Although the energy densities of batteries continue to increase, safety problems (for example, fires and explosions) associated with the use of highly flammable liquid organic electrolytes remain a big issue, significantly hindering further practical applications of the next generation of high-energy batteries. We have fabricated a novel "smart" nonwoven electrospun separator with thermal-trigg...

Electrode used in lithium-ion battery is invariably a composite of multifunctional components. The performance of the electrode is controlled by the interactive function of all components at mesoscale. Fundamental understanding of mesoscale phenomenon sets the basis for innovative designing of new materials. Here we report the achievement and origin of a significant performance enhancement of e...

The functionality and reliability of portable microelectronics systems is often limited by the ability of the power supply to provide a continuous source of energy. In modern portable applications, lithium ion, and lithium polymer batteries have become the choice energy system. The selection of these batteries is based on their high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities and their ability ...

Developing high-performance batteries relies on material breakthroughs. During the past few years, various in situ characterization tools have been developed and have become indispensible in studying and the eventual optimization of battery materials. However, soft X-ray spectroscopy, one of the most sensitive probes of electronic states, has been mainly limited to ex situ experiments for batte...

Lithium-based rechargeable batteries offer superior specific energy and power, and have enabled exponential growth in industries focused on small electronic devices. However, further increases in energy density, for example for electric transportation, face the challenge of harnessing the lithium metal as negative electrode instead of limited-capacity graphite and its heavy copper current colle...

Lithium ion batteries are among the most used rechargeable batteries in the world. Carbon nanostructures including carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered as important electrode materials for this kind of batteries. Therefore improving the performance of these carbon based electrodes in Lithium ion batteries is an important issue and attracts much attention in the battery community. In this manu...

Nanocrystalline nickel molybdate (NiMoO(4)) thin film electrodes with a 3D honeycomb structure of uniform 17 nm diameter pores were successfully produced through facile polymer templating strategies. These novel sol-gel type materials exhibit enhanced lithium ion storage capabilities, and thus show promise for battery applications.

Improved hybrid polymer electrolyte membranes are introduced based on ether-modified polysiloxanes and poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) yielding a safe separator membrane, which is able to be sprayed directly onto lithium ion battery active materials, with an active role for enhanced ion transport.