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The pursuit for batteries with high specific energy provokes the research of high-voltage/capacity cathode materials with superior stability and safety as the alternative for lithium iron phosphate. Herein, using the sol-gel method, a lithium vanadium phosphate with higher average discharge voltage (3.8 V, vs. Li+/Li) was obtained from a single source for Mg2+ and Cl− co-substitution and uniform carbon coating, and a nearly theoretical capacity (130.1 mA h g−1) and outstanding rate performance (25 C) are acquired together with splendid capacity retention (80%) after 650 cycles. This work reveals that the well-sized anion and cation substitution and uniform carbon coating are of both importance to accelerate kinetic performance in the context of nearly un-disturbed crystal structure for other analogue materials. It is anticipated that the electrochemistry comprehension will shed light on preparing cathode materials with high energy density in the future.

In recent years, lithium batteries using conventional organic liquid electrolytes have been found to possess a series of safety concerns. Because of this, solid polymer electrolytes, benefiting from shape versatility, flexibility, low-weight and low processing costs, are being investigated as promising candidates to replace currently available organic liquid electrolytes in lithium batteries. However, the inferior ion diffusion and poor mechanical performance of these promising solid polymer electrolytes remain a challenge. To resolve these challenges and improve overall comprehensive performance, polymers are being coordinated with other components, including liquid electrolytes, polymers and inorganic fillers, to form polymer-based composite electrolytes. In this review, recent advancements in polymer-based composite electrolytes including polymer/liquid hybrid electrolytes, polymer/polymer coordinating electrolytes and polymer/inorganic composite electrolytes are reviewed; exploring the benefits, synergistic mechanisms, design methods, and developments and outlooks for each individual composite strategy. This review will also provide discussions aimed toward presenting perspectives for the strategic design of polymer-based composite electrolytes as well as building a foundation for the future research and development of high-performance solid polymer electrolytes.

A mild and simple synthesis process for large-scale vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) energy storage systems is desirable. A graphite felt/MnO2 (GF-MNO) composite electrode with excellent electrocatalytic activity towards VO2+/VO2+ redox couples in a VRFB was synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal process. The resulting GF-MNO electrodes possess improved electrochemical kinetic reversibility of the vanadium redox reactions compared to pristine GF electrodes, and the corresponding energy efficiency and discharge capacity at 150 mA cm − 2 are increased by 12.5% and 40%, respectively. The discharge capacity is maintained at 4.8 A h L − 1 at the ultrahigh current density of 250 mA cm − 2. Above all, 80% of the energy efficiency of the GF-MNO composite electrodes is retained after 120 charge-discharge cycles at 150 mA cm − 2. Furthermore, these electrodes demonstrated that more evenly distributed catalytic active sites were obtained from the MnO2 particles under acidic conditions. The proposed synthetic route is facile, and the raw materials are low cost and environmentally friendly. Therefore, these novel GF-MNO electrodes hold great promise in large-scale vanadium redox flow battery energy storage systems.

In order to obtain a safe, reliable, long-lived battery system without use of flammable, volatile, and relatively unstable organic liquid-based electrolytes, lithium garnet oxides with formulas Li7-xLa3Zr2-xTa x O12 (x=0.2-1) were synthesized by the solid state reaction method. Single cubic phases were observed in the composition x range between 0.2 and 1. The lattice parameters decreased with the addition of Ta due to the smaller ionic radius of Ta5+ compared with that of Zr4+, following the Vegard’s law. The total conductivity of the x = 0.3 composition is 6.03×10-5 S·cm-1 at room temperature with an activation energy of 0.30 eV. These lithium garnet oxides exhibit lithium ionic transport that is relevant to lithium battery application.

Soluble starch-functionalized graphene oxide composite (GO-starch) was prepared by a facile esterification reaction. And the composite was used as a novel adsorbent for the removal of Cd(II) from aqueous solution. The chemical composition and morphology of the GO-starch was investigated by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. To evaluate the effects of the adsorption of Cd(II) by GO-starch, batch adsorption studies were performed to optimize the major parameters such as contact time, pH, initial concentration and temperature. The maximum uptake capacity of Cd(II) was 43.20 mg/g under the optimal conditions. Furthermore, the adsorption kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics of Cd(II) on GO-starch were also investigated. The experimental data indicated that the adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms of Cd(II) on GO-starch were well fitted by pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. The adsorption thermodynamic parameters were calculated as ΔG 0 0 and ΔS 0 > 0, respectively. The thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption process was endothermic, feasible and spontaneous. Due to its high adsorption capacity for Cd(II), the GO-starch might have considerable potential for the aqueous removal of metal ions. Soluble starch-functionalized graphene oxide composite (GO-starch) was prepared and used as a novel adsorbent for the aqueous removal of Cd(II). The chemical composition and morphology of the GO-starch was characterized by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to optimize the major parameters such as contact time, pH, initial concentration and temperature. The maximum uptake capacity of Cd(II) was 43.20 mg/g under the optimal conditions. The adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms were well fitted by pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. The adsorption thermodynamic parameters were ΔG 0 0 and ΔS 0 > 0, indicating that the Cd(II) adsorption process was spontaneous, endothermic and feasible.

In this paper, a flow frame with multi-distribution channels is designed. The electrolyte flow distribution in the graphite felt electrode is simulated to be uniform at some degree with the tool of a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package of Star-CCM+. A 5 kW-class vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) stack composed of 40 single cells is assembled. The electrochemical performance of the VRB stack is investigated. Under the applied current density of 60 mA cm−2 during the charge and discharge processes, the current and energy efficiencies are delivered to be 93.9 and 80.8 %, respectively. A higher average output power of 7.2 kW can be achieved at the current density of 80 mA cm−2 with a lower energy efficiency of 78.4 %. The studies of kW-class VRB stack can be beneficial to the development of large-scale energy storage.

In this work, a novel activated carbon containing graphene composite was developed using a fast, simple, and green ultrasonic-assisted method. Graphene is more likely a framework which provides support for activated carbon (AC) particles to form hierarchical microstructure of carbon composite. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurement, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman spectra analysis, XRD, and XPS were used to analyze the morphology and surface structure of the composite. The electrochemical properties of the supercapacitor electrode based on the as-prepared carbon composite were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), charge/discharge, and cycling performance measurements. It exhibited better electrochemical performance including higher specific capacitance (284 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1), better rate behavior (70.7% retention), and more stable cycling performance (no capacitance fading even after 2000 cycles). It is easier for us to find that the composite produced by our method was superior to pristine AC in terms of electrochemical performance due to the unique conductive network between graphene and AC.