Sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) are considered to be a promising alternative for large‐scale electricity storage. However, it is urgent to develop new anode materials with superior ultralong cycle life performance at high current rates. Herein, a low‐cost and large‐scalable sulfur‐doped carbon anode material that exhibits the best high‐rate cycle performance and the longest cycle life ever reported for carbon anodes is developed. The material delivers a reversible capacity of 142 mA h g−1 at a current rate up to 10 A g−1. After 10 000 cycles the capacity is remained at 126.5 mA h g−1; 89.1% of the initial value. Density functional theory computations demonstrate that the sulfur‐doped carbon has a strong binding affinity for sodium which promotes sodium storage. Meanwhile, the kinetics analysis identifies the capacitive charge storage as a large contributor to sodium storage, which favors ultrafast storage of sodium ions. These results demonstrate a new way to design carbon‐based SIBs anodes for next‐generation large‐scale electricity storage.
Li metal batteries have attracted extensive research attention because of their extremely high theoretical capacity. However, the commercialization of the Li metal batteries is hindered, as uncontrolled Li dendrites growth leads to safety concerns and a low coulombic efficiency. To suppress Li dendrites growth and achieve dense Li deposition, a lithiophilic 3D Cu host is designed for Li metal anode, in which the nano‐sized Cu is in situ formed with the aid of infused Li metal. The fabricated Li metal anode exhibit a superior electrochemical stability than raw Li metal anode, and compact Li is maintained during cycling. The experimental results and density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the nano‐sized Cu formed on the surface of the skeleton host shows highly exposed Cu (100) and Cu (110) surfaces, which exhibits a strong affinity toward Li, and effectively eliminates the formation of Li dendrites, leading to a dense Li deposition. With the strategy of adjusting exposed surfaces of Cu host, the optimized Li metal anode enhances the electrochemical performance of full cells, and concomitantly demonstrates their potential for future designs of next‐generation Li metal anodes or Li‐free anodes for Li metal batteries.
Nanoconfinement provides a promising solution to promote electrocatalytic C−C coupling, by dramatically altering the diffusion kinetics to ensure a high local concentration of C1 intermediates for carbon dimerization. Herein, under the guidance of finite‐element method simulations results, a series of Cu2O hollow multi‐shell structures (HoMSs) with tunable shell numbers were synthesized via Ostwald ripening. When applied in CO2 electroreduction (CO2RR), the in situ formed Cu HoMSs showed a positive correlation between shell numbers and selectivity for C2+ products, reaching a maximum C2+ Faradaic efficiency of 77.0±0.3 % at a conversion rate of 513.7±0.7 mA cm−2 in a neutral electrolyte. Mechanistic studies clarified the confinement effect of HoMSs that superposition of Cu shells leads to a higher coverage of localized CO adsorbate inside the cavity for enhanced dimerization. This work provides valuable insights for the delicate design of efficient C−C coupling catalysts.
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