Search

Design strategies of phosphonic acid polymers established advanced ion gels with high ionic conductivity, mechanical strength, and self-healing ability via a configurable balance of ionic and hydrogen bonding interactions at the molecular level.

A method to remove microplastics from polluted water was established through ice-assisted synthesis of polyaniline. As a result of microplastic removal, porous polyaniline nanosheets form, which can effectively filter out, detect, and capture viruses.

Although considerable studies have focused on suppressing polysulfide shuttling in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries by modifying separator surfaces, simultaneously achieving fast Li-ion transport and full active-material use remains a technological limitation. Herein, we present an effective method for anchoring zwitterionic sulfobetaine (SB) moieties on a separator surface that concurrently facilitates both selective Li-ion transport and polysulfide conversion. The platform that anchors the zwitterions was sequentially constructed by first introducing a polydopamine (PDA) coating to promote surface wettability and activity for further covalent SB binding using the aza-Michael addition reaction, which enabled the formation of a robust PDA/SB-coated separator. The zwitterion-functionalized separator exhibited a significant enhancement in ionic conductivity from 0.837 to 1.827 mS cm−1 and the Li-ion transference number from 0.186 to 0.511 due to the facile dissociation of lithium salts and selectively promoted the interactions between Li cations and the anionic sulfonate SB end groups. Along with the redox promoting effect, the polysulfide shuttling was further inhibited through strong dipole–dipole interactions. Furthermore, as Li2S precipitation was effectively mediated by the SB zwitterions and improved sulfur-conversion kinetics was achieved, outstanding Li–S battery performance with an initial discharge capacity of 1365.9 mA h g−1 was obtained, while delivering an ultra-low capacity decay rate of 0.034% during long-term cycling (up to 1200 cycles) at 3.0C, even at a high load. Therefore, we believe that the proposed study harnessing zwitterionic separator functionalization would enable the rational design of functional separators for the promoted kinetics and suppressed diffusion of unfavorable reaction intermediates for high performance batteries.

The discovery of peculiar quasi-liquid layers on ice surfaces marks a major breakthrough in ice-related sciences, as the facile tuning of the reactions and morphologies of substances in contact with these layers make ice-assisted chemistry a low-cost, environmentally benign, and ubiquitous methodology for the synthesis of nanomaterials with improved functionality. Ice-templated synthesis of porous materials offers the appealing features of rapid self-organization and remarkable property changes arising from confinement effects and affords materials that have found a diverse range of applications such as batteries, supercapacitors, and gas separation. Moreover, much attention has been drawn to the acceleration of chemical reactions and transformations on the ice surface due to the freeze concentration effect, fast self-diffusion of surface water, and modulated surface potential energy. Some of these results are related to the accumulation of inorganic contaminants in glaciers and the blockage of natural gas pipelines. As an emerging theme in nanomaterial design, the dimension-controlled synthesis of hybrid materials with unprecedentedly enhanced properties on ice surfaces has attracted much interest. However, a deep understanding of quasi-liquid layer characteristics (and hence, the development of cutting-edge analytical technologies with high surface sensitivity) is required to achieve the current goal of ice-assisted chemistry, namely the preparation of tailor-made materials with the desired properties.

Polymer electrolytes are a rapidly emerging option for energy storage and conversion, water treatment, sensors, and actuators. The current scientific thrust is to develop practically viable polymer electrolytes, especially in the solid state. Toward this goal, extensive efforts have been made to prepare polymers bearing ionic moieties with various chain architectures via appropriate linking chemistry, yet challenges remain in their low ionic conductivities and/or poor mechanical strengths. This perspective begins with a summary of past and ongoing research on ion-containing polymers, peering into radical approaches that highlight the confinement-entitled features of ion-containing polymers correlating to structure–property relationships. Recent successes in tuning the nanoscale morphologies of ion-tethered polymers are stressed as significant consequences of milestones in this research era. Several emerging themes and future aims in designing ion-containing polymers are outlined for relevant practical enactments, which include end-group chemistry, single-ion polymers, fine-tuned ion clustering behavior, precise sequencing of ionic moieties, and crystalline ionic channels.

Soft actuators based on electroactive polymers (EAPs) are the core constituents of future soft robots owing to their fascinating properties such as lightweight, compactness, easy fabrication into various forms, and low cost. Ionic EAP actuators are particularly attractive owing to the low driving voltages (

Organic redox-active molecules have attracted great attention for next generation electrode materials due to their promising advantages of low cost, natural abundance, environmental friendliness, and structural diversity. Here we propose a new molecular design strategy to achieve both large specific capacity and high energy organic cathode materials for Li-ion batteries using a triptycene scaffold as a minimal linker between the redox-active units. The triptycene molecule bearing three benzoquinone (BQ) units in a rigid tripod structure exhibits five-electron redox reactions that practically provide a specific capacity as high as 387 mA h g−1 in Li-ion coin cells. By combining electrochemical analyses with theoretical DFT calculations, we figure out that the 3-D arrangements of BQ units in triptycene not only facilitate a highly reversible access to a large number of redox states but also raise the redox potential. Due to the large capacity and the increased redox potential, the triptycene electrode can deliver a specific energy up to 1032 W h kg−1 at 0.1C-rate, which is close to two times the specific energy of the conventional inorganic cathode materials. It is also demonstrated that the cycling performance of triptycenes can be greatly improved by fabricating nanocomposite materials with the ordered mesoporous carbon CMK3.

A new methodology for resolving the long-standing obstacles of Li–S batteries by the synthesis of a composite gel polymer electrolyte with a unique internal structure is disclosed in this paper. The Li–S cells prepared using this novel electrolyte system exhibit high discharge capacities (1140 mA h g−1 during the 1st cycle and reversible capacity of 970 mA h g−1 at the 100th cycle) and improved cycle life.

An in-depth analysis of proton mobilities in model ionic block copolymers has been carried out. The system of interest is a series of sulfonated poly(styrene-b-methylbutylene) (PSS-PMB) copolymers. Dilute solutions of PSS-PMB copolymers in methanol were examined where the PSS domains have an ability to conduct protons by offering sufficiently protonated conditions. A nearly monodisperse molecular weight distribution of PSS-PMB copolymers yields highly uniform spherical ionic micelles. In particular, on virtue of the self-assembly nature of block copolymers, the system revealed well-defined ionic PSS domains with different thicknesses ranging from 3.0 to 7.8 nm. The proton transport in PSS–PMB copolymers was found to be facilitated by the decrease in the ionic domain sizes with proton mobilities (μ) ranging from 1.96 × 10−4 to 8.48 × 10−4 cm2 V−1s−1. Notably, a unique scaling relationship between the μ values and the micelle radii (RH), μ ∝ RH−1.67, was described, which was rationalized by the different proximity of acid groups at the surfaces of ionic domains. The validity of the scaling behavior was verified by examining body-centered cubic forming concentrated solutions. Interestingly, when the same analysis was applied to the hydrated samples possessing different domain geometries, i.e., cylindrical ionic domains, the scaling behavior was also revealed, although an obtained exponent is significantly low as −0.35.