As a cathode for sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs), Na3V2(PO4)2F3 (NVPF) with 3D open framework is a promising candidate due to its high working voltage and large theoretical capacity. However, the severe ...capacity degradation and poor rate capability hinder its practical applications. The present study demonstrated the optimization of Na‐storage performance of NVPF via delicate lattice modulation. Aliovalent substitution of V3+ at Na+ in NVPF induces the generation of electronic defects and expansion of Na+‐migration channels, resulting in the enhancement in electronic conductivity and acceleration of Na+‐migration kinetics. It is disclosed that the formed stronger NaO bonds with high ionicity than VO bonds lead to the significant increase in structural stability and ionicity in the Na+‐substituted NVPF (NVPF‐Nax). The aforementioned effects of Na+ substitution achieve the unprecedented electrochemical performance in the optimized Na3.14V1.93Na0.07(PO4)2F3 (NVPF‐Na0.07). As a result, NVPF‐Na0.07 delivers a high‐rate capability (77.5 mAh g−1 at 20 C) and ultralong cycle life (only 0.027% capacity decay per cycle over 1000 cycles at 10 C). Sodium‐ion full cells are designed using NVPF‐Na0.07 as cathode and Se@reduced graphene oxide as anode. The full cells exhibit excellent wide‐temperature electrochemical performance from −25 to 25°C with an outstanding rate capability (96.3 mAh g−1 at 20 C). Furthermore, it delivered an excellent cycling performance over 300 cycles with a capacity retention exceeding 90% at 0.5 C under different temperatures. This study demonstrates a feasible strategy for the development of advanced cathode materials with excellent electrochemical properties to achieve high‐efficiency energy storage.
An advanced Na3.14V1.93Na0.07(PO4)2F3 cathode with high ionicity and excellent energy‐storage performance is prepared via aliovalent substitution of V3+ at Na+ sites. It exhibits the higher structural stability and improved electron/ion‐transport kinetics than the pristine Na3V2(PO4)2F3 owing to the stronger NaO and VO bonds, thereby extending the cycle life of NASICON cathode materials.
Flexible power sources featuring high-performance, prominent flexibility and raised safety have received mounting attention in the area of wearable electronic devices. However, many great challenges ...remain to be overcome, notably the design and fabrication of flexible electrodes with excellent electrochemical performance and matching them with safe and reliable electrolytes. Herein, a facile approach for preparing flexible electrodes, which employs carbon cloth derived from commercial cotton cloth as the substrate of cathode and a flexible anode, is proposed and investigated. The promising cathode (NVPOF@FCC) with high conductivity and outstanding flexibility is prepared by efficiently coating Na
3
V
2
(PO
4
)
2
O
2
F (NVPOF) on flexible carbon cloth (FCC), which exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance and the significantly improved reaction kinetics. More importantly, a novel flexible quasi-solid-state sodium-ion full battery (QSFB) is feasibly assembled by sandwiching a P(VDF-HFP)-NaClO
4
gel-polymer electrolyte film between the advanced NVPOF@FCC cathode and FCC anode. And the QSFBs are further evaluated in flexible pouch cells, which not only demonstrates excellent energy-storage performance in aspect of great cycling stability and high-rate capability, but also impressive flexibility and safety. This work offers a feasible and effective strategy for the design of flexible electrodes, paving the way for the progression of practical and sustainable flexible batteries.
In comparison to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), SARS-CoV-2 appears to be more contagious 1, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients demonstrate varied clinical ...manifestations distinct from those seen in patients with SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infections 2. Collective results from the clinical and epidemiological observations suggest a distinct viral–host interaction in COVID-19 patients. Profiling of the antibody response during SARS-CoV-2 infection may help improve our understanding of the viral–host interaction and the immunopathological mechanisms of the disease.
Humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2 showed an early response of IgA, instead of IgM, in COVID-19 patients. As highlighted by this study, enhanced IgA responses observed in severe COVID-19 might confer damaging effects in severe COVID-19.
