Life Cycle Environmental Impact of High-Capacity Lithium Ion Battery with Silicon Nanowires Anode for Electric Vehicles

Although silicon nanowires (SiNW) have been widely studied as an ideal material for developing high-capacity lithium ion batteries (LIBs) for electric vehicles (EVs), little is known about the environmental impacts of such a new EV battery pack during its whole life cycle. This paper reports a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a high-capacity LIB pack using SiNW prepared via metal-assisted chemical etching as anode material. The LCA study is conducted based on the average U.S. driving and electricity supply conditions. Nanowastes and nanoparticle emissions from the SiNW synthesis are also characterized and reported. The LCA results show that over 50% of most characterized impacts are generated from the battery operations, while the battery anode with SiNW material contributes to around 15% of global warming potential and 10% of human toxicity potential. Overall the life cycle impacts of this new battery pack are moderately higher than those of conventional LIBs but could be actually comparable when considering the uncertainties and scale-up potential of the technology. These results are encouraging because they not only provide a solid base for sustainable development of next generation LIBs but also confirm that appropriate nanomanufacturing technologies could be used in sustainable product development

Life Cycle Assessment of Lithium Ion Batteries with Silicon Nanowire Anode for Electric Vehicles

<p>While silicon nanowires have demonstrated great potential for application on lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles, their environmental impacts have never been investigated. For a comprehensive environmental impact assessment, a life cycle assessment (LCA) has to be used to evaluate the potential impact of the product from cradle to grave. In this paper, the LCA is carried out on the environmental impacts of a high performance lithium ion battery system with silicon nanowire anode. The LCA modeling is based on laboratory data, literature references and the Gabi 6 Professional Database on a 43.2 kWh battery system for an EV with 10 year life. The environmental impacts of lithium ion battery system are analyzed in the whole life cycle.</p

Life Cycle Assessment of Silicon-Nanotube-Based Lithium Ion Battery for Electric Vehicles

The study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a next-generation lithium ion battery pack using silicon nanotube anode (SiNT), nickel–cobalt-manganese oxide cathode, and lithium hexafluorophosphate electrolyte. The battery pack is characterized with 63 kWh capacity to power a midsized electric vehicle (EV) for a 320 km range. A novel LCA model is developed through the inventory analyses of the SiNT anode manufacturing conducted on the basis of our lab-scale experimentation, and the inventory of the NMC-SiNT battery manufacturing is constructed from our industrial partners’ pilot-scale battery production facilities. The upstream and downstream inventory analyses are performed through professional LCA databases and public literature. The obtained impact results of the NMC-SiNT battery are benchmarked with those of a conventional NMC-Graphite battery pack under the same driving distance per charge baseline. The results show that the NMC-SiNT battery has comparable environmental impacts with the conventional NMC-Graphite battery, with 10%–17% higher impacts in global warming potential and fossil depletion potential and 39%–56% lower impacts in human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and marine toxicity. In this study, a sensitivity analysis is also performed to investigate the robustness and reliability of the LCA results. Finally, the paper conducted a scenario analysis to identify potential ways to improve the environmental performance of the NMC-SiNT battery for future sustainable development in EVs’ application

A Multilayered Silicon-Reduced Graphene Oxide Electrode for High Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries

A multilayered structural silicon-reduced graphene oxide electrode with superior electrochemical performance was synthesized from bulk Si particles through inexpensive electroless etching and graphene self-encapsulating approach. The prepared composite electrode presents a stable charge–discharge performance with high rate, showing a reversible capacity of 2787 mAh g^–1 at a charging rate of 100 mA g^–1, and a stable capacity over 1000 mAh g^–1 was retained at 1 A g^–1 after 50 cycles with a high columbic efficiency of 99% during the whole cycling process. This superior performance can be attributed to its novel multilayered structure with porous Si particles encapsulated, which can effectively accommodate the large volume change during the lithiation process and provide increased electrical conductivity. This facile low-cost approach offers a promising route to develop an optimized carbon encapsulated Si electrode for future industrial applications

Application of Natural Bioresources to Sustainable Agriculture: A <i>C</i>‑Glycoside Insecticide Based on <i>N</i>‑Acetyl-glucosamine for Regulating Insect Molting of <i>Ostrinia furnacalis</i>

In order to increase the application of natural bioresources in drug discovery and development, a study on N-acetyl-glucosamine (GlcNAc) derivatives of chitin as green pesticides was necessary. In this study, we designed and synthesized a series of novel C-glycoside naphthalimides using GlcNAc as a starting material. Compound 10l showed high inhibitory activity against OfHex1 (IC50 = 1.77 μM), with a nearly 30-fold increase in activity over our previously reported C-glycoside CAUZL-A (IC50 = 47.47 μM). By observing the morphology of the Ostrinia furnacalis, we found that the synthesized compounds significantly inhibited the molting process. In addition, we further explored the morphological changes of the inhibitor-treated O. furnacalis cuticle using scanning electron microscopy. This is the first study to validate the insecticidal mechanism of OfHex1 inhibitors at the microscale level. Several compounds also exhibited excellent larvicidal activity against Plutella xylostella. Moreover, the toxicity measurements and predictions indicated that the C-glycoside naphthalimides have little effect on the natural enemy Trichogramma ostriniae and rats. Together, our results highlight an approach for the design of green pesticides, taking advantage of natural bioresources to control pests in agriculture

Rapid Identification of Efficient Photocatalysts by Visualizing the Spatial Distribution of Photoinduced Charge Carriers

The design of high performance photocatalysts is of great importance for solar energy conversion. However, the rapid identification of efficient photocatalysts is challenging because of the complex dynamics of photoinduced charge carriers. Herein, we develop an experimental descriptor, the average fluorescence intensity (AFI), to rapidly identify high-performance photocatalysts using fluorescence microscopic visualization of charge dynamics. As a proof of concept, the CuFeO2/ZIF-67 heterojunction was used to visualize the spatial distribution of photoinduced charges with the identified diffusion length. Furthermore, a linear relationship was obtained between photocatalytic activities and the AFI, indicating an improved charge separation efficiency in the heterojunction responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic activity. This work provides a fundamental understanding of the dynamics of photoinduced charge carriers and offers a promising descriptor for the future design of efficient photocatalysts

Table_1_Novel mechanisms for the synthesis of important secondary metabolites in Ginkgo biloba seed revealed by multi-omics data.xlsx

Although the detailed biosynthetic mechanism is still unclear, the unique secondary metabolites of Ginkgo biloba, including ginkgolic acids (GAs) and terpene trilactones, have attracted increasing attention for their potent medicinal, physiological and biochemical properties. In particular, GAs have shown great potential in the fields of antibacterial and insecticidal activities, making it urgent to elucidate their biosynthetic mechanism. In this study, we systematically revealed the landscape of metabolic-transcriptional regulation across continuous growth stages of G. biloba seeds (GBS) based on multi-omics mining and experimental verification, and successfully identified all major types of GAs and terpene trilactones along with more than a thousand kinds of other metabolites. The phenological changes and the essential gene families associated with these unique metabolites were analyzed in detail, and several potential regulatory factors were successfully identified based on co-expression association analysis. In addition, we unexpectedly found the close relationship between large introns and the biosynthesis of these secondary metabolites. These genes with large introns related to the synthesis of secondary metabolites showed higher gene expression and expression stability in different tissues or growth stages. Our results may provide a new perspective for the study of the regulatory mechanism of these unique secondary metabolites in GBS.</p