Enhanced High-Temperature Cycling Stability of Garnet-Based All Solid-State Lithium Battery Using a Multi-Functional Catholyte Buffer Layer.

The pursuit of safer and high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has triggered extensive research activities on solid-state batteries, while challenges related to the unstable electrode-electrolyte interface hinder their practical implementation. Polymer has been used extensively to improve the cathode-electrolyte interface in garnet-based all-solid-state LIBs (ASSLBs), while it introduces new concerns about thermal stability. In this study, we propose the incorporation of a multi-functional flame-retardant triphenyl phosphate additive into poly(ethylene oxide), acting as a thin buffer layer between LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) cathode and garnet electrolyte. Through electrochemical stability tests, cycling performance evaluations, interfacial thermal stability analysis and flammability tests, improved thermal stability (capacity retention of 98.5% after 100 cycles at 60 °C, and 89.6% after 50 cycles at 80 °C) and safety characteristics (safe and stable cycling up to 100 °C) are demonstrated. Based on various materials characterizations, the mechanism for the improved thermal stability of the interface is proposed. The results highlight the potential of multi-functional flame-retardant additives to address the challenges associated with the electrode-electrolyte interface in ASSLBs at high temperature. Efficient thermal modification in ASSLBs operating at elevated temperatures is also essential for enabling large-scale energy storage with safety being the primary concern.

Enhancing Fast-Charge Capabilities in Solid-State Lithium Batteries through the Integration of High Li0.5La0.5TiO3 (LLTO) Content in the Lithium-Metal Anode.

Solid-state batteries (SSBs), which have high energy density and are safe, are recognized as an important field of study. However, the poor interfacial contact with high resistance, the dendrite problem, and the volume change of the metallic lithium anode prevent the use of SSBs. Li0.5La0.5TiO3 (LLTO) particles and molten lithium were used to create a high-performance LLTO-Li composite lithium with a sequential ion-conducting phase. With garnet electrolytes, this lithium has better wettability and reduced surface tension. To compensate for the lithium depletion that occurs during stripping, the Li-Ti phase with a high ionic diffusion coefficient that forms in the anode can rapidly transport lithium from the bulk to the solid-state interface, ensuring tight interface contact, preventing the formation of gaps, and homogenizing the current and Li+ flux. The LLTO-Li| LLZTO| LLTO-Li symmetric cell exhibits a good cyclic stability of 1000 h at room temperature, a low interfacial resistance of 22 Ω cm2, and a high critical current density of 1.2 mA cm-2. Furthermore, fully built cells with a LiFePO4 cathode showed outstanding cycling performance, maintaining 95% of their capacity after 900 cycles at 1 C and 92% capacity retention after 100 cycles at 2 C.

Classification of Protein Sequences by a Novel Alignment-Free Method on Bacterial and Virus Families.

The classification of protein sequences provides valuable insights into bioinformatics. Most existing methods are based on sequence alignment algorithms, which become time-consuming as the size of the database increases. Therefore, there is a need to develop an improved method for effectively classifying protein sequences. In this paper, we propose a novel accumulated natural vector method to cluster protein sequences at a lower time cost without reducing accuracy. Our method projects each protein sequence as a point in a 250-dimensional space according to its amino acid distribution. Thus, the biological distance between any two proteins can be easily measured by the Euclidean distance between the corresponding points in the 250-dimensional space. The convex hull analysis and classification perform robustly on virus and bacteria datasets, effectively verifying our method.