This work aims to address two major roadblocks in the development of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries: the inefficient deposition of Li on the metallic Li electrode and the parasitic "polysulfide redox shuttle". These roadblocks are here approached, respectively, by the combination of a cellulose separator with a cathode-facing conductive porous carbon interlayer, based on their previously reported individual benefits. Both approaches result in significant improvements in cycle life in test cells with positive electrodes with practically relevant specifications. Despite the substantially prolonged cycle life, the combination of the interlayer and cellulose separator generates an increase in polysulfide shuttle current, leading to greatly reduced Coulombic efficiency. Based on XPS analyses, the latter is ascribed to a change in the composition of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on the Li electrode. At the same time, the rate of electrolyte decomposition is found to be lower in cells with cellulose-based separators, which corroborates the observation of longer cycle life. These seemingly contradictory and counterintuitive observations demonstrate the complicated interactions between the cell components in the Li-S system and how strategies aiming to mitigate one unwanted process may exacerbate another. This study demonstrates the value of a holistic approach to the development of Li-S chemistry.

Conspectus

Because of its natural abundance, hierarchical fibrous structure, mechanical flexibility, potential for chemical modification, biocompatibility, renewability, and abundance, cellulose is one of the most promising green materials for a bio-based future and sustainable economy. Cellulose derived from wood or bacteria has dominated the industrial cellulose market and has been developed to produce a number of advanced materials for applications in energy storage, environmental, and biotechnology areas. However, Cladophora cellulose (CC) extracted from green algae has unprecedented advantages over those celluloses because of its high crystallinity (>95%), low moisture adsorption capacity, excellent solution processability, high porosity in the mesoporous range, and associated high specific surface area. The unique physical and chemical properties of CC can add new features to and enhance the performance of nanocellulose-based materials, and these attributes have attracted a great deal of research interest over the past decade.This Account summarizes our recent research on the preparation, characterization, functionalization, and versatile applications of CC. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of the uniqueness of CC with respect to material structure, properties, and emerging applications. We discuss the potential of CC in energy storage, environmental science, and life science, with emphasis on applications in which its properties are superior to those of other nanocellulose forms. Specifically, we discuss the production of the first-ever paper battery based on CC. This battery has initiated a rising interest in the development of sustainable paper-based energy storage devices, where cellulose is used as a combined building block and binder for paper electrodes of various types in combination with carbon, conducting polymers, and other electroactive materials. High-active-mass and high-mass-loading paper electrodes can be made in which the CC acts as a high-surface-area and porous substrate while a thin layer of electroactive material is coated on individual nanofibrils. We have shown that CC membranes can be used directly as battery separators because of their low moisture content, high mesoporosity, high thermal stability, and good electrolyte wettability. The safety, stability, and capacity of lithium-ion batteries can be enhanced simply by using CC-based separators. Moreover, the high chemical modifiability and adjustable porosity of dried CC papers allow them to be used as advanced membranes for environmental science (water and air purification, pollutant adsorption) and life science (virus isolation, protein recovery, hemodialysis, DNA extraction, bioactive substrates). Finally, we outline some concluding perspectives on the challenges and future directions of CC research with the aim to open up yet unexplored fields of use for this interesting material.

A novel double-sided conductive (DSC) separator consisting of two 5 μm-thick carbon nanotube (CNT)/cellulose nanofiber (CNF) composite layers coated on each side of a 20 μm-thick glass-fiber (GF)/CNF composite membrane is described. In a lithium-metal battery (LMB), the DSC separator exhibits a high ionic conductivity (i.e. 1.7 mS cm−1 using an LP40 electrolyte) due to the high porosity (i.e. 66%) of the GF/CNF membrane. More stable Li anodes can also be realized by depositing Li within the porous electronically conducting CNT/CNF matrix at the DSC separator anode side due to the decreased current density. The CNT/CNF layer of the DSC separator facing the cathode, which is in direct electric contact with the current collector, decreases the overpotential for the cathode and consequently improves its capacity and rate performance significantly. A Li/Li cell containing a DSC separator showed an improved cycling stability compared to an analogous cell equipped with a commercial Celgard separator at current densities up to 5 mA cm−2 for Li deposition and stripping capacities up to 5 mAh cm−2. A proof-of-concept LMB containing a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) composite cathode and a DSC separator showed a significantly improved rate capability, yielding capacities of about 110 mAh g−1 at 5 C and 80 mAh g−1 at 10 C. The LMB cell containing a DSC separator also exhibited a capacity retention of 80% after 200 cycles at a rate of 6 C indicating that the two-sided conductive separator design has significant potential in facilitating the development of well-functioning LMBs.

