Si has been considered as one of the most attractive anode materials for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) because of its high gravimetric and volumetric capacity. Importantly, it is also abundant, cheap, and environmentally benign. In this review, we summarized the recent progress in developments of Si anode materials. First, the electrochemical reaction and failure are outlined, and then, we summarized various methods for improving the battery performance, including those of nanostructuring, alloying, forming hierarchic structures, and using suitable binders. We hope that this review can be of benefit to more intensive investigation of Si-based anode materials.

We achieve robust bonding of Cu wires to Cu pads on polyimide with silver nanopaste cured at 373 K. The paste is prepared by simply condensing Ag nanoparticle (NP) solution via centrifuging. The bonding is formed by solid state sintering of Ag NPs through neck growth and direct metallic bonding between clean Ag–Cu interfaces. Both experiment and Monte Carlo simulation confirm that the melting point of joint clusters increases during sintering. This creates improved bonds for use at an elevated operating temperature using Ag NPs.

Paper-based capacitive touch pads can be fabricated utilizing high-concentration silver nanowire inks needle-printed directly onto paper substrates through a 2D programmable platform. Post deposition, silver nanowire tracks can be photonically sintered using a camera flash to reduce sheet resistance similar to thermal sintering approaches. Touch pad sensors on a variety of paper substrates can be achieved with optimized silver nanowire tracks. Rolling and folding trials, which yielded only modest changes in capacitance and no loss of function, coupled with touch pad functionality on curved surfaces, suggest sufficient flexibility and durability for paper substrate touch pads to be used in diverse applications. A simplified model to predict touch pad capacitance variation ranges with differing touch conditions was developed, with good agreement against experimental results. Such paper-based touch pads have the advantage of simple structure, easy fabrication, and fast sintering, which holds promise for numerous commercial applications including low-cost portable devices where ultrathin and lightweight features, coupled with reliable bending stability are desirable.

With the depletion of fossil fuels and the increasing demand of energy for economic development, it is urgent to develop renewable energy technologies to sustain the economic growth. Electrospinning is a versatile and efficient fabrication method for one-dimensional (1D) nanostructured fibers of metals, metal oxides, hydrocarbons, composites, and so forth. The resulting nanofibers (NFs) with controllable diameters ranging from nanometer to micrometer scale possess unique properties such as a high surface-area-to-volume and aspect ratio, low density, and high pore volume. These properties make 1D nanomaterials more advantageous than conventional materials in energy harvesting, conversion, and storage devices. In this review, the key parameters for e-spinning are discussed and the properties of electrospun NFs and applications in solar cells, fuel cells, nanogenerators, hydrogen energy harvesting and storage, lithium-ion batteries, and supercapacitors are reviewed. The advantages and disadvantages of electrospinning and an outlook on the possible future directions are also discussed.

Direct laser-reduction of graphene oxide (GO), as a lithography-free approach, has been proven effective in manufacturing in-plane micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) with fast ion diffusion.

We describe a rapid, simple, room-temperature technique for the production of large-scale metallic thin films with tunable plasmonic properties assembled from size-selected silver nanoplates (SNPs). We outline the properties of a series of ultrathin monolayer metallic films (8-20 nm) self-assembled on glass substrates in which the localized surface plasmon resonance can be tuned over a range from 500 to 800 nm. It is found that the resonance peaks of the films are strongly dependent on the size of the nanoplates and the refractive index of the surrounding dielectric. It is also shown that the bandwidth and the resonance peak of the plasmon resonance spectrum of the metallic films can be engineered by simply controlling aggregation of the SNP. A three-dimensional finite element method was used to investigate the plasmon resonance properties for individual SNPs in different dielectrics and plasmon coupling in SNP aggregates. A 5-17 times enhancement of scattering from these SNP films has been observed experimentally. Our experimental results, together with numerical simulations, indicate that this self-assembly method shows great promise in the production of nanoscale metallic films with enormous electric-field enhancements at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. These may be utilized in biochemical sensing, solar photovoltaic, and optical processing applications.

Oxygen vacancies induced by multi-valences of iodine in two-step hydrothermal synthesized I/TiO2 with enhanced visible photoactivity.

A review is provided, which first considers low-temperature diffusion bonding with silver nanomaterials as filler materials via thermal sintering for microelectronic applications, and then other recent innovations in low-temperature joining are discussed. The theoretical background and transition of applications from micro to nanoparticle (NP) pastes based on joining using silver filler materials and nanojoining mechanisms are elucidated. The mechanical and electrical properties of sintered silver nanomaterial joints at low temperatures are discussed in terms of the key influencing factors, such as porosity and coverage of substrates, parameters for the sintering processes, and the size and shape of nanomaterials. Further, the use of sintered silver nanomaterials for printable electronics and as robust surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates by exploiting their optical properties is also considered. Other low-temperature nanojoining strategies such as optical welding of silver nanowires (NWs) through a plasmonic heating effect by visible light irradiation, ultrafast laser nanojoining, and ion-activated joining of silver NPs using ionic solvents are also summarized. In addition, pressure-driven joining of silver NWs with large plastic deformation and self-joining of gold or silver NWs via oriented attachment of clean and activated surfaces are summarized. Finally, at the end of this review, the future outlook for joining applications with silver nanomaterials is explored.