Lithium-ion batteries have taken the world by storm thanks to their remarkable properties. However, the scarcity and high cost of lithium has led researchers to look for alternative types of recha .
Prussian blue analogs (PBAs), as promising cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), have received extensive research interest due to their appealing characteristics, e.g., the low cost of their raw materials, easy manufacturing, open frameworks, and high theoretical specific capacity. There are some challenges for PBAs cathodes, however, hindering their performance output, making them currently unacceptable for practical applications. To improve the performance and cycling stability of PBAs, a clear in-depth understanding of the relationship of their electrochemical reaction process to their ion insertion/extraction mechanisms and structural evolution is extremely important. Nowadays, advanced characterization techniques have become an important tool to guide the construction of high-performance PBAs cathodes. In this review, the various advances by using advanced characterization techniques to reveal the reaction mechanisms for PBAs cathodes are summarized and discussed. By
Aqueous Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) are regarded as alternatives to Li-ion batteries benefiting from both improved safety and environmental impact. The widespread application of ZIBs, however, is compromised by the lack of high-performance cathodes. Currently, only the intercalation mechanism is widely reported in aqueous ZIBs, which significantly limits cathode options. Beyond Zn-ion intercalation, we comprehensively study the conversion mechanism for Zn2+ storage and its diffusion pathway in a CuI cathode, indicating that CuI occurs a direct conversion reaction without Zn2+ intercalation due to the high energy barrier for Zn2+ intercalation and migration. Importantly, this direct conversion reaction mechanism can be readily generalized to other high-capacity cathodes, such as Cu2S (336.7 mA h g−1) and Cu2O (374.5 mA h g−1), indicating its practical universality. Our work enriches the Zn-ion storage mechanism and significantly broadens the cathode horizons towards next-generation ZIBs
Rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs) are promising candidates for next-generation energy storage systems owing to their high safety and the low cost of magnesium resources. One of the main challenges for RMBs is to develop suitable high-performance cathode materials. Layered materials are one of the most promising cathode materials for RMBs due to their relatively high specific capacity and facile synthesis process. This review focuses on recent progress on layered cathode materials for RMBs, including layered oxides, sulfides, selenides, and other layered materials. In addition, effective strategies to improve the electrochemical performance of layered cathode materials are summarized. Moreover, future perspectives about the application of layered materials in RMBs are also discussed. This review provides some significant guidance for the further development of layered materials for RMBs.
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Can Sea Water Batteries Solve Our Energy Storage Problem? By Irina Slav - Jan 12, 2021, 1:00 PM CST
The stakes are rising with each passing day for energy storage. The world needs it, and it needs it cheaply and urgently, given all the plans in Europe, Asia, and the United States to considerably boost the amount of renewable energy in the power generation mix. As a result, breakthroughs in energy storage tech have become more or less a regular occurrence. The latest of these breakthroughs promises to solve the two challenges of energy storage: price and capacity.
It does that by using seawater for a battery s electrolytes instead of solvents, which are much more expensive but also less safe than water.