Hierarchically Porous,Ultrathick, “Breathable” Wood‐Derived Cathode for Lithium‐Oxygen Batteries

In this work, a hierarchically porous and ultrathick “breathable” wood‐based cathode for high‐performance Li‐O₂ batteries is developed. The 3D carbon matrix obtained from the carbonized and activated wood (denoted as CA‐wood) serves as a superconductive current collector and an ideal porous host for accommodating catalysts. The ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles are uniformly anchored on the porous wall of the aligned microchannels (denoted as CA‐wood/Ru). The aligned open microchannels inside the carbon matrix contribute to unimpeded oxygen gas diffusion. Moreover, the hierarchical pores on the microchannel walls can be facilely impregnated by electrolyte, forming a continuous supply of electrolyte. As a result, numerous ideal triphase active sites are formed where electrolyte, oxygen, and catalyst accumulate on the porous walls of microchannels. Benefiting from the numerous well‐balanced triple‐phase active sites, the assembled Li‐O₂ battery with the CA‐wood/Ru cathode (thickness: ≈700 µm) shows a high specific area capacity of 8.58 mA h cm^?2 at 0.1 mA cm^?2. Moreover, the areal capacity can be further increased to 56.0 mA h cm^?2 by using an ultrathick CA‐wood/Ru cathode with a thickness of ≈3.4 mm. The facile ultrathick wood‐based cathodes can be applied to other cathodes to achieve a super high areal capacity without sacrificing the electrochemical performance.     

Highly Stretchable Separator Membrane for Deformable Energy‐Storage Devices

With the emergence of stretchable electronic devices, there is growing interest in the development of deformable power accessories that can power them. To date, various approaches have been reported for replacing rigid components of typical batteries with elastic materials. Little attention, however, has been paid to stretchable separator membranes that can not only prevent internal short circuit but also provide an ionic conducting pathway between electrodes under extreme physical deformation. Herein, a poly(styrene‐b‐butadiene‐b‐styrene) (SBS) block copolymer–based stretchable separator membrane is fabricated by the nonsolvent‐induced phase separation (NIPS). The diversity of mechanical properties and porous structures can be obtained by using different polymer concentrations and tuning the affinity among major components of NIPS. The stretchable separator membrane exhibits a high stretchability of around 270% strain and porous structure having porosity of 61%. Thus, its potential application as a stretchable separator membrane for deformable energy devices is demonstrated by applying to organic/aqueous electrolyte–based rechargeable lithium‐ion batteries. As a result, these batteries manifest good cycle life and stable capacity retention even under a stretching condition of 100%, without compromising the battery's performance.     

Rational Design of a Dual‐Function Hybrid Cathode Substrate for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

A unique 3D hybrid sponge with chemically coupled nickel disulfide‐reduced graphene oxide (NiS₂‐RGO) framework is rationally developed as an effective polysulfide reservoir through a biomolecule‐assisted self‐assembly synthesis. An optimized amount of NiS₂ (≈18 wt%) with porous nanoflower‐like morphology is uniformly in situ grown on the RGO substrate, providing abundant active sites to adsorb and localize polysulfides. The improved polysulfide adsorptivity from sulfiphilic NiS₂ is confirmed by experimental data and first‐principle calculations. Moreover, due to the chemical coupling between NiS₂ and RGO formed during the in situ synthesis, the conductive RGO substrate offers a 3D electron pathway to facilitate charge transfer toward the NiS₂‐polysulfide adsorption interface, triggering a fast redox kinetics of polysulfide conversion and excellent rate performance (C/20–4C). Therefore, the self‐assembled hybrid structure simultaneously promotes static polysulfide‐trapping capability and dynamic polysulfide‐conversion reversibility. As a result, the 3D porous sponge enables a high sulfur content (75 wt%) and a remarkably high sulfur loading (up to 21 mg cm^?2) and areal capacity (up to 16 mAh cm^?2), exceeding most of the reported values in the literature involving either RGO or metal sulfides/other metal compounds (sulfur content of <60 wt% and sulfur loading of <3 mg cm^?2).     

Porous Trimetallic PtRhCu Cubic Nanoboxes for Ethanol Electrooxidation

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) have great activity as a green energy conversion device. However, the weak activity of most anode electrocatalysts for the C? C bond cleavage is an obstacle to the DEFCs development. Herein, a simple galvanic replacement reaction strategy to synthesize hollow and porous PtRhCu trimetallic nanoboxes (CNBs) with a tunable Pt/Rh atomic ratio is developed. For the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR), PtRhCu CNBs show morphology and composition‐dependent electrocatalytic activity. The composition optimized Pt₅₄Rh₄Cu₄₂ CNBs exhibit excellent specific and mass activity and stability for the EOR, which is attributed to its unique geometric structure and synergistic effects. The hollow porous structure can effectively enhance the atomic utilization and mass transfer. The introduction of Cu improves the antipoisoning capability for CO. The introduction of Rh elevates the self‐stability of PtRhCu CNBs. More importantly, further electrochemical results confirm that the introduction of Rh significantly promotes the cleavage of C? C bonds, leading to the transformation of the main catalytic pathway for EOR from C₂ to C₁ pathway. The real concentration detection for C₂ products (CH₃COOH and CH₃CHO) shows Pt₅₄Rh₄Cu₄₂ CNBs have a nearly 11.5‐fold C₁ pathway enhancement compared to Pt nanoparticles, showing an obvious selectivity enhancement for the C₁ pathway.     

Facile Synthesis of Crumpled Nitrogen‐Doped MXene Nanosheets as a New Sulfur Host for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Crumpled nitrogen‐doped MXene nanosheets with strong physical and chemical coadsorption of polysulfides are synthesized by a novel one‐step approach and then utilized as a new sulfur host for lithium–sulfur batteries. The nitrogen‐doping strategy enables introduction of heteroatoms into MXene nanosheets and simultaneously induces a well‐defined porous structure, high surface area, and large pore volume. The as‐prepared nitrogen‐doped MXene nanosheets have a strong capability of physical and chemical dual‐adsorption for polysulfides and achieve a high areal sulfur loading of 5.1 mg cm^–2. Lithium–sulfur batteries, based on crumpled nitrogen‐doped MXene nanosheets/sulfur composites, demonstrate outstanding electrochemical performances, including a high reversible capacity (1144 mA h g^–1 at 0.2C rate) and an extended cycling stability (610 mA h g^–1 at 2C after 1000 cycles).     

Tunable Free‐Standing Ultrathin Porous Nickel Film for High Performance Flexible Nickel–Metal Hydride Batteries

The nickel matrix has a significant impact on the structure and performance of a nickel–metal hydride (NiMH) battery. However, few studies have focused on the nickel matrix thus far due to the difficulty of fabricating controllable porous nickel materials. In addition, conventional nickel matrices show poor flexibility, making it difficult to fabricate flexible NiMH batteries. To achieve a high performance flexible NiMH battery, the fabrication of a thin, free‐standing, and flexible nickel matrix with an optimized pore structure is a key prerequisite. Here, a novel flexible porous nickel matrix with a controllable pore size, density, and distribution of pore position is developed by nickel electrodeposition on templates that are produced by silkscreen printing different insulating ink microarrays on stainless steel sheets. Benefitting from the excellent structure of the porous nickel matrix, flexible NiMH batteries are fabricated, which show excellent flexibility and very high energy densities of 151.8 W h kg^?1 and 508.5 W h L^?1 as well as high energy efficiencies of 87.9–98.5%. These batteries outperform conventional NiMH batteries and many other commercial batteries, holding great promise for their future practical application. The present strategy provides a new route to promote the development of nickel‐based alkaline rechargeable batteries.     

The Role of Low-Molecular-Weight Organic Carbons in Facilitating the Mobilization and Biotransformation of As(V)/Fe(III) from a Realgar Tailing Mine Soil

Several low-molecular-weight organic carbon (LMWOC) compounds (acetate, propionate, butyrate, lactate, and glucose) were added to flooded arsenic-rich tailing mine soil to investigate their effect to the mobilization of As/Fe and potential shift of microbial community. A promoting effect to the mobilization and biotransformation of As(V)/Fe(III) in the soils resulting from the supplementation with LMWOCs substrate was indicated compared to the biotic microcosm amended with deionized water alone. During 38-day biotic incubation, more than 2100 μg/L of As(III) and 4.2 mg/L of Fe(II) levels were released from the soils amended with LMWOCs substrates, compared to the levels of As(III) and Fe(II) (less 35 μg/L and 1.82 mg/L) derived from the biotic supplementation with deionized water alone. PCR-DGGE indicated that several LMWOCs-responded bacteria were mostly related to Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Moreover, a negligible impact on the abundance of Fe(III)-reducing family Geobacteraceae was indicated in the LMWOCs-amended soils. However, an increased abundance of sulfate-reducing bacteria but a decreased abundance of arsenate-respiring bacteria were indicated upon the soils supplemented with acetate alone, compared with other LMWOC amendments. DNA-stable isotope probing analysis demonstrated that the dual roles of acetate was not only served as an electron donor for biotransformation of As(V)/Fe(III) in soil, but also assimilated as a powerful energy source to promote the growth of sulfate-reducing bacteria. The findings suggest that there are specific bacteria that preferentially respond to the additions of LMWOC for controlling the biochemical cycle process of As/Fe in soils.     

NiS2/FeS Holey Film as Freestanding Electrode for High‐Performance Lithium Battery

In this work, a freestanding NiS₂/FeS holey film (HF) is prepared after electrochemical anodic and chemical vapor deposition treatments. With the combination of good electrical conductivity and holey structure, the NiS₂/FeS HF presents superior electrochemical performance, due to the following reasons: (i) Porous structure of HF provides a large surface area and more active sites/channels/pathways to enhance the ion/mass diffusion. Moreover, the porous structure can reduce the damage from the volumetric expansion. (ii) The as‐prepared electrode combines the current collector (residual NiFe alloy) and active materials (sulfides) together, thus reducing the resistance of the electrode. Additionally, the good conductivity of HF can improve electron transport. (iii) Sulfides are more stable as active materials than sulfur, showing only a small capacity decay while retaining high cyclability performance. This work provides a promising way to develop high energy and stable electrode for Li‐S battery.