A new type of amino polar binder with 3D network flexibility structure for high energy Li-S batteries is synthesized and successfully used with commercial sulfur powder cathodes. The binder shows significant performance improvement in capacity retention and high potential for practical application, which arouse the battery community's interest in the commercial application of high energy Li-S battery.

Lithium metal, the ideal anode material for rechargeable batteries, suffers from the inherent limitations of sensitivity to the humid atmosphere and dendrite growth. Herein, low-cost fabrication of a metallic-lithium anode that is stable in air and plated dendrite-free from an organic-liquid electrolyte solves four key problems that have plagued the development of large-scale Li-ion batteries for storage of electric power. Replacing the low-capacity carbon anode with a safe, dendrite-free lithium anode provides a fast charge while reducing the cost of fabrication of a lithium battery, and increasing the cycle life of a rechargeable cell by eliminating the liquid-electrolyte ethylene-carbonate additive used to form a solid-electrolyte interphase passivation layer on the anode that is unstable during cycling. This solution is accomplished by formation of a hydrophobic solid-electrolyte interphase on a metallic-lithium anode that allows for handling of the treated lithium anode membrane in a standard dry room during cell fabrication.

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A sustainable route from the biomass byproduct okara as a natural nitrogen fertilizer to high-content N-doped carbon sheets is demonstrated. The as-prepared unique structure exhibits high specific capacity (292 mAh g(-1) ) and extremely long cycle life (exceeding 2000 cycles). A full battery is devised for the practical use of materials with a flexible/wearable LED screen.

An ultrahigh pyridinic N-content-doped porous carbon monolith is reported, and the content of pyridinic N reaches up to 10.1% in overall material (53.4 ± 0.9% out of 18.9 ± 0.4% N content), being higher than most of previously reported N-doping carbonaceous materials, which exhibit greatly improved electrochemical performance for potassium storage, especially in term of the high reversible capacity. Remarkably, the pyridinic N-doped porous carbon monolith (PNCM) electrode exhibits high initial charge capacity of 487 mAh g at a current density of 20 mA g , which is one of the highest reversible capacities among all carbonaceous anodes for K-ion batteries. Moreover, the K-ion full cell is successfully assembled, demonstrating a high practical energy density of 153.5 Wh kg . These results make PNCM promising for practical application in energy storage devices and encourage more investigations on a similar potassium storage system.

Sodium-ion battery (SIB) is especially attractive in cost-effective energy storage device as an alternative to lithium-ion battery. Particularly, metal phosphides as potential anodes for SIBs have recently been demonstrated owing to their higher specifi c capacities compared with those of carbonaceous materials. Unfortunately, most reported metal phosphides consist of irregular particles ranged from several hundreds nanometers to tens of micrometers, thus delivering limited cyclic stability. This paper reports the sodium storage properties of additive-free Cu 3 P nanowire (CPNW) anode directly grown on copper current collector via an in situ growth followed by phosphidation method. Therefore, as a result of its structure features, CPNW anode demonstrates highly stable cycling ability with an ≈70% retention in capacity at the 260th cycle, whereas most reported metal phosphides have limited cycle numbers ranged between 30 and 150. Besides, the reaction mechanism between Cu 3 P and Na is investigated by examining the intermediate products at different charge/discharge stages using ex situ X-ray diffraction measurements. Furthermore, to explore the practical application of CPNW anode, a pouch-type Na + full cell consisting of CPNW anode and Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 cathode is assembled and characterized. As a demonstration, a 10 cm × 10 cm light-emmiting diode (LED) screen is successfully powered by the Na + full cell. Figure 6. a) Schematic representation of the pouch-type CPNW/NVP Na + full cell. b) Cycling performance of the CPNW/NVP Na + full cell at current densities of 600 mA g −1 . c,d) Optical images showing a fl exible LED screen powered by the pouch-type CPNW/NVP Na + full cell. wileyonlinelibrary.com

For the first time a new strategy is reported to improve the volumetric capacity and Coulombic efficiency by selenium doping for lithium-organosulfur batteries. Selenium-doped cathodes with four sulfur atoms and one selenium atom (as the doped heteroatom) in the confined structure are designed and synthesized; this structure exhibits greatly improved volumetric/areal capacities, and a Coulombic efficiency of almost 100% for highly stable lithium-organosulfur batteries. The doping of Se significantly enhances the electronic conductivity of battery electrodes by a factor of 6.2 compared to pure sulfur electrodes, and completely restricts the production of long-chain lithium polysulfides. This allows achievement of a high gravimetric capacity of 700 mAh g close to its theoretical mass capacity, an exceptional volumetric capacity of 2457 mAh cm , and excellent capacity retention of 92% after 400 cycles. Shuttle effect is efficiently weakened since no long-chain polysulfides are detected from in situ UV/vis results throughout the entire cycling process arising from selenium doping, which is theoretically confirmed by density functional theory calculations.

The sluggish solid−solid conversion kinetics from Li 2 S 4 to Li 2 S during discharge is considered the main problem for cryogenic Li−S batteries. Herein, an all-liquidphase reaction mechanism, where all the discharging intermediates are dissolved in the functional thioether-based electrolyte, is proposed to significantly enhance the kinetics of Li−S battery chemistry at low temperatures. A fast liquidphase reaction pathway thus replaces the conventional slow solid−solid conversion route. Spectral investigations and molecular dynamics simulations jointly elucidate the greatly enhanced kinetics due to the highly decentralized state of solvated intermediates in the electrolyte. Overall, the battery brings an ultrahigh specific capacity of 1563 mAh g −1 sulfur in the cathode at −60 °C. This work provides a strategy for developing cryogenic Li−S batteries.