Themed collection Celebrating the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Oxide/polymer separator membranes allow alternative strategies for Li-ion and Na-ion batteries storing electrical energy for the grid.

Liquid metals and alloy systems that feature inherent deformability, high electronic conductivity, and superior electrochemical properties have enabled further development of next-generation energy storage devices.

The availability of inorganic materials at the nano-dimension opens up opportunities for advanced battery designs and architectures. However, such materials must be chosen carefully to avoid deleterious side-reactions.

The dependence of modern society on the energy stored in a fossil fuel is not sustainable.

Magnetic studies help better understand battery materials.

These electrochemically active phosphate tunnel structures, with one-dimensional lithium diffusion and different magnetic properties, are prime candidates for lithium batteries.

This review summarizes the latest advances and challenges from a chemistry and material perspective on Li-redox flow batteries that combine the synergistic features of Li-ion batteries and redox flow batteries towards large-scale high-density energy storage systems.

The success of lithium-ion batteries in small-scale applications translates to large-scale applications, with an important impact in the future of the environment by improving energy efficiency and reduction of pollution.

Fundamental and practical challenges of Li–O₂ batteries are evaluated to provide new insights into the state of understanding, and to highlight promising research directions for the development of stable, efficient and rechargeable high-energy Li–O₂ systems.

In this review, we focus on LiFePO₄ and discuss its structure, synthesis, electrochemical behavior, mechanism, and the problems encountered in its application.

Synthesizing highly crystalline nano-sized ε-VOPO₄ particles is the key to achieve theoretical capacity of 2 Li⁺ intercalation in lithium-ion batteries.

Vulcanized rubber products contain polymer backbones crosslinked with sulfur to improve mechanical strength.

Site disorder not only enhances Li⁺ ion transport in LiNi_0.5Mn_1.5O₄ lattice, but also fundamentally changes the phase transition pathway during electrochemical reactions.

Prussian blue and its analogues consisting of different transition-metal ions (Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Co and Zn) have been synthesized at room temperature.

Micropores-in-macroporous polymer membranes containing an immobilized-liquid electrolyte enable dendrite-free alkali metal batteries.

A thorough study on the stability of LiVOPO₄ polymorphs to determine which is the most promising for Li-ion batteries.

Ball-milling-induced disorder and defects impede multi-electron redox in ε-LiVOPO₄ and trigger side reactions.

Anisotropic disorder along the c-axis results from static disorder.

VO₆/VO₅–PO₄ frameworks govern electrochemical performance in VOPO₄ polymorphs.

The mineral eldfellite, NaFe(SO₄)₂, is characterized as a potential cathode for a Na-ion battery that can be fabricated in charged-state.

A novel carbon-sulfur nanoarchitecture with a high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area of ~80 m² g⁻¹ and a total pore volume of ~0.2cm³ g⁻¹ shows a high capacity of ~ 700 mAh g⁻¹ at 1 C and 520 mAh g⁻¹ at 5 C after 100 cycles, which makes it a superior cathode material for a rechargeable Li–S battery.

The garnet-related oxides with the general formula Li_7−xLa₃Zr_2−xTa_xO₁₂ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) were prepared by conventional solid-state reaction.

Schematic cell of rechargeable alkali-ion cathode-flow battery.

The lithium electrochemical cell LiNi_0.4Mn_0.4Co_0.2O₂ gave the highest reversible capacity of the mixed transition metal layered compounds studied.