Ao Chen

The practical development of room‐temperature sodium‐sulfur batteries faces significant challenges, primarily stemming from the polysulfide shuttle effect and the instability of the sodium anode. In this study, we propose a dual‐cation electrolyte engineering strategy that simultaneously addresses both bottlenecks by introducing K ⁺ into the conventional NaPF ₆ /1‐ethoxy‐2‐(2‐methoxyethoxy)ethane electrolyte. The larger ionic radius and lower Lewis acidity of K ⁺ competitively modified the Na ⁺ solvation structure, weakening Na−Solvent interactions and reorganizing the solvation shell into contact ion pairs (CIPs), thus promoting the formation of inorganic‐rich solid electrolyte interphase. Theoretical calculations reveal that dominant NaKS _x intermediates adsorbed via Na sites weaken S─S and Na─S bonds with dual‐cation induced charge delocalization, establishing catalytic cycle that lowers the kinetic barrier and relieves polysulfide shuttling. Meanwhile, the dendrite growth and parasitic side reactions are further suppressed within electrostatic shielding evoked by introduced K ⁺ . Consequently, a symmetric full cell architecture, with concave hollow mesoporous carbon nanospheres as both sulfur cathode matrix and sodiophilic anode coating, achieves a record lifespan of 10,000 cycles and a high‐capacity retention of 95.3% at 10 A g ⁻¹ and high energy density of 223 Wh kg ⁻¹ for pouch cell. This work offers a comprehensive design strategy, advancing practical metal‐sulfur batteries through electrolyte solvation and electrode interface engineering.

Lattice thermal conductivity (κ_L) plays a crucial role in the thermal management of electronic devices. In this study, we systematically investigate the thermal transport properties of monolayer fluorinated graphene using a combination of machine learning-based interatomic potentials and the phonon Boltzmann transport equation. At a temperature of 300 K, we find that the κ_L values for chair-configured fluorinated graphene monolayers are 184.24 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ in the zigzag direction and 205.57 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ in the armchair direction. For the boat configuration, the κ_L values are 120.45 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ and 64.26 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ in the respective directions. The disparities in κ_L between these two configurations predominantly stem from differences in phonon relaxation times, which can be elucidated by examining the Grüneisen parameters representing the degree of anharmonicity. A more in-depth analysis of bond strengths, as assessed by the crystal orbital Hamiltonian population, reveals that the stronger in-plane CC bonds in chair-configured fluorinated graphene monolayers are the primary contributors to the observed variations in anharmonicity.

Silicon nanomaterials have remarkable physical and chemical properties, optoelectronic properties, thermal stability, and surface properties, and play an important role in various fields, especially in photovoltaics, thermoelectricity, sensors, and batteries. Therefore, the research on the preparation of silicon nanomaterials has attracted much attention today, and how to quickly and efficiently prepare the required materials is the focus of research. Carbon-catalyzed etching of silicon materials is an emerging approach. Similar to traditional metal etching, it utilizes the higher electronegativity of carbon than silicon to generate electrochemical reactions to obtain the desired silicon nanostructures. Traditional metal etching mostly uses precious metals such as gold and silver, which are expensive, while carbon is more abundant in the earth, relatively easier to obtain, and more economical. In terms of cost, carbon-catalyzed etching has greater advantages. Therefore, carbon catalytic etching has gradually entered the attention of researchers in recent years. In this paper, carbon-catalyzed etching of porous silicon structures was briefly introduced and the current generated by graphite particle etching is higher than that of graphene, and the reaction is more stable.

During the long-term use of the coating, environmental factors, physical damage or other factors may cause micro-cracks in the coating. The expansion of microcracks will destroy the overall structure of the coating, reduce the protective effect of the coating and degrade its mechanical properties. However, the traditional repair methods need to consume a lot of manpower and material resources, and the micro-cracks in the coating are difficult to be repaired by the traditional external means. Inspired by biological systems, intelligent coatings with certain self-healing ability have attracted wide attention in academia and industry. According to the different remediation agents used in self-healing micro capsules, several common self-healing coating systems of micro capsules were analyzed, including corrosion inhibitor system, capsule drying oil system, capsule reactive repair agent system, etc.

In the fields of military industry, national defence and major engineering, oriented silicon steel is an indispensable material, but the chromium-containing insulating coating coated on its surface is harmful to the environment and humans. Due to poor performance, the industrialization of chromium-free inorganic coating is hindered. To improve the corrosion resistance of chromium-free inorganic insulating coating for oriented silicon steel, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was prepared by the hydrothermal reduction method and added to the basic chromium-free inorganic insulating coating composed of small-particle silica sol, large-particle silica sol and aluminium dihydrogen phosphate to obtain rGO-containing coating. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy were used to analyse the microscopic morphology and structural characteristics of rGO. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel polarization curves were used to test the corrosion resistance of the coating. The results show that the prepared rGO has a multi-layer structure with a smaller size than graphene oxide (GO) and can be dispersed in water-based coatings. And rGO can reduce the corrosion current density of the coating by two orders of magnitude, and improve the corrosion resistance of the coating.