Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) significantly enhances the sensitivity of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), increasing its applications and the quality of NMR spectroscopy as a characterization tool for materials. Efficient spin diffusion among the nuclear spins is considered to be essential for spreading the hyperpolarization throughout the sample, enabling large DNP enhancements. This scenario mostly limits the polarization enhancement of low-sensitivity nuclei in inorganic materials to the surface sites when the polarization source is an exogenous radical. In metal-ion-based DNP, the polarization agents are distributed in the bulk sample and act as a source of both relaxation and polarization enhancement. We have found that as long as the polarization agent is the main source of relaxation, the enhancement does not depend on the distance between the nucleus and dopant. As a consequence, the requirement of efficient spin diffusion is lifted, and the entire sample can be directly polarized. We exploit this finding to measure high-quality NMR spectra of 17 O in the electrode material Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 doped with Fe(III) despite its low abundance and long relaxation time.

Rational design of materials for energy storage systems relies on our ability to probe these materials at various length scales. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is a powerful approach for gaining chemical and structural insights at the atomic/molecular level, but its low detection sensitivity often limits applicability. This limitation can be overcome by transferring the high polarization of electron spins to the sample of interest in a process called dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). Here, we employ for the first time metal ion-based DNP to probe pristine and cycled composite battery electrodes. A new and efficient DNP agent, Fe­(III), is introduced, yielding lithium signal enhancement up to 180 when substituted in the anode material Li4Ti5O12. In addition for being DNP active, Fe­(III) improves the anode performance. Reduction of Fe­(III) to Fe­(II) upon cycling can be monitored in the loss of DNP activity. We show that the dopant can be reactivated (return to Fe­(III)) for DNP by increasing the cycling potential window. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the deleterious effect of carbon additives on the DNP process can be eliminated by using carbon free electrodes, doped with Fe­(III) and Mn­(II), which provide good electrochemical performance as well as sensitivity in DNP-NMR. We expect that the approach presented here will expand the applicability of DNP for studying materials for frontier challenges in materials chemistry associated with energy and sustainability.

Graphene production has been widely explored and developed in the past decade. Most research has aimed at developing scalable, environmentally friendly and cheap procedures to produce defect-free graphene that can be used in a variety of applications such as mechanical properties enhancement and energy storage. Top-down graphene production approaches (from graphite) in liquid, which include high-shear mixing and sonication, were recently scaled up. Nevertheless, their production yields have remained low (<5%) due to the need for stabilization of the graphene in dispersion (supernatant), while the precipitate has usually not been considered as graphene product. In this study, we focus on the liquid-based approach of sonication, from lab to industrial scale, in an attempt to improve the graphene yield. Unlike previous studies, we explore and characterize the product both in the supernatant and in the precipitate. We found that above a certain critical energy all graphite flakes were exfoliated into graphene sheets in an exfoliation−fragmentation mechanism described by a thermogravimetric signature. Remarkably, we discovered that other top-down approaches, namely, shear mixing and ball milling, have similar thermogravimetric signatures, indicating not only that they proceed by the same mechanism but also that they are capable of the same high yield, findings that fundamentally challenge existing knowledge about liquid-based methods of graphene production.

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We show that formamidinium-based crystals are distinct from methylammonium-based halide perovskite crystals because their inorganic sublattice exhibits intrinsic local static disorder that coexists with a well-defined average crystal structure. Our study combines terahertz-range Raman scattering with single-crystal X-ray diffraction and first-principles calculations to probe the evolution of inorganic sublattice dynamics with temperature in the range of 10–300 K. The temperature evolution of the Raman spectra shows that low-temperature, local static disorder strongly affects the crystal structural dynamics and phase transitions at higher temperatures.