Suitable intercalation cathodes and fundamental insights into the Zn-ion storage mechanism are the crucial factors for the booming development of aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Herein, a novel nickel vanadium oxide hydrate (Ni0.25V2O5·0.88H2O) is synthesized and investigated as a high-performance electrode material, which delivers a reversible capacity of 418 mA h g–1 with 155 mA h g–1 retained at 20 A g–1 and a high capacity of 293 mA h g–1 in long-term cycling at 10 A g–1 with 77% retention after 10,000 cycles. More importantly, multistep phase transition and chemical-state change during intercalation/deintercalation of hydrated Zn2+ are illustrated in detail via in situ/ex situ analytical techniques to unveil the Zn2+ storage mechanism of the hydrated and layered vanadium oxide bronze. Furthermore, morphological development from nanobelts to hierarchical structures during rapid ion insertion and extraction is demonstrated and a self-hierarchical process is correspondingly proposed. The unique evolutions of structure and morphology, together with consequent fast Zn2+ transport kinetics, are of significance to the outstanding zinc storage capacity, which would enlighten the mechanism exploration of the aqueous rechargeable batteries and push development of vanadium-based cathode materials.

No abstract

The superhydrophobic PDMS@ZHS coating was obtained by pressing superhydrophilic ZHS particles into PDMS and curing agent solutions.

In this paper, we have developed a one-step thermal treatment of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) liquid to create transparent super-repellent surface (TSS) and super-repellent powder. They are super-repellent toward water and ethylene glycol. During the one-step thermal treatment, PDMS soot is generated and deposited onto a glass slide (GS) surface to fabricate the TSS without fluorosilane modification. The facilely obtained TSS presented superhydrophobicity and self-cleaning property when immersed into very low surface tension oils such as petroleum ether, hexadecane, peanut oil, and dodecane. Interestingly, by controlling heating time and temperature, wettability of the treated GS surface and the remained white powder can be regulated. The mechanism of tunable wettability was revealed and analyzed by investigating the variations of surface morphology and chemical composition. More importantly, TSS was able to repel highly corrosive aqua regia and saturated NaOH solutions. TSS maintained excellent superhydrophobicity even after chemical and mechanical damages. This simple thermal deposition method was also applicable for other thermally stable substrates to achieve super-repellency, which are believed to find very promising applications.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract