Bumjun Park

Fast charging improves the usability of consumer electronics and electric vehicles (EVs) by reducing range anxiety and downtime but accelerates battery degradation and raises safety concerns. Optimizing operational conditions during fast-charging is critical to mitigating aging and ensuring safety. This study evaluated multilayer Gr/NMC811 cells under various conditions, including depths of discharge (DODs of 68%, 84%, and 100%), upper charge cutoff voltages (4.1–4.2 V), and post-charge rest periods (2–30 min), using a 20 min fast charging protocol for up to 500 cycles (up to 150,000 miles of EV use assuming 3.3 mi/kWh vehicle level energy efficiency). Surprisingly, higher DODs under fast charging improved battery life and performance compared to lower DODs. Reducing the upper charge cut-off voltage helped mitigate degradation. A brief 2 min rest period after charging further reduced aging effects. The primary aging modes were loss of lithium inventory and cathode active material. Although minor lithium plating was observed within 500 cycles, it did not affect performance significantly. These findings suggest that, with optimized conditions, cells can sustain hundreds of fast charge cycles—equivalent to over 100,000 miles of EV use—without significant adverse effects on performance or longevity.

Magnesium electrolytes based on a polycarbonate with either magnesium tetrakis(hexafluoroisopropyloxy) borate (Mg(B(HFIP)₄)₂) or magnesium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Mg(TFSI)₂) for magnesium batteries were prepared and characterized. The side-chain-containing polycarbonate, poly(2-butyl-2-ethyltrimethylene carbonate) (P(BEC)), was synthesized by ring opening polymerization (ROP) of 5-ethyl-5-butylpropane oxirane ether carbonate (BEC) and mixed with Mg(B(HFIP)₄)₂ or Mg(TFSI)₂ to form low- and high-salt-concentration polymer electrolytes (PEs). The PEs were characterized by impedance spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rheology, linear sweep voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry, and Raman spectroscopy. A transition from classical salt-in-polymer electrolytes to polymer-in-salt electrolytes was indicated by a significant change in glass transition temperature as well as storage and loss moduli. Ionic conductivity measurements indicated the formation of polymer-in-salt electrolytes for the PEs with 40 mol % Mg(B(HFIP)₄)₂ (HFIP40). In contrast, the 40 mol % Mg(TFSI)₂ PEs showed mainly the classical behavior. HFIP40 was further found to have an oxidative stability window greater than 6 V vs Mg/Mg²⁺, but showed no reversible stripping-plating behavior in an Mg||SS cell.

We report a closed bipolar electrode (CBE)-based sensing platform for the detection of diagnostic metabolites in undiluted whole human blood. The sensor is enabled by electrode chemistry based on: (1) a mixed layer of blood-compatible adsorption-resistant phosphorylcholine (PPC) and phenylbutyric acid (PBA), (2) ferrocene (Fc) redox mediators, and (3) immobilized redox-active enzymes. This scheme is designed to overcome nonspecific protein adsorption and amplify sensing currents in whole human fluids. The scheme also incorporates a diffusing mediator to increase electronic communication between the immobilized redox enzyme and the working electrode. The use of both bound and freely diffusing mediators is synergistic in producing the electrochemical response. The sensor is realized by linking the analyte cell, containing the specific electrode surface architecture, through a CBE to a reporter cell containing the electrochromic reporter, methyl viologen (MV). The colorless-to-purple color change accompanying the 1e^- reduction of MV²⁺ is captured using a smartphone camera. Subsequent red-green-blue analysis is performed on the acquired images to determine cholesterol, glucose, and lactate concentrations in whole blood. The CBE blood metabolite sensor produces a linear color change at clinically relevant concentration ranges for all metabolites with good reproducibility (∼5% or better) and with limits of detection of 79 μM for cholesterol, 59 μM for glucose, and 86 μM for lactate. Finally, metabolite concentration measurements from the CBE blood metabolite sensor are compared with results from commercially available FDA-approved blood cholesterol, glucose, and lactate meters, with an average difference of ∼3.5% across all three metabolites in the ranges studied.

As the energy storage markets demand increased capacity of rechargeable batteries, Li metal anodes have regained major attention due to their high theoretical specific capacity. However, Li anodes tend to have dendritic growth and constant electrolyte consumption upon cycling, which lead to safety concerns, low Coulombic efficiency, and short battery lifetime. In this work, both conductive and non-conductive 3D porous hosts were coupled with a viscous (melt) polymer electrolyte. The cross-section of the hosts showed good contact between porous hosts and the melt polymer electrolyte before and after extensive cycling, indicating that the viscous electrolyte successfully refilled the space upon Li stripping. Upon deep Li deposition/stripping cycling (5 mAh cm⁻²), the non-conductive host with the viscous electrolyte successfully cycled, while the conductive host allowed rapid short circuiting. Post-mortem cross-sectional imaging showed that the Li deposition was confined to the top layers of the host. COMSOL simulations indicated that current density was higher and more restricted to the top of the conductive host with the polymer electrolyte than the liquid electrolyte. This resulted in quicker short circuiting of the polymer electrolyte cell during deep cycling. Thus, the non-conductive 3D host is preferred for coupling with the melt polymer electrolyte.

Magnesium-ion-conducting solid polymer electrolytes have been studied for rechargeable Mg metal batteries, one of the beyond-Li-ion systems. In this paper, magnesium polymer electrolytes with magnesium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide (Mg(TFSI) ₂ ) salt in poly( ε -caprolactone- co -trimethylene carbonate) (PCL-PTMC) were investigated and compared with the poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) analogs. Both thermal properties and vibrational spectroscopy indicated that the total ion conduction in the PEO electrolytes was dominated by the anion conduction due to strong polymer coordination with fully dissociated Mg ²⁺ . On the other hand, in PCL-PTMC electrolytes, there is relatively weaker polymer–cation coordination and increased anion–cation coordination. Sporadic Mg- and F-rich particles were observed on the Cu electrodes after polarization tests in Cu|Mg cells with PCL-PTMC electrolyte, suggesting that Mg was conducted in the ion complex form (Mg _x TFSI _y ) to the copper working electrode to be reduced which resulted in anion decomposition. However, the Mg metal deposition/stripping was not favorable with either Mg(TFSI) ₂ in PCL-PTMC or Mg(TFSI) ₂ in PEO, which inhibited quantitative analysis of magnesium conduction. A remaining challenge is thus to accurately assess transport numbers in these systems.