Liangliang Li

Lithium (Li) metal, with its ultra‐high theoretical specific capacity and low redox potential, is a promising anode material, yet uncontrollable dendrite growth limits its practical use. Confining Li deposition from one‐dimensional dendritic to three‐dimensional spherical growth is an effective solution. Herein, we propose a synergistic strategy catalyzed by Li‐Au alloy nucleation sites to generate a LiF‐rich solid electrolyte interphase layer. This achieves low Li nucleation potential and high interfacial ion transport kinetics, making Li deposition reaction‐controlled (leading to spherical Li) instead of diffusion‐controlled processes (leading to dendritic Li). Symmetric cells with the modified Li electrode cycle nearly 7500 h (18,000 cycles) at 10 mA cm ⁻² . LiFePO ₄ (LFP) full cells retains 80.3% of their initial capacity after 1000 cycles at 2C; LiCoO ₂ full cells demonstrated a capacity of 153 mAh g ⁻¹ at an ultra‐high 40C (7.3 mA cm ⁻² ) rate. Even at a low N:P ratio of 1.4, the LFP full cell can still be stably cycled for over 200 cycles at 1C (1.8 mA cm ⁻² ) while delivering a high capacity of 151.5 mAh g ⁻¹ . This scalable interfacial design strategy provides important insights for the preparation of dendrite‐free Li anodes to improve battery safety.

Lithium batteries based on multivalent chalcogen conversion chemistries offer a promising route toward high‐energy, practical energy storage, but their development is impeded by the limited accessibility and instability of high‐valence intermediates. Here we report a quasi‐solid‐state lithium||tellurium battery in which a zwitterionic gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) stabilizes multivalent tellurium redox, enabling reversible six‐electron conversion under practical conditions. By embedding LiCl directly into a Te cathode, we establish a Te/LiCl composite that activates the sequential Te ^{2 −} /Te ⁰ /Te ²⁺ /Te ⁴⁺ redox cascade with three well‐defined discharge plateaus at 2.42, 2.17, and 1.76 V. This multivalent conversion delivers a high specific capacity of 938 mAh g ^{− 1} and an energy density of 619 Wh kg ^{− 1} based on the whole cathode. To suppress dissolution and decomposition of high‐valence Te ⁿ⁺ species, we design a zwitterionic GPE that provides dual‐ion (Li ⁺ /Cl ⁻ ) transport, robust Li metal compatibility, and effective confinement of soluble intermediates. The resulting quasi‐solid Li||Te/LiCl cells exhibit excellent rate performance and long‐term durability (87.6% capacity retention after 400 cycles at 1 A g ^{− 1} ), and achieve an areal capacity of 5.4 mAh cm ^{− 2} . This work establishes a zwitterion‐stabilized, multivalent Te redox platform that bridges high energy density with practical cycling stability, offering a generalizable strategy for advanced conversion‐type lithium batteries.

Lithium batteries based on multivalent chalcogen conversion chemistries offer a promising route toward high‐energy, practical energy storage, but their development is impeded by the limited accessibility and instability of high‐valence intermediates. Here we report a quasi‐solid‐state lithium||tellurium battery in which a zwitterionic gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) stabilizes multivalent tellurium redox, enabling reversible six‐electron conversion under practical conditions. By embedding LiCl directly into a Te cathode, we establish a Te/LiCl composite that activates the sequential Te ^{2 −} /Te ⁰ /Te ²⁺ /Te ⁴⁺ redox cascade with three well‐defined discharge plateaus at 2.42, 2.17, and 1.76 V. This multivalent conversion delivers a high specific capacity of 938 mAh g ^{− 1} and an energy density of 619 Wh kg ^{− 1} based on the whole cathode. To suppress dissolution and decomposition of high‐valence Te ⁿ⁺ species, we design a zwitterionic GPE that provides dual‐ion (Li ⁺ /Cl ⁻ ) transport, robust Li metal compatibility, and effective confinement of soluble intermediates. The resulting quasi‐solid Li||Te/LiCl cells exhibit excellent rate performance and long‐term durability (87.6% capacity retention after 400 cycles at 1 A g ^{− 1} ), and achieve an areal capacity of 5.4 mAh cm ^{− 2} . This work establishes a zwitterion‐stabilized, multivalent Te redox platform that bridges high energy density with practical cycling stability, offering a generalizable strategy for advanced conversion‐type lithium batteries.

Simultaneously achieving enhanced selectivity of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and long-term catalytic activity remains a critical challenge in seawater electrolysis. Although anion layers (e.g., MoO₄^2-/CrO₄^2-) electrochemically reconstructed from multivalent metals (Cr, Mo) shield Cl^- and suppress the competitive chlorine evolution reaction (CER), continuous leaching of active elements causes structural collapse. Thus, the concerted regulation of reconstruction kinetics and leaching suppression is essential for achieving stable electrocatalysis. In this study, a designed FeCoNiCrMo high-entropy amorphous alloy catalyst is prepared to significantly enhance OER selectivity and suppress active element leaching, enabling long-term stable electrocatalysis in alkaline seawater electrolysis. In alkaline simulated seawater (1 M KOH + 0.5 M NaCl), this catalyst achieves a low overpotential of 223 mV at 10 mA cm^-2, matching pure alkaline electrolyte (221 mV). Combined ion chromatography (IC) characterization of Cl^- variation and faradaic efficiency analyses confirm its inhibition effect on the CER. The assembled alkaline seawater electrolyzer exhibits high stability, operating for 1200 h at 500 mA cm^-2 with a low voltage decay rate of 0.118 mV h^-1. Theoretical and in situ characterizations reveal that the short-range ordered domains in the amorphous phase synergistically suppress the leaching of active elements through pinning effect, thereby conferring outstanding structural stability.

