Mechanical rolling formation of interpenetrated lithium metal/lithium tin alloy foil for ultrahigh-rate battery anode

To achieve good rate capability of lithium metal anodes for high-energy-density batteries, one fundamental challenge is the slow lithium diffusion at the interface. Here we report an interpenetrated, three-dimensional lithium metal/lithium tin alloy nanocomposite foil realized by a simple calendering and folding process of lithium and tin foils, and spontaneous alloying reactions. The strong affinity between the metallic lithium and lithium tin alloy as mixed electronic and ionic conducting networks, and their abundant interfaces enable ultrafast charger diffusion across the entire electrode. We demonstrate that a lithium/lithium tin alloy foil electrode sustains stable lithium stripping/plating under 30mAcm(-2) and 5mAhcm(-2) with a very low overpotential of 20mV for 200 cycles in a commercial carbonate electrolyte. Cycled under 6C (6.6mAcm(-2)), a 1.0mAhcm(-2) LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 electrode maintains a substantial 74% of its capacity by pairing with such anode

Transparent air filter for high-efficiency PM2.5 capture

Particulate matter (PM) pollution has raised serious concerns for public health. Although outdoor individual protection could be achieved by facial masks, indoor air usually relies on expensive and energy-intensive air-filtering devices. Here, we introduce a transparent air filter for indoor air protection through windows that uses natural passive ventilation to effectively protect the indoor air quality. By controlling the surface chemistry to enable strong PM adhesion and also the microstructure of the air filters to increase the capture possibilities, we achieve transparent, high air flow and highly effective air filters of similar to 90% transparency with >95.00% removal of PM2.5 under extreme hazardous air-quality conditions (PM2.5 mass concentration >250 mu g m(-3)). A field test in Beijing shows that the polyacrylonitrile transparent air filter has the best PM2.5 removal efficiency of 98.69% at high transmittance of similar to 77% during haze occurrence.open

Research progress on the impact of mineral surface roughness on particle-bubble interaction

Mineral surface roughness is an important factor affecting flotation efficiency. Surface roughness can affect the hydrophobicity of minerals, the adsorption of reagents, and the rupture of liquid films between particles and bubbles, resulting in a significant impact on the interaction process between particles and bubbles. However, there is currently a lack of systematic review work on the influence of roughness on particle-bubble interaction process. Therefore, the authors firstly reviewed the surface roughening modification techniques and roughness testing methods. Secondly, the influence of roughness on the particle-bubble interaction process was systematically discussed from four aspects: flotation kinetics, contact angle, formation time of triple-phase contact line, and interaction force between particles and bubbles. The concept of roughness scale was proposed for its importance in the research of particle-bubble interactions. Thirdly, based on the coupling mechanism between roughness scale and mineral surface hydrophobicity in the particle-bubble interaction process, the importance of mineral surface wetting state in the interaction process between rough surfaces and bubbles was emphasized. The reasons for the inconsistent research conclusions on the impact of roughness on contact angle and flotation performance were also analyzed and discussed. Finally, the conclusions were drawn through critical analysis and literature review, and the prospects for future research directions were outlined. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the influence of mineral surface roughness on the flotation process, and can provide a theoretical support for regulating mineral surface roughness to create favorable flotation conditions and improve the flotation efficiency and selectivity

Charging-free electrochemical system for harvesting low-grade thermal energy

Efficient and low-cost systems are needed to harvest the tremendous amount of energy stored in low-grade heat sources (<100 °C). Thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle (TREC) is an attractive approach which uses the temperature dependence of electrochemical cell voltage to construct a thermodynamic cycle for direct heat-to-electricity conversion. By varying temperature, an electrochemical cell is charged at a lower voltage than discharge, converting thermal energy to electricity. Most TREC systems still require external electricity for charging, which complicates system designs and limits their applications. Here, we demonstrate a charging-free TREC consisting of an inexpensive soluble Fe(CN)[3−/4− over 6] redox pair and solid Prussian blue particles as active materials for the two electrodes. In this system, the spontaneous directions of the full-cell reaction are opposite at low and high temperatures. Therefore, the two electrochemical processes at both low and high temperatures in a cycle are discharge. Heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 2.0% can be reached for the TREC operating between 20 and 60 °C. This charging-free TREC system may have potential application for harvesting low-grade heat from the environment, especially in remote areas.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Science (Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center Award DE-SC0001299/DE-FG02-09ER46577)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific ResearchUnited States. Dept. of Energy (EERE Award DE-EE0005806

Retinoic acid-inducible gene-I like receptor pathway in cancer: modification and treatment

Retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I) like receptor (RLR) pathway is one of the most significant pathways supervising aberrant RNA in cells. In predominant conditions, the RLR pathway initiates anti-infection function via activating inflammatory effects, while recently it is discovered to be involved in cancer development as well, acting as a virus-mimicry responder. On one hand, the product IFNs induces tumor elimination. On the other hand, the NF-κB pathway is activated which may lead to tumor progression. Emerging evidence demonstrates that a wide range of modifications are involved in regulating RLR pathways in cancer, which either boost tumor suppression effect or prompt tumor development. This review summarized current epigenetic modulations including DNA methylation, histone modification, and ncRNA interference, as well as post-transcriptional modification like m6A and A-to-I editing of the upstream ligand dsRNA in cancer cells. The post-translational modulations like phosphorylation and ubiquitylation of the pathway’s key components were also discussed. Ultimately, we provided an overview of the current therapeutic strategies targeting the RLR pathway in cancers

Health diagnosis and recuperation of aged Li-ion batteries with data analytics and equivalent circuit modeling

Battery health assessment and recuperation play a crucial role in the utilization of second-life Li-ion batteries. However, due to ambiguous aging mechanisms and lack of correlations between the recovery effects and operational states, it is challenging to accurately estimate battery health and devise a clear strategy for cell rejuvenation. This paper presents aging and reconditioning experiments of 62 commercial high-energy type lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, which supplement existing datasets of high-power LFP cells. The relatively large-scale data allow us to use machine learning models to predict cycle life and identify important indicators of recoverable capacity. Considering cell-to-cell inconsistencies, an average test error of $16.84\% \pm 1.87\%$ (mean absolute percentage error) for cycle life prediction is achieved by gradient boosting regressor given information from the first 80 cycles. In addition, it is found that some of the recoverable lost capacity is attributed to the lateral lithium non-uniformity within the electrodes. An equivalent circuit model is built and experimentally validated to demonstrate how such non-uniformity can be accumulated, and how it can give rise to recoverable capacity loss. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis also reveals that battery operation history significantly affects the capacity recovery.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

A genetic variation map for chicken with 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms

We describe a genetic variation map for the chicken genome containing 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNPs). This map is based on a comparison of the sequences of three domestic chicken breeds ( a broiler, a layer and a Chinese silkie) with that of their wild ancestor, red jungle fowl. Subsequent experiments indicate that at least 90% of the variant sites are true SNPs, and at least 70% are common SNPs that segregate in many domestic breeds. Mean nucleotide diversity is about five SNPs per kilobase for almost every possible comparison between red jungle fowl and domestic lines, between two different domestic lines, and within domestic lines - in contrast to the notion that domestic animals are highly inbred relative to their wild ancestors. In fact, most of the SNPs originated before domestication, and there is little evidence of selective sweeps for adaptive alleles on length scales greater than 100 kilobases