EcoMat最新文献

Eco-friendly triboelectric nanogenerator (eco-TENG) is considered as a next-generation renewable kinetic energy-harvesting technology, especially for its potential use as a power supply unit for self-powered electronics. For eco-TENGs, nature-derived biomaterials, which are non-toxic to human and environment, highly biocompatible, and abundant in nature, are used for tribopositive or tribonegative materials, or both. Here, recent progress in nature-derived biomaterials exploited for eco-TENGs and their energy-harvesting performances are reviewed, focusing on refined, hybridized, post-treated, or not. Since biomaterials that exist in nature have evolved over hundreds of years to hundreds of thousands of years, their diversity, novelty in physicochemical structure, and high safety to nature hold enormous potential as carbon-neutral energy materials. Furthermore, scalability and cost-effectiveness of their fabrication methods make them promising as industrially viable eco-materials.

Platinum diselenide (PtSe₂) has shown great potential as a candidate two-dimensional (2D) material for broadband photodetectors and electrocatalysts because of its unique properties compared to conventional 2D transition metal dichalcogenides. Synthesis of 2D PtSe₂ with controlled layer number is critical for engineering the electronic behavior to be semiconducting or semimetallic for targeted applications. Electrochemical exfoliation has been investigated as a promising approach for mass-producing in a cost-effective manner, but obtaining high-quality films with control over electronic properties remains difficult. Here, we demonstrate wafer-scale 2D PtSe₂ films with pre-determined electronic types based on a facile solution-based strategy. Semiconducting or semimetallic PtSe₂ nanosheets with large lateral sizes are produced via electrochemically driven molecular intercalation, followed by centrifugation-based thickness sorting. Finally, gate-tunable broadband visible and near-infrared photodetector arrays are realized based on semiconducting PtSe₂ nanosheet films, while semimetallic films are used to create catalytic electrodes for overall water splitting with long-term stability.

Since the beginning of human history, the demand for effective healthcare systems for diagnosis and treatment of health problems has grown steadily. However, traditional centralized healthcare requires hospital visits, making in-time and long-term healthcare challenging. Bioelectronics has shown potential in patient-friendly healthcare owing to the rapid advances in diverse fields of biology and electronics. In particular, wearable and implantable bioelectronics have emerged as an alternative or adjunct to conventional healthcare. To develop into next-generation healthcare systems, however, custom designs for biological targets with a deepened understanding of the intrinsic features of the target are essential. In addition, bioelectronic systems must be designed eco-friendly for sustainable healthcare. In this review, bioelectronics as eco-friendly and patient-friendly integrated nanoarchitectonics as next-generation smart healthcare technology are described. For an in-depth understanding of biological targets and guidelines for target-tailored design, we discuss target-specific considerations and relevant key parameters of bioelectronic systems with the representative examples.

Although three-dimensional (3D) lithium metal electrode is effective in restricting the Li dendrite growth upon cycling, problems associated with the unstable electrode/electrolyte interphase become more severe due to increased interfacial area that is intrinsic of the 3D structures, being a major cause for the low Columbic efficiency. While building a desirable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) serves as an effective solution to improve the electrode/electrolyte interfacial stability, the 3D nature of the electrode makes the task challenging. In the present work, we demonstrated the in-situ formation of SEI on chemically/structurally modified carbon cloth that is used as the 3D host electrode for Li metal. Here we show that ZnS/ZnO nanotube arrays uniformly grown on the carbon cloth served as precursors for the in-situ formation of Li₂S/Li₂O/LiZn containing artificial SEI in the first lithiation process. While Li₂S and Li₂O are preferred components in SEI, the in situ generated Zn functions as a lithiophilic site that guides the uniform lithium deposition upon repeated charging/discharging process. As a result, symmetric cells adopting the O-, S-, and Zn- modified 3D anode demonstrate significantly improved Coulombic efficiency (99.2% over 400 cycles at 1 mA cm⁻²/1 mA h cm⁻²). Furthermore, the Li/ZSONT/CC//LiFePO₄ full cell shows a capacity retention of 71% after 4000 cycles at 2C. The present work sheds light on effective design strategies for SEI formation on a 3D electrode host with controllable SEI composition.

Solar-driven evaporation has been a promising desalination method for treating concentrated seawater, since it is cost-effectiveness, simplicity, and environmentally friendly. However, this method faces an unavoidable long-term problem that the salt generated in the evaporation processes would affect and hinder its evaporation efficiency. Because the salt inevitably crystallizes on the surface of photothermal evaporation materials, and this crystallization process increases with time to impair the material area of the sunlight absorption and evaporation. Here, we show a ternary hierarchical structure based solar-driven evaporator that reduces the evaporation material surface coverage of the salt to get long-lasting concentrated brine treatment capacity. This evaporator is constructed by plugging vertically arranged hollow tube arrays across a porous plate. The top, middle, and bottom of the evaporator respectively serve as the salt crystallization site, the evaporation site, and the light absorption site. Meanwhile, the self-cleaning of the evaporator can be achieved by back diffusion of the crystallized salts. As a result, this efficient and durable evaporator exhibits freshwater production of 10.21 kg/(m²·day) in outdoor experiment in the treatment of the concentrated natural seawater (21.3 wt%).