To address the slow kinetics of Li ₂ O ₂ formation and the unwanted effects of the by‐product Li ₂ CO ₃ in lithium‐air batteries (LABs), it is crucial to develop high‐efficiency and stable catalytic materials. This study presents the application of coherent Bi ₂ Te ₃ @Sb ₂ Te ₃ heterostructures with exposed (001) facets as a catalyst in LABs. Theoretical analysis reveals that the difference in work function between Bi ₂ Te ₃ and Sb ₂ Te ₃ leads to electron rearrangement at the interfaces, forming a built‐in electric field. This results in an asymmetric charge distribution of Te atoms, which enhances the adsorption capacity of intermediate products and promotes the growth of discharge products. Furthermore, it boosts charge transfer between the adsorbed molecules and the catalytic heterostructure, increasing the overall electrical conductivity of the adsorption system and facilitating the subsequent reaction process. Additionally, the low lattice mismatch between Bi ₂ Te ₃ and Sb ₂ Te ₃ in the coherent heterojunction enhances the structural stability of the Bi ₂ Te ₃ @Sb ₂ Te ₃ heterostructure, ensuring stable cycling for LABs. LABs with a Bi ₂ Te ₃ @Sb ₂ Te ₃ ‐based cathode achieve 635 cycles in pure oxygen and 537 cycles in air ambient. To this end, this work provides insights into facilitating the applications of coherent heterojunctions with a built‐in potential and charge modulation as a highly stable catalyst for LABs.

The safety and cycle stability of lithium metal batteries (LMBs) under conditions of high cut‐off voltage and fast charging put forward higher requirements for electrolytes. Here, a sulfonate‐based deep eutectic electrolyte (DEE) resulting from the eutectic effect between solid sultone and lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide without any other additives is reported. The intermolecular coordination effect triggers this eutectic phenomenon, as evidenced with nuclear magnetic resonance, and thus the electrochemical behavior of the DEE can be controlled by jointly regulating the coordination effects of F···H and Li···O intermolecular interactions. The DEE with a properly coordinated environment of Li ⁺ presents a low motion barrier and a high transport rate of localized Li ⁺ , leading to a 10 C fast‐charging LiFePO ₄ ||Li battery with a capacity retention of 95.1% after 500 cycles. Meanwhile, the strengthened α −H···F coordination broadens the electrochemical stability window of the DEE, thus enabling the cycle stability of high‐capacity and high‐voltage cathode materials in LMBs, e.g., a cycle stability at 4.5 V in the LiNi _0.88 Co _0.07 Mn _0.05 O ₂ ||Li battery with a capacity retention of 81.0% after 500 cycles, and an excellent compatibility in 4.5 V LiCoO ₂ ||Li and 4.8 V Li _1.13 Mn _0.517 Ni _0.256 Co _0.097 O ₂ ||Li batteries. The practical applicability of the carefully designed DEE is underscored through successful implementation in pouch cells.

Manganese (Mn)‐based lithium (Li)‐ion batteries with high energy density and low cost have recently attracted considerable attention. One drawback of Mn‐based batteries is the severe capacity attenuation caused by the Jahn‐Teller effect, which distorts the crystal structure and reduces the kinetics of Li‐ion insertion/extraction in the cathodes. In this study, the Mn valence state is regulated on the surface of Mn‐based oxide particles and oxygen vacancies are introduced to facilitate rapid Li‐ion transport and charge storage by adding succinonitrile (SN) to Mn‐based cathodes. Because of the reaction between SN and Mn‐based cathode particles, the contents of Mn³⁺ ions and oxygen vacancies increase, leading to an improvement in the Li‐ion kinetic properties of the cathodes as well as a reduction in the dissolution of Mn from the cathodes. By regulating the Mn valence state, Li‐ion and Li metal batteries with LiMn₂O₄ or Li‐rich Mn‐based layered oxide cathodes show significantly enhanced discharge capacity and improved cyclic performance. This study demonstrates that regulating the valence state of Mn ions is an effective strategy for enhancing the electrochemical performance of Mn‐based Li batteries and that adding SN to the cathodes is a cost‐effective method for mass production.

A simple, low-cost and new all-optical photoacoustic droplet microfluidic detection system is proposed by combining the pure optical photoacoustic detection technology based on polarized light reflection with droplet microfluidic chip technology. In this work, we first use Matlab and Comsol to carry out theoretical calculation and simulation of polarized light reflection, the theory and simulation results are highly consistent. In the experiment, a simple and practical microfluidic chip was prepared by the molding method, and the application range of the polarization based pure light photoacoustic microfluidic detection technology was expanded. Firstly, the photoacoustic signals of black tape in microfluidic chips with different pipe heights are tested to verify the feasibility of our system. Then the suitable flow rate and the flow rate ratio of the two-phase flow were adjusted, and a large number of homogeneous droplets were generated. Methylene blue as one of the samples, the photoacoustic signal of methylene blue droplets was detected. The results show that the polarized light based total internal reflection optical system combined with microfluidic chips has great application potential in microfluidic detection.