With the development of high-performance electrode materials, sodium-ion batteries have been extensively studied and could potentially be applied in various fields to replace the lithium-ion cells, owing to the low cost and natural abundance. As the key anode materials of sodium-ion batteries, hard carbons still face problems, such as poor cycling performance and low initial Coulombic efficiency. Owning to the low synthesis cost and the natural presence of heteroatoms of biomasses, biomasses have positive implications for synthesizing the hard carbons for sodium-ion batteries. This minireview mainly explains the research progress of biomasses used as the precursors to prepare the hard-carbon materials. The storage mechanism of hard carbons, comparisons of the structural properties of hard carbons prepared from different biomasses, and the influence of the preparation conditions on the electrochemical properties of hard carbons are introduced. In addition, the effect of doping atoms is also summarized to provide an in-depth understanding and guidance for the design of high-performance hard carbons for sodium-ion batteries.
Recently, many efforts and much attention has been paid to developing environmentally friendly energy. Solid oxide electrolyte cells (SOECs) process in reverse to solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) producing hydrogen gas as a green energy source. However, in this application, high-performance catalysts are usually required to overcome the sluggish oxygen evolution reactions (OER) during water decomposition. For this reason, discovery of catalysts with high performance is a crucial issue for the wide application of SOECs. Owning to their inherent activity and adequate stability in electrochemical conditions, perovskite oxides have been intensively employed in SOECs. In this mini review, we summarize the currently available studies concerning the applications of cobalt-based perovskite oxide catalysts in SOECs. Particularly, their structural properties and corresponding electronic structures are discussed based on their electrochemical performance, both experimentally and theoretically.
The vector similarity measure (VSM), originally applied to information retrieval, has been recently introduced to analyze particle size distribution (PSD) based on forward light scattering. The VSM technique can predict the PSD with low sensitivity to the experimental errors. However, the simulations and experiments of multi-modal distributed particle systems were not satisfying. In this paper, a modified inverse algorithm is presented to improve the VSM technique. Simulated results and experimental evidence show that with this modification the VSM technique can reconstruct the PSD more efficiently.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.