Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an adaptable material that has distinctive properties, such as high-sensitivity, large specific area, non-toxicity, good compatibility and a high isoelectric point, which favours it to be considered with a few exceptions. It is the most desirable group of nanostructure as far as both structure and properties. The unique and tuneable properties of nanostructured ZnO shows excellent stability in chemically as well as thermally stable n-type semiconducting material with wide applications such as in luminescent material, supercapacitors, battery, solar cells, photocatalysis, biosensors, biomedical and biological applications in the form of bulk crystal, thin film and pellets. The nanosized materials exhibit higher dissolution rates as well as higher solubility when compared to the bulk materials. This review significantly focused on the current improvement in ZnO-based nanomaterials/composites/doped materials for the application in the field of energy storage and conversion devices and biological applications. Special deliberation has been paid on supercapacitors, Li-ion batteries, dye-sensitized solar cells, photocatalysis, biosensors, biomedical and biological applications. Finally, the benefits of ZnO-based materials for the utilizations in the field of energy and biological sciences are moreover consistently analysed.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6528/ab268a/pdf

A review on ZnO nanostructured materials: energy, environmental and biological applications.

Introduction Lithium-sulfur batteries are considered as a promising candidate for next-generation secondary batteries because of their high theoretical capacit y, safe operating voltage (2.15 V vs. Li/Li ), and low cost. Nevertheless, lithium-sulfur batteries suffer from capacity fading, which limits their widespread application, due to the insulating nature of sulfur and its reduced pro ducts and the dissolution of intermediate lithium polysul fides. To address these problems, carbon-based materials have been integrated with sulfur to enhance the conductivity and inhibit the polysulfide dissolutio n. Recently, graphene, a single-atom-thick carbon mate rial with superior electrical conductivity and mechanica l flexibility, has been successfully applied in lithi um-sulfur batteries. While graphene-sulfur composite cathodes  demonstrate promising electrochemical performance, their synthesis is usually complicated and challeng ing for large-scale application. On the other hand, the sol utionbased synthesis without heat treatment produces lar ge crystalline sulfur particles, resulting in low util ization of active materials and poor rate performance. Herein, we report hydroxylated graphene nanosheets as a substr ate to produce graphene-amorphous sulfur nanocomposites, exhibiting superior cyclability at high rates, by a facile in situ deposition method at room temperature.

Hydroxylated Graphene-Sulfur Nanocomposites for High-Rate Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Knowledge of the elastic properties of Li–Si alloys as a function of Li concentration is crucial in the development of reliable deformation and fracture mechanics models for Si anodes in Li-ion batteries. Here, we have studied these properties using first-principles calculations for both amorphous and crystalline phases observed during lithiation of Si anodes. In the case of crystalline alloys, we present the anisotropic elastic tensors as well as the homogenized Young's, shear, and bulk moduli and the Poisson's ratios. We find that while these moduli decrease in an approximately linear manner with increasing Li concentration leading to significant elastic softening (by about one order of magnitude) in both crystalline and amorphous systems, the Poisson's ratios remain in the range of 0.05–0.20 and 0.20–0.30 in the case of crystalline and amorphous systems, respectively. Further, for a given Li concentration, we find that the amorphous structures are elastically somewhat softer than their crystalline counterparts, the difference being more significant (about 30–40%) in Li-poor phases. Our results underscore the importance of including the concentration dependence of elastic constants in the analysis of stress and deformation fields during lithiation and de-lithiation of Si anodes.

http://ma.ecsdl.org/content/MA2010-02/11/1135.full.pdf

Elastic Softening of Amorphous and Crystalline Li-Si Phases with Increasing Li Concentration: A First-Principles Study

The research and development of advanced energy-storage systems must meet a large number of requirements, including high energy density, natural abundance of the raw material, low cost and environmental friendliness, and particularly reasonable safety. As the demands of high-performance batteries are continuously increasing, with large-scale energy storage systems and electric mobility equipment, lithium-sulfur batteries have become an attractive candidate for the new generation of high-performance batteries due to their high theoretical capacity (1675 mA h g-1) and energy density (2600 Wh kg-1). However, rapid capacity attenuation with poor cycle and rate performances make the batteries far from ideal with respect to real commercial applications. Outstanding breakthroughs and achievements have been made to alleviate these problems in the past ten years. This paper presents an overview of recent advances in lithium-sulfur battery research. We cover the research and development to date on various components of lithium-sulfur batteries, including cathodes, binders, separators, electrolytes, anodes, collectors, and some novel cell configurations. The current trends in materials selection for batteries are reviewed and various choices of cathode, binder, electrolyte, separator, anode, and collector materials are discussed. The current challenges associated with the use of batteries and their materials selection are listed and future perspectives for this class of battery are also discussed.

A review of recent developments in rechargeable lithium–sulfur batteries

https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/preview/968195/1-s2.0-S2468025717300638-main.pdf

Synthesis and applications of MOF-derived porous nanostructures

Fracture predictions based on a coupled chemo-mechanical model with strain gradient plasticity theory for film electrodes of Li-ion batteries

Sandwich-like CNTs@SnO2/SnO/Sn anodes on three-dimensional Ni foam substrate for lithium ion batteries

In order to clarify the interaction of electrochemistry, thermal and diffusion-induced stress, in this work, we present a coupled electrochemical–thermal–mechanical model for spiral-wound Li batteries by coupling the mass, charge, energy and mechanics conservations as well as the electrochemical kinetics. A series of temperatures and Li concentration parameters on the reaction rate and Li+ transport are employed in this model. The results show that this model is validated for both the electrochemical performances and thermal behaviors at a constant discharge current by finite element simulation. Furthermore, the heat generation of three thermal sources and stress analysis are also discussed. This work is helpful to the battery structural design and battery thermal management.

A coupled electrochemical–thermal–mechanical model for spiral-wound Li-ion batteries

To obtain a better understanding of the failure mechanism of lithium ion batteries during charging–discharging, we have systematically studied the mechanical properties of Li–Sn alloys based on density functional theory, including elastic constants such as the orientation-averaged bulk, shear and Young's moduli and Poisson's ratios, as well as the anisotropy and brittleness-ductility. It is shown that bulk, shear and Young's moduli of isotropic LixSn alloys decrease almost linearly with the increase of Li concentration. Further, based on the analysis of shear to bulk modulus and Poisson's ratios, it is inferred that Li–Sn alloys are brittle. The poor cycle performance and crushing failure of Sn anode materials during charging and discharging are mainly due to a transition of electrode material properties from ductile to brittle.

Youlan Zou

Papers

Fracture predictions based on a coupled chemo-mechanical model with strain gradient plasticity theory for film electrodes of Li-ion batteries

Sandwich-like CNTs@SnO2/SnO/Sn anodes on three-dimensional Ni foam substrate for lithium ion batteries

A coupled electrochemical–thermal–mechanical model for spiral-wound Li-ion batteries

A first principles study of the mechanical properties of Li–Sn alloys

MOF-derived porous ZnO/MWCNTs nanocomposite as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries