Li metal is demonstrated as one of the most promising anode materials for high energy density batteries. However, uncontrollable Li dendrite growth and repeated growth of solid electrolyte interface during the charge/discharge process lead to safety issues and capacity decay, preventing its practical application. To address these issues, an effective strategy is to realize uniform Li nucleation. Here, a stable lithium–scaffold composite electrode (CC/CNT@Li) is designed by melting of lithium metal into 3D interconnected lithiophilic carbon nanotube (CNT) on a porous carbon cloth (CC). The 3D interconnected CNTs successfully change the lithiophobic CC into lithiophilic nature, reducing the polarization of the electrode, ensuring homogenous Li nucleation and continuous smooth Li plating. The CNTs on the surface of CC provide adequate Li nucleation sites and reduce the areal current density to avoid Li dendrite growth. The 3D porous structure of CC/CNT offers enough free room for buffering the huge volume change during Li plating/stripping. The CC/CNT@Li composite anode exhibits dendrite‐free morphology and superior cycling performances over 500 h with low voltage hysteresis of 18, 23, and 71 mV at the current density of 1, 2, and 5 mA cm−2, respectively.
The poor conversion
efficiency of carbon dioxide photoreduction
has hindered the practical application at present, and one of the
prime reasons for this obstacle is the inefficient solar energy utilization
of photocatalysts. Generally speaking, it is contradictory for a photocatalyst
to concurrently possess the broad-spectral response and appropriate
band-edge positions for coinstantaneous carbon dioxide reduction and
water oxidation. In this Outlook, we summarize a series of strategies
for realizing visible-light and IR-light-driven carbon dioxide photoreduction
under the guarantee of suitable band-edge positions. In detail, we
overview the absorbance of visible light enabled by narrow band gaps
in photocatalysts, the extended photoabsorption from UV into the visible
light range induced by defect levels and dopant energy levels in photocatalysts,
and a more negative conduction band and positive valence band acquired
by Z-scheme heterojunctions in photocatalysts. Then, we highlight
the expansive photoresponse of IR light caused by intermediate bands
in semiconductor photocatalysts and partially occupied bands in conductor
photocatalysts. Finally, we end this Outlook concerning more design
strategies and application fields of broad-spectral-response photocatalysts.
We divide the up-to-date techniques into two categories: technologies executed under violent conditions and mild conditions, and we present a timely summary of the mechanism of bond cleavage in plastic waste to produce valuable chemicals.
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