Herein, we present a new synthesis method for transition-metal-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles utilized and characterized for the first time as anode material for lithium-ion batteries. In fact, the introduction of a transition metal (for instance, iron or cobalt) into the zinc oxide lattice results in an advanced performance with reversible lithium storage capacities exceeding 900 mAh g–1, i.e., more than twice that of graphite. In situ XRD analysis reveals the electrochemical reduction of the wurtzite structure and the reversible formation of a LiZn alloy. The additional application of a carbon coating of such nanoparticles enables further improvement in terms of capacity retention and high rate (dis)charge capability. Moreover, the newly developed, simple, and environmentally friendly synthesis of these n-type doped nanoparticles is considered to be also applicable to other transition metals, presumably showing comparable electrochemical performances.

A novel lithium-oxygen battery exploiting PYR14TFSI-LiTFSI as ionic liquid-based electrolyte medium is reported. The Li/PYR14TFSI-LiTFSI/O2 battery was fully characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, capacity-limited cycling, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results of this extensive study demonstrate that this new Li/O2 cell is characterized by a stable electrode-electrolyte interface and a highly reversible charge-discharge cycling behavior. Most remarkably, the charge process (oxygen oxidation reaction) is characterized by a very low overvoltage, enhancing the energy efficiency to 82%, thus, addressing one of the most critical issues preventing the practical application of lithium-oxygen batteries.

The aqueous processing of lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrodes has the potential to notably decrease the battery processing costs and paves the way for a sustainable and environmentally benign production (and recycling) of electrochemical energy storage devices. Although this concept has already been adopted for the industrial production of LIB graphite anodes, the performance decay of cathode electrodes based on transition metal oxides processed in aqueous environments is still an open issue. In this study, we show that the addition of small quantities of phosphoric acid into the cathodic slurry yields Li[Ni0.33 Mn0.33 Co0.33 ]O2 electrodes that have an outstanding electrochemical performance in lithium-ion cells.

Herein, an in‐depth investigation of the influence of transition‐metal doping on the structural and electrochemical characteristics of a hybrid conversion/alloying‐type lithium‐ion anode material is presented. Therefore, pure zinc oxide (ZnO) and cobalt‐doped ZnO (Zn0.9Co0.1O) were investigated comparatively. Characterization by using X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the successful incorporation of the cobalt (Co) dopant into the wurtzite ZnO structure, which led to a decreased particle size for the doped compound. The in situ electrochemical XRD analysis of the first de‐/lithiation of ZnO and Zn0.9Co0.1O revealed the highly beneficial impact of the transition‐metal dopant on the reversible degradation of lithium oxide (Li2O) and suppression of zinc crystallite growth upon lithiation; both effects are essential for greatly improved electrochemical performance. As a result, Co doping leads to a substantially increased specific capacity from 326 mAh g−1 for pure ZnO to 789 mAh g−1 for Zn0.9Co0.1O after 75 full charge–discharge cycles.