ABSTRACT
Magnesium rechargeable batteries (MRBs) promise to be the next post lithium-ion batteries that can help meet the increasing demand for high-energy, cost-effective, high-safety energy storage devices. Early prototype MRBs that use molybdenum-sulfide cathodes have low terminal voltages, requiring the development of oxide-based cathodes capable of overcoming the sulfide's low Mg2+ conductivity. Here, we fabricate an ultraporous (>500 m2 g-1) and ultrasmall (<2.5 nm) cubic spinel MgMn2O4 (MMO) by a freeze-dry assisted room-temperature alcohol reduction process. While the as-fabricated MMO exhibits a discharge capacity of 160 mAh g-1, the removal of its surface hydroxy groups by heat-treatment activates it without structural change, improving its discharge capacity to 270 mAh g-1âthe theoretical capacity at room temperature. These results are made possible by the ultraporous, ultrasmall particles that stabilize the metastable cubic spinel phase, promoting both the Mg2+ insertion/deintercalation in the MMO and the reversible transformation between the cubic spinel and cubic rock-salt phases.
ABSTRACT
An ionic liquid domain was successfully prepared outside double-stranded DNA by fixing 1-alkyl-3-methyl-imidazolium (C(n)MI) cations on the phosphate groups of DNA. First, four species of ionic liquid were made using phosphoric acid di-n-butyl ester and C(n)MI (n=2,4,8, and 12) as a low molecular weight model. They were obtained as liquid salts, and their ionic conductivity ranged up to 10(-5)Scm(-1) at 50 degrees C. Based on this model study, counter cations of the phosphate groups of DNA were exchanged for four kinds of imidazolium cations. The resulting ionic liquid-robed DNA (IL-robed DNA) was soluble in ordinary organic solvents such as methanol or ethanol. Ionic conductivity was low, because the ion density was insufficient to form a continuous ionic liquid domain around the DNA strands. When 11mol% 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMIBF(4)), which is a typical ionic liquid, was mixed with the IL-robed DNA, an ionic conductivity of 5.4 x 10(-5) S cm(-1) at 30 degrees C was observed because a continuous ionic liquid domain was successfully formed.