NIPS derived three-dimensional porous copper membrane for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries

Effect of Polymer Dissolution Temperature and Conditioning Time on the Morphological and Physicochemical Characteristics of Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride) Membranes Prepared by Non-Solvent Induced Phase Separation

This work reports on the production of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) using N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent and water as non-solvent. The influence of the processing conditions in the morphology, surface characteristics, structure, thermal and mechanical properties were evaluated for polymer dissolution temperatures between 25 and 150 °C and conditioning time between 0 and 10 min. Finger-like pore morphology was obtained for all membranes and increasing the polymer dissolution temperature led to an increase in the average pore size (≈0.9 and 2.1 µm), porosity (≈50 to 90%) and water contact angle (up to 80°), in turn decreasing the β PVDF content (≈67 to 20%) with the degree of crystallinity remaining approximately constant (≈56%). The conditioning time did not significantly affect the polymer properties studied. Thus, the control of NIPS parameters proved to be suitable for tailoring PVDF membrane properties.

Boosting Li/Na storage performance of graphite by defect engineering

Regulating material properties by accurately designing its structure has always been a research hotspot. In this study, by a simple and eco-friendly mechanical ball milling, we could successfully engineer the defect degree of the graphite. Moreover, according to the accurate deconstruction of the structure by atomic pair distribution function analysis (PDF) and X-ray absorption near-edge structure analysis (XANES), those structural defects of the ball-milled graphite (BMG) mainly exist as carbon atom vacancies within the graphene structure, which are beneficial to enhance the lithium and sodium storage performance of BMG. Therefore, BMG-30 h exhibits superior lithium and sodium storage performance.

The structural defects of ball-milled graphite (BMG) mainly exist as carbon atom vacancies within the graphene structure, which are proven to be the main source of lithium/sodium storage performance promotion of BMGs.