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Fast‐charging ability of sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) is mainly determined by a highly effective redox reaction rate. However, traditional metal@carbon composites rarely achieve atom‐level dispersion at high density, resulting in poor reaction rates. Herein, supported by the introduction of carbon vacancies, abundant C─S/C─O chemical bonds are successfully established in a carbon carrier. Then, plenty of Sb single atoms (Sb SA/PC) are first anchored with a high loading of 31.4 wt%, achieving a high yield of 210.56 g per batch. Benefiting from dense Sb─O─C/Sb─S─C interfacial chemical bonds, Sb─S2O coordination configurations are firmly confined in the interior of carbon. Surprisingly, the conductivity of Sb SA/PC‐2 is approximately 2.2 × 107 times greater than that of pristine Sb2S3. Consequently, Sb SA/PC‐2 exhibits ultrahigh fast‐charging capability (201.7 mAh g−1 at 20.0 A g−1) and ultralong cycling life (364.4 mAh g−1 at 5.0 A g−1 after 5000 cycles). Theoretical calculations reveal that the fast‐charging capability can be attributed to the low migration barrier and increased number of active sites. Moreover, owing to the structural integrity of Sb single atoms, phase separation is effectively inhibited. This work is anticipated to open an avenue toward designing advanced electrode materials for ultrafast‐charging SIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most commonly used zinc foil anode for aqueous zinc‐ion batteries suffers from poor cycle stability and low zinc utilization. Zinc‐plated anodes on the host materials with high zincophilicity and stability are receiving increasing attention to alleviate these above issues. Here, the high zinc deposition activity of Cu (2 2 0) is confirmed through experimental observations and theoretical calculations and then Cu (2 2 0) substrates are prepared with the highly preferred orientation through an industrial electrolysis strategy. The prepared Cu (2 2 0) substrate can consistently modulate dense zinc growth by inducing the Zn (0 0 1) growth with the lowest surface energy and exposing high‐index zinc facets due to its exceptional grain size, high deposition activity, and homogeneous crystal orientation, which result in the high zinc plating/stripping reversibility of this Cu (2 2 0) substrate. When assembled into the Zn//MnO2 battery, the zinc‐plated Cu (2 2 0) can deliver capacity retention of 93.9% after 640 cycles at high zinc utilization (≈20%). This scalable orientation design strategy provides a new perspective for realizing dendrite‐free metal deposition with special textures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potassium ion capacitors (PICs) have the potential to combine the advantages of capacitors and batteries, making them promising energy storage substitutes for existing systems. Biomass‐based‐electrodes are very promising materials for potassium storage, however, at present, the acquisition of biomass‐based‐electrodes is mainly dependent on high temperature calcination, which makes the efficient utilization of biomass materials quite challenging. Herein, in accordance with ex‐situ 13C NMR and Raman, a universally directional selection strategy of biomass precursors through an advanced pre‐diagnosis method for calcination intermediates and a sulfur engineering strategy are initially proposed, proving that the carbon materials derived from precursors with fewer aliphatic chains and more aromatic carbons show a higher yield and can be have more K ions inserted. In addition, the evolution mechanism of in‐plane/interlayered CS bonds is thoroughly evaluated. Notably, PICs assembled by such carbon materials as the battery‐type anode, deliver a high energy density of 151 Wh kg‐1 and an ultrahigh power output of 10 kW kg‐1, closing to state‐of‐the‐art values for PICs. This breakthrough opens up a new avenue for targeted design of biomass materials and offers in‐depth insights into the evolution of S‐C bonds, promoting the energy/power density of PICs devices to a higher level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐capacity cathodes and anodes in energy storage area are required for delivering high energy density due to the ever‐increasing demands in the applications of electric vehicles and power grids, which suffer from significant safety concerns and poor cycling stability at the current stage. All‐solid‐state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) have been considered to be particularly promising within the new generation of energy storage, owing to the superiority of safety, wide potential window, and long cycling life. As the key component in ASSLBs, individual solid electrolytes that can meet practical application standards are very rare due to poor performance. To the present day, numerous research efforts have been expended to find applicable solid‐state electrolytes and tremendous progress has been achieved, especially for garnet‐type solid electrolytes. Nevertheless, the garnet‐type solid electrolyte is still facing some crucial dilemmas. Hence, the issues of garnet electrolytes' ionic conductivity, the interfaces between electrodes and garnet solid electrolytes, and application of theoretical calculation on garnet electrolytes are focuses in this review. Furthermore, prospective developments