High-Voltage Long-Cycling All-Solid-State Lithium Batteries with High-Valent-Element-Doped Halide Electrolytes.

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) have garnered considerable attention as promising candidates for next-generation energy storage systems due to their potentially simultaneously enhanced safety capacities and improved energy densities. However, the solid future still calls for materials with high ionic conductivity, electrochemical stability, and favorable interfacial compatibility. In this study, we present a series of halide solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) utilizing a doping strategy with highly valent elements, demonstrating an outstanding combination of enhanced ionic conductivity and oxidation stability. Among these, Li2.6In0.8Ta0.2Cl6 emerges as the standout performer, displaying a superionic conductivity of up to 4.47 mS cm-1 at 30 °C, along with a low activation energy barrier of 0.321 eV for Li+ migration. Additionally, it showcases an extensive oxidation onset of up to 5.13 V (vs Li+/Li), enabling high-voltage ASSBs with promising cycling performance. Particularly noteworthy are the ASSBs employing LiCoO2 cathode materials, which exhibit an extended cyclability of over 1400 cycles, with 70% capacity retention under 4.6 V (vs Li+/Li), and a capacity of up to 135 mA h g-1 at a 4 C rate, with the loading of active materials at 7.52 mg cm-2. This study demonstrates a feasible approach to designing desirable SSEs for energy-dense, highly stable ASSBs.

M4 B6 X6 as a New Family of High-Efficient Electrocatalysts: The Role of Surface Reconstruction in Water Oxidization.

Searching for highly-efficient electrocatalysts for water splitting has been greatly endowed due to the huge demand for green energy sources. Two-dimensional (2D) materials are widely explored for the purpose because of their unique physical and chemical properties, abundant active sites, and easy fabrication. Here, we present a new family of 2D M4 B6 X6 (2D Boridenes) and investigate their physical and chemical properties for their potential applications into electrocatalysis based on first-principles calculations. We demonstrate that 2D M4 B6 X6 (M=Cr, Mo, and W; X=O and F) are dynamically, thermodynamically, and mechanically stable, and show intriguing electronic and catalytic properties. Importantly, we find that M4 B6 O6 are intrinsically active for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Our results demonstrate that: (1) the adsorbate-escape mechanism dominates the OER process with a low overpotential of 0.652 V on Cr4 B6 O6 ; (2) the partial surface-oxidization can improve the catalytic performance of M4 B6 F6 dramatically; and (3) the surface reconstruction greatly affects the OER performance of M4 B6 X6 . Our findings illustrate that the surface reconstruction is critical to the OER activity, which may provide a new strategy on the design of 2D materials for electrocatalysis and offer theoretical insight into the catalytic mechanism.

Two-Dimensional Dirac Nodal Line Carbon Nitride to Anchor Single-Atom Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

Two-dimensional carbon nitride (2DCN) materials have emerged as an important class of 2D materials beyond graphene. However, 2DCN materials with nodal-line semimetal characteristic are rarely reported. In this work, a new nodal-line semimetal 2DCN with the stoichiometry C4 N4 is designed by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and its application to anchor single-atom catalysts (SACs) for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is investigated. C4 N4 is a planar covalent network (sp2 hybridization) with regular holes formed by the four N atoms, which is dynamically, thermodynamically, and mechanically stable. The nodal line is contributed by the pz orbitals of C and px/y orbitals of N atoms. C4 N4 shows an anisotropic Fermi velocity and high electron mobility. Because of its porous structure, C4 N4 can anchor heteroatoms as SACs for electrocatalysis. C4 N4 anchored with Fe or Co is shown to be highly active for the ORR with a rather high half-wave potential of around 0.90 V, which is higher than those of SACs on other carbon nitrides. These findings may provide a new strategy to design novel substrates for SACs.

Design of 2D materials - MSi2CxN4-x (M = Cr, Mo, and W; x = 1 and 2) - with tunable electronic and magnetic properties.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted increasing interest in the past decades due to their unique physical and chemical properties for diverse applications. In this work, we present a first-principles design on a novel 2D family, MSi2CxN4-x (M = Cr, Mo, and W; x = 1 and 2), based on density-functional theory (DFT). We find that all MSi2CxN4-x monolayers are stable by investigating their mechanic, dynamic, and thermodynamic properties. Interestingly, we see that the alignment of magnetic moments can be tuned to achieve non-magnetism (NM), ferromagnetism (FM), anti-ferromagnetism (AFM) or paramagnetism (PM) by arranging the positions of carbon atoms in the 2D systems. Accordingly, their electronic properties can be controlled to obtain semiconductor, half-metal, or metal. The FM states in half-metallic 2D systems are contributed to the hole-mediated double exchange, while the AFM states are induced by super-exchange. Our findings show that the physical properties of 2D systems can be tuned by compositional and structural engineering, especially the layer of C atoms, which may provide guidance on the design and fabrication of novel 2D materials with projected properties for multi-functional applications.

Theoretical evidence of the spin-valley coupling and valley polarization in two-dimensional MoSi2X4 (X = N, P, and As).

Very recently, the centimeter-scale MoSi2N4 monolayer was synthesized experimentally and exhibited a semiconducting nature with high mobility (Hong et al., Science, 2020, 369, 670-674). Here, we show that MoSi2N4 and its analogues, MoSi2P4 and MoSi2As4, are potential two-dimensional (2D) materials for valleytronics based on first-principles calculations. We demonstrate that the intrinsic inversion symmetry breaking and strong spin-orbital coupling lead to the remarkable spin-valley coupling in the inequivalent valleys at K and K' points, which result in not only the valley-contrasting transport properties, but also the spin and valley coupled optical selection rules. Moreover, the in-plane strain can tune the bandgaps and spin splitting or even induce an indirect-to-direct bandgap transition for promising application in the strain-tunable valleytronics. We find that the valley polarization can be generated by doping magnetic element. Our findings offer theoretical insight into the exotic physical properties of novel MoSi2N4-family materials beyond transition metal dichalcogenides.

Magnetic and electronic properties of 2D TiX3 (X = F, Cl, Br and I).

Searching for two-dimensional (2D) materials with a high phase-transition temperature and magnetic anisotropy is critical to the development of spintronics. Herein, we investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of 2D TiX3 (X = F, Cl, Br and I) monolayers based on density-functional theory (DFT). We show that the 2D TiX3 monolayers are stable dynamically and thermodynamically as evidenced by phonon and molecular dynamics calculations, respectively, and show their semiconducting nature. We find that the TiBr3 and TiI3 monolayers are ferromagnetic with magnetic anisotropy out of plane, which are intrinsic without the need for external intervention. The magnetic anisotropy energies of the TiBr3 and TiI3 monolayers are 0.8 and 2.5 meV per s.f., respectively. The Curie temperatures of TiBr3 and TiI3 are 75 K and 90 K, respectively. We further show that the interlayer magnetic coupling and magnetic anisotropy energies (MAE) of the bilayer TiI3 can be tuned by the interlayer distance. Additionally, a two-step transition in the magnetic state is observed in the bilayer TiI3 with AB' stacking under applied strain in a vertical direction. It is expected that our design may enrich two-dimensional functional materials, which may find versatile applications.