cathode materials.

Sequence diversity of T-superfamily conotoxins from Conus marmoreus.

Remarkable sequence diversity of T-superfamily conotoxins was found in a mollusk-hunting cone snail Conus marmoreus. The sequence of mr5a purified from the snail venom was determined, while six other sequences of Mr5.1a, Mr5.1b, Mr5.2, Mr5.3, Mr5.4a, and Mr5.4b were deduced from their corresponding cDNA cloned by RACE approach. mr5a of 10 amino acid residues is one of the shortest T-superfamily conotoxins ever found. They all share a typical (-CC-CC-) Cys pattern, a conserved signal peptide and a long 3'-untranslated region. A consensus Glu residue is preceded by the second two adjacent cysteines in all these toxins except in mr5a, whereas Mr5.1a, Mr5.1b, Mr5.4a and Mr5.4b are abundant in Trp residues. The identification of these highly divergent T-superfamily conotoxins will facilitate the understanding the relationship of their structure and function.

A direct route to bifunctional aldehyde derivatives via self- and cross-metathesis of unsaturated aldehydes.

Ruthenium-catalyzed self- and cross-metathesis, with acrolein, acrylonitrile, acrylic acid and methylacrylate, of the bioresource undecylenic aldehyde leads to a variety of unsaturated omega-functional aldehydes. Tandem olefin metathesis/hydrogenation catalytic reactions afford saturated C(20) and C(12) diols in good yields.

cDNA cloning of two novel T-superfamily conotoxins from Conus leopardus.

The full-length cDNAs of two novel T-superfamily conotoxins, Lp5.1 and Lp5.2, were cloned from a vermivorous cone snail Conus leopardus using 3'/5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends. The cDNA of Lp5.1 encodes a precursor of 65 residues, including a 22-residue signal peptide, a 28-residue propeptide and a 15-residue mature peptide. Lp5.1 is processed at the common signal site-X-Arg- immediately before the mature peptide sequences. In the case of Lp5.2, the precursor includes a 25-residue signal peptide and a 43-residue sequence comprising the propeptide and mature peptide, which is probably cleaved to yield a 29-residue propeptide and a 14-residue mature toxin. Although these two conotoxins share a similar signal sequence and a conserved disulfide pattern with the known T-superfamily, the pro-region and mature peptides are of low identity, especially Lp5.2 with an identity as low as 10.7% compared with the reference Mr5.1a. The elucidated cDNAs of these two toxins will facilitate a better understanding of the species distribution, the sequence diversity of T-superfamily conotoxins, the special gene structure and the evolution of these peptides.