Sodium is a promising anode material for batteries due to its low standard electrode potential, high abundance and low cost. In this work, we report a new rechargeable ~ 3.5 V sodium ion battery using Na anode, amorphous carbon-nanosphere cathode and a starting electrolyte comprised of AlCl 3 in SOCl 2 with uoride-based additives. The battery, exhibiting ultrahigh ~ 2800 mAh/g rst discharge capacity, could cycle with a high reversible capacity up to ~ 1000 mAh/g. Through battery cycling, the electrolyte evolved to contain NaCl, various sulfur and chlorine species that supported anode's Na/Na + redox and cathode's chloride/chlorine redox. Fluoride-rich additives were important in forming a solid-electrolyte interface, affording reversibility of the Na anode for a new class of high capacity secondary Na battery.
Main TextDevising new battery concepts is important to meeting society's growing demand of energy storage.Different rechargeable batteries have been developed, including lithium ion batteries (LIBs), sodium ion batteries (SIBs) and aluminum ion batteries (AIBs) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] . Prior to the invention of secondary LIBs, a primary Li-metal battery was developed in the 1970's using thionyl chloride (SOCl 2 ) as a catholyte, Li metal as anode and amorphous carbon as the positive electrode [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . The Li-SOCl 2 battery was attractive due to its high energy density, but did not receive sustained interest due to the lack of rechargeability 17,18 . The battery discharges through Li anode oxidation and catholyte SOCl 2 reduction into sulfur (S), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), and chloride ion (Cl -) on the carbon electrode 19,20 . The Clions react with Li + stripped from
Electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction (CO 2 RR) to valuable fuels is a promising approach to mitigate energy and environmental problems, but controlling the reaction pathways and products remains challenging. Here a novel Cu 2 O nanoparticle film was synthesized by square-wave (SW) electrochemical redox cycling of high-purity Cu foils. The cathode afforded up to 98% Faradaic efficiency for electroreduction of CO 2 to nearly pure formate under ≥45 atm CO 2 in bicarbonate catholytes. When this cathode was paired with a newly developed NiFe hydroxide carbonate anode in KOH/borate anolyte, the resulting two-electrode high-pressure electrolysis cell achieved high energy conversion efficiencies of up to 55.8% stably for long-term formate production. While the high-pressure conditions drastically increased the solubility of CO 2 to enhance CO 2 reduction and suppress hydrogen evolution, the (111)-oriented Cu 2 O film was found to be important to afford nearly 100% CO 2 reduction to formate. The results have implications for CO 2 reduction to a single liquid product with high energy conversion efficiency.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has claimed millions of lives to date. Antigenic drift has resulted in viral variants with putatively greater transmissibility, virulence, or both. Early and near real-time detection of these variants of concern (VOC) and the ability to accurately follow their incidence and prevalence in communities is wanting. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), which uses nucleic acid amplification tests to detect viral fragments, is a reliable proxy of COVID-19 incidence and prevalence, and thus offers the potential to monitor VOC viral load in a given population. Here, we describe and validate a primer extension PCR strategy targeting a signature mutation in the N gene of SARS-CoV-2. This allows quantification of B.1.1.7 versus non-B.1.1.7 allele frequency in wastewater without the need to employ quantitative RT-PCR standard curves. We show that the wastewater B.1.1.7 profile correlates with its clinical counterpart and benefits from a near real-time and facile data collection and reporting pipeline. This assay can be quickly implemented within a current SARS-CoV-2 WBE framework with minimal cost; allowing early and contemporaneous estimates of B.1.1.7 community transmission prior to, or in lieu of, clinical screening and identification. Our study demonstrates that this strategy can provide public health units with an additional and much needed tool to rapidly triangulate VOC incidence/prevalence with high sensitivity and lineage specificity.
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