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Cytokine storm is a phenomenon characterized by strong elevated circulating cytokines that most often occur after an overreactive immune system is activated by an acute systemic infection. A variety ...of cells participate in cytokine storm induction and progression, with profiles of cytokines released during cytokine storm varying from disease to disease. This review focuses on pathophysiological mechanisms underlying cytokine storm induction and progression induced by pathogenic invasive infectious diseases. Strategies for targeted treatment of various types of infection-induced cytokine storms are described from both host and pathogen perspectives. In summary, current studies indicate that cytokine storm-targeted therapies can effectively alleviate tissue damage while promoting the clearance of invading pathogens. Based on this premise, "multi-omics" immune system profiling should facilitate the development of more effective therapeutic strategies to alleviate cytokine storms caused by various diseases.
Polyanion-type compounds, used as promising cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), have attracted great attention because of their suitable operating voltage, stable framework and good ...thermal stability. However, they suffer from inherent low conductivity, poor high-rate capability and unsatisfactory cycle stability. Herein, in order to overcome these deficiencies, a feasible strategy, which integrates high conductivity reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with the representative vanadium-based fluorophosphates to form a 3D carbon network constructed in NaVPO4F, is proposed and investigated. Based on microstructural and morphological characterization, the NaVPO4F nanoparticles are successfully synthesized and uniformly embedded in a robust rGO carbon network. Ascribed to the multifunctional structure design, the reaction kinetics of NaVPO4F were significantly improved, as demonstrated by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry at varied scan rates and galvanostatic intermittent titration technique. Moreover, the hard carbon (HC) and the NaVPO4F@rGO composite are employed as the anode and the cathode, respectively, to fabricate a sodium-ion full battery, which exhibits an excellent high-rate capability (75.1 mA h g−1 at 15C) and an outstanding cycling stability (0.0115% capacity decay per cycle over 1500 cycles at 5C rate). This study provides a feasible and effective method to develop high-performance polyanion-type electrode materials for SIBs.
Relative to electron donors for bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (OSCs), electron acceptors that absorb strongly in the visible and even near‐infrared region are less well developed, which ...hinders the further development of OSCs. Fullerenes as traditional electron acceptors have relatively weak visible absorption and limited electronic tunability, which constrains the optical and electronic properties required of the donor. Here, high‐performance fullerene‐free OSCs based on a combination of a medium‐bandgap polymer donor (FTAZ) and a narrow‐bandgap nonfullerene acceptor (IDIC), which exhibit complementary absorption, matched energy levels, and blend with pure phases on the exciton diffusion length scale, are reported. The single‐junction OSCs based on the FTAZ:IDIC blend exhibit power conversion efficiencies up to 12.5% with a certified value of 12.14%. Transient absorption spectroscopy reveals that exciting either the donor or the acceptor component efficiently generates mobile charges, which do not suffer from recombination to triplet states. Balancing photocurrent generation between the donor and nonfullerene acceptor removes undesirable constraints on the donor imposed by fullerene derivatives, opening a new avenue toward even higher efficiency for OSCs.
High‐performance fullerene‐free single‐junction organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies up to 12.5% are reported. Transient absorption spectroscopy reveals that exciting either the donor or acceptor component efficiently generates mobile charges, which do not suffer from recombination to triplet states.
A robust superhydrophobic brass mesh was fabricated based on a low-energy surface and a roughness on the nano/micro-meter scale. It was carried out by the forming of hydroxyapatite (HP) coatings on ...its surface through a constant current electro-deposition process, followed by immersion in fluoroalkylsilane solution. Surface morphology, composition and wetting behavior were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high speed camera, and contact angle goniometer. Under optimal conditions, the resulting brass mesh exhibited superhydrophobicity, excellent anti-corrosion (η = 91.2%), and anti-scaling properties. While the surfactant liquid droplets of tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (TTAB) with different concentration were dropped on the superhydrophobic surface, maximum droplet rebounding heights and different contact angles (CAs) were observed and measured from side-view imaging. The plots of surfactant-concentration−maximum bounding height/CA were constructed to determine its critical-micelle-concentration (CMC) value. Close CMC results of 1.91 and 2.32 mM based on the determination of maximum rebounding height and CAs were obtained. Compared with its theoretical value of 2.1 mM, the relative errors are 9% and 10%, respectively. This indicated that the novel application based on the maximum rebounding height could be an alternative approach for the CMC determination of other surfactants.
