progress in battery technology has been primarily driven by the specific demands of various applications. In the current era, a higher gravimetric/volumetric energy density is still an ever-growing requirement to power mobile electronics and extend the driving range of electric vehicles (EVs) with increased energy consumption. Meanwhile, the exploration and utilization of the various forms of renewable energy, such as wind, tidal, and solar energy, which are normally harvested as electricity but fluctuate greatly over time, require them to be stored, regulated, and then delivered for practical application. [1,2] As a result, these two issues impose high urgency and great necessity on the development of suitable battery systems to meet these demands, in particular, energy density, safety, and cost effectiveness. [3][4][5] At this stage, the most successfully commercialized secondary batteries are the LIBs, which have been widely applied in a variety of devices, including mobile phones, power tools, and electric vehicles. In an LIB, electricity is stored and released based on the reversible insertion-extraction of Li ions in the electrode materials. [6] The second-generation LIBs, which are based on layered LiNi x Mn y Co z O 2 (NMC) or LiNi 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O 2 (NCA) cathode materials and graphite anode materials, normally have practical gravimetric/volumetric energy densities as high as 180-220 Wh kg −1 and have been applied in the latest electric vehicles (e.g., the Tesla Model S car) (Figure 1). Present mobile devices, transportation tools, and renewable energy technologies are more dependent on newly developed battery chemistries than ever before. Intrinsic properties, such as safety, high energy density, and cheapness, are the main objectives of rechargeable batteries that have driven their overall technological progress over the past several decades. Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to achieve all these merits simultaneously at present. Alternatively, exploration of the most suitable batteries to meet the specific requirements of an individual application tends to be a more reasonable and easier choice now and in the near future. Based on this concept, here, a range of promising alternatives to lithium-sulfur batteries that are constructed with non-Li metal anodes (e.g., Na, K, Mg, Ca, and Al) and sulfur cathodes are discussed. The systems governed by these new chemistries offer high versatility in meeting the specific requirements of various applications, which is directly linked with the broad choice in battery chemistries, materials, and systems. Herein, the operating principles, materials, and remaining issues for each targeted battery characteristics are comprehensively reviewed. By doing so, it is hoped that their design strategies are illustrated and light is shed on the future exploration of new metal-sulfur batteries and advanced materials. Metal-Sulfur BatteriesThe ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.

Hurricane Opal (1995) experienced a rapid, unexpected intensification in the Gulf of Mexico that coincided with its encounter with a warm core ring (WCR). The relative positions of Opal and the WCR and the timing of the intensification indicate strong air-sea interactions between the tropical cyclone and the ocean. To study the mutual response of Opal and the Gulf of Mexico, a coupled model is used consisting of a nonhydrostatic atmospheric component of the Naval Research Laboratory's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS), and the hydrostatic Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's Modular Ocean Model version 2 (MOM 2).The coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere components of the model are accomplished by conservation of heat, salt, momentum, as well as the sensible and latent heat fluxes at the air-sea interface. The atmospheric model has two nests with spatial resolutions of 0.6Њ and 0.2Њ. The ocean model has a uniform resolution of 0.2Њ. The oceanic model domain covers the Gulf of Mexico basin and coincides with a fine-mesh atmospheric domain of the COAMPS. The initial condition for the atmospheric component of COAMPS is the archived Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System operational global analysis, enhanced with observations. The initial ocean condition for the oceanic component is obtained from a 2-yr MOM 2 simulation with climatological forcing and fixed mass inflow into the Gulf. The initial state in the Gulf of Mexico consists of a realistic Loop Current and a shed WCR.The 72-h simulation of the coupled system starting from 1200 UTC 2 October 1995 reproduces the observed storm intensity with a minimum sea level pressure (MSLP) of 918 hPa, occurring at 1800 UTC 4 October, a 6-h delay compared to the observation. The rapid intensification to the maximum intensity and the subsequent weakening are not as dramatic as the observed. The simulated track is located slightly to the east of the observed track, placing it directly over the simulated WCR, where the sea surface temperature (SST) cooling is approximately 0.5ЊC, consistent with buoy measurements acquired within the WCR. This cooling is significantly less over the WCR than over the common Gulf water due to the deeper and warmer layers in the WCR. Windinduced currents of 150 cm s Ϫ1 are similar to those in earlier idealized simulations, and the forced current field in Opal's wake is characterized by near-inertial oscillations superimposed on the anticyclonic circulation around the WCR.Several numerical experiments are conducted to isolate the effects of the WCR and the ocean-atmosphere coupling. The major findings of these numerical experiments are summarized as follows. 1) Opal intensifies an additional 17 hPa between the times when Opal's center enters and exits the outer edge of the WCR. Without the WCR, Opal only intensifies another 7 hPa in the same period. 2) The maximum surface sensible and latent heat flux amounts to 2842 W m Ϫ2 . This occurs when Opal's surface circulation brings northwesterly...

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With the urgent requirement for high-performance rechargeable Li-S batteries, besides various carbon materials and metal compounds, lots of conducting polymers have been developed and used as components in Li-S batteries. In this review, the synthesis of polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy) and polythiophene (PTh) is introduced briefly. Then, the application progress of the three conducting polymers is summarized according to the function in Li-S batteries, including coating layers, conductive hosts, sulfur-containing compounds, separator modifier/functional interlayer, binder and current collector. Finally, according to the current problems of conducting polymers, some practical strategies and potential research directions are put forward. We expect that this review will provide novel design ideas to develop conducting polymer-containing high-performance Li-S batteries.