Herein, a one-step synthesis protocol was developed for synthesizing freestanding/flexible paper electrodes composed of nanostructured molybdenum oxide (MoO3-x) embedded in a carbon nanotube (CNT) and Cladophora cellulose (CC) matrix. The preparation method involved sonication of the precursors, nanostructured MoO3-x, CNTs, and CC with weight ratios of 7:2:1, in a water/ethanol mixture, followed by vacuum filtration. The electrodes were straightforward to handle and possessed a thickness of approximately 12 mu m and a mass loading of MoO3-x-CNTs of approximately 0.9 mg cm(-2). The elemental mapping showed that the nanostructured MoO3-x was uniformly embedded inside the CNTs-CC matrix. The MoO3-x-CNTs-CC paper electrodes featured a capacity of 30 C g(-1), normalized to the mass of MoO3-x-CNTs, at a current density of 78 A g(-1) (corresponding to a rate of approximately 210 C based on the MoO3 content, assuming a theoretical capacity of 1339 C g(-1)), and exhibited a capacity retention of 91 % over 30 000 cycles. This study paves the way for the manufacturing of flexible/freestanding nanostructured MoO3-x-based electrodes for use in charge-storage devices at high charge/discharge rates.

The strong need for the development of inexpensive, flexible, light-weight and environmentally friendly energy storage devices has resulted in large interest in new cellulose-based electrode materials that can be used in batteries and supercapacitors [1-3]. In this presentation it will be shown that flexible nanocellulose and polypyrrole composites, manufactured by chemical polymerization of e.g. pyrrole on a nanocellulose substrate, can be used as electrodes in charge storage devices containing either water or organic solvent based electrolytes. The aqueous flexible paper-based devices exhibit high charge storage capacities (e.g. 9 Wh/kg) as well as excellent power capabilities (e.g. 3.5 kW/kg) due to the large surface area (up to 250 m2/g) of the nanocellulose and the thin (i.e. 50 nm) layer of polypyrrole present on the nanocellulose fibers. The straightforward (papermaking) composite synthesis approach and the electrochemical properties of the resulting composites will be discussed. It will also be shown that high active mass paper electrodes [4-8] with mass loadings of up to 20 mg/cm2 can be employed at high current densities without significant loss of electrochemical performance as a result of the advantageous structure of the electrodes. Devices with unprecedented areal and volumetric cell capacitances (e.g. 5.7 F/cm2 and 240 F/cm3) that can cycle for thousands of cycles in aqueous electrolytes can likewise be realized. As the cellulose composites also can be used in lithium-ion batteries [9,10], functional (e.g. redox-active) separators [11] for lithium based batteries and in the realization of all-cellulose energy storage devices [12], the present materials provide new exciting possibilities for the development of green and foldable devices for a range of new applications, many of which are incompatible with conventional batteries and supercapacitors.

This work reports a room-temperature, solution-phase and one-pot method for macro-assembly of a three-dimensional (3D) reduced-graphene-oxide/copper hybrid hydrogel. The hydrogel is subsequently transformed into a highly conductive aerogel via freeze-drying. The aerogel, featuring reduced graphene oxide (rGO) networks decorated with Cu and CuxO nanoparticles (Cu/CuxO@rGO), exhibits a specific surface area of 48 m(2)/g and an apparent electrical conductivity of similar to 33 and similar to 430 S/m prior to and after mechanical compression, respectively. The compressed Cu/CuxO@rGO aerogel delivers a specific capacity of similar to 453 mAh g(-1) at a current density of 1 A/g and similar to 184 mAh g(-1) at 50 A/g in a 3 M KOH aqueous electrolyte evidenced by electrochemical measurements. Galvanostatic cycling tests at 5 A/g demonstrates that the Cu/CuxO@rGO aerogel retains 38% (similar to 129 mAh g(-1)) of the initial capacity (similar to 339 mAh g(-1)) after 500 cycles. The straightforward manufacturing process and the promising electrochemical performances make the Cu/CuxO@rGO aerogel an attractive electrode candidate in energy storage applications.

While the use of silicon‐based electrodes can increase the capacity of Li‐ion batteries considerably, their application is associated with significant capacity losses. In this work, the influences of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation, volume expansion, and lithium trapping are evaluated for two different electrochemical cycling schemes using lithium‐metal half‐cells containing silicon nanoparticle–based composite electrodes. Lithium trapping, caused by incomplete delithiation, is demonstrated to be the main reason for the capacity loss while SEI formation and dissolution affect the accumulated capacity loss due to a decreased coulombic efficiency. The capacity losses can be explained by the increasing lithium concentration in the electrode causing a decreasing lithiation potential and the lithiation cut‐off limit being reached faster. A lithium‐to‐silicon atomic ratio of 3.28 is found for a silicon electrode after 650 cycles using 1200 mAhg⁻¹ capacity limited cycling. The results further show that the lithiation step is the capacity‐limiting step and that the capacity losses can be minimized by increasing the efficiency of the delithiation step via the inclusion of constant voltage delithiation steps. Lithium trapping due to incomplete delithiation consequently constitutes a very important capacity loss phenomenon for silicon composite electrodes.