/npsi/ctrl?lang=en http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?lang=fr Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/jsp/nparc_cp.jsp?lang=en NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRCThis publication could be one of several versions: author's original, accepted manuscript or the publisher's version. / La version de cette publication peut être l'une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l'auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l'éditeur. For the publisher's version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l'éditeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous.http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/am403222u ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 5, 17, pp. 8796-8804, 2013-08-09 Adsorption and desorption of Methylene blue on porous Carbon monoliths and nanocrystalline cellulose He, Xiaoyun; Male, Keith B.; Nesterenko, Pavel N.; Brabazon, Dermot; Paull, Brett; Luong, John H. T. ABSTRACT:The dynamic batch adsorption of methylene blue (MB), a widely used and toxic dye, onto nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) and crushed powder of carbon monolith (CM) was investigated using the pseudo-first-and -second-order kinetics. CM outperformed NCC with a maximum capacity of 127 mg/g compared to 101 mg/g for NCC. The Langmuir isotherm model was applicable for describing the binding data for MB on CM and NCC, indicating the homogeneous surface of these two materials. The Gibbs free energy of −15.22 kJ/mol estimated for CM unravelled the spontaneous nature of this adsorbent for MB, appreciably faster than the use of NCC (−4.47 kJ/mol). Both pH and temperature exhibited only a modest effect on the adsorption of MB onto CM. The desorption of MB from CM using acetonitrile was very effective with more than 94 % of MB desorbed from CM within 10 min to allow the reusability of this porous carbon material. In contrast, acetonitrile was less effective than ethanol in desorbing MB from NCC. The two solvents were incapable of completely desorbing MB on commercial granular coal-derived activated carbon.

Advances in lithium ion batteries would facilitate technological developments inareas from electrical vehicles to mobile communications. While 2-dimensional systems like MoS2 are promising electrode materials due to their potentially high capacity, their poor ratecapability and low cycle-stability are severe handicaps. Here we study the electrical, mechanical and lithium storage properties of solution-processed MoS2/carbon nanotube anodes.Nanotube addition gives up to ×10 10 and ×40 increases in electrical conductivity and mechanical toughness respectively. The increased conductivity results in up to a ×100 capacity enhancement to ~1200 mAh/g (~3000 mAh/cm 3 ) at 0.1 A/g, while the improved toughness significantly boosts cycle stability. Composites with 20 wt% nanotubes combined high reversible capacity with excellent cycling stability (e.g. ~950 mAh/g after 500 cycles at 2 A/g) and high-rate capability (~600 mAh/g at 20 A/g). The conductivity, toughness and capacity scaled with nanotube content according to percolation theory while the stability increased sharply at the mechanical percolation threshold. We believe the improvements in conductivity and toughness obtained after addition of nanotubes can be transferred to other electrode materials such as silicon nanoparticles.Keywords: percolating, network, anode, mechanical 2 In recent years, lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have become the most common rechargeable power sources for portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. 1, 2 Nevertheless, they still suffer from several problems; their energy and especially power densities have not fulfilled their ultimate potential while their safety record is not unblemished. 3 A significant problem is that graphite, the dominant anode material used in LIBs, is limited by a relatively low theoretical capacity of 372 mAh/g. 4 As such, the development of the next-generation of LIBs, is expected to see the replacement of graphite-based anodes with alternative materials having higher capacity at similarly low cost. While a range of materials, including silicon, have been envisaged as future LIB anode materials, 4 of particular interest are 2-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials 5 such as graphene 6 and MoS2. 7 Over the last decade, 2D nano-materials have generated much excitement in the nanomaterials science community. [8][9][10] They come in many types including graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and transition metal oxides (TMOs). These materials consist of covalently bonded monolayers which can stack via van der Waals interactions to form layered crystals. 8,9 Such 2D nanomaterials are often found as nanosheets with lateral size ranging from 10s of nm to microns and thickness of ~nm. 9 These materials have shown potential for applications 5 in both energy generation 11 and storage. 12 In the context of LIBs, exfoliated TMDs have received significant attention as prospective anode materials. 13,14 While bulk MoS2 was proposed 15 as a Li ion battery electrode material as early as 1980 due to its hi...

The search for high-capacity, low-cost electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries is a significant challenge in energy research. Among the many potential candidates, layered compounds such as MoS2 have attracted increasing attention. However, such materials have not yet fulfilled their true potential. Here, we show that networks of liquid phase exfoliated MoS2 nanosheets, reinforced with 20 wt % single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), can be formed into sodium-ion battery electrodes with large gravimetric, volumetric, and areal capacity. The MoS2/SWNT composite films are highly porous, electrically conductive, and mechanically robust due to its percolating carbon nanotube network. When directly employed as the working electrode, they exhibit a specific capacity of >400 mAh/g and volumetric capacity of ∼650 mAh/cm(3). Their mechanical stability allows them to be processed into free-standing films with tunable thickness up to ∼100 μm, corresponding to an areal loading of 15 mg/cm(2). Their high electrical conductivity allows the high volumetric capacity to be retained, even at high thickness, resulting in state-of-the-art areal capacities of >4.0 mAh/cm(2). Such values are competitive with their lithium-ion counterparts.