Aqueous Zn‐storage behaviors of MoS2‐based cathodes mainly rely on the ion‐(de)intercalation at edge sites but are limited by the inactive basal plane. Herein, an in‐situ molecular engineering strategy in terms of structure defects manufacturing and O‐doping is proposed for MoS2 (designated as D‐MoS2‐O) to unlock the inert basal plane, expand the interlayer spacing (from 6.2 to 9.6 Å), and produce abundant 1T‐phase. The tailored D‐MoS2‐O with excellent hydrophilicity and high conductivity allows the 3D Zn2+ transport along both the ab plane and c‐axis, thus achieving the exceptional high rate capability. Zn2+ diffusion through the basal plane is verified by DFT computations. As a proof of concept, the wearable quasi‐solid‐state rechargeable Zn battery employing the D‐MoS2‐O cathode operates stably even under severe bending conditions, showing great application prospects. This work opens a new window for designing high‐performance layered cathode materials for aqueous Zn‐ion batteries.
Triggering the anionic redox chemistry in layered oxide cathodes has emerged as a paradigmatic approach to efficaciously boost the energy density of sodium-ion batteries. However, their practical applications are still plagued by irreversible lattice oxygen release and deleterious structure distortion. Herein, a novel P2-Na 0.76 Ca 0.05 [Ni 0.23 □ 0.08 Mn 0.69 ]O 2 cathode material featuring joint cationic and anionic redox activities, where native vacancies are produced in the transition-metal (TM) layers and Ca ions are riveted in the Na layers, is developed. Random vacancies in the TM sites induce the emergence of nonbonding O 2p orbitals to activate anionic redox, which is confirmed by systematic electrochemical measurements, ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, in situ X-ray diffraction, and density functional theory computations. Benefiting from the pinned Ca ions in the Na sites, a robust layered structure with the suppressed P2-O2 phase transition and enhanced anionic redox reversibility upon charge/discharge is achieved. Therefore, the electrode displays exceptional rate capability (153.9 mA h g −1 at 0.1 C with 74.6 mA h g −1 at 20 C) and improved cycling life (87.1% capacity retention at 0.1 C after 50 cycles). This study provides new opportunities for designing high-energydensity and high-stability layered sodium oxide cathodes by tuning local chemical environments.
Proton insertion chemistry in aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) is becoming a research hotspot owing to its fast kinetics and additional capacities. However, H+ storage mechanism has not been deciphered in the popular MoS2‐based AZIBs. Herein, we innovatively prepared a MoS2/poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (MoS2/PEDOT) hybrid, where the intercalated PEDOT not only increases the interlayer spacing (from 0.62 to 1.29 nm) and electronic conductivity of MoS2, but also activates the proton insertion chemistry. Thus, highly efficient and reversible H+/Zn2+ co‐insertion/extraction behaviors are demonstrated for the first time in aqueous Zn‐MoS2 batteries. More intriguingly, the co‐inserted protons can act as lubricants to effectively shield the electrostatic interactions between MoS2/PEDOT host and divalent Zn2+, enabling the accelerated ion‐diffusion kinetics and exceptional rate performance. This work proposes a new concept of “proton lubricant” driving Zn2+ transport and broadens the horizons of Zn‐MoS2 batteries.
Layered VS2 holds great potential as a cathode material for aqueous Zn‐ion batteries owing to its large interlayer spacing, high electrical conductivity, and the rich redox chemistry of vanadium. Nevertheless, structural instability during charge/discharge severely hinders the further development of VS2 cathodes. Herein, distinctive hierarchitectures of 1T‐VS2 nanospheres assembled by nanosheets, which feature abundant active sites, superior electron/ion transport property, and robust structure, are developed. More intriguingly, Zn2+ “pillars” residing in VS2 interlayers, achieved by controlling the charge cut‐off voltage are first proven to reinforce the layered structure of VS2 upon repeated Zn2+ insertion/extraction, redefining the commonly perceived “dead Zn2+”. Hence, exceptional rate performance (212.9 and 102.1 mA h g−1 at 0.1 and 5 A g−1, respectively) and ultralong cycling life (86.7% capacity retention over 2000 cycles at 2 A g−1) are obtained. The rapid and highly reversible Zn‐ion (de) intercalation behavior within the VS2 nanospheres is verified by first‐principles computations and multiple ex‐situ characterizations. Finally, the flexible quasi‐solid‐state rechargeable Zn battery employing the tailored VS2 cathode demonstrates great application prospects in wearable devices. This work provides new perspectives for prolonging the lifespan of layered Zn‐storage materials by simply modulating the charge/discharge processes.
Functional engineering of musculoskeletal tissues generally involves rapid expansion of progenitor cells in vitro while retaining their potential for further differentiation and then induction in specific culture conditions. The autologous adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) are considered to contain pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells. Imaging with expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) facilitates the detailed research on ASCs physiological behavior during differentiation into a variety of cell lineages both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we aimed to confirm the trans-germ plasticity of homogeneously marked ASCs from GFP transgenic mice. Simultaneously, the term and intensity of GFP expression in ASCs were also focused on during variant inductions, when cells were incubated with multiple growth factors and adjuvant. ASCs were harvested from inguinal fat pads of transgenic nude mice, passaged 3 times in monolayer cultures, and then transferred to osteogenic, adipogenic, neurogenic, and myogenic medium. The morphological characterization of inductive cells was observed using phase-contrast microscopy and histological staining such as alizarin red for mineralization nodules and oil red O for lipid accumulation. The expression of marker genes or proteins was measured using RT-PCR and immunocytochemical analysis. Collagen type I, osteopontin (OPN), and osteocalcin (OCN) were positive in osteogenic lineages, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor(PPAR)-gamma2 and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) were positive in adipogenic ones, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) were positive in neurogenic ones, and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) was positive in myogenic ones. Moreover, the results of fluorescence microscopic imaging suggested that there was no significant decline of GFP expression during ASCs differentiation and the level of GFP maintained stable till differentiated ASCs showed apoptotic phenotype. So the endogenous GFP and multilineage potential of transgenic ASCs had no influences on each other. Since the population of GFP ASCs can be easily identified, it is proposed that they may be promising candidate seed cells for further studies on ASCs tissue engineering, especially the study on engineered tissues formed in vivo.
Aqueous Zn-storage behaviors of MoS 2 -based cathodes mainly rely on the ion-(de)intercalation at edge sites but are limited by the inactive basal plane. Herein, an in-situ molecular engineering strategy in terms of structure defects manufacturing and O-doping is proposed for MoS 2 (designated as D-MoS 2 -O) to unlock the inert basal plane, expand the interlayer spacing (from 6.2 to 9.6 ), and produce abundant 1T-phase. The tailored D-MoS 2 -O with excellent hydrophilicity and high conductivity allows the 3D Zn 2+ transport along both the ab plane and c-axis, thus achieving the exceptional high rate capability. Zn 2+ diffusion through the basal plane is verified by DFT computations. As a proof of concept, the wearable quasisolid-state rechargeable Zn battery employing the D-MoS 2 -O cathode operates stably even under severe bending conditions, showing great application prospects. This work opens a new window for designing high-performance layered cathode materials for aqueous Zn-ion batteries.
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