Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted intensive study as solid electrolytes (SEs) in recent years. However, MOF particles work separately in SEs and numerous interfaces hinder a high-efficiency ion transport, which lowers the performance of solid-state batteries (SSBs). Herein, continuous ion-conductive paths were constructed by cross-linked MOF chains. Chains of a newly developed MOF (Zr-BPDC-2SO3H) were grown on bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers to provide a continuous ion transport network. The cross-linked MOF chains exhibit a high ionic conductivity of 7.88 × 10–4 S cm–1 at 25 °C, single-ion transport ability (t Li +=0.88), a wide electrochemical window up to 5.10 V, excellent interface compatibility, and the capability for suppressing lithium dendrites. Most importantly, the SSB fabricated with the cross-linked MOF chains shows more than 100% improved specific capacity in comparison to an SSB without this design and stable cycling performance at 3 C. This work provides a splendid strategy for developing high-performance SEs with porous ion conductors.

Background. Depression is one of the greatest health concerns affecting 350 million people globally. Aromatherapy is a popular CAM intervention chosen by people with depression. Due to the growing popularity of aromatherapy for alleviating depressive symptoms, in-depth evaluation of the evidence-based clinical efficacy of aromatherapy is urgently needed. Purpose. This systematic review aims to provide an analysis of the clinical evidence on the efficacy of aromatherapy for depressive symptoms on any type of patients. Methods. A systematic database search was carried out using predefined search terms in 5 databases: AMED, CINHAL, CCRCT, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO. Outcome measures included scales measuring depressive symptoms levels. Results. Twelve randomized controlled trials were included and two administration methods for the aromatherapy intervention including inhaled aromatherapy (5 studies) and massage aromatherapy (7 studies) were identified. Seven studies showed improvement in depressive symptoms. Limitations. The quality of half of the studies included is low, and the administration protocols among the studies varied considerably. Different assessment tools were also employed among the studies. Conclusions. Aromatherapy showed potential to be used as an effective therapeutic option for the relief of depressive symptoms in a wide variety of subjects. Particularly, aromatherapy massage showed to have more beneficial effects than inhalation aromatherapy.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been attracting a great deal of attention as potential solid electrolytes (SEs). However, the interfacial compatibility of MOF-based SEs caused by the physical contact among MOF particles, the polymer binder, and electrodes is not yet fully determined. Herein, a bioinspired design strategy aiming to build ion transport pathways at interfaces was introduced. The MOF-to-MOF transport paths were built via in situ ring opening of epoxide, akin to the protein molecules that transport the ion across the cell walls. After optimization, the obtained SE is endowed with a high ion conductivity of 1.70 × 10–3 S cm–1 at 30 °C, a wide electrochemical window of 4.6 V, a high Li+ transference number of 0.8, and a decreased interface resistance. Consequently, the fabricated quasi-solid metal batteries exhibit higher and more stable cycling performance compared to the performance of those without interface optimization. This strategy for optimizing the interfacial compatibility of MOFs thus exploits a new avenue for developing high-performance SEs for various metal batteries.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have drawn considerable interest as solid electrolytes (SEs) by virtue of their talents for rational design as ion channels. The crystal interface plays a significant role in ion transport and is thus of vital importance to the performance of solid batteries, however, interface effects of MOFs in SEs are not yet fully understood, especially at the molecular level, and not engineered as well. In this work, MOFs engineered with diverse molecules (Lewis bases) are designed for an optimized interfaces and the impact of interfaces for ion transport is analyzed by using engineered MOFs as SEs. The results show that the ion conductivity of MOFs decorated with a long chain Lewis base (LCLB) has been greatly improved. The interface resistance of the SEs composed of MOFs with LCLB has decreased markedly. Most importantly, the corresponding Li|SE|LiPO 4 solid-state battery (SSB) shows an improved specific capacity of 47% and longer lifetime at 5 C compared with the SSB without interface engineering. Such results shed new light on the understanding of ion transport at interfaces and suggest the feasibility of interface engineered MOFs as advanced SEs.

Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) are still severely blocked by the shuttle of polysulfides (LiPSs), resulting in low sulfur utilization and decreased lifetime. The optimal design of hosts with tailored porous structures and catalytic sites is expected to address this issue. Herein, a Bi/Bi2O3 heterostructure within the metal–organic framework (MOF)-derived sulfur host with a hierarchical structure was elaborated for both serving as sulfur hosts and promoting the redox reaction kinetics of LiPSs. The shuttle effects of LiPSs can be mitigated by the dual functional Bi/Bi2O3 heterostructure enriched in the outer layer of CAU-17-derived carbonic rods, i.e., the effective redox conversion of LiPSs can be realized at the Bi/Bi2O3 heterointerface by the adsorption of LiPSs over Bi2O3 and subsequently catalytic conversion over Bi. Benefiting from these merits, the fabricated LSBs realized a significantly optimized performance, including a high discharge capacity of 740.8 mAh g–1 after 1000 cycles with an ultralow decay rate of 0.022% per cycle at 1 C, a high areal capacity of 6.6 mAh cm–2 after 100 cycles with a sulfur loading of 8.1 mg cm–2, and good performance in pouch cells as well.

The effect of TiO 2 on the liquids zone and apparent viscosity of SiO 2 -CaO-8wt%MgO-14wt%Al 2 O 3 system were studied in the present work. At fixed CaO/SiO 2 between 0.5 and 1.3, higher TiO 2 content decrease the slag viscosity indicating that TiO 2 additions up to 50 wt.% behaved as a viscosity-decrease agent by loosening the silicate network structure. The free running temperature increase at TiO 2 content from 10 wt.% to 30 wt.%. At fixed TiO 2 content of 20, 30 and 40 wt.%, increasing the CaO/SiO 2 resulted in lower viscosity due to the depolymerization of the structure. Four different viscosity models were discussed and two of them were employed to predict the viscosity and found that the Urbain's Model agrees well with experimental data at high viscosity (4-12 dPa·s) and the KCC's Model agrees well with experimental data at a lower viscosity (0-4 dPa·s).

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Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown potential for trapping and catalyzing lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) in lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs), which is, however, challenging, because their catalytic metal centers are usually fully coordinated with ligands and inactivated. To understand the design principle of such MOFs, herein, three task-specific Bi-MOFs (Bi-MOF-1, Bi-MOF-2, and Bi-MOF-3) were designed to regulate the catalytic sites and systematically study the mechanism for trapping and catalyzing LiPSs. Specifically, the catalytic function of Bi-MOFs can be artificially activated or locked by exposing Bi3+ clusters or coordinating Bi3+ with organic molecules. A series of ex situ/in situ electrochemical tests and theoretical calculations demonstrated the key role of both the open metal sites on Bi3+ clusters and Bi3+-S interaction within Bi-MOF-1 for adsorbing and catalyzing LiPSs. Moreover, Bi-MOF-1 can improve the specific capacity of LSBs by 50% and decrease the decay rate by 80% after 1000 cycles at 1 C, compared with the LSBs without catalytic interlayer, showing the great potential of catalytic MOFs for high-performance LSBs.