Here we report a method to fabricate porous carbon with small mesopores around 2-4 nm by simple activation of charcoals derived from carbonization of seaweed consisting of microcrystalline domains formed by the "egg-box" model. The existence of mesopores in charcoals leads to a high specific surface area up to 3270 m(2) g(-1), with 95% surface area provided by small mesopores. This special pore structure shows high adaptability when used as electrode materials for an electric double layer capacitor, especially at high charge-discharge rate. The gravimetric capacitance values of the porous carbon are 425 and 210 F g(-1) and volumetric capacitance values are 242 and 120 F cm(-3) in 1 M H2SO4 and 1 M TEA BF4/AN, respectively. The capacitances even remain at 280 F g(-1) (160 F cm(-3)) at 100 A g(-1) and 156 F g(-1) (90 F cm(-3)) at 50 A g(-1) in the aqueous and organic electrolytes, demonstrating excellent high-rate capacitive performance.

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Li metal has attracted intense attention due to its high specific capacity, but the dendrite growth during cycling impedes its practical application as a rechargeable anode. To improve the stability of the solid‐electrolyte interphase (SEI) on Li metal is the key to develop Li anode with high safety. In native SEI, inorganics act as fast ion channels and organics play the role of soft base with high flexibility to buffer volume change. However, the SEI with inorganics close to Li surface and organics close to electrolyte always leads to a fragile structure, resulting in repeatedly breaking and growing of the surface layer. Artificial SEI is one of the most effective ways to improve interphase stability and extend the cycle life of Li anode. Inorganics such as Li fluoride, Li nitride, Li phosphate and Li alloys have been widely applied in Li protection. In situ chemical reactions, spin coating and doctor blade coating of organics were also conducted to obtain SEI with high lithiophilic functional groups and high elasticity. To fabricate an ideal artificial SEI, organic and inorganic components should be rearranged as a rational structure to possess synergetic effects with both high flexibility and ionic conductivity. This Minireview summarizes the most recent works on artificial SEI and discusses the electrochemical performance of different components as interphase, aiming to inspire the study on designing and fabricating stable Li anode with robust interphase structure.

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This paper reports a versatile method to fabricate robust carbon/metal hybrids with ultrasmall particle and highly developed porous structure through a scalable and facile way. Alginate is used as the precursor for it could perform cross-linking reaction with different polyvalent metal ions to form gels. After simple freeze-drying and carbonization of the alginate-derived gels, we obtained the carbon/metal hybrids with fine nanostructure. Eleven kinds of metal ions were introduced to form gels and five kinds of the gels were carbonized to produce the carbon/metal hybrids. By adjusting the reaction condition, we could tune the size of the nanoparticles in the obtained hybrids. The obtained SnO2/C hybrid shows outstanding specific capacity, rate performance, and long cycle life when it is used as the anode materials of lithium ion batteries. The ultrasmall active nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed within an interconnected pore framework. It ensured a short diffusion and transportation distance of electrolyte ions to the surfaces of active nanoparticles. In addition, the robust carbon framework comprises of quasigraphitic carbon layers. It contributed to the high rate performance by providing excellent conductive pathways for electrons within the electrodes. This work provides a general method for fabrication of carbon/metal (oxide) hybrids with fine nanostructure for application in energy storage.

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A hybrid electrode material with ultrafine Co3O4 nanoparticles embedded throughout a hierarchically nanoporous graphitic carbon matrix has been obtained via a facile self-cross-linking route. Sodium alginate, a biopolymer with an ability of cross-linking with multivalent cobalt cations to form ordered microcrystalline zones, is used as a carbon source to produce nanoporous carbon frameworks of the hybrids. Ultrafine Co3O4 nanoparticles with tunable particle size (3-30 nm) are in situ grown within the nanoporous graphitic carbon frameworks by a simple carbonization of Co-cross-linked alginate. The obtained hybrid electrodes exhibit high specific capacitance of 645, 548, 486, and 347 F/g at scan rates of 5, 10, 20, and 50 mV/s, respectively, and excellent cycle performance with only 1% fading in capacitance after 10 000 cycles at a high current density of 20 A/g. Such excellent capacitive performance is ascribed to the collaborative contributions of well-dispersed ultrafine Co3O4 nanoparticles and conductive nanoporous carbon frameworks.