Delicately designed Sn-based electrode material via spray pyrolysis for high performance lithium-ion battery

Bio-Inspired Electrodes with Rational Spatiotemporal Management for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are currently the predominant energy storage power source. However, the urgent issues of enhancing electrochemical performance, prolonging lifetime, preventing thermal runaway-caused fires, and intelligent application are obstacles to their applications. Herein, bio-inspired electrodes owning spatiotemporal management of self-healing, fast ion transport, fire-extinguishing, thermoresponsive switching, recycling, and flexibility are overviewed comprehensively, showing great promising potentials in practical application due to the significantly enhanced durability and thermal safety of LIBs. Taking advantage of the self-healing core-shell structures, binders, capsules, or liquid metal alloys, these electrodes can maintain the mechanical integrity during the lithiation-delithiation cycling. After the incorporation of fire-extinguishing binders, current collectors, or capsules, flame retardants can be released spatiotemporally during thermal runaway to ensure safety. Thermoresponsive switching electrodes are also constructed though adding thermally responsive components, which can rapidly switch LIB off under abnormal conditions and resume their functions quickly when normal operating conditions return. Finally, the challenges of bio-inspired electrode designs are presented to optimize the spatiotemporal management of LIBs. It is anticipated that the proposed electrodes with spatiotemporal management will not only promote industrial application, but also strengthen the fundamental research of bionics in energy storage.

Synthesis of MnO-Sn cubes embedding in nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers with high lithium-ion storage performance

In this paper, a carbon nanofiber (CNF) hybrid nanomaterial composed of MnO-Sn cubes embedding in nitrogen-doped CNF (MnO-Sn@CNF) is synthesized through electrospinning and post-thermal reduction processes. It exhibits good electrochemical lithium-ion storage performance as the anode, such as high reversible capacity, outstanding cycle performance (754 mAh g^-1at 1 A g^-1after 1000 cycles), and good rate capability (447 mAh g^-1at 5 A g^-1). The excellent electrochemical properties are derived from a unique nanostructure design. MnO-Sn@CNF has a three-dimensional conductive network with a stable core-shell structure, which improves the electrical conductivity and mechanical stability of the materials. In addition, the mesopores on the surface of carbon fibers can shorten the diffusion distance of lithium ions and promote the combination of active sites of the material with lithium ions. The internal MnO and Sn form a heterostructure, which enhances the stability of the physical structure of the electrode material. This material design method provides a reference strategy for the development of high-performance lithium-ion batteries anode.