Energy Technology

Xiong, Yuli; Zhou, Yuting; Zhou, Nan; Peng, Bo; Wei, Xijun; Wu, Zhimin

doi: 10.1002/ente.202400992pmid: N/A

Developing an advanced strategy to decrease the charge recombination of BiVO4 is a vital requirement to boost charge transfer for photoelectrochemical water oxidation. Herein, a type II BiVO4/Bi2Mo2O9 heterojunction is successfully synthesized on fluorine‐doped tin oxide substrate by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. Thanks to the Fermi‐level energy difference of 275 mV between BiVO4 and Bi2Mo2O9, an outward built‐in electric filed pointing from Bi2Mo2O9 to BiVO4 is induced, which accelerates the directional flowing of photogenerated electron and hole. Such a unique design structure fastens the electron migration from BiVO4 to Bi2Mo2O9, and the holes will transfer to the surface to participate in water oxidation. The longer lifetime (9.2 ns) by time‐resolved transient photoluminescence signifies that the Bi2Mo2O9 can boost interfacial carriers’ anisotropic migration; the surface charge transfer rate of BiVO4/Bi2Mo2O9 is up to 387.6 s−1 (1.4 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)). The BiVO4/Bi2Mo2O9 heterojunction exhibits a remarkable charge separation efficiency of 64% and outstanding photocurrent density of 0.9 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V versus RHE.

Liang, Hao; Lv, Yangbo; Tang, Kui; Chai, Yuxin; Yang, Yu; Yang, Zhi; Liu, Yuyang; Sun, Jianping

doi: 10.1002/ente.202400058pmid: N/A

Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) often suffer from poor stability, making them suitable precursors for metal oxides/porous carbon catalysts in the oxygen evolution reaction via pyrolysis. High‐temperature treatment, however, leads to significant loss of active sites. To address this, Fe‐MOFs, FeCo‐MOFs, and FeCo‐MOFs/graphene oxide (GO) composites using a one‐pot hydrothermal method are synthesized and annealed at a low temperature of 300 °C. Characterization reveals that FeCo‐MOFs/GO composites possess unique nanowire structures mixed with a small amount of nanoflakes. It is believed that introducing graphene oxide plays a critical role in forming this structure, because the defects in GO provide numerous nucleation sites for nanowire growth. With high specific surface area and good stability, these nanostructures show a low overpotential of 261.5 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 20.47 mV dec−1 in 1 mol L−1 KOH alkaline water electrolysis. Density functional theory calculations further indicate that the synergistic effect of Fe and Co atoms enhances the catalytic activity.

doi: 10.1002/ente.202470102pmid: N/A

Gu, Xin; Zhuang, Jian; Lin, Jianqun; Zeng, Wei; Zhou, Su

doi: 10.1002/ente.202400836pmid: N/A

Hydrogen is crucial for achieving SDGs by driving energy transition and combating climate change. Proton exchange membrane fuel cell technology, leveraging hydrogen, faces challenges in meeting high‐power demands. The multistack fuel cell system (MFCS) tackles this by integrating multiple substacks, yet its air supply needs meticulous control. Proportional integral derivative (PID) decoupling from single‐stack falls short of MFCS. This article proposes nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) for optimized air flow and pressure decoupling. Modeling MFCS's air system and designing a predictive model, it is aimed to ensuring precise control of air flow and pressure in each substack. The decoupling experiments show that NMPC outperforms PID, accurately managing air flow and pressure and reducing load fluctuations. For air mass flow, NMPC cuts mean‐absolute error (MAE) by 64.56% and root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) by 81.36%. For pressure, MAE drops 81.23% and RMSE 83.59%. Comprehensive step load tests confirm NMPC's precise, dynamic regulation too, compared to PID, NMPC lowers average MAE for air mass by 20.67%, pressure by 32.22%. RMSE improvements of 31.08% and 33.23% highlight NMPC's strength. NMPC's quick response mitigates coupling issues, enhancing vehicle load adaptability.

Nandigana, Pardhasaradhi; G., Anagha; Panda, Subhendu K.

doi: 10.1002/ente.202400835pmid: N/A

In recent perovskite solar cell (PSC) research, copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) is an emerging inorganic hole transport layer (HTL) due to its suitable band gap, matched band edge positions with the perovskite and high stability under ambient conditions. However, being a coordination polymer typically requires sulfide‐based solvents that strongly interact with Cu(I) for dissolution. Dipropyl sulfide (DPS) is generally used where it is very sparingly soluble of about 10–12 mg mL−1, which leads to low surface coverage with pin‐holes on the surface responsible for the generation of defects at the perovskite–HTL interface. In this study, addition of the optimized amount 100 μL of co‐solvent Acetonitrile (ACN) increased the CuSCN dissolution from 10 to 35 mg mL−1. ACN can act as a Lewis‐base making it capable of donating electrons to a Lewis‐acid like Cu+ from CuSCN. ACN is a polar aprotic solvent due to its highly polar CN bond and by adding CuSCN the dipole–dipole interactions can stabilize the CuSCN molecules in solution. The device with architecture (FTO/c‐TiO2/mp‐TiO2/MAPbI3/CuSCN/carbon) showed the higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ≈11% with Voc of 1.01 V and Isc 24.65 mA cm−2 showing excellent stability stored under ambient atmosphere which retains 80% of its initial efficiency after 10 days.

