Silicon is an attractive material for anodes in energy storage devices, because it has ten times the theoretical capacity of its state-of-the-art carbonaceous counterpart. Silicon anodes can be used both in traditional lithium-ion batteries and in more recent Li-O2 and Li-S batteries as a replacement for the dendrite-forming lithium metal anodes. The main challenges associated with silicon anodes are structural degradation and instability of the solid-electrolyte interphase caused by the large volume change (∼300%) during cycling, the occurrence of side reactions with the electrolyte, and the low volumetric capacity when the material size is reduced to a nanometre scale. Here, we propose a hierarchical structured silicon anode that tackles all three of these problems. Our design is inspired by the structure of a pomegranate, where single silicon nanoparticles are encapsulated by a conductive carbon layer that leaves enough room for expansion and contraction following lithiation and delithiation. An ensemble of these hybrid nanoparticles is then encapsulated by a thicker carbon layer in micrometre-size pouches to act as an electrolyte barrier. As a result of this hierarchical arrangement, the solid-electrolyte interphase remains stable and spatially confined, resulting in superior cyclability (97% capacity retention after 1,000 cycles). In addition, the microstructures lower the electrode-electrolyte contact area, resulting in high Coulombic efficiency (99.87%) and volumetric capacity (1,270 mAh cm(-3)), and the cycling remains stable even when the areal capacity is increased to the level of commercial lithium-ion batteries (3.7 mAh cm(-2)).

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Sodium-ion batteries have recently attracted significant attention as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries because sodium sources do not present the geopolitical issues that lithium sources might. Although recent reports on cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries have demonstrated performances comparable to their lithium-ion counterparts, the major scientific challenge for a competitive sodium-ion battery technology is to develop viable anode materials. Here we show that a hybrid material made out of a few phosphorene layers sandwiched between graphene layers shows a specific capacity of 2,440 mA h g(-1) (calculated using the mass of phosphorus only) at a current density of 0.05 A g(-1) and an 83% capacity retention after 100 cycles while operating between 0 and 1.5 V. Using in situ transmission electron microscopy and ex situ X-ray diffraction techniques, we explain the large capacity of our anode through a dual mechanism of intercalation of sodium ions along the x axis of the phosphorene layers followed by the formation of a Na3P alloy. The presence of graphene layers in the hybrid material works as a mechanical backbone and an electrical highway, ensuring that a suitable elastic buffer space accommodates the anisotropic expansion of phosphorene layers along the y and z axial directions for stable cycling operation.

Metallic lithium is a promising anode candidate for future high-energy-density lithium batteries. It is a light-weight material, and has the highest theoretical capacity (3,860 mAh g(-1)) and the lowest electrochemical potential of all candidates. There are, however, at least three major hurdles before lithium metal anodes can become a viable technology: uneven and dendritic lithium deposition, unstable solid electrolyte interphase and almost infinite relative dimension change during cycling. Previous research has tackled the first two issues, but the last is still mostly unsolved. Here we report a composite lithium metal anode that exhibits low dimension variation (∼20%) during cycling and good mechanical flexibility. The anode is composed of 7 wt% 'lithiophilic' layered reduced graphene oxide with nanoscale gaps that can host metallic lithium. The anode retains up to ∼3,390 mAh g(-1) of capacity, exhibits low overpotential (∼80 mV at 3 mA cm(-2)) and a flat voltage profile in a carbonate electrolyte. A full-cell battery with a LiCoO2 cathode shows good rate capability and flat voltage profiles.

Particulate matter (PM) pollution has raised serious concerns for public health. Although outdoor individual protection could be achieved by facial masks, indoor air usually relies on expensive and energy-intensive air-filtering devices. Here, we introduce a transparent air filter for indoor air protection through windows that uses natural passive ventilation to effectively protect the indoor air quality. By controlling the surface chemistry to enable strong PM adhesion and also the microstructure of the air filters to increase the capture possibilities, we achieve transparent, high air flow and highly effective air filters of B90% transparency with 495.00% removal of PM 2.5 under extreme hazardous air-quality conditions (PM 2.5 mass concentration 4250 mg m À 3 ). A field test in Beijing shows that the polyacrylonitrile transparent air filter has the best PM 2.5 removal efficiency of 98.69% at high transmittance of B77% during haze occurrence.

