Insertion of Mono- vs. Bi- vs. Trivalent Atoms in Prospective Active Electrode Materials for Electrochemical Batteries: An ab Initio Perspective

First-Principle Insights Into Molecular Design for High-Voltage Organic Electrode Materials for Mg Based Batteries

Low cost, scalability, potentially high energy density, and sustainability make organic magnesium (ion) battery (OMB) technologies a promising alternative to other rechargeable metal-ion battery solutions such as secondary lithium ion batteries (LIB). However, most reported OMB cathode materials have limited performance due to, in particular, low voltages often smaller than 2 V vs. Mg²⁺/Mg and/or low specific capacities compared to other competing battery technologies, e.g., LIB or sodium ion batteries. While the structural diversity of organic compounds and the large amount of possible chemical modifications potentially allow designing high voltage/capacity OMB electrode materials, the large search space requires efficient exploration of potential molecular-based electrode materials by rational design strategies on an atomistic scale. By means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we provide insights into possible strategies to increase the voltage by changes in electronic states via functionalization, by strain, and by coordination environment of Mg cations. A systematic analysis of these effects is performed on explanatory systems derived from selected prototypical building blocks: five- and six-membered rings with redox-active groups. We demonstrate that voltage increase by direct bandstructure modulation is limited, that strain on the molecular scale can in principle be used to modulate the voltage curve and that the coordination/chemical environment can play an important role to increase the voltage in OMB. We propose molecular structures that could provide voltages for Mg insertion in excess of 3 V.

Lithium Attachment to C60 and Nitrogen- and Boron-Doped C60: A Mechanistic Study

Fullerene-based materials including C60 and doped C60 have previously been proposed as anodes for lithium ion batteries. It was also shown earlier that n- and p-doping of small molecules can substantially increase voltages and specific capacities. Here, we study ab initio the attachment of multiple lithium atoms to C60, nitrogen-doped C60 (n-type), and boron doped C60 (p-type). We relate the observed attachment energies (which determine the voltage) to changes in the electronic structure induced by Li attachment and by doping. We compare results with a GGA (generalized gradient approximation) functional and a hybrid functional and show that while they agree semi-quantitatively with respect to the expected voltages, there are qualitative differences in the electronic structure. We show that, contrary to small molecules, single atom n- and p-doping will not lead to practically useful modulation of the voltage-capacity curve beyond the initial stages of lithiation.

An Optimized Algorithm and Test Bed for Improvement of Efficiency of ESS and Energy Use

The Republic of Korea (ROK) has four distinct seasons. Such an environment provides many benefits, but also brings some major problems when using new and renewable energies. The rainy season or typhoons in summer become the main causes of inconsistent production rates of these energies, and this would become a fatal weakness in supplying stable power to the industries running continuously, such as the aquaculture industry. This study proposed an improvement plan for the efficiency of Energy Storage System (ESS) and energy use. Use of sodium-ion batteries is suggested to overcome the disadvantages of lithium-ion batteries, which are dominant in the current market; a greedy algorithm and the Floyd–Warshall algorithm were also proposed as a method of scheduling energy use considering the elements that could affect communication output and energy use. Some significant correlations between communication output and energy efficiency have been identified through the OPNET-based simulations. The simulation results showed that the greedy algorithm was more efficient. This algorithm was then implemented with C-language to apply it to the Test Bed developed in the previous study. The results of the Test Bed experiment supported the proposals.