Hierarchical Carbon Decorated Li3V2(PO4)3 as a Bicontinuous Cathode with High‐Rate Capability and Broad Temperature Adaptability

Developing rechargeable lithium ion batteries with fast charge/discharge rate, high capacity and power, long lifespan, and broad temperature adaptability is still a significant challenge. In order to realize the fast and efficient transport of ions and electrons during the charging/discharging process, a 3D hierarchical carbon‐decorated Li₃V₂(PO₄)₃ is designed and synthesized with a nanoscale amorphous carbon coating and a microscale carbon network. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area is 65.4 m² g^?1 and the porosity allows for easy access of the electrolyte to the active material. A specific capacity of 121 mAh g^?1 (91% of the theoretical capacity) can be obtained at a rate up to 30 C. When cycled at a rate of 20 C, the capacity retention is 77% after 4000 cycles, corresponding to a capacity fading of 0.0065% per cycle. More importantly, the composite cathode shows excellent temperature adaptability. The specific discharge capacities can reach 130 mAh g^?1 at 20 C and 60 °C, and 106 mAh g^?1 at 5 C and –20 °C. The rate performance and broad temperature adaptability demonstrate that this hierarchical carbon‐decorated Li₃V₂(PO₄)₃ is one of the most attractive cathodes for practical applications.     

Coated Lithium Powder (CLiP) Electrodes for Lithium‐Metal Batteries

Safety issues caused by the metallic lithium inside a battery represent one of the main reasons for the lack of commercial availability of rechargeable lithium‐metal batteries. The advantage of anodes based on coated lithium powder (CLiP), compared to plain lithium foil, include the suppression of dendrite formation, as the local current density during stripping/plating is reduced due to the higher surface area. Another performance and safety advantage of lithium powder is the precisely controlled mass loading of the lithium anode during electrode preparation, giving the opportunity to avoid Li excess in the cell. As an additional benefit, the coating makes electrode manufacturing safer and eases handling. Here, electrodes based on coated lithium powder electrodes (CLiP) are introduced for application in lithium‐metal batteries. These electrodes are compared to lithium foil electrodes with respect to cycling stability, coulombic efficiency of lithium stripping/plating, overpotential, and morphology changes during cycling.     

Circadian genes and lithium response in bipolar disorders: associations with PPARGC1A (PGC‐1α) and RORA

Preliminary studies suggest that lithium (Li) response might be associated with some circadian gene polymorphisms, we therefore performed a pharmacogenetic study on the core clock genes in two independent samples suffering from bipolar disorder (BD) and thoroughly characterized for their Li response. Two independent Caucasian samples (165 and 58 bipolar patients) treated with Li were selected from samples recruited in a French multicenter study and assessed for their Li response using the Alda scale. The two samples were genotyped using the Human660 (H660) and OmniExpress (OE) BeadChips and gene‐based association analyses of 22 core clock genes were conducted. In the first sample (H660 chip), the RAR‐related orphan receptor‐a gene (RORA) and the Peroxisome Proliferator‐Activated Receptor Gamma, Coactivator 1 Alpha gene (PPARGC1A or PGC‐1α) were significantly associated with the Li response (empirical P‐value = 0.0015 and 0.04, respectively), and remained significant only for RORA after Bonferroni correction. In the second sample (OE chip), PPARGC1A was significantly associated with the Li response (empirical P‐value = 0.04), and did not remain significant after Bonferroni correction. PPARGC1A is a master regulator of mitochondrial function and a key component of the endogenous clock that stimulates the expression of Bmal1 and Rev‐erb‐alpha through coactivation of RORA. Although the observed associations deserve further replication and investigation, our results suggest genetic associations between Li response and these two close biological partners: PPARGC1A and RORA involved in circadian rhythms and bioenergetics processes in Li response.     

Understanding the Reactivity of a Thin Li1.5Al0.5Ge1.5(PO4)3 Solid‐State Electrolyte toward Metallic Lithium Anode

The thickness of solid‐state electrolytes (SSEs) significantly affects the energy density and safety performance of all‐solid‐state lithium batteries. However, a sufficient understanding of the reactivity toward lithium metal of ultrathin SSEs (<100 µm) based on NASICON remains lacking. Herein, for the first time, a self‐standing and ultrathin (70 µm) NASICON‐type Li_1.5Al_0.5Ge_1.5(PO₄)₃ (LAGP) electrolyte via a scalable solution process is developed, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that changes in LAGP at the metastable Li–LAGP interface during battery operation is temperature dependent. Severe germanium reduction and decrease in LAGP particle size are detected at the Li–LAGP interface at elevated temperature. Oriented plating of lithium metal on its preferred (110) face occurs during in situ X‐ray diffraction cycling.