The influence of chemical composition of the doping salts on the conductivity of the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films was studied in this work. A series of salts with different cations but the same anion were mixed with PEDOT:PSS. We found out that doping salts of small-size cations led to better conductivity due to the improved crystalline ordering of PEDOT, as revealed by the grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) data. This phenomenon can be rationalized with the fact that small-size cations can dissociate the PSS from PEDOT due to stronger Coulomb interactions, leading to rearrangement of the PEDOT. These findings will help to develop new recipes based on the PEDOT:PSS/salt composite towards the applications for printed flexible electronics, portable displays and flexible energy storage devices.

In this work, a polymer and ionic liquid (IL) hybrid with superior thermoelectric performance is prepared via a system design of the chemical composition, molar ratio of the constituent molecules and manipulating the structure in solution and dried films. The solution-casted hybrid film, consisting of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tricyanomethanide (EMIM:TCM), shows the highest power factor of 175 μW m−1 K−2 in the polymer hybrid prepared by a post-treatment-free method. With a set of complementary structure characterization methods, it is found that EMIM:TCM can induce the structure reorganization of PEDOT:PSS in solution from a core-shell model to a rod-like model, during which PEDOT partially separates from PSS that eases the conductive network formation. In addition, the oxidation level of PEDOT:PSS is reduced by adding EMIM:TCM. Based on which, the PEDOT:PSS/IL hybrid shows the best performance in optimizing the conductivity (1163 S cm−1) and Seebeck coefficient (38.8 μV K−1) simultaneously.

Commercialization of aqueous zinc‐metal batteries remains unrealistic due to the substantial dendrite growth and side reaction issues on the zinc anodes. It is highly demanded to develop easy‐to‐handle approaches for constructing stable, dense, as well as homogeneous solid anode/electrolyte interfaces. Herein, the authors construct the zinc anode interface with a close‐packed Zn‐TSA (TSA = thiosalicylate) coordination supramolecular network through the facile and up‐scalable wet‐chemical method. The hydrophobic Zn‐TSA network can block solvated water and establish a solid‐state diffusion barrier to well‐distribute the interfacial Zn2+, thus inhibiting hydrogen evolution and zinc dendrite growth on the anode. Meanwhile, the Zn‐TSA network induces the formation of a uniform and stable solid electrolyte interphase composed of multiple inorganic‐organic compounds. This denser structure can accommodate and self‐heal the crack/degradation of the anode interphase associated with the repeated volume changes, and suppress the generation of detrimental by‐product, Znx(OTF‐)y(OH)2x−y·nH2O. Such a rationally fabricated anode/electrolyte interface further endows the assembled symmetric cells with superior plating/stripping stability for over 2000 h without dendrite formation (at 1 mA cm‐2 and 1 mAh cm‐2). Furthermore, this zinc anode has practical application in the Zn‐MoS2 and Zn‐V2O5 full cells. This study provides a new train of thought for constructing the dense interface of zinc‐metal anode.

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A co-polymerization-carbonization method was employed to synthesize porous carbon nanospheres (PCNSs) using pyrrole-aniline polymers as a carbon source and alkyl phenol non-ionic surfactants as templates. The effect of the hydrophilic length on the carbon nanosphere size was systematically investigated. The so-prepared PCNSs were characterized via high-magnification scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis, and N adsorption and desorption analysis. The results indicate that the obtained nanosphere diameter can be tuned by changing the length of the hydrophilic groups. The length of the hydrophilic groups mainly affects the size of the vesicles or micelles formed by the assembly of the surfactant in solution, as was verified by the DLS results. After activation by KOH, the typical sample EO(30)-PCNS has a high specific surface area of 2137 m/g and a large pore volume of 1.76 cm/g. Electrochemical tests in 6 M KOH demonstrated that the assembled EO(30)-PCNS supercapacitor electrode displays good capacitive properties, such as a high specific capacitance of 221 F/g at 1.0 A/g and a good rate capacity of 68% retention at 10.0 A/g. This finding suggests that the uniform particle shape and high specific surface area are beneficial for the ion transportation, leading to good electrochemical performances. Our work provides a novel synthetic strategy for the fabrication of carbon nanospheres or other nanosphere materials for the construction of high-performance supercapacitors by optimizing few parameters, such as the length of the hydrophilic or hydrophobic groups of the surfactants.