Lithium (Li) is a promising battery anode because of its high theoretical capacity and low reduction potential, but safety hazards that arise from its continuous dendrite growth and huge volume changes limit its practical applications. Li can be hosted in a framework material to address these key issues, but methods to encage Li inside scaffolds remain challenging. The melt infusion of molten Li into substrates has attracted enormous attention in both academia and industry because it provides an industrially adoptable technology capable of fabricating composite Li anodes. In this review, the wetting mechanism driving the spread of liquefied Li toward a substrate is discussed. Following this, various strategies are proposed to engineer stable Li metal composite anodes that are suitable for liquid and solid-state electrolytes. A general conclusion and a perspective on the current limitations and possible future research directions for constructing composite Li anodes for high-energy lithium metal batteries are presented.

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Recent Progress in Designing Stable Composite Lithium Anodes with Improved Wettability.

Nitrogen vacancies enriched Ce-doped Ni3N hierarchical nanosheets triggering highly-efficient urea oxidation reaction in urea-assisted energy-saving electrolysis

Transition-metal alloys are currently drawing increasing attention as promising alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts due to their unique advantages. However, traditional density functional theory (DFT)-derived d -band theory fails to describe the hydrogen adsorption energy (Δ G H ) on hollow sites. Herein, by studying the Δ G H for a series of Ni-M (M = Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Mo, W) bimetallic alloys, an improved d -band center is provided by considering multi-metals-H bonds cooperative effect as a dependable descriptor of hydrogen adsorption energy, and screen out a potential NiCu HER electrocatalyst with a near-optimal Δ G H . Moreover, oxygen atoms were introduced into Ni-M (O-NiM) to balance the adsorption/desorption of *OH, the tailored water dissociation electrocatalytic sites can synergistically accelerate the multi-step alkaline HER. Direct experimental evidence is offered that O-NiCu possesses the optimum HER activity with ultralow overpotentials of 23 and 69 mV to obtain current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm -2 , respectively, which is much lower than those of noble metal Pt/C and reported electrocatalysts. The micro-kinetics analysis and DFT calculations further affirm the energetic alkaline HER kinetic process. This work not only broadens the applicability of d -band theory, but provides crucial understanding in designing efficient alkaline HER electrocatalysts.

Manipulating the Water Dissociation Electrocatalytic Sites of Bimetallic Ni-based Alloy for Highly-Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution.

The sluggish kinetics of oxygen electrode reactions is a bottleneck for the development of rechargeable Zn-air batteries (ZABs). Herein, we report a bifunctional electrocatalyst synthesized by anchoring individually dispersed Ni single atoms on N-doped carbon nanosheets (Ni SAs-NC), which exhibits an outstanding overall performance for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR). Based on that, a conceptual urea-assisted rechargeable ZAB by coupling ORR with UOR of a low thermodynamic potential is demonstrated to have significantly decreased charging voltage and high urea elimination rate. The high bifunctional electrocatalytic activities of Ni SAs-NC endow the urea-assisted ZAB with a dramatically increased energy conversion efficiency of 71.8%, which is improved by 17.1% as compares with the conventional ZABs. The successful implementation of Ni SACs based urea-assisted rechargeable ZABs with an improved energy conversion efficiency may prompt ZAB technology towards practical applications. 

Ni single atoms anchored on N-doped carbon nanosheets as bifunctional electrocatalysts for Urea-assisted rechargeable Zn-air batteries

Recent advances in the pre-oxidation process in electrocatalytic urea oxidation reactions.

Oxygen-Incorporated NiMoP Nanotube Arrays as Efficient Bifunctional Electrocatalysts For Urea-Assisted Energy-Saving Hydrogen Production in Alkaline Electrolyte

Hao Jiang

Papers

Oxygen-Incorporated NiMoP Nanotube Arrays as Efficient Bifunctional Electrocatalysts For Urea-Assisted Energy-Saving Hydrogen Production in Alkaline Electrolyte

Lithiophilicity conversion of carbon paper with uniform Cu2+1O coating: Boosting stable Li-Cu2+1O-CP composite anode through melting infusion