Preparation of electrochemically active silicon nanotubes in highly ordered arrays

• Tobias Grünzel,
• Young Joo Lee,
• Karsten Kuepper and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 655–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.73

• , Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstrasse 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.4.73 Abstract Silicon as the negative electrode material of lithium ion batteries has a very large capacity, the exploitation of which is impeded by the volume changes taking place upon

• depend on the geometry. Keywords: atomic layer deposition; electrochemistry; lithium ion battery electrode; silica thermal reduction; silicon nanotubes; Introduction A significant research and development effort has been dedicated to the positive electrode materials of lithium ion batteries [1]. In

• contrast, the negative electrode of all commercial lithium ion batteries still consists of graphite, which can intercalate lithium up to a theoretical stoichiometry LiC6 [2]. Silicon, however, can react with lithium to create several phases with stoichiometries as high as Li4.4Si [3]. This corresponds to a

AFM as an analysis tool for high-capacity sulfur cathodes for Li–S batteries

• Renate Hiesgen,
• Seniz Sörgel,
• Rémi Costa,
• Linus Carlé,
• Ines Galm,
• Natalia Cañas,
• Brigitta Pascucci and
• K. Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 611–624, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.68

• Center, Stuttgart, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.4.68 Abstract In this work, material-sensitive atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques were used to analyse the cathodes of lithium–sulfur batteries. A comparison of their nanoscale electrical, electrochemical, and morphological properties was performed with

• were prepared by spray-coating exhibited a superior stability of the morphology and the electric network associated with the capacity and cycling stability of these batteries. A reduction of the conductive area determined by conductive AFM was found to correlate to the battery capacity loss for all

• particles. Based on the analytical findings, the first results of an optimized cathode showed a much improved discharge capacity of 800 mA·g(sulfur)−1 after 43 cycles. Keywords: conductive AFM; high capacity; lithium-sulfur batteries; material-sensitive AFM; sulfur cathode; Introduction Lithium

Large-scale atomistic and quantum-mechanical simulations of a Nafion membrane: Morphology, proton solvation and charge transport

• Pavel V. Komarov,
• Pavel G. Khalatur and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 567–587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.65

• the PEM while the hydrophobic domains maintain its mechanical stability [2]. Owing to this specific microphase separated morphology, Nafion and similar nanostructured materials are widely used not only in fuel cell manufacture but also in organic batteries, for water purification by reverse osmosis

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• sample. The consequences were an improvement of the electrolyte penetration as well as the wettability, the capacitance, and the charge-storage properties. Rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are based on the motion of lithium ions from the negative electrode to the positive electrode when being

Towards atomic resolution in sodium titanate nanotubes using near-edge X-ray-absorption fine-structure spectromicroscopy combined with multichannel multiple-scattering calculations

• Carla Bittencourt,
• Peter Krüger,
• Maureen J. Lagos,
• Xiaoxing Ke,
• Gustaaf Van Tendeloo,
• Chris Ewels,
• Polona Umek and
• Peter Guttmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 789–797, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.88

• that the structure of the layered titanate H2TinO2n+1 better describes the (Na,H)TiNTs [17][18]. Potential applications in lithium-ion batteries, catalyst supports, photocatalysts, and dye-synthesized solar cells have effectively resulted in an increasing interest in titanate nanostuctures [19][20][21

A facile approach to nanoarchitectured three-dimensional graphene-based Li–Mn–O composite as high-power cathodes for Li-ion batteries

• Wenyu Zhang,
• Yi Zeng,
• Chen Xu,
• Ni Xiao,
• Yiben Gao,
• Lain-Jong Li,
• Xiaodong Chen,
• Huey Hoon Hng and
• Qingyu Yan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 513–523, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.59

• .3.59 Abstract We report a facile method to prepare a nanoarchitectured lithium manganate/graphene (LMO/G) hybrid as a positive electrode for Li-ion batteries. The Mn2O3/graphene hybrid is synthesized by exfoliation of graphene sheets and deposition of Mn2O3 in a one-step electrochemical process, which

• is followed by lithiation in a molten salt reaction. There are several advantages of using the LMO/G as cathodes in Li-ion batteries: (1) the LMO/G electrode shows high specific capacities at high gravimetric current densities with excellent cycling stability, e.g., 84 mAh·g−1 during the 500th cycle

• Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are considered the primary candidate as the power source for plug-in and hybrid electric vehicles [1]. Although LiCoO2 is widely used as a commercial cathode for Li-ion batteries, there are several drawbacks, including high cost and toxicity. Spinel Lithium Manganate (LMO) is

Conducting composite materials from the biopolymer kappa-carrageenan and carbon nanotubes

• Ali Aldalbahi,
• Jin Chu,
• Peter Feng and
• Marc in het Panhuis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 415–427, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.48

• their flexible nature makes CNT networks ideal for a number of potential applications, such as solar cells, displays, touch screens, sensors, electronic paper, supercapacitors and batteries [35][36][37][38]. Carrageenans are a biopolymer family of water-soluble, linear, sulfonated galactans extracted

Reduced electron recombination of dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO₂ spheres consisting of ultrathin nanosheets with [001] facet exposed

• Hongxia Wang,
• Meinan Liu,
• Cheng Yan and
• John Bell

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 378–387, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.44

• applications such as water splitting and lithium-ion batteries [6][7][8]. Further investigation shows that the [001] surface is more beneficial to the photooxidization process through the O− centers compared to the [101] surface, which contains more Ti3+ centers [9]. The different surface properties of the

Template-assisted formation of microsized nanocrystalline CeO₂ tubes and their catalytic performance in the carboxylation of methanol

• Jörg J. Schneider,
• Meike Naumann,
• Christian Schäfer,
• Armin Brandner,
• Heiko J. Hofmann and
• Peter Claus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 776–784, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.86

• diesel fuel (for particle emission decrease), and also a solvent [6][25][26][27]. Owing to its low toxicity, versatile reactivity and high dielectric constant, DMC also attracts interest as an electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries [28]. The formation of DMC by direct methanol carboxylation, however, is

Investigation on structural, thermal, optical and sensing properties of meta-stable hexagonal MoO₃ nanocrystals of one dimensional structure

• Angamuthuraj Chithambararaj and
• Arumugam Chandra Bose

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 585–592, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.62

• reactive catalysts, high optical contrast electrochromic devices and cathodic electrodes for lithium batteries, due to their unique structural, optical and electrical properties [2][3][4][5]. Several synthetic techniques have been developed for controlled synthesis of nanocrystalline MoO3 materials [6][7