Search

Abstract Lithium-sulfur batteries were investigated as promising next-generation energy storage devices owing to their high capacity in comparison to conventional lithium-ion batteries. Nevertheless, the serious shuttle effect and sluggish redox kinetics originated from dissolution of polysulfides and insulating property of sulfur and lithium sulfide, restricted their practical applications. To overcome these stubborn problems, a robust and environment-friendly biomass carbon fiber interlayer anchored with uniformly-distributed SiO 2 nanoparticles was demonstrated. Benefiting from the excellent conductivity of carbon fiber, together with the stable chemical adsorption of SiO 2 for soluble polysulfides, this low-cost and lightweight interlayer could not only remarkably enhance sulfur utilization, but also efficiently capture the polysulfides by chemical entrapment strategies. With this biomass carbon fiber@SiO 2 interlayer, the batteries delivered a high reversible capacity of 1352.8 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and enhanced capacity of 618.4 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 1.0 C. Even up to 4.2 mg cm−2 sulfur loading, high cycling stability was also achieved by this interlayer. We believe this robust and low-cost interlayer has a great potential for practical applications of Li–S batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, double layered LiFePO 4 materials with different content of conductive carbon black are proposed for evaluating systematically the influence of imparity distribution of conductive additive on the electrochemical behaviors of cathode material for lithium ion batteries. Their polarization effects and electrochemical performances were investigated and compared in detail. It was found that there exists a simple empirical rule correlating the distribution of the conductive additive and the depolarization effect under the premise that the total content of the conductive additive is kept constant. The electrochemical performance of LiFePO 4 /C electrode tends to get better with increasing the conductive additive loading in the lower layer. This can be attributed to that the more conductive additive content in the lower layer could provide more available paths for electronic transmission, and markedly decrease the interfacial impedance between LiFePO4/C cathode material and current collector, thus improving the ability of collecting electron and maintaining a reliable electron transport system, especially under high current densities. This finding can enlighten us to design a more rational optimization of the electrode by controlling the distribution of conductive additive in the cathode material for high performance lithium ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corrosion behavior of Q235 carbon steel is investigated in sterilized air-saturated natural seawater inoculated with mono-, and di-cultures of Desulfovibrio sp. ( D . sp.) and Pseudoalteromonas sp. ( P . sp.). The electrochemical and weight loss results demonstrate that the corrosion rate increases in the order: P . sp. ˂ D . sp. + P . sp. ˂ D . sp. ≈ abiotic blank. Mechanisms for the corrosion inhibition of P . sp. and the difference in the function of D . sp. in D . sp. and D . sp. + P . sp. containing media are discussed on the analysis of surface morphology, biofilm development, environmental parameters, and bacterium number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel approach was proposed to promote CO 2 removal from the anode catalyst layer of a liquid-fed passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) by introducing Lorentz force via magnetic field integrating. Due to the promoted removal of CO 2 micro-bubble, the physical block of triple-phase boundary in the anode catalyst layer was reduced evidently. CO 2 removal was promoted through introducing forced convection around the CO 2 bubbles which can be proved by the mathematical calculations. Performance of the vapor-fed DMFC, in where no CO 2 bubble existing in the anode, did not change by the magnetic field, also indicated that the enhanced performance of the liquid-fed magnetic-coupled DMFC was resulted from the promotional CO 2 removal. A 12.5% enhancement in maximum power density was obtained for the liquid-fed DMFC by combining the magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]