Numerical Modeling of Fracture-Resistant Sn Micropillars as Anode for Lithium Ion Batteries

Sn possesses three times higher capacity in comparison to graphite anode (372 mAhg^–1) that makes it a promising candidate for enhanced performance Li ion batteries. Contrary to Si, Sn is compliant and ductile in nature and thus is expected to readily relax the Li diffusion-induced stresses. The low melting point of Sn additionally allows for stress relaxations from time-dependent or creep deformations even at room temperature. In this study, numerical modeling is used to reveal the significance of plasticity and creep-based stress relaxations in the Sn working electrode. The maximum elastic tensile hoop stresses for 1 μm micropillar size with 1<i>C</i> charging rate conditions reduces down from ∼1 GPa to ∼200 MPa when Sn is allowed to plastically deform at a yield strength of ∼150 MPa. After experimentally determining the creep response of Sn micropillars, creep deformations are incorporated in numerical modeling to show that the maximum tensile hoop stress is further reduced to ∼0.45 MPa under the same conditions. Lastly, the Li-induced stresses are analyzed for different micropillar sizes to evaluate the critical size to prevent fracture, which is determined to be ∼5.3 μm for <i>C</i>/10 charging rate, which is significantly larger than that in Si

Polypyrrole–MnO₂‑Coated Textile-Based Flexible-Stretchable Supercapacitor with High Electrochemical and Mechanical Reliability

Carbon-nanotube (CNT)-based textile supercapacitors with MnO₂ nanoparticles have excellent power and energy densities, but MnO₂ nanoparticles can be delaminated during charge–discharge cycles, which results in significant degradation in capacitance. In this study, polypyrrole conductive polymer was coated on top of MnO₂ nanoparticles that are deposited on CNT textile supercapacitor to prevent delamination of MnO₂ nanoparticles. An increase of 38% in electrochemical energy capacity to 461 F/g was observed, while cyclic reliability also improved, as 93.8% of energy capacity was retained over 10 000 cycles. Energy density and power density were measured to be 31.1 Wh/kg and 22.1 kW/kg, respectively. An in situ electrochemical–mechanical study revealed that polypyrrole–MnO₂-coated CNT textile supercapacitor can retain 98.5% of its initial energy capacity upon application of 21% tensile strain and showed no observable energy storage capacity change upon application of 13% bending strain. After imposing cyclic bending of 750 000 cycles, the capacitance was retained to 96.3%. Therefore, the results from this study confirmed for the first time that the polypyrrole–MnO₂-coated CNT textile can reliably operate with high energy and power densities with in situ application of both tensile and bending strains

Highly Transparent Au-Coated Ag Nanowire Transparent Electrode with Reduction in Haze

Ag nanowire transparent electrode has excellent transmittance and sheet resistance, yet its optical haze still needs to be improved in order for it to be suitable for display applications. Ag nanowires are known to have high haze because of the geometry of the nanowire and the high light scattering characteristic of the Ag. In this study, a Au-coated Ag nanowire structure was proposed to reduce the haze, where a thin layer of Au was coated on the surface of the Ag nanowires using a mild [Au­(en)₂]­Cl₃ galvanic displacement reaction. The mild galvanic exchange allowed for a thin layer of Au coating on the Ag nanowires with minimal truncation of the nanowire, where the average length and the diameter were 13.0 μm and 60 nm, respectively. The Au-coated Ag nanowires were suspended in methanol and then electrostatically sprayed on a flexible polycarbonate substrate that revealed a clear reduction in haze with a 2–4% increase in total transmittance, sheet resistance ranges of 80–90%, and 8.8–36.8 Ohm/sq. Finite difference time domain simulations were conducted for Au-coated Ag nanowires that indicated a significant reduction in the average scattering from 1 to 0.69 for Au layer thicknesses of 0–10 nm

Role of Graphene in Reducing Fatigue Damage in Cu/Gr Nanolayered Composite

Nanoscale metal/graphene nanolayered composite is known to have ultrahigh strength as the graphene effectively blocks dislocations from penetrating through the metal/graphene interface. The same graphene interface, which has a strong sp2 bonding, can simultaneously serve as an effective interface for deflecting the fatigue cracks that are generated under cyclic bendings. In this study, Cu/Gr composite with repeat layer spacing of 100 nm was tested for bending fatigue at 1.6% and 3.1% strain up to 1,000,000 cycles that showed for the first time a 5–6 times enhancement in fatigue resistance compared to the conventional Cu thin film. Fatigue cracks that are generated within the Cu layer were stopped by the graphene interface, which are evidenced by cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images. Molecular dynamics simulations for uniaxial tension of Cu/Gr showed limited accumulation of dislocations at the film/substrate interface, which makes the fatigue crack formation and propagation through thickness of the film difficult in this materials system