Themed collection Batteries showcase

Slurry rheology is a critical metrology tool for understanding and optimising the manufacture of battery electrodes.

This perspective paper covers textile- and hydrogel-based biocompatible electrodes, and their applications for supercapacitors, biofuel cells, and actuators, focusing on the importance of interfacial interactions between electrode components.

An overview of high-entropy strategies for batteries is provided, emphasizing their unique structural/compositional attributes and positive effects on stability and performance, alongside a discussion of key challenges and future research directions.

The p-type polymer electrodes have received an exponential growth of interest for organic lithium-ion batteries. This review summarizes their recent developments focusing on structure, performance, advantages, and challenges.

This review explores the potential and effective application paths of HEMs in AZIBs, aiming to break the constraints in AZIBs and pave the way toward the development of high-performance AZIBs.

We review the recent literature on spectroscopic/electrochemical operando methods as they are increasingly being applied to understand lithium–sulfur batteries.

Naturally occurring materials can serve as green alternatives to synthesize and fabricate green wearable metal–air batteries.

Graphene-based 2D materials for batteries and hydrogen production and storage applications.

This review provides an overview of advanced bifunctional catalysts that promotes both oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction in rechargeable zinc–air batteries, and analyses in detail their principles and future development.

This review explores the current research progress on aluminum-ion batteries, focusing on cathode materials according to their mechanisms, as well as anodes and electrolytes, while discussing current challenges and modification strategies.

A detailed review on carbon fiber (CF)-based flexible electrodes for application in rechargeable batteries is reported. Various preparation methods for flexible electrodes based on CFs are reviewed, along with their performance evaluations.

Renewable energy sources are crucial for addressing the energy crisis and global warming, but their intermittent nature necessitates storage.

We present a fully rechargeable, eco-friendly bio-battery powered by Saccharomyces cerevisiae on recyclable PET electrodes, with high cyclability and promising applications in sustainable energy solutions for low-power devices.

Formulating and establishing design principles to improve low-temperature performance of battery electrolytes.

Lithium metal is considered as an ideal anode for high-energy density storage systems with dendrites being a major issue for lifetime and safety. A gadolinium additive is found to be suppressing dendrite growth resulting higher performance retention.

Sodium lactate and conductive carbon are recycled to utilize them as electrolytes of supercapacitors and conductive additives of sodium-ion batteries, respectively.

Si nanowires (Si NWs) with diameters tuned from ∼35 to 100 nm were directly grown on large-area (30 cm²) stainless-steel mesh (SSM) substrates via a facile vapour–liquid–solid approach.

We designed a bimetallic-ion co-intercalation strategy to boost the performance of AZIBs using VOH, which significantly stabilizes the vanadium–oxygen bond.

The low-cost and sustainable non-woven carbon fibers produced from petroleum pitch using a melt-blowing process are shown to be an ideal alternative to expensive polyacrylonitrile-based carbon felt electrode material for redox flow batteries.

Vat photopolymerization based 3D printing to fabricate Ta-doped LLZO electrolytes for solid state batteries, aiming to address limitations in traditional manufacturing methods.

A pre-lithiation carbon anode with a preformed SEI layer effectively mitigates potassium loss, thus enabling the fabrication of high-performance K⁺ energy storage devices without the need for unsafe and immature pre-potassium treatments.

A novel artificial SEI film (Li–CsPbCl₃) based on lithium-doped cesium lead chloride perovskite enables fast charging lithium metal batteries by regulating the rapid transport and uniform deposition of lithium ions.

Combining sulfur-doping and heterojunction in vanadium oxide cathodes is first proposed herein toward long-life aqueous zinc ion batteries. The obtained S-VO₂/V₆O₁₃-2 manifests a high capacity retention rate of 85.8% after 500 cycles at 0.5 A g⁻¹.

Zinc-ion batteries are challenged by zinc dendrites, notorious side reactions, and poor performance at low temperatures.

During cell cycling with NCM cathode and Li₆PS₅Cl catholyte, interfacial degradation leads to reduced active mass and particle cracking. We mitigate this by coating NCM with polyvinylpyrrolidone and sulfonated poly(phenylene sulfone).

The MXene–VO_2−x cathode with asymmetric Ti–O–V orbital hybridization at the heterointerface for zinc-ion batteries is designed to stabilize the oxygen vacancies through charge transfer, thus efficiently boosting the electrochemical performance.

Recycled graphite anodes from spent LIBs as a conductive carbon host in LSBs.

Our study presents a minute-level water-based pretreatment that purifies degraded cathodes, enhancing lithium diffusivity and capacity retention in rejuvenated cathodes compared to contaminated ones.

Herein, the oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction (ORR/OER) kinetics of the inverse-spinel CuFe₂O₄ catalyst was enhanced via the addition of a very low quantity of RuO₂, which powers an LED when used in Li–air and Li–CO₂ batteries.

Step-protocol to measure the SEI formation by double layer capacitances with detangled time and potential contributions.

Fast charging of high-capacity anodes is challenging due to lithium plating reactions, which lead to poor cycling performance and safety concerns.

CsI in 2 M ZnSO₄ aqueous electrolyte facilitates the formation of Cs₂TeI₆ perovskite phase for Te electrode, effectively suppressing Te⁴⁺ hydrolysis and sustaining fast redox kinetics in multi-electron transfer Zn–Te aqueous batteries.

A streamlined workflow is established for the recovery of graphite from industrial lithium-ion battery black mass, which could be seamlessly integrated into the existing cathode materials recycling processes developed in the industry.

An optimized electrolyte configuration is proposed for high performance Li–S batteries operating in extremely harsh temperature environments.

The milled-Li_1.2Cr_0.4Mn_0.4O₂ (milled-LCMO) cathode, a promising material for next-generation Li ion batteries, is prepared by dry ball-milling of layered rocksalt-type Li_1.2Cr_0.4Mn_0.4O₂ (layered-LCMO) obtained by solid-state synthesis.

A nickel-selective amic-acid extractant D2EHAG efficiently leaches and separates metals from LiB cathode materials. Furthermore, D2EHAG can be reused for subsequent leaching, making it a promising candidate for a sustainable recycling process.

The coupling of multiple low-cost metals and porous nanocarbon materials aimed at replacing precious metals to enhance electrocatalytic oxygen reduction is a critical challenge in some crucial research areas.

Sodium–metal batteries (SMBs) are an appealing sustainable low-cost alternative to lithium–metal batteries due to their high theoretical capacity (1165 mA h g⁻¹) and abundance of sodium.

The lithium–oxygen field has focused on singlet oxygen’s role in cell degradation. This study shows no significant reaction between singlet oxygen and the electrolyte or carbon cathode, confirming it is not the major degradation source.

FeCoNiPdWP exhibit excellent oxygen evolution and reduction reaction performance via all elements playing distinctive roles and the switchable active sites in redox reactions, leading to robust zinc air batteries.

A hybrid of bimetallic sulfides modulated by 1D/2D carbon displays highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalytic performance for the ORR/OER in a rechargeable Zn–air battery.

We designed a bi-functional (OER/ORR) air electrode using the a dual-MOF strategy for ZABs wherein a Fe-containing MOF (MIL-100) acts as a support to expose OER active sites and carbonized ZIF-67 acts as the ORR catalyst.

The safe recycling of spent LIBs is challenging, as they often contain residual energy. Left untreated, this can trigger a thermal runaway and result in disaster during the recycling process. Electrochemical discharge method is an easy and inexpensive method to eliminate this hazard.