La2CoO4, a new promising intercalation-based cathode material for fluoride ion batteries with improved cycling stability.

Fluoride ion batteries (FIBs) are a recent alternative all-solid-state battery technology. However, the FIB systems proposed so far suffer from poor cycling performance. In this work, we report La 2 NiO 4.13 with a Ruddlesden-Popper type structure as an intercalation-based active cathode material in all solid-state FIB with excellent cycling performance. The critical charging conditions to maintain the conductivity of the cell were determined, which seems to be a major obstacle towards improving the cycling stability of FIBs. For optimized operating conditions, a cycle life of about 60 cycles and over 220 cycles for critical cutoff capacities of 50 mAh/g and 30 mAh/g, respectively, could be achieved, with average Coulombic efficiencies between 95-99%. Cycling of the cell is a result of fluorination/de-fluorination into and from the La 2 NiO 4+d cathode, and it is revealed that La 2 NiO 4.13 is a multivalent electrode material. Our findings suggest that La 2 NiO 4.13 is a promising high energy cathode for FIBs.

To date, special interest has been paid to composite scaffolds based on polymers enriched with hydroxyapatite (HA). However, the role of HA containing different trace elements such as silicate in the structure of a polymer scaffold has not yet been fully explored. Here, we report the potential use of silicate-containing hydroxyapatite (SiHA) microparticles and microparticle aggregates in the predominant range from 2.23 to 12.40 µm in combination with polycaprolactone (PCL) as a hybrid scaffold with randomly oriented and well-aligned microfibers for regeneration of bone tissue. Chemical and mechanical properties of the developed 3D scaffolds were investigated with XRD, FTIR, EDX and tensile testing. Furthermore, the internal structure and surface morphology of the scaffolds were analyzed using synchrotron X-ray µCT and SEM. Upon culturing human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) on PCL-SiHA scaffolds, we found that both SiHA inclusion and microfiber orientation affected cell adhesion. The best hMSCs viability was revealed at 10 day for the PCL-SiHA scaffolds with well-aligned structure (~82%). It is expected that novel hybrid scaffolds of PCL will improve tissue ingrowth in vivo due to hydrophilic SiHA microparticles in combination with randomly oriented and well-aligned PCL microfibers, which mimic the structure of extracellular matrix of bone tissue.

RbCl and CsCl react with BrF yielding the corresponding decafluoridotribromates(iii), MBrF (M = Rb, Cs), which were structurally characterized for the first time. The BrF anion is surprisingly not linear but contains a μ-bridging fluorine atom and seems to be the first example of μ-F bridging of Br atoms. The compounds are highly reactive and cannot be handled in glassware. As for the tetrafluoridobromates themselves, they are powerful oxidizers and thus suitable for the dry-chemical recycling of precious metals and additionally feature a significantly higher BrF content.