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A modified polybenzimidazole (mPBI) was synthesized to tame the polysulfides (PS) shuttling in Li–S batteries via dual actions. As a binder, the mPBI mechanically and chemically offers strong electrode integrity and high sulfur loading, inhibits sulfur loss and prolongs lifespan for sulfur electrode. As a functional agent, the mPBI builds a shield onto the separator to block PS migration so as to further suppress the PS shuttling. This strategy confers an excellent performance of 750 mAh g−1 (or 5.2 mAh cm−2) after 500 cycles at C/5 for the resultant Li–S battery with an ultralow capacity fading rate of 0.08% per cycle.
Microstructure evolutions upon cooling in three ferroelastic systems having different defect concentrations, c=0.02, 0.14 and 0.40, respectively. Green color in the figures represents the parent phase; blue and red colors represent the two different martensitic variants. As the defect concentration increases, the behavior of the ferroelastic system shifts from ‘the cooler the faster’ (c=0.02 and 0.14) to ‘the cooler the slower’ (c=0.40).
We develop a robust full-Brillouin zone soft-phonon-searching algorithm, with outstanding accuracy and efficiency in pinpointing general phonon instability within the joint material-reciprocal spaces in crystals. By combining finite-element modeling with embedded phonon algorithm and atomistic simulation, we show how a zone-boundary soft phonon is first triggered in a perfect aluminum crystal under nanoindentation, which subsequently leads to a transient new crystal phase and ensuing nucleation of a deformation twin. We propose a two-stage mechanism governing the transformation of unstable short-wave phonons into lattice defects, fundamentally different from that initially triggered by soft long-wavelength phonons.
A new principle for management of dopant–dopant and dopant–host interactions by manipulation of mesoscale heterogeneity in a single active material is presented. The proposed mesoscale engineering approach results in dramatically inhomogeneous broadening of dopant, and for the first time show success in simultaneously extending emission bandwidth and flattening spectral shape in a doped glass and fiber.
