The lithium-sulfur battery has long been seen as a potential next generation battery chemistry for electric vehicles owing to the high theoretical specific energy and low cost of sulfur. However, even state-of-the-art lithium-sulfur batteries suffer from short lifetimes due to the migration of highly soluble polysulfide intermediates and exhibit less than desired energy density due to the requi...

Anatase TiO2 is a stable, cheap, non-toxic and environmentally benign candidate for use as an anode active material for lithium ion batteries (LIB). Due to the comparably high lithium insertion potential of around 1.8 V vs. Li/Li, typical battery electrolytes can be used in their thermodynamic stability window. Anatase offers high capacity and high cycling stability, and due to the oxidic frame...

Self-assembly of nanostructured materials has been proven a powerful technique in material design and synthesis. By phage display screening, M13 phage was found to strongly bind sulfur particles. Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements indicated that the strong sulfur-binding ability of M13 phage derives from newly generated S-O and C-S bonds. Using this pha...

We described a lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) battery comprising a graphene electrode, a dimethoxyethane-based electrolyte, and H2O and lithium iodide (LiI) additives, lithium hydroxide (LiOH) being the predominant discharge product. We demonstrate, in contrast to the work of Shen et al., that the chemical reactivity between LiOH and the triiodide ion (I3 (-)) to form IO3 (-) indicates that LiOH can be...

New applications such as hybrid electric vehicles and power backup require rechargeable batteries that combine high energy density with high charge and discharge rate capability. Using ab initio computational modeling, we identified useful strategies to design higher rate battery electrodes and tested them on lithium nickel manganese oxide [Li(Ni(0.5)Mn(0.5))O2], a safe, inexpensive material th...

Based on a simple thermodynamic analysis, we show that iodide-mediated electrochemical decomposition of lithium hydroxide (LiOH) likely occurs through a different mechanism than that proposed by Liu et al (Research Article, 30 October 2015, p. 530). The mismatch in thermodynamic potentials for iodide/triiodide (I(-)/I3 (-)) redox and O2 evolution from LiOH implies a different active iodine/oxyg...

Atomic-scale integration of polyether molecules and copper(II) chloride layers in a two-dimensional perovskite affords, to the best of our knowledge, the first example of extended Li(+) cycling in a metal chloride electrode. The hybrid can cycle over 200 times as a cathode in a lithium battery with an open-circuit voltage of 3.2 V. In contrast, CuCl2 alone or the precursors to the hybrid cannot...

Lithium-iron-orthosilicate is one of the most promising cathode materials for Li-ion batteries due to its safety, environmental brightness and potentially low cost. In order to produce a low cost cathode material, Li2FeSiO4/C samples are synthesized via sol-gel (SG; one sample) and solid state (SS; two samples with different carbon content), starting from Fe (III) in the raw materials (lo...

A new fluorinated and alkylated lithium malonatoborate salt, lithium bis(2-methyl-2-fluoromalonato)borate (LiBMFMB), has been synthesized for lithium ion battery application. A 0.8 M LiBMFMB solution is obtained in a mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) (1 : 2 by wt). The new LiBMFMB based electrolyte exhibits good cycling stability and rate capability in LiNi0.5M...

Bilateral vocal cord palsy is a rare but life threatening complication of lithium battery ingestion in children. This complication is mostly missed by otorhinolaryngologists due to lack of awareness on the cited subject. We present one such rare case in an infant, where the clinical presentation was found to be unique but hitherto unreported in the medical literature. This clinical record discu...