Alamgeer, ; Yousuf, Hasnain; Khokhar, Muhammad Quddamah; Jony, Jaljalalul Abedin; Rahman, Rafi ur; Hassan, Syed Azkar‐ul; Kim, Youngkuk; Pham, Duy Phong; Park, Sangheon; Yi, Junsin

doi: 10.1002/ente.202401037pmid:

Adejare, Abeeb A.; Okemakinde, Femi E.; Tingbari, Vincent Masabiar; Lee, Jaehyeong; Kim, Jonghoon

doi: 10.1002/ente.202400584pmid: N/A

Lithium‐ion batteries are widely used in various mobile applications, particularly in electric vehicles, due to their high energy and power density. However, repeated charge and discharge cycles and inappropriate charging protocols can lead to its early degradation, resulting in reduced capacity and high internal resistance. Even though some research has proposed an optimal charging method of a lithium‐ion battery, an effective method is yet to be identified for both time and degradation reduction. Herein, an effective charging protocol that minimizes battery life degradation thereby enhancing its remaining‐useful‐life is proposed. The proposed protocol is an adaptive multistage constant current (MCC) and pulse charging (PC) protocol, utilizing time‐dependent current charging profiles to prevent battery degradation with state‐of‐charge (SOC) variation and pulse relaxation intervals. An extended Kalman filter algorithm for accuracy SOC estimation is embedded with the charging protocol. The proposed method is evaluated with other charging profiles, including constant current, MCC, and PC protocols, to evaluate its performance. The results show that among the four cases proposed, only the PC protocol outperforms other charging protocols, achieving a balance between fast charging and battery degradation prevention, making it better applicable for use in practical battery charge applications.

Wang, Lan; Zhang, Shuo; Yue, Feng; Li, Cong; Tan, Bang; Luo, Chenhao; Zamponi, Silvia; Zhang, Hongzhong

doi: 10.1002/ente.202400936pmid: N/A

Establishing Schottky barriers is a key tactic for enhancing the separation of photogenerated charge carriers and improving photocatalytic efficiency. Herein, a self‐assembled metal cocatalyst, NiCo2S4 nanorod, is loaded onto the flower‐like Zn3In2S6 microsphere via a hydrothermal method. Under visible light irradiation, the NiCo2S4/Zn3In2S6 composite material achieves a peak H2 production rate of 3436.72 μmol g−1 h−1 within 6 h, marking a 5.4 times greater increase compared to pristine Zn3In2S6. This outperforms the maximum H2 production rate of Pt/Zn3In2S6‐1% within the same 6‐hour timeframe, which is 3323.05 μmol g−1 h−1. Additionally, the apparent quantum efficiency reaches 7.86% at 420 nm. The outstanding photocatalytic activity stems from the synergistic effects between the visible‐light‐active Zn3In2S6 and the conductive cocatalyst NiCo2S4, facilitating spatial electrical promotion. In particular, the formation of a Schottky junction at the interface of NiCo2S4/Zn3In2S6 enables prompt electron transfer to NiCo2S4 nanorods, preventing backflow and thereby promoting the efficient separation of photogenerated charge carriers. Finally, a plausible reaction mechanism is proposed, drawing from the electrochemical characterization results. Thus, this research provides a new approach for designing metal‐semiconductor photocatalysts that are efficient in photocatalytic H2 production through water splitting.

Zhang, Zhenggang; Wang, Rongbin; Mazzio, Katherine A.; Koch, Norbert; Adelhelm, Philipp

doi: 10.1002/ente.202401040pmid: N/A

Beyond its Li‐ion conductivity, the solid electrolyte lithium thiophosphate (β‐Li3PS4) exhibits redox activity when its electrochemical stability window is exceeded. As this redox activity can be (partially) reversible, thiophosphates may be used as cathode active materials (CAM). Silver thiophosphate (Ag3PS4) is a well‐known Ag‐ion conductor, which has the same crystal structure and similar chemical composition as β‐Li3PS4. Here, Ag3PS4 is selected and studied as the CAM for Li solid‐state batteries (Li‐SSBs) with the configuration (In/InLi| β‐Li3PS4| Ag3PS4: β‐Li3PS4: C65 = 40: 50: 10 wt%). The cells provide a discharge capacity of 325 mAh g−1 at 10 mA g−1, but suffer from continuous capacity fading during cycling with an average Coulomb efficiency of 97% at 50 mA g−1. The reaction mechanism is studied using X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and impedance spectroscopy. Overall, the reaction of Li with Ag3PS4 is found to be initially partially reversible, but over cycling Ag2S and S8 become the active materials along with the formation of other byproducts such as Ag2P2S6 and Li2P2S6.

Yang, Yali; Cao, Jing; Yu, Yuwen; Chen, Yufang; Ma, Zhongyun; Zhou, Sha; Ma, Xiaoyu; Liu, Yi

doi: 10.1002/ente.202400570pmid: N/A

Gel lead‐acid batteries have the advantages of no acid leakage, no maintenance, and a long cycle life. In this article, it was found that Al3+ in the gel electrolyte can shorten the gel time and improve the stability of the gel. The battery test results show that the HRPSoC cycle life of the gel battery can be significantly improved by adding Al3+. In comparison to blank gel batteries without Al3+, HRPSoC cycle life is 8.2 times higher. Additionally, the gel battery with added Al3+ has a 0.5C discharge capacity of 1.8 Ah, which is 2.5 times that of the blank gel battery. The added Al3+ also demonstrates good capacity stability and still retains a capacity of 1.7 Ah after 150 discharge cycles. The kinetic simulation shows that Al3+ may participate in the formation of a silicon gel system and tend to gather around Si atoms to affect the properties of the gel electrolyte.