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Na3Zr2Si2PO12(NZSP)‐based NASICON solid‐state electrolytes (SSEs) show not only competitive ionic conductivity but also high chemical stability in air, holding a great promise for enabling the use of sodium metal anode in solid‐state sodium batteries. However, sodium (Na) metal dendrite growth inside SSE always leads to undesirable short‐circuiting in battery even no obvious changes in interfacial contact loss and interfacial decomposition during cycling. How to control Na metal dendrite growth and in situ observe the effect of SSE/Na interface change on dendrite growth is quite challenging. Herein, an in situ synchrotron‐based X‐ray imaging method is developed to systematically investigate the dendrite origin in NZSP‐based SSEs. It is find that the dendrite growth intrinsically depends on the grain boundaries (GBs) in NZSP and the NZSP/Na interfacial properties. It is confirmed that Na dendrite infiltration kinetic evolution in NZSP is strongly associated with Na ion/electron conductivity and Young's modulus of GBs. Moreover, the electro‐chemo‐mechanical phase‐field model evaluation demonstrates that the basic reason for Na metal dendrite intrusion into the GBs of SSE is a combination of local polarization potential and the presence of stress formed at GBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid‐state lithium metal batteries (SSLMBs) have gained extensive attraction as one kind of next‐generation energy storage device. However, the drawbacks of flammability, low mechanical strength, and low ionic conductivity limit the further development of solid‐state polymer electrolytes (SPEs). In this work, a reactive flame‐retardant unit into the polymer framework via covalent bonding to create a nonflammable and stretchable polyurethane‐based SPEs is introduced. Meanwhile, the mechanical strength of the polymer backbone is increased by grafting a rigid benzene ring unit, which remarkably suppresses the lithium‐dendrite growth. As a result, these inflammable SPEs do not burn after contact with flames for 6 s. Furthermore, the obtained SPE expands the electrochemical stability window up to 5.1 V. Small monomers containing bromine decompose on the surface of lithium metal creating a LiBr riched solid electrolyte interface (SEI). Li|SPEs|Li symmetric battery offers a stable cycling life for more than 2100 h at 0.2 mA cm−2 and 0.2 mAh cm−2. The LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2|SPEs|Li cell equipped with the integrated cathode delivers a 142.1 mAh g−1 capacity after 330 cycles at 0.3 C with 85.2% capacity retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For aqueous zinc-ion batteries, comprehensively optimizing the Zn/electrolyte interface microenvironment is an effective strategy to avoid harmful side reactions and Zn dendrites and thus helps to achieve a high-performance Zn anode. Herein, a functional vinylene-linked covalent organic framework with zincophilic fluorinated sites (TM-4F-COF) is well designed and applied as an interface layer, which modifies the chemical microenvironment at the Zn/electrolyte interface to simultaneously manipulate the Zn plating/stripping behaviors and interfacial side reactions. The TM-4F-COF layer can accelerate Zn2+ de-solvation and interfacial Zn2+ transfer due to the abundant zincophilic fluorinated sites, consequently facilitating the formation of a uniform Zn2+ re-distribution layer. Furthermore, an even electric field is realized at the TM-4F-COF/Zn interface due to the conjugated structure of TM-4F-COF, and the preferentially formed Zn(002) results in a horizontally dense Zn deposition to provide dendrite-free features and high reversibility. A TM-4F-COF@Zn symmetrical cell exhibits an ultra-long cyclability of 2935 h at 3 mA cm−2. Our work provides a fundamental strategy to fabricate a stable Zn anode for high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recycling of spent batteries has become increasingly important owing to their wide applications, abundant raw material supply, and sustainable development. Compared with the degraded cathode, spent anode graphite often has a relatively intact structure with few defects after long cycling. Yet, most spent graphite is simply burned or discarded due to its limited value and inferior performance on using conventional recycling methods that are complex, have low efficiency, and fail in performance restoration. Herein, we propose a fast, efficient, and "intelligent" strategy to regenerate and upcycle spent graphite based on defect‐driven targeted remediation. Using Sn as a nanoscale healant, we used rapid heating (~50 ms) to enable dynamic Sn droplets to automatically nucleate around the surface defects on the graphite upon cooling owing to strong binding to the defects (~5.84 eV/atom), thus simultaneously achieving Sn dispersion and graphite remediation. As a result, the regenerated graphite showed enhanced capacity and cycle stability (458.9 mAh g−1 at 0.2 A g−1 after 100 cycles), superior to those of commercial graphite. Benefiting from the self‐adaption of Sn dispersion, spent graphite with different degrees of defects can be regenerated to similar structures and performance. EverBatt analysis indicates that targeted regeneration and upcycling have significantly lower energy consumption (~99% reduction) and near‐zero CO2 emission, and yield much higher profit than hydrometallurgy, which opens a new avenue for direct upcycling of spend graphite in an efficient, green, and profitable manner for sustainable battery manufacture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. Previous research has shown that because offline store space is costly, customers tend to associate large interstitial space among products in a bricks-and-mortar store with high price. Drawing on [...]