In view of global energy transition and environmental issues, electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to high value-added chemicals by using clean renewable electricity, as an advanced carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology, demonstrates a promising approach to reach the carbon neutrality with additional economic benefits as well. Over the past decade, various new valid catalysts in electrochemical CO₂ reduction (ECO2R) have been designed and intensively investigated. Unfortunately, constructing appropriate ECO2R electrolyzer with high conversion rate and long-term stability to unleash the full potential benefits of electrocatalysts remains a recognized challenge, especially as it has not yet attracted attention. This review summarizes the progress of ECO2R reactor and their corresponding structure characteristics/ electrochemical performance. Besides, the current challenges and bottlenecks of CO2RR reactor are discussed. We aim to introduce the advances in ECO2R electrolyzer in detail to offer enlightenment for large-scale industrial application of ECO2R.

Pt-Ir catalysts have been widely applied in unitized regenerative fuel cells due to their great activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, the application of noble metals is seriously hindered by their high cost and low abundance. To reduce the noble metals loading and catalyst cost, the atomic layer deposition is applied to selectively surface anchoring of Ir single atoms (SA) on Pt nanoparticles (NP). With the formation of SA-NP composite structure, the Ir_SA-Pt_NP catalyst exhibits significantly improved performance, achieving 2.0- and 90-times mass activity by comparison with the benchmark Pt/C catalyst for the ORR and OER, respectively. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the SA-NP cooperation synergy endows the Ir_SA-Pt_NP catalyst to surpass the bifunctional catalytic activity limit of Pt-Ir NPs. This work provides a novel strategy for the construction of high-performing dual catalyst through designing the single atom anchoring on NPs.

With the skyrocketed power conversion efficiency and enhanced lifetime of perovskite solar cells (PVSCs), the environmental issues from materials to device processing, operation, and recycling become critical for their commercialization. Developing eco-friendly PVSCs via the exploration of lead-free perovskite materials, non-toxic solvents, and effective lead-adsorbing materials are the key points to realizing eco-friendly PVSCs, which have drawn significant attention in the past 3 years. This critical review presents a comprehensive overview of the recent progress of eco-friendly PVSCs in a close loop, including eco-friendly perovskite materials, eco-friendly device processing, eco-friendly device operation, and eco-friendly perovskite recycling. The innovation of perovskite materials, criteria of green solvent selection, and design principles of lead adsorbents are thoroughly introduced, with their combination for the device processing and operation well explained. An outlook of further material innovation and device optimization is provided to offer instruction for the development of this research field.

Carbon is often used as a conductive additive in catalyst layers to increase conductivity and catalytic activity. However, the effect of carbon addition to perovskites on the oxygen reduction (ORR) and oxygen evolution (OER) reactions is convoluted. In this work, composites of perovskite Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3-δ (BSCF) and conductive additives, carbon and indium doped tin oxide are compared. It is found that the conductive additives have differing effects on the ORR and OER activities and cobalt redox behavior, with carbon having a much more significant effect. In order to elucidate further these differences between BSCF and BSCF/carbon, operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is measured simultaneously with cyclic voltammetry into the ORR and OER regions and the continuous changes in the Co oxidation state are observed with high time resolution. We theorize that carbon is enhancing the Co redox activity and as a result, the ORR and OER activities are likewise improved.

Nowadays, LiCoO₂ has dominated the cathode technology of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for 3C digital devices, but the sluggish electrochemical kinetics and severe structure destruction limit its further application under extreme temperatures. Herein, we design a synergetic strategy including La, Mg co-doping and LiAlO₂@Al₂O₃ surface coating. Typically, the La³⁺ increases the interlayer distance and significantly enhances the ionic conductivity, the Mg²⁺ improves electronic conductivity, and the LiAlO₂@Al₂O₃ coating layer improves the interfacial charge transfer and suppresses the polarization. The co-modified LiCoO₂ (CM-LCO) shows excellent temperature adaptability with remarkable electrochemical performance in a wide temperature range (−40–70°C). Remarkably, the CM-LCO also exhibits excellent cycle stability and high-rate performance at extreme temperatures. The synergistic effects of this co-modification strategy are demonstrated by investigating the electrochemical reaction kinetics and structure evolution of CM-LCO. This work proposes a promising strategy for the application of the high-voltage LCO in a wide temperature range.