Stable Multicomponent Multiphase All Active Material Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes

Due to their high energy density, lithium-ion batteries have been the state-of-the-art energy storage technology for many applications. Energy density can be further improved by engineering of the electrode architecture and microstructure, in addition to more common improvements via materials chemistry. All active material (AAM) electrodes consist of only the electroactive material that stores energy, and such electrodes have advantages to conventional composite processing with regards to improved mechanical stability at increased thicknesses and ion transport properties. However, the absence of binders and composite processing makes the electrode more vulnerable to electroactive materials with volume change upon cycling. Also, the electroactive material must have sufficient electronic conductivity to avoid large matrix electronic overpotentials during electrochemical cycling. TiNb₂O₇ (TNO) and MoO₂ (MO) are electroactive materials with potential advantages as AAM electrodes due to relatively high volumetric energy density. TNO has higher energy density, and MO has much higher electronic conductivity, and thus a multicomponent blend of these materials was evaluated as an AAM anode. Herein, blends of TNO and MO as AAM anodes were investigated, where this is the first use of a multicomponent AAM anode. Electrodes that had both TNO and MO had the highest volumetric energy density, rate capability, and cycle life relative to single component TNO and MO anodes. Thus, using multicomponent materials provides a route to improve AAM electrochemical systems.

Performance Optimization Engineering of Multicomponent Absorbing Materials Based on Machine Learning

Multicomponent materials are microwave-absorbing (MA) materials composed of a variety of absorbents that are capable of reaching the property inaccessible for a single component. Discovering mostly valuable properties, however, often relies on semi-experience, as conventional multicomponent MA materials' design rules alone often fail in high-dimensional design spaces. Therefore, we propose performance optimization engineering to accelerate the design of multicomponent MA materials with desired performance in a practically infinite design space based on very sparse data. Our approach works as a closed-loop, integrating machine learning with the expanded Maxwell-Garnett model, electromagnetic calculations, and experimental feedback; aiming at different desired performances, Ni surface@carbon fiber (NiF) materials and NiF-based multicomponent (NMC) materials with target MA performance were screened and identified out of nearly infinite possible designs. The designed NiF and NMC fulfilled the requirements for the X- and Ku-bands at thicknesses of only 2.0 and 1.78 mm, respectively. In addition, the targets regarding S, C, and all bands (2.0-18.0 GHz) were also achieved as expected. This performance optimization engineering opens up a unique and effective way to design microwave-absorbing materials for practical application.

Multicomponent Hydrogel Matrices of Fmoc-FF and Cationic Peptides for Application in Tissue Engineering

In the last years, peptide based hydrogels are being increasingly used as suitable matrices for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, including drug delivery and tissue engineering. Recently, we decrived the synthesis and the gelation properties of a small library of cationic peptides, containing a Lys residue at the C-teminus and derivatized with a Fmoc group or with the Fmoc-diphenylalanine (FmocFF) at the N-terminus. Here, we demonstrate that the combination of these peptides with the well known hydrogelator FmocFF, in different weight/weight ratios, allows the achievement of seven novel self-sorted hydrogels, which share similar peptide organization of their supramolecular matrix. Rheological and relaxometric characterization highlighted a different mechanical rigidity and water mobility in the gels as demostrated by the storage modulus values (200 Pa<G'<35000 Pa) and by relaxometry, respectively. In vitro studied demonstrated that most of the tested mixed hydrogels do not disturb significantly the cell viability (>95%) over 72h of treatment. Moreover, in virtue to its capability to strongly favour adhesion, spreading and duplication of 3T3-L1 cells, one of the tested hydrogel may be eligible as sinthetic extracellular matrix. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

A proposal for coherent nomenclature of multicomponent crystals

Here a new, systematic, unambiguous and unified nomenclature for multicomponent materials is presented. The approach simplifies naming schemes of extraordinary co-crystals containing multiple building blocks with different charges. Although the presented examples of cytosine compounds cannot cover all possibilities, they clearly show that the new nomenclature is flexible and can be easily extended to other multicomponent materials.

Recent Advances in Multicomponent Particle Assembly

Particle assembly and co-assembly have been research frontiers in chemistry and material science in the past few decades. To achieve a large variety of intricate structures and functional materials, remarkable progress has been made in particle assembly principles and strategies. Essentially, particle assembly is driven by intrinsic interparticle interactions or the external control. In this article, we focus on binary or ternary particle co-assembly and review the principles and feasible strategies. These advances have led to new disciplines of microfabrication technology and material engineering. Although significant achievement on particle-based structures has been made, it is still challenging to fully develop general and facile strategies to precisely control the one-dimensional (1D) co-assembly. This article reviews the recent development on multicomponent particle co-assembly, which significantly increases structural complexity and functional diversity. In particular, we highlight the advances in the particle co-assembly of well-ordered 1D binary superstructures by liquid soft confinement. Finally, prospective outlook for future trends in this field is proposed.

Small-Molecule Solar Cells with Simultaneously Enhanced Short-Circuit Current and Fill Factor to Achieve 11% Efficiency

High-efficiency small-molecule-based organic photovoltaics (SM-OPVs) using two electron donors (p-DTS(FBTTh₂ )₂ and ZnP) with distinctively different absorption and structural features are reported. Such a combination works well and synergically improves device short-circuit current density (J_sc ) to 17.99 mA cm^-2 and fill factor (FF) to 77.19%, yielding a milestone efficiency of 11%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest power conversion efficiency reported for SM-OPVs to date and the first time to combine high J_sc over 17 mA cm^-2 and high FF over 77% into one SM-OPV. The strategy of using multicomponent materials, with a selecting role of balancing varied electronic and structural necessities can be an important route to further developing higher performance devices. This development is important, which broadens the dimension and versatility of existing materials without much chemistry input.