Youxing Fang

Porous Liquids: A Promising Class of Media for Gas Separation

A porous liquid containing empty cavities has been successfully fabricated by surface engineering of hollow structures with suitable corona and canopy species. By taking advantage of the liquid-like polymeric matrices as a separation medium and the empty cavities as gas transport pathway, this unique porous liquid can function as a promising candidate for gas separation. Moreover, such a facile synthetic strategy can be further extended to the fabrication of other types of nanostructure-based porous liquid, opening up new opportunities for preparation of porous liquids with attractive properties for specific tasks.

Polymerized Ionic Networks with High Charge Density: Quasi‐Solid Electrolytes in Lithium‐Metal Batteries

Polymerized ionic networks (PINs) with six ion pairs per repeating unit are synthesized by nucleophilic-substitution-mediated polymerization or radical polymerization of monomers bearing six 1-vinylimidazolium cations. PIN-based solid-like electrolytes show good ionic conductivities (up to 5.32 × 10(-3) S cm(-1) at 22°C), wide electrochemical stability windows (up to 5.6 V), and good interfacial compatibility with the electrodes.

A sodium–aluminum hybrid battery

Novel hybrid batteries are fabricated using an aluminum anode, a sodium intercalation cathode Na3V2(PO4)3 (NVP), and a sodium/aluminum dual salt electrolyte based on NaAlCl4 and an eutectic mixture of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (EMImC) and aluminum chloride. Cyclic voltammograms indicate that increasing the molar concentration of AlCl3 in the electrolyte is beneficial to high coulombic efficiency of aluminum deposition/stripping, which, unfortunately, results in lower coulombic efficiency of sodium extraction/insertion in the cathode. Therefore, EMImC–AlCl3 with a molar ratio of 1–1.1 is used for battery evaluation. The hybrid battery with 1.0 M NaAlCl4 exhibits a discharge voltage of 1.25 V and a cathodic capacity of 99 mA h g−1 at a current rate of C/10. In addition, the hybrid battery exhibits good rate performance and long-term cycling stability while maintaining a high coulombic efficiency of 98%. It is also demonstrated that increasing salt concentration can further enhance the cycling performance of the hybrid battery. X-ray diffraction analysis of the NVP electrodes under different conditions confirms that the main cathode reaction is indeed Na extraction/insertion. Based on all earth-abundant elements, the new Na–Al hybrid battery is very attractive for stationary and grid energy storage applications.

New promising lithium malonatoborate salts for high voltage lithium ion batteries

Three new lithium salts, lithium difluoro-2-methyl-2-fluoromalonatoborate (LiDFMFMB), lithium difluoro-2-ethyl-2-fluoromalonatoborate (LiDFEFMB), and lithium difluoro-2-propyl-2-fluoromalonatoborate (LiDFPFMB), have been synthesized and evaluated for application in lithium ion batteries. These new salts are soluble in a mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) (1 : 2 by wt) and 1.0 M salt solutions can be easily prepared. The ionic conductivities of these new salts are close to those of LiBF4 and LiPF6. Cyclic voltammograms reveal that these new salt based electrolytes can passivate both natural graphite and high voltage spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) to form effective solid electrolyte interphases (SEIs). In addition, these new salt-based electrolytes exhibit good cycling stability with high coulombic efficiencies in both LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 and graphite based half-cells and full cells.

Correction: New promising lithium malonatoborate salts for high voltage lithium ion batteries

Correction for ‘New promising lithium malonatoborate salts for high voltage lithium ion batteries’ by Xiao-Guang Sun et al., J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 1233–1241.