Currently, a challenging task for recycling both spent lithium-ion batteries and cathode scrap is the separation of cathode materials from the current collector. A promising and efficient recovery ...method is to use an organic solvent to dissolve the organic polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) binder to recover both cathode materials and aluminum foil. However, the use of toxic solvents hinders its practical application in recycling the large amounts of cathode scrap generated during the manufacturing process. The proposed solvent-based separation process uses glycerol triacetate, a bio-derived green solvent. This study investigates a closed-loop recovery process that recovers cathode materials, including Al foil and PVDF binder, from cathode scrap. Using the glycerol triacetate solvent, a closed-loop recycling process was developed. The glycerol triacetate separation process provides a sustainable platform for the recovery and reuse of electrodes, thereby contributing to battery recycling efforts.
A sustainable recovery process using the green solvent glycerol triacetate (GTA) was developed to effectively separate electrode coatings from aluminum foil current collectors while preserving the active material structure and morphology. This approach offers a feasible method for reclaiming electrodes in a manner that supports battery recycling efforts. Display omitted
•Direct recycling of NCA Cathode Scraps.•Glycerol-triacetate Solvent -based Separation.•Closed-loop recycling approach.
•Recent advances in the application of 2D-BP as ETM and HTM for PCSs are reviewed.•Working mechanisms of 2D-BP as carrier transport material in PSCs are highlighted.•Future research lines for the use ...of 2D-BP in thin film solar cells are proposed.
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are the fast-growing branches of thin film photovoltaic technologies in the recent years. This technology offers several advantages; however, efforts are still being made to improve its performance and stability. On the other hand, two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP) has recently been rediscovered as a very promising 2D layered material for applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Thanks to its fundamental properties and structure, this material has opened up new opportunities for use in perovskite solar cells.
In this perspective, this brief review summarizes recent advances in 2D-BP applications as a carrier transporting material in PSCs, tackling subjects on working mechanisms and the positive effect on device performance. Finally, the authors will highlight future research perspectives for the use of 2D-BP in different thin film technologies.
Due to the low capacity, low working potential, and lithium coating at fast charging rates of graphite material as an anode for Li-ion batteries (LIBs), it is necessary to develop novel anode ...materials for LIBs with higher capacity, excellent electrochemical stability, and good safety. Among different transition-metal oxides, ABsub.2Osub.4 spinel oxides are promising anode materials for LIBs due to their high theoretical capacities, environmental friendliness, high abundance, and low cost. In this work, a novel, porous Znsub.0.5Mgsub.0.5FeMnOsub.4 spinel oxide was successfully prepared via the sol–gel method and then studied as an anode material for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). Its crystal structure, morphology, and electrochemical properties were, respectively, analyzed through X-ray diffraction, high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, and cyclic voltammetry/galvanostatic discharge/charge measurements. From the X-ray diffraction, Znsub.0.5Mgsub.0.5FeMnOsub.4 spinel oxide was found to crystallize in the cubic structure with Fd3¯m symmetry. However, the Znsub.0.5Mgsub.0.5FeMnOsub.4 spinel oxide exhibited a porous morphology formed by interconnected 3D nanoparticles. The porous Znsub.0.5Mgsub.0.5FeMnOsub.4 anode showed good cycling stability in its capacity during the initial 40 cycles with a retention capacity of 484.1 mAh gsup.−1 after 40 cycles at a current density of 150 mA gsup.−1, followed by a gradual decrease in the range of 40–80 cycles, which led to reaching a specific capacity close to 300.0 mAh gsup.−1 after 80 cycles. The electrochemical reactions of the lithiation/delithiation processes and the lithium-ion storage mechanism are discussed and extracted from the cyclic voltammetry curves.
Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films continue to attract unprecedented attention due to their favourable mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical properties. These properties depend, among others, ...on the morphology and the architecture of the thin film, which can be tuned with different configurations of the deposition parameters. This study presents an experimental investigation to tune the properties of TiN thin film deposited using reactive High-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) at different deposition temperatures (without heating (RT) and 400 °C) and substrate bias potentials (of floating, ground, −20 V, −40 V and −60 V). It is demonstrated that the morphological, structural, and mechanical properties of TiN can be tailored by controlling the deposition temperature and substrate potential bias to deposit dense thin films. A maximum hardness of 30 GPa was achieved for the thin film deposited at RT with a bias voltage of −60 V. The failure mechanism of the fracture toughness exhibited an isotropic behaviour at an applied load of 1 and 2 N respectively, for thin films deposited at RT. In contrast, an anisotropic behaviour was observed in the thin film deposited at a temperature of 400 0C.Overall, the thin film deposited at a temperature of 4000C showed an improved fracture toughness resistance (KIC) than the thin films deposited at RT. The use of bias potential was also observed to be beneficial for improving the KIC of the TiN thin films.
An aluminium titanate based (AT) material doped with silica was investigated as refractory model material in order to highlight its thermomechanical properties through various techniques of ...characterization operating at high temperature such as ultrasonic pulse echography technique operating in long bar mode, acoustic emission, dilatometry and tensile test measurements up to 1400 °C. Young's modulus (MoE) as a function of temperature evolves in the form of a large hysteresis loop with a maximum value of about 170 GPa due to the healing of diffuse microcracks during heating. A sharp decrease in MoE occurs on cooling at about 780 °C, corresponding to the re-opening of the microcracked network due to a high level of stress around AT grains. In addition, during cooling, the dilatometric analysis shows a quasi-linear shrinkage followed by a sudden non-linear expansion from 750 °C. The thermal expansion coefficient value determined between 1100 °C and 750 °C is about 8.8 10−6 °C−1. By recording the evolution of the cumulative number of hits as a function of temperature, the results of the acoustic emission clearly confirm the resurgence of microstructural defects at 780 °C. The incremental tensile loading test performed at 1400 °C shows a greater degree of nonlinearity suggesting a higher flexibility of the studied AT due to both the microcracks network and the low viscosity of intergranular glassy phase. Symmetric alternating loading tests have highlighted that the viscous contribution in the viscoelastic behaviour of such materials is increasing from 850 H °C to 1400 H °C as the viscosity of the silica-riched amorphous phase is decreasing. These results are very useful to understand the more sensitive parameters involved in the high thermal shock resistance of aluminium titanate.
Titanium carbide coatings exhibit a variety of tribological properties depending on their carbon concentration. In the present article, a series of coatings with compositions ranging from pure Ti to ...high carbon nc-TiC/a-C:H nanocomposites are deposited using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering, HiPIMS. The coatings were wear-tested using a ball-on-disk tribometer under different applied loads, and the resulting wear tracks were analysed by Raman spectroscopy. It is observed that the coefficient of friction and wear resistance improve with increasing carbon content. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy confirms a graphitization at the sliding contact, and shows that the increase of the applied load leads to the enlargement of the sp2 clusters size which explains the self-adaptive behaviour observed during the sliding experiments. Intriguingly, the elasticity index “H/E" does not correlate with the wear rate results. A modified model that takes into consideration the content ratio of the amorphous carbon phase is herewith suggested. The Model better fits the obtained experimental results and predicts the wear behaviour more effectively.
•Increasing the carbon content improves the tribological properties of TiCx coatings.•The sp2-to-sp3 transformation increases with the increase of the applied load.•The nanocomposite nc-TiC/a-C:H coatings exhibit a self-adaptive lubrication behaviour.•Conventional H/E ∼ wear rate relationship is not suitable at high carbon content.•A new model is proposed in predicting the wear behaviour of nc-TiC/a-C:H coatings.
This study investigates the anisotropic grain growth of Fe-doped aluminum titanate ceramics using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). Three grades of materials exhibiting various grain size ...distributions were prepared on the basis of different sintering conditions. The crystal structure of the raw powder was first refined using X-ray diffraction. Then the microstructure variation of sintered polycrystalline aluminum titanate associated to anisotropic grain coarsening was accurately studied. Due to the orthorhombic structure of β-Al2TiO5, the crystal shape is prismatic and elongated along the 100 direction. This specific grain shape is analyzed in relation with crystallographic axes in the frame work of the Wulff approach. The obtained results provide valuable information regarding the microstructure of such flexible ceramics made off anisotropic grains.
