Highly purified carbon nanotube cascading IR detectors are constructed, in which virtual contacts are used to multiply photovoltage and improve the signal-to-noise ratio. It exhibits a broadband response, high room temperature detectivity of 2.91 × 1011 Jones, extremely good temperature and temporal stability and large scale fabrication potential of 150 × 150 photodetector array with random test yield of 100%. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
Here we report a novel electrochemical actuator using a hierarchically architectured nanostructure electrode. Vertically aligned NiO nanowall arrays, which act as an interface layer, are in situ grown on a free-standing graphene–carbon nanotube hybrid film. The large specific surface area and fast ion transmission channels of this nanostructured array interface enable us to achieve large deformation in quick switching response (18.4 mm per 0.05 s), high strain and stress rates (8.31% s−1, 12.16 MPa s−1) and excellent durability upon 500 000 times continuous operations in air.
An adaptive and stable gum bio-electrolyte was developed, which enabled Zn-ion batteries that have very competitive performances in terms of capacity, energy density, power density, rate capability and cyclability.
Motivated by their unique structure and excellent properties, significant progress has been made in recent years in the development of graphene-based fibers (GBFs). Potential applications of GBFs can be found, for instance, in conducting wires, energy storage and conversion devices, actuators, field emitters, solid-phase microextraction, springs, and catalysis. In contrast to graphene-based aerogels (GBAs) and membranes (GBMs), GBFs demonstrate remarkable mechanical and electrical properties and can be bent, knotted, or woven into flexible electronic textiles. In this review, the state-of-the-art of GBFs is summarized, focusing on their synthesis, performance, and applications. Future directions of GBF research are also proposed.
The dendrite issue and the associated cell degradation problems have proved to be a key challenge to the practical application of alkali metal anodes. 1,2 We present a simple yet efficient approach to fabricate amalgam anodes ( Figure 1a ) that afford long-term stability cycling at practical current densities and capacities. 3 The amalgam layer allows fast electron transfer as well as Li/Na/K migration at the electrolyte-electrode interphase, which significantly promote the cycling performance. For example, Protected Li electrodes exhibit stable cycling over 750 hrs at high plating current and capacity of 8 mA cm -2 and 8 mAh cm -2 in symmetric cells ( Figure 1b ). Coupled with high-loading cathodes (~12 mg cm -2 ) such as LiFePO 4 (LFP) and LiNi 0.6 Co 0.2 Mn 0.2 O 2 (NCM), the prototype full cells also demonstrate much improved rate and long-term cycling stability ( Figure 1c ). In-situ optical microscopy analyses confirm the dendrite nucleation and growth can be remarkably suppressed with the Li-Hg protected anodes ( Figure 1d ). These promising results provide new perspectives on the regulation of sodium electrodeposition and hence the elimination of the dendritic morphology for the practical development of alkali metal batteries. References: 1. X.-B. Cheng, R. Zhang, C.-Z. Zhao, and Q. Zhang, Chem. Rev. , 117 , 10403–10473 (2017). 2. R. Weber, M. Genovese, A. J. Louli, S. Hames, C. Martin, I. G. Hill, and J. R. Dahn, Nat. Energy , 4 , 683-689 (2019). 3. G. He, Q. Li, Y. Shen, and Y. Ding, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. , DOI: 10.1002/anie.201911800 (2019). Figure 1. a) The preparation process of Li-Hg protected anodes; b) Cycling performance of Li-Hg protected anodes and pristine anodes in symmetric cells; c) Cycling performance of Li-Hg protected anodes and pristine anodes in full cells with high-loading LFP and NCM cathodes; d) In-situ optical analyses showing the different Li deposition behaviors on Li-Hg protected and pristine anodes. Figure 1
Artificial yarn/fiber muscles have recently attracted considerable interest for various applications. These muscles can provide large-stroke tensile and torsional actuations, resulting from inserted twists. However, tensional tethering of twisted muscles is generally needed to avoid muscle snarling and untwisting. In this paper a carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn muscle that is tethering-free and twist-stable is reported. The yarn muscle is prepared by allowing the self-plying of a coiled CNT yarn. When driven by acetone adsorption, this muscle shows decoupled actuations, which provide fast and reversible ∼13.3% contraction strain against a constant stress corresponding to ∼38 000 times the muscle weight but almost zero torsional strokes. The cycling test shows that the self-plied muscle has very good structural stability and actuation reversibility. Applied joule heating can help increase the desorption of acetone and increase the operation frequency of the self-plied muscle. Furthermore, by controlling the coupling between the joule heating and acetone adsorption/desorption, tensile actuations from negative to positive have been achieved. This twist-stable feature could considerably facilitate the practical applications of such muscle.
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