and alternative approaches to the issues are presented, with an aim to improve understanding of garnet electrolytes and promote their practical applications in solid‐state batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yolk-like TiO2 are prepared through an asymmetric Ostwald ripening, which is simultaneously doped by nitrogen and wrapped by carbon from core to shell. It presents a high specific surface area (144.9 m2 g−1), well-defined yolk-like structure (600-700 nm), covered with interweaved nanosheets (3-5 nm) and tailored porosity (5-10 nm) configuration. When first utilized as anode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), it delivers a high reversible specific capacity of 242.7 mA h g−1 at 0.5 C and maintains a considerable capacity of 115.9 mA h g−1 especially at rate 20 C. Moreover, the reversible capacity can still reach 200.7 mA h g−1 after 550 cycles with full capacity retention at 1 C. Even cycled at extremely high rate 25 C, the capacity retention of 95.5% after 3000 cycles is acquired. Notably, an ultrahigh initial coulombic efficiency of 59.1% is achieved. The incorporation of nitrogen with narrowing the band gap accompanied with carbon uniformly coating from core to shell make the NC TiO2-Y favor a bulk type conductor, resulting in fast electron transfer, which is beneficial to long-term cycling stability and remarkable rate capability. It is of great significance to improve the energy-storage properties through development of the bulk type conductor as anode materials in SIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium‐ion hybrid supercapacitors (LICs) are considered as a promising candidate in energy storage systems. Taking the factor of sluggish kinetics behavior, battery‐type anode plays a significant role in improving the performance of LICs. Here, onion‐shaped graphene‐like derivatives are synthesized via carbonization of metalorganic quantum dots (MQDs) accompanied with in situ catalytic graphitization by reduced metal. Notably MQDs, exhibiting water‐soluble character and ultrafine particles (2.5–5.5 nm) morphology, are prepared by the amidation reaction. The carbonized sample exhibits highly graphitic tendency with graphitization degree up to 95.6%, and shows graphene‐like porous structure, appropriate amorphous carbon decoration characteristic, as well as N‐doping and defective nature. When employed as anode material in LICs, it shows high energy density of 83.7 Wh kg–1 and high power density of 6527 W kg–1 when the mass ratio of cathode to anode is 1:1 and the operating voltage ranges from 2.0 to 4.0 V. It also possesses the long cyclic stability with the energy density retention maintains at 97.3% after 10 000 cycles at 5.0 A g–1. In addition, the energy density is further increased by altering cathode/anode mass ratio and extending working voltage. This work provides a novel strategy to develop unique carbon materials for energy storage. Water‐soluble metalorganic quantum dots are synthesized and their derivative porous graphitic carbons (PGCs) are achieved accompanied with in situ catalytic graphitization process. The obtained PGCs exhibit high plateau capacity and superior rate capability, making them very promising anode materials for lithium‐ion capacitors, benefiting from the high graphitization degree, graphene‐like porous shape, appropriate amorphous carbon decoration, and N‐doping and defect‐rich natures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of its high‐energy density, metal–selenides have demanded attention as a potential energy‐storage material. But they suffer from volume expansion, dissolved poly‐selenides and sluggish kinetics. Herein, utilizing' thermal selenization via the Kirkendall effect, microspheres of NiSe2 confined by carbon are successfully obtained from the self‐assembly of Ni‐precursor/PPy. The derived hierarchical hollow architecture increases the active defects for sodium storage, while the existing double N‐doped carbon layers significantly alleviate the volume swelling. As a result, it shows ultrafast rate capability, delivering a stable capacity of 374 mAh g−1, even after 3000 loops at 10.0 A g−1. These remarkable results may be ascribed to the NiOC bonds on the interface of NiSe2 and the carbon film, which leads to the faster transfer of ions, the effective trapping of poly‐selenide, and the highly reversible conversion reaction. The kinetic analysis of cyclic voltammetry (CV) demonstrates that the electrochemical process is mainly dominated by pseudocapacitive behaviors. Supported by the results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), it is confirmed that the solid–electrolyte interface films are reversibly formed/decomposed during cycling. Given this, this elaborate work might open up a potential avenue for the rational design of metal‐sulfur/selenide anodes for advanced battery systems. Hierarchial hollow‐structured NiSe2/N‐C with double carbon films are designed from the self‐assembled clew‐like Ni‐Pr by the Kirkendall effect. And it is found that incorporation of NiOC into the carbon layers enables tailoring of the interfacial traits, inducing the fascinating electrochemical behaviors. This elaborate work might open up a potential avenue for these rational TMDs anodes designs for advanced battery storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]