Ultrarapid Nanomanufacturing of High‐Quality Bimetallic Anode Library toward Stable Potassium‐Ion Storage

Abstract

Bimetallic alloy nanomaterials are promising anode materials for potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) due to their high electrochemical performance. The most well-adopted fabrication method for bimetallic alloy nanomaterials is tube furnace annealing (TFA) synthesis, which can hardly satisfy the trade-off among granularity, dispersity and grain coarsening due to mutual constraints. Herein, we report a facile, scalable and ultrafast high-temperature radiation (HTR) method for the fabrication of a library of ultrafine bimetallic alloys with narrow size distribution ( � 10-20 nm), uniform dispersion and high loading. The metal-anchor containing heteroatoms (i.e., O and N), ultrarapid heating/ cooling rate ( � 10 3 K s À 1 ) and super-short heating duration (several seconds) synergistically contribute to the successful synthesis of small-sized alloy anodes. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, the as-prepared BiSb-HTR anode shows ultrahigh stability indicated by negligible degradation after 800 cycles. The in situ X-ray diffraction reveals the K + storage mechanism of BiSb-HTR. This study can shed light on the new, rapid and scalable nanomanufacturing of highquality bimetallic alloys toward extended applications of energy storage, energy conversion and electrocatalysis.

Novel Ultra‐Stable 2D SbBi Alloy Structure with Precise Regulation Ratio Enables Long‐Stable Potassium/Lithium‐Ion Storage

“…Therefore, its potassium storage behaviors were evaluated by comparing 2D‐Sb and 2D‐Bi, as presented in Figure a depicts the cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves of the first five cycles for the 2D‐Sb 0.6 Bi 0.4 anode with a scan rate of 0.1 mV s −1 and a voltage range of 0.01–2.5 V. During the cathodic scan of CV, a wide reduction peak ranging from 0.8–1.5 V was observed, possibly corresponding to the initial alloying process of Sb and Bi. [ 19 ] The reduction peak at 0.01–0.3 V was likely associated with the electrolyte decomposition and the subsequent solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation on the electrode surface upon the initial potassiation of Sb and Bi. [ 11c ] In subsequent cycles of the CV test, the reduction peak was transitioned to 0.01–0.40 V, which corresponded to the alloying process of K 3 (Sb, Bi).…”

“…With continued potassiation, the K 3 (SbBi) phase when discharging to 0.25 V at 2 θ = 29.7° indexed to the (220) plane, corresponding to the 2 nd ‐cycle potassiation process in 0.01–0.25 V (K[Sb, Bi] → K 3 [Sb, Bi]) of the composite anode. [ 19 ] During the depotassiation round, the first is the characteristic peak of K 3 (SbBi) at 2 θ = 29.7°, and until the two characteristic peaks of K(SbBi) at 2 θ = 31.1°, 32.7° were observed at 0.55 V and kept to 0.9 V, which corresponded to the depotassiation process in the voltage range 0.01–0.90 V (K 3 [Sb, Bi] → K[Sb, Bi]). [ 23 ] Finally, the characteristic peaks of (SbBi) at 2 θ = 27.9°, 38.9°, and 40.8° were observed when depotassiation reached 0.9 V and continued until 2.50 V, thus corresponding to the composite anode transformation process of (K[Sb, Bi] → [Sb, Bi]).…”

“…With continued potassiation, the K 3 (SbBi) phase when discharging to 0.25 V at 2𝜃 = 29.7°indexed to the (220) plane, corresponding to the 2 ndcycle potassiation process in 0.01-0.25 V (K[Sb, Bi] → K 3 [Sb, Bi]) of the composite anode. [19] During the depotassiation round, the first is the characteristic peak of K 3 (SbBi) at 2𝜃 = 29.7°, and until the two characteristic peaks of K(SbBi) at 2𝜃 = 31.1°, 32.7°w ere observed at 0.55 V and kept to 0.9 V, which corresponded to the depotassiation process in the voltage range 0.01-0.90 V , c) the calculated values of ionic diffusion, d) Nyquist plots (frequency range: 100 kHz-0.01 Hz), e) charge transfer resistance (R ct ), f) plots of the relationship between Z re and 𝜔 −1/2 , and g) the diffusion coefficients of potassium-ions normalized of Sb, Bi, and Sb x Bi y alloy anode. h) CV curves at various scan rates, i) the relationship between peak currents and scan rates, j) capacitive contribution at 1.0 mV s −1 , and k) capacitive contribution of the 2D-Sb 0.6 Bi 0.4 at various scan rates.…”

Processing Plastic Wastes into Value-Added Carbon Adsorbents by Sulfur-Based Solvothermal Synthesis

“…Specific surface areas determined from N 2 physisorption data were 394, 340, 645, 494, 468, and 888 m 2 /g for C@ PBT, C@PPS, C@EPS, C@PPO, C@PP, and C@PMMA, respectively (Table ). The high porosity can be ascribed to (1) the pyrolysis of unstable plastic polymers and the release of small gas molecules such as H 2 O, H 2 S, SO 2 , and CO 2 , , and (2) volatilization of excess sulfur in the carbon skeleton (observed deposition of sulfur powder on the quartz tube wall of the furnace), which generated pores during the high-temperature carbonization process. As seen in Figure S3a,d,e, it exhibited type IV isotherms and type H3/H4 loops.…”

Ultrafast micro/nano-manufacturing of metastable materials for energy

“…The ultrafast high-temperature shock (HTS) method, proposed by Chen et al . in 2016 [ 17 ], provides a simple, flexible and high-throughput manufacturing platform for synthesizing metastable materials, including single metals, bimetals, HEAs and metal compounds like oxides, carbides, nitrides and sulfides [ 6 , 18 ]. By using the homemade set-up to conduct this non-equilibrium Joule heating process, Al nanoparticles on a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) substrate were synthesized for application in the field of batteries and catalysts.…”