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High energy density lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) are a potential replacement for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, practical lifetimes are inhibited by lithium polysulfide (LiPS) shuttling. Concurrently, plastic waste accumulation worldwide threatens our ecosystems. Herein, a fast and facile strategy to upcycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste into useful materials is investigated. Dilithium terephthalate (Li2TP) and dipotassium terephthalate (K2TP) salts were synthesized from waste soda bottles via microwave depolymerization and solution coated onto glass fiber paper (GFP) separators. Salt-functionalized separators with Li2TP@GFP and K2TP@GFP mitigated LiPS shuttling and improved electrochemical performance in cells. Pore analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate the action mechanism is synergistic physical blocking of bulky LiPS anions in nanopores and diffusion inhibition via electrostatic interactions with abundant carboxylate groups. LSBs with K2TP@GFP separator showing highest LiPS affinity and smallest pore size demonstrated enhanced initial capacity as compared to non-modified GFP by 5.4% to 648 mAh g−1, and increased cycle 100 capacity by 23% to 551 mAh g−1. Overall, K2TP@GFP retained 85% of initial capacity after 100 cycles with an average capacity fading of 0.15% per cycle. By comparison, GFP retained only 73% of initial capacity after 100 cycles with 0.27% average capacity loss, demonstrating effective LiPS retention. 

Copper oxide nanostructures are widely used for various applications due to their unique optical and electrical properties. In this work, we demonstrate an atmospheric laser-induced oxidation technique for the fabrication of highly electrochemically active copper oxide hierarchical micro/nano structures on copper surfaces to achieve highly sensitive non-enzymatic glucose sensing performance. The effect of laser processing power on the composition, crystallinity, microstructure, wettability, and color of the laser-induced oxide on copper (LIO-Cu) surface was systematically studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD), Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), EDX-mapping, water contact angle measurements, and optical microscopy. Results of these investigations showed a remarkable increase in copper oxide composition by increasing the laser processing power. The pore size distribution and surface area of the pristine and LIO-Cu sample estimated by N 2 adsorption–desorption data showed a developed mesoporous LIO-Cu structure. The size of the generated nano-oxides, crystallinity, and electroactivity of the LIO-Cu were observed to be adjustable by the laser processing power. The electrocatalytic activity of LIO-Cu surfaces was studied by means of cyclic voltammetry (CV) within a potential window of −0.8 to +0.8 V and chronoamperometry in an applied optimized potential of +0.6 V, in 0.1 M NaOH solution and phosphate buffer solution (PBS), respectively. LIO-Cu surfaces with optimized laser processing powers exhibited a sensitivity of 6950 μA mM −1 cm −2 within a wide linear range from 0.01 to 5 mM, with exceptional specificity and response time (<3 seconds). The sensors also showed excellent response stability over a course of 50 days that was originated from the binder-free robust electroactive film fabricated directly onto the copper surface. The demonstrated one-step LIO processing onto commercial metal films, can potentially be applied for tuneable and scalable roll-to-roll fabrication of a wide range of high surface area metal oxide micro/nano structures for non-enzymatic biosensing and electrochemical applications. 

Abstract Vanadium dioxide (VO₂) is a well‐studied Mott‐insulator because of the very abrupt physical property switching during its semiconductor‐to‐metal transition (SMT) around 341 K (68 °C). In this work, through novel oxide‐metal nanocomposite designs (i.e., Au:VO₂and Pt:VO₂), a very broad range of SMT temperature tuning from≈323.5 to≈366.7 K has been achieved by varying the metallic secondary phase in the nanocomposites (i.e., Au:VO₂and Pt:VO₂thin films, respectively). More surprisingly, the SMTT_ccan be further lowered to≈301.8 K (near room temperature) by reducing the Au particle size from 11.7 to 1.7 nm. All the VO₂nanocomposite thin films maintain superior phase transition performance, i.e., large transition amplitude, very sharp transition, and narrow width of thermal hysteresis. Correspondingly, a twofold variation of the complex dielectric function has been demonstrated in these metal‐VO₂nanocomposites. The wide range physical property tuning is attributed to the band structure reconstruction at the metