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1. Enabling rechargeable Li‐MnO ₂ batteries using ether electrolytes

   https://doi.org/10.1002/smm2.1208  

   Xia, Dawei; Gao, Hongpeng; Li, Mingqian; Holoubek, John; Yan, Qizhang; Yin, Yijie; Xu, Panpan; Chen, Zheng (April 2023, SmartMat)

   Abstract A low‐carbon future demands more affordable batteries utilizing abundant elements with sustainable end‐of‐life battery management. Despite the economic and environmental advantages of Li‐MnO₂batteries, their application so far has been largely constrained to primary batteries. Here, we demonstrate that one of the major limiting factors preventing the stable cycling of Li‐MnO₂batteries, Mn dissolution, can be effectively mitigated by employing a common ether electrolyte, 1 mol/L lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) in 1,3‐dioxane (DOL)/1,2‐dimethoxyethane (DME). We discover that the suppression of this dissolution enables highly reversible cycling of the MnO₂cathode regardless of the synthesized phase and morphology. Moreover, we find that both the LiPF₆salt and carbonate solvents present in conventional electrolytes are responsible for previous cycling challenges. The ether electrolyte, paired with MnO₂cathodes is able to demonstrate stable cycling performance at various rates, even at elevated temperature such as 60°C. Our discovery not only represents a defining step in Li‐MnO₂batteries with extended life but provides design criteria of electrolytes for vast manganese‐based cathodes in rechargeable batteries. 

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2. Hierarchical Morphology of Poly(ether ether ketone) Aerogels

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b09699  

   Talley, Samantha J.; Vivod, Stephanie L.; Nguyen, Baochau A.; Meador, Mary Ann; Radulescu, Aurel; Moore, Robert B. (August 2019, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces)
3. Shear Flow-Induced Crystallization of Poly(ether ether ketone)

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.9b02611  

   Seo, Jiho; Gohn, Anne M.; Schaake, Richard P.; Parisi, Daniele; Rhoades, Alicyn M.; Colby, Ralph H. (May 2020, Macromolecules)

   null (Ed.)
4. Lewis Acid Accelerated Aryl Ether Bond Cleavage with Nickel: Orders of Magnitude Rate Enhancement Using AlMe ₃

   https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201604160  

   Kelley, Paul; Edouard, Guy A.; Lin, Sibo; Agapie, Theodor (November 2016, Chemistry - A European Journal)
5. Thiol-triggered deconstruction of bifunctional silyl ether terpolymers via an S _N Ar-triggered cascade

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC02868B  

   Brown, Christopher M.; Husted, Keith E.; Wang, Yuyan; Kilgallon, Landon J.; Shieh, Peyton; Zafar, Hadiqa; Lundberg, David J.; Johnson, Jeremiah A. (August 2023, Chemical Science)

   While Si-containing polymers can often be deconstructed using chemical triggers such as fluoride, acids, and bases, they are resistant to cleavage by mild reagents such as biological nucleophiles, thus limiting their end-of-life options and potential environmental degradability. Here, using ring-opening metathesis polymerization, we synthesize terpolymers of (1) a “functional” monomer ( e.g. , a polyethylene glycol macromonomer or dicyclopentadiene); (2) a monomer containing an electrophilic pentafluorophenyl (PFP) substituent; and (3) a cleavable monomer based on a bifunctional silyl ether . Exposing these polymers to thiols under basic conditions triggers a cascade of nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S N Ar) at the PFP groups, which liberates fluoride ions, followed by cleavage of the backbone Si–O bonds, inducing polymer backbone deconstruction. This method is shown to be effective for deconstruction of polyethylene glycol (PEG) based graft terpolymers in organic or aqueous conditions as well as polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD) thermosets, significantly expanding upon the versatility of bifunctional silyl ether based functional polymers. 

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