Hybridizing battery and capacitor materials to construct lithium ion capacitors (LICs) has been regarded as a promising avenue to bridge the gap between high-energy lithium ion batteries and high-power supercapacitors. One of the key difficulties in developing advanced LICs is the imbalance in the power capability and charge storage capacity between anode and cathode. Herein, we design a new LI...

Perovskite solar cells are emerging as one of the most promising candidates for solar energy harvesting. To date, most of the high-performance perovskite solar cells have exclusively employed organic hole-transporting materials (HTMs) such as 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9'-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) or polytriarylamine (PTAA) which are often expensive and have low hol...

The effects of lithium doping on the sintering and grain growth of non-stoichiometric nano-sized magnesium aluminate spinel were studied using a spark plasma sintering (SPS) apparatus. Li-doped nano-MgO·nAl₂O₃ spinel (n = 1.06 and 1.21) powders containing 0, 0.20, 0.50 or 1.00 at. % Li were synthesized by the solution combustion method and dense specimens were processed using a SPS apparatus at...

Potassium is an earth abundant alternative to lithium for rechargeable batteries, but a critical limitation in potassium ion battery anodes is the low capacity of KC8 graphite intercalation compounds in comparison to conventional LiC6. Here we demonstrate that nitrogen doping of few-layered graphene can increase the storage capacity of potassium from a theoretical maximum of 278 mAh/g in graphi...

Based on the t − J model and the self–consistent Born approximation, the damping of quasiparticle hole states near the Fermi surface is calculated in a low doping regime. Renormalization of spin–wave excitations due to hole doping is taken into account. The damping is shown to be described by a familiar form ImΣ(k′, ε) ∝ (ε/εF ) ln(ε/εF ) characteristic of the 2–dimensional Fermi liquid, in con...

The effects of mechanical milling on the microstructure, morphology and electrochemical performance of graphite powders with respect to lithium insertion are studied. After 150 h of ball-milling, the well-graphitized graphite has been pulverized into small particles with a size of about 50 nm, in which there are a lot of excess vacancies, microcavities and metastable carbon interstitial phases ...

Lithium salt (noncoordinating anions, such as lithium triflate (Ltf)) gel electrolytes may be key for the practical use of electrochemical devices. We introduce a new lyotropic liquid-crystalline (LLC) mesophase using Ltf, a small amount of water (as low as 1.3 water per Ltf), and nonionic surfactant (C18H37(OCH2CH2)10OH, C18E10). The LLC phase forms over a broad range of Ltf/C18E10 mole ratios...

The exploitation of semiconductors is of utmost importance to existing and forthcoming technologies. Some have even argued that in analogy to the ‘Copper Age’ following the ‘Stone Age’, we are currently living in the Semiconductor Age. For sure, silicon is the semiconductor which is used the most in a technological context (e.g. microelectronics). However, there are various applications for whi...

The physical properties of polyaniline (PAn) powder, doped by nucleophilic doping of dimethyl sulfate (DMS), were characterized, as well as its electrochemical behaviors, to investigate the possibility of a power source device adopting the PAn-DMS electrodes. It is shown that the nucleophilic addition of DMS into PAn concurrently resulted in an increase of the charge transport properties (e.g.,...