Dendrite-Free Li Metal Plating/Stripping Onto Three-Dimensional Vertical-Graphene@Carbon-Cloth Host

A review of vertical graphene and its energy storage system applications

The pursuit of advanced materials to meet the escalating demands of energy storage system has led to the emergence of vertical graphene (VG) as a highly promising candidate. With its remarkable strength, stability, and conductivity, VG has gained significant attention for its potential to revolutionize energy storage technologies. This comprehensive review delves deeply into the synthesis methods, structural modifications, and multifaceted applications of VG in the context of lithium-ion batteries, silicon-based lithium batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries, sodium-ion batteries, potassium-ion batteries, aqueous zinc batteries, and supercapacitors. The review elucidates the intricate growth process of VG and underscores the paramount importance of optimizing process parameters to tailor VG for specific applications. Subsequently, the pivotal role of VG in enhancing the performance of various energy storage and conversion systems is exhaustively discussed. Moreover, it delves into structural improvement, performance tuning, and mechanism analysis of VG composite materials in diverse energy storage systems. In summary, this review provides a comprehensive look at VG synthesis, modification, and its wide range of applications in energy storage. It emphasizes the potential of VG in addressing critical challenges and advancing sustainable, high-performance energy storage devices, providing valuable guidance for the development of future technologies.

Direct-Chemical Vapor Deposition-Enabled Graphene for Emerging Energy Storage: Versatility, Essentiality, and Possibility

The direct chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique has stimulated an enormous scientific and industrial interest to enable the conformal growth of graphene over multifarious substrates, which readily bypasses tedious transfer procedure and empowers innovative materials paradigm. Compared to the prevailing graphene materials (i.e., reduced graphene oxide and liquid-phase exfoliated graphene), the direct-CVD-enabled graphene harnesses appealing structural advantages and physicochemical properties, accordingly playing a pivotal role in the realm of electrochemical energy storage. Despite conspicuous progress achieved in this frontier, a comprehensive overview is still lacking by far and the synthesis-structure-property-application nexus of direct-CVD-enabled graphene remains elusive. In this topical review, rather than simply compiling the state-of-the-art advancements, the versatile roles of direct-CVD-enabled graphene are itemized as (i) modificator, (ii) cultivator, (iii) defender, and (iv) decider. Furthermore, essential effects on the performance optimization are elucidated, with an emphasis on fundamental properties and underlying mechanisms. At the end, perspectives with respect to the material production and device fabrication are sketched, aiming to navigate the future development of direct-CVD-enabled graphene en-route toward pragmatic energy applications and beyond.

Aligned Carbon-Based Electrodes for Fast-Charging Batteries: A Review

Fast-charging batteries have attracted great attention, and are anticipated to charge electrical vehicles and consumer electronics to full-capacity in several minutes. However, commercial electrode materials in batteries generally have a limited rate performance and are difficult to be used in fast-charging batteries. Designing electrodes with an aligned structure is an effective way to shorten the ion transport path and improve the rate performance of a battery. The excellent electronic conductivity of carbon-based electrodes is another key factor for increasing the rate capability of rechargeable batteries. Therefore, aligned carbon-based electrodes (ACBEs) can significantly improve the power density by combining the advantages of an aligned structure and carbon-based materials. In this review, the mechanism, advantages, and challenges of ACBEs for fast-charging batteries are evaluated, and then the design and preparation methods of ACBEs based on their different dimensions are summarized, and their applications in different batteries are illustrated. Finally, the future development of ACBEs for fast-charging batteries is considered.

Electrodeposited cobalt sulfide on a vertical graphene nanocomposite for high-performance supercapacitors

A novel cobalt sulfide/vertical graphene (CoS/VG) composite electrode was fabricated via a facile electrodeposition method for high-performance supercapacitor application.

Enhanced sodium storage kinetics by volume regulation and surface engineering via rationally designed hierarchical porous FeP@C/rGO

Transition metal phosphides, such as iron phosphide (FeP), have been considered as promising anode candidates for high-performance sodium ion batteries (SIBs) owing to their high theoretical capacity. However, the development of FeP is limited by large volume change, low electrical conductivity and sluggish kinetics with sodium ions. Moreover, the sodium storage kinetics and dynamics behavior in FeP are still unclear. Herein, improved sodium storage ability of FeP is achieved by volume regulation and surface engineering via a rationally designed hierarchical porous FeP@C/rGO nanocomposite. This FeP@C/rGO nanocomposite exhibits excellent rate capability and long cycle life as the anode of SIBs. Specifically, the FeP@C/rGO nanocomposite delivers high specific capacities of 635.7 and 343.1 mA h g-1 at 20 and 2000 mA g-1, respectively, and stable cycling with 88.2% capacity retention after 1000 cycles. The kinetics and dynamics studies demonstrate that the superior performance is attributed to the rationally designed hierarchical porous FeP@C/rGO with a high capacitive contribution of 93.9% (at 2 mV s-1) and a small volume expansion of only 54.9% by in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurement. This work provides valuable insights into understanding the phase evolution of FeP during the sodiation/desodiation process for designing high-performance SIBs.

A Hierarchical Copper Oxide-Germanium Hybrid Film for High Areal Capacity Lithium Ion Batteries

Self-supported electrodes represent a novel architecture for better performing lithium ion batteries. However, lower areal capacity restricts their commercial application. Here, we explore a facial strategy to increase the areal capacity without sacrificing the lithium storage performance. A hierarchical CuO–Ge hybrid film electrode will not only provide high areal capacity but also outstanding lithium storage performance for lithium ion battery anode. Benefiting from the favorable structural advance as well as the synergic effect of the Ge film and CuO NWs array, the hybrid electrode exhibits a high areal capacity up to 3.81 mA h cm⁻², good cycling stability (a capacity retention of 90.5% after 150 cycles), and superior rate performance (77.4% capacity remains even when the current density increased to 10 times higher).