Tremendous efforts have been devoted to the development of electrode materials, electrolytes, and separators of energy-storage devices to address the fundamental needs of emerging technologies such as electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. However, binders, as an important component of energy-storage devices, are yet to receive similar attention. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has been the dominant binder in the battery industry for decades despite several well-recognized drawbacks, i.e., limited binding strength due to the lack of chemical bonds with electroactive materials, insufficient mechanical properties, and low electronic and lithium-ion conductivities. The limited binding function cannot meet inherent demands of emerging electrode materials with high capacities such as silicon anodes and sulfur cathodes. To address these concerns, in this review we divide the binding between active materials and binders into two major mechanisms: mechanical interlocking and interfacial b...

Exploring Chemical, Mechanical, and Electrical Functionalities of Binders for Advanced Energy-Storage Devices

Factors affecting thermal conductivities of the polymers and polymer composites: A review

Summary Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising materials for use in electrocatalytic and electrochemical energy-storage systems owing to their exceptional physicochemical properties, including large surface area, remarkable mechanical properties, high catalytic activity, chemical stability, and low cost. In further improving material properties tailored to meet application-specific requirements, heterostructure construction holds significant advantages, benefiting from the synergistic effect between constituents involved. TMD-based heterostructures have been widely explored recently, giving rise to diverse materials with desirable characteristics such as significantly increased interfacial contact of low resistance for efficient electron transfers, constituent-dependent electronic structure, tunable layer distances facilitating easily intercalation of redox species, and increased surface area for effective interaction with electrolyte. In this review, TMD-based heterostructures are assessed for performance in electrocatalytic conversion (hydrogen evolution reaction) and electrochemical energy-storage systems (NiB/LiB/supercapacitors). The impactful strategies employed in overcoming key challenges are evaluated, and finally, future directions for TMD-based heterostructure construction are presented.

Design Strategies for Development of TMD-Based Heterostructures in Electrochemical Energy Systems

A Review of Functional Binders in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

In the past few decades, great effort has been made toward the preparation and development of advanced transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials for anodes of alkali metal ion batteries (AMIBs). However, their electrochemical performance is still severely impaired by structural aggregation and fracture during the conversion reaction. To address these issues, various methodologies for the fabrication of hierarchical and hybrid nanostructures, with optimization of materials and electrodes, have been fully investigated and reviewed. As regards tuning the TMD-based materials, extensive efforts have been undertaken toward optimization of their intrinsic structure at the atomic level, including surface defects, interlayer spacing expansion, phase control, alloying, and heteroatom doping. However, the design strategies and methods to manipulate the intrinsic structures and electrochemical mechanisms in AMIBs have not been fully summarized. This review provides a well-timed and critical appraisal of recent advances in the engineering of TMDs at the atomic level for AMIBs, by combining computational and experimental approaches. The correlation between these strategies and electrochemical performance is highlighted. The challenges and opportunities in this research field are also outlined. We expect that this review would be beneficial for improving the overall knowledge on the charge storage mechanisms in TMDs and for pointing out the importance of intrinsic structure engineering for enhancing the performance of TMDs in energy storage.

Transition metal dichalcogenides for alkali metal ion batteries: engineering strategies at the atomic level

Dielectric constant and breakdown strength are two key factors influencing the energy density of a dielectric material. This paper reports a promising strategy to increase both the dielectric constant and breakdown strength of the PVDF-HFP upon incorporating a low content of silver-deposited exfoliated montmorillonite nanoplatelets (Ag-OMMT). Incorporation of the Ag-OMMT nanoplatelets forms a large number of nanocapacitors, resulting in more interfacial polarization compared to the bare PVDF-HFP under the same applied electric field. Meanwhile, the OMMT nanoplatelets act as the insulating barriers, increasing the breakdown strength of the PVDF-HFP. Consequently, great improvements in the energy storage density are achieved in these dielectric composites. The PVDF-HFP/Ag-OMMT composite film with 4 vol% Ag-OMMT shows an energy density of 10.51 J cm−3 at 400 MV m−1, which is ∼ 2.25 times that of the pure PVDF-HFP film.

Enhanced dielectric property and energy storage density of PVDF-HFP based dielectric composites by incorporation of silver nanoparticles-decorated exfoliated montmorillonite nanoplatelets

Shan Wang

Papers

Enhanced dielectric property and energy storage density of PVDF-HFP based dielectric composites by incorporation of silver nanoparticles-decorated exfoliated montmorillonite nanoplatelets

Multilayer assembly of electrospun/electrosprayed PVDF-based nanofibers and beads with enhanced piezoelectricity and high sensitivity

Multi-color fluorescent carbon dots with single wavelength excitation for white light-emitting diodes

Enhanced breakdown strength and energy storage of PVDF-based dielectric composites by incorporating exfoliated mica nanosheets

In situ growth of 1T-MoS2 on liquid-exfoliated graphene: A unique graphene-like heterostructure for superior lithium storage