Si has been considered as one of the most attractive anode materials for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) because of its high gravimetric and volumetric capacity. Importantly, it is also abundant, cheap, and environmentally benign. In this review, we summarized the recent progress in developments of Si anode materials. First, the electrochemical reaction and failure are outlined, and then, we summarized various methods for improving the battery performance, including those of nanostructuring, alloying, forming hierarchic structures, and using suitable binders. We hope that this review can be of benefit to more intensive investigation of Si-based anode materials.

We achieve robust bonding of Cu wires to Cu pads on polyimide with silver nanopaste cured at 373 K. The paste is prepared by simply condensing Ag nanoparticle (NP) solution via centrifuging. The bonding is formed by solid state sintering of Ag NPs through neck growth and direct metallic bonding between clean Ag–Cu interfaces. Both experiment and Monte Carlo simulation confirm that the melting point of joint clusters increases during sintering. This creates improved bonds for use at an elevated operating temperature using Ag NPs.

With the depletion of fossil fuels and the increasing demand of energy for economic development, it is urgent to develop renewable energy technologies to sustain the economic growth. Electrospinning is a versatile and efficient fabrication method for one-dimensional (1D) nanostructured fibers of metals, metal oxides, hydrocarbons, composites, and so forth. The resulting nanofibers (NFs) with controllable diameters ranging from nanometer to micrometer scale possess unique properties such as a high surface-area-to-volume and aspect ratio, low density, and high pore volume. These properties make 1D nanomaterials more advantageous than conventional materials in energy harvesting, conversion, and storage devices. In this review, the key parameters for e-spinning are discussed and the properties of electrospun NFs and applications in solar cells, fuel cells, nanogenerators, hydrogen energy harvesting and storage, lithium-ion batteries, and supercapacitors are reviewed. The advantages and disadvantages of electrospinning and an outlook on the possible future directions are also discussed.