Solid‐state sodium batteries (SSSBs) are considered as promising candidates for next‐generation energy storage applications due to the probability to achieve safer and higher energy density ...characteristics. However, though SSSBs can avoid using combustible organic liquid electrolytes, the development of such novel batteries is hindered by some critical challenges. Particularly, comprehensive understandings of interfacial stability between solid‐state electrolyte and two electrodes is still absent and thus there is a long way to go for practical applications of SSSBs. In this regard, this review focuses on the grand challenges, fundamental mechanisms, and viable design strategies associated with the interfaces in SSSBs. First, the differences between liquid‐ and solid‐state batteries are compared, and the challenges remaining to be conquered are pointed out. Second, a variety of interfaces, such as interphase formation, interface between electrode and electrolyte, as well as interface of interparticle, are discussed in detail to guide the engineering of the interfaces. Following the obtained insights, systematic perspectives are listed at last to form a basis for further development of advanced SSSBs.
Solid‐state sodium batteries (SSSBs) are considered as promising candidates for state‐of‐the‐art energy‐storage technologies due to the potential benefits in safety and energy density. In this review, a comprehensive overview of the challenges associated with the interfaces in SSSBs is presented, and systematic perspectives are listed at last to form a basis for further development of such batteries.
Supported gold nanoparticles are emerging catalysts for heterogeneous catalytic reactions, including selective hydrogenation. The traditionally used supports such as silica do not favor the ...heterolytic dissociation of hydrogen on the surface of gold, thus limiting its hydrogenation activity. Here we use gold catalyst particles partially embedded in the pore walls of mesoporous carbon with carbon atoms occupying interstitial sites in the gold lattice. This catalyst allows improved electron transfer from carbon to gold and, when used for the chemoselective hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene, gives a three times higher turn-over frequency (TOF) than that for the well-established Au/TiO
system. The d electron gain of Au is linearly related to the activation entropy and TOF. The catalyst is stable, and can be recycled ten times with negligible loss of both reaction rate and overall conversion. This strategy paves the way for optimizing noble metal catalysts to give an enhanced hydrogenation catalytic performance.
Light management holds great promise of realizing high‐performance perovskite solar cells by improving the sunlight absorption with lower recombination current and thus higher power conversion ...efficiency (PCE). Here, a convenient and scalable light trapping scheme is demonstrated by incorporating bioinspired moth‐eye nanostructures into the metal back electrode via soft imprinting technique to enhance the light harvesting in organic–inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells. Compared to the flat reference cell with a methylammonium lead halide perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3−xClx) absorber, 14.3% of short‐circuit current improvement is achieved for the patterned devices with moth‐eye nanostructures, yielding an increased PCE up to 16.31% without sacrificing the open‐circuit voltage and fill factor. The experimental and theoretical characterizations verify that the cell performance enhancement is mainly ascribed by the broadband polarization‐insensitive light scattering and surface plasmonic effects due to the patterned metal back electrode. It is noteworthy that this light trapping strategy is fully compatible with solution‐processed perovskite solar cells and opens up many opportunities toward the future photovoltaic applications.
A convenient and scalable light trapping scheme is demonstrated to enhance the light harvesting in organic–inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells, which is realized by incorporating bioinspired moth‐eye nanostructures into the metal back electrode via soft imprinting technique. The efficiency is enhanced to 16.3% due to self‐enhanced absorption by broadband polarization‐insensitive light scattering and surface plasmonic effect.