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A detailed study of learning and teaching (L&T) of chemical engineering distillation to a mixed-ability small class of 13 students who are ordinarily full-time in-house employees in industry is reported. The course consisted of 9 × 2-h lectures (18 hours) and 9 × 2-h tutorials (18 hours). It was delivered over nine business days "in situ" in an established distillery. The purpose was to (re)learn core distillation of ethanol-water mixes at the level of higher education of a bachelor programme. There was 90% broad agreement that the course encouraged more learning. Students (40%) felt the course was too mathematical, however. Pointedly, there was good agreement (63%) that the course stimulated communication with each other professionally, and customers of the distillery. Results overall provide good evidence that students valued their L&T. The experimental design(s) could be readily applied to a range of fields of knowledge.

The practical utilization of Li metal anodes has been significantly plagued by the challenges of uncontrollable dendritic Li growth and poor interphase instability. Here, the study reports a novel strategy to strengthen interphase and give highly efficient active seeds concurrently to stabilize Li metal via a highly lithiophilic In2O3 decorated porous scaffold. In situ configurated fast‐ion‐transport Li2O‐strengthened interphase layer cooperatively with highly efficient Li13In3 nucleation induction can endow the uniform Li nucleation/growth and high Li utilization efficiency. As a result, the achieved modified Li metal manifests high Coulombic efficiency, ultrahigh rate performance (5 mA cm−2), and ultra‐long lifespan cycling durability (7975 cycles). Importantly, the established Li|LiFePO4 cells exhibit long‐term cycling durability over 600 cycles at 1 C with an ultralow decay rate of ca. 0.017% per cycle. Moreover, the Li|LiCoO2 pouch cells with ultrahigh areal capacity of ca. 3.89 mAh cm−2 also exhibit extraordinarily prolonged cycling performance with excellent capacity retention despite extremely harsh cycling conditions of low negative‐to‐positive‐capacity (N/P) ratio of ca. 1.7 and lean electrolyte of ca. 4.9 g Ah−1. This work enlightens a facile and effective avenue toward highly stable Li metal anode toward reliable practicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries have attracted global attention for energy storage. Despite significant progress in advancing Zn anode materials, there has been little progress in cathodes. The predominant cathodes working with Zn2+/H+ intercalation, however, exhibit drawbacks, including a high Zn2+ diffusion energy barrier, pH fluctuation(s) and limited reproducibility. Beyond Zn2+ intercalation, alternative working principles have been reported that broaden cathode options, including conversion, hybrid, anion insertion and deposition/dissolution. In this review, we report a critical assessment of non-intercalation-type cathode materials in aqueous Zn batteries, and identify strengths and weaknesses of these cathodes in small-scale batteries, together with current strategies to boost material performance. We assess the technical gap(s) in transitioning these cathodes from laboratory-scale research to industrial-scale battery applications. We conclude that S, I2 and Br2 electrodes exhibit practically promising commercial prospects, and future research is directed to optimizing cathodes. Findings will be useful for researchers and manufacturers in advancing cathodes for aqueous Zn batteries beyond Zn2+ intercalation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]