High specific capacity battery electrode materials have attracted great research attention. Phosphorus as a low-cost abundant material has a high theoretical specific capacity of 2596 mAh/g with most of its capacity at the discharge potential range of 0.4-1.2 V, suitable as anodes. Although numerous research progress have shown other high capacity anodes such as Si, Ge, Sn, and SnO2, there are only a few studies on phosphorus anodes despite its high theoretical capacity. Successful applications of phosphorus anodes have been impeded by rapid capacity fading, mainly caused by large volume change (around 300%) upon lithiation and thus loss of electrical contact. Using the conducting allotrope of phosphorus, "black phosphorus" as starting materials, here we fabricated composites of black phosphorus nanoparticle-graphite by mechanochemical reaction in a high energy mechanical milling process. This process produces phosphorus-carbon bonds, which are stable during lithium insertion/extraction, maintaining excellent electrical connection between phosphorus and carbon. We demonstrated high initial discharge capacity of 2786 mAh·g(-1) at 0.2 C and an excellent cycle life of 100 cycles with 80% capacity retention. High specific discharge capacities are maintained at fast C rates (2270, 1750, 1500, and 1240 mAh·g(-1) at C/5, 1, 2, and 4.5 C, respectively).

For future applications in portable electronics, electric vehicles and grid storage, batteries with higher energy storage density than existing lithium ion batteries need to be developed. Recent efforts in this direction have focused on high-capacity electrode materials such as lithium metal, silicon and tin as anodes, and sulphur and oxygen as cathodes. Lithium metal would be the optimal choice as an anode material, because it has the highest specific capacity (3,860 mAh g(-1)) and the lowest anode potential of all. However, the lithium anode forms dendritic and mossy metal deposits, leading to serious safety concerns and low Coulombic efficiency during charge/discharge cycles. Although advanced characterization techniques have helped shed light on the lithium growth process, effective strategies to improve lithium metal anode cycling remain elusive. Here, we show that coating the lithium metal anode with a monolayer of interconnected amorphous hollow carbon nanospheres helps isolate the lithium metal depositions and facilitates the formation of a stable solid electrolyte interphase. We show that lithium dendrites do not form up to a practical current density of 1 mA cm(-2). The Coulombic efficiency improves to ∼ 99% for more than 150 cycles. This is significantly better than the bare unmodified samples, which usually show rapid Coulombic efficiency decay in fewer than 100 cycles. Our results indicate that nanoscale interfacial engineering could be a promising strategy to tackle the intrinsic problems of lithium metal anodes.

Solid-state electrolytes provide substantial improvements to safety and electrochemical stability in lithium-ion batteries when compared with conventional liquid electrolytes, which makes them a promising alternative technology for next-generation high-energy batteries. Currently, the low mobility of lithium ions in solid electrolytes limits their practical application. The ongoing research over the past few decades on dispersing of ceramic nanoparticles into polymer matrix has been proved effective to enhance ionic conductivity although it is challenging to form the efficiency networks of ionic conduction with nanoparticles. In this work, we first report that ceramic nanowire fillers can facilitate formation of such ionic conduction networks in polymer-based solid electrolyte to enhance its ionic conductivity by three orders of magnitude. Polyacrylonitrile-LiClO4 incorporated with 15 wt % Li0.33La0.557TiO3 nanowire composite electrolyte exhibits an unprecedented ionic conductivity of 2.4 × 10(-4) S cm(-1) at room temperature, which is attributed to the fast ion transport on the surfaces of ceramic nanowires acting as conductive network in the polymer matrix. In addition, the ceramic-nanowire filled composite polymer electrolyte shows an enlarged electrochemical stability window in comparison to the one without fillers. The discovery in the present work paves the way for the design of solid ion electrolytes with superior performance.