Xiaoqian Deng

This study presents the synthesis of Cu-doped Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) and Cu-doped Li₄Ti₅O₁₂@reduced graphene oxide (rGO) anode materials via a simple wet chemical approach combined with freeze-drying. The LTO-0.1Cu@rGO anode delivers an ideal rate capacity of 376, 350, 327, 297 and 259 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 A g⁻¹, respectively, and exhibits stable, long-life cyclic performance of 223.0 mAh g⁻¹ at 5.0 A g⁻¹ after 1000 cycles with 94.8% retention. This superior electrochemical performance is attributed to the unique structure of Cu-doped LTO particles that are uniformly embedded within a conductive, interconnected rGO network. Therefore, these results indicate that combined doping and coating strategies have great potential for enhancing the electrochemical properties of LTO anodes for LIBs.

Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) have attracted wide attention, but the shuttle effect of polysulfide hinders their further practical application. Herein, we develop a new strategy to construct a Ketjen black@zeolite imidazole framework-8/polypropylene composite separator. Such a separator consists of Ketjen black (KB), zeolite imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8) and polypropylene (PP) with a low coating load of 0.06 mg cm⁻² and is denoted as KB@ZIF-8/PP. KB@ZIF-8/PP can absorb polysulfides because of the Lewis acid-base interaction between ZIF-8 and polysulfides. This interaction can reduce the dissolution of polysulfides and suppress the shuttle effect, thereby enhancing the electrochemical performance of the battery. When tested at a current density of 0.1 C, an LSB with a KB@ZIF-8/PP separator exhibits low polarization and achieves a high initial capacity of 1235.6 mAh/g and a high capacity retention rate of 59.27% after 100 cycles.

Transition metal selenides have significant advantages in improving the capacity and cycling performance of lithium-ion batteries. The NiSe₂ nanofoams doped with C and Ni are first synthesized by simple hydrothermal synthesis methods, and their performance as electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) was evaluated. The obtained material can keep the capacity of the 575.9 mA h g^–1 at 2 A g^–1 cycle with a reversible capacity retention of 73.4% after 600 cycles. When the current density comes back to 0.2 A g^‒1, capacity can still return to 938.5 mA h g^–1, which shows that the electrode has good structural stability, which indicates it is of great value as anode material for LIBs.