Fabrication of Robust Water-Repellent Technology on Cotton Fabric via Reaction of Thiol-ene Click Chemistry

Interphase Building of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Polymer Solid Electrolyte with Uniform Intermolecular Li+ Path for Stable Lithium Metal Batteries

Lithium (Li) metal has been generally noticed as the most prospective anode for next-generation batteries attributed to its outstanding theoretical capacity and low electrochemical potential. Nevertheless, the unstable solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) and uncontrollable dendrite growth cause poor reversibility and fetter the practical application of Li metal anodes. Herein, a new organic-inorganic hybrid polymer artificial SEI (POSS-LiBMAB) layer with uniform lithium-ion paths at a molecular level is designed to stabilize Li metal anodes. The SEI layer is constructed by the thiol-ene "click chemistry" reaction between inorganic polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane containing eight-mercaptopropyl (POSS-SH) with lithium bis (allylmalonato) borate (LiBMAB) on Li foil. What is more, the POSS-LiBMAB film can be cross-linked and self-reinforced via intermolecular SC bonds. Benefiting from its flexible polymeric covalent structure and noble inorganic Si₈ O₁₆ -type cubes, the organic-inorganic hybrid polymer layer is flexible and effectively tolerates the volume change of Li metal anodes during plating/stripping cycles. In addition, this layer shows loose and uniformly distributed electrostatic interaction between Li⁺ and charge delocalized sp³ boron-oxygen anions, which aids to form a uniform intermolecular Li⁺ path regulating the homogeneous distribution of Li⁺ flux on Li anodes. Finally, the designed POSS-LiBMAB layer has high ionic conductivity and lithium-ion transference number, which can effectively promote Li⁺ diffusion and guide Li deposition beneath the SEI layer. Therefore, with the protection of the POSS-LiBMAB layer, the Li metal anode exhibits stable cycling at 5 mA cm^-2 for more than 1000 h, and the LFP//Li full cells also present outstanding cycling stability.

One-Step Covalent Surface Modification to Achieve Oil-Water Separation Performance of a Non-Fluorinated Durable Superhydrophobic Fabric

In this work, a durable superhydrophobic fabric was fabricated by a facile covalent surface modification strategy, in which the anchoring of 10-undecenoyl chloride (UC) onto the fabric through the esterification reaction and covalent grafting of n-dodecyl-thiol (DT) via thiol-ene click chemistry were integrated into one step. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurement results demonstrated that UC and DT were covalently grafted onto the fabric surface. The formed gully-like rough structure by the grafted UC and DT on the fabric surface together with the inherent microfiber structure, combined with the grafted low-surface-energy materials of UC and DT, gave the resultant modified DT-UC@fabric superhydrophobic performance. The superhydrophobic DT-UC@fabric was used for separation of oil-water mixtures; it exhibited high separation efficiency of more than 98%. In addition, it presented excellent durability against mechanical damage; even after 100 cyclic tape-peeling and abrasion tests, the DT-UC@fabric could preserve superhydrophobic performance, which was ascribed to the formed covalent interactions between the fabric surface and the grafted UC and DT. Therefore, this work provided a facile, efficient strategy for fabricating superhydrophobic composites with excellent durability, which exhibited a promising prospect in the application of self-cleaning and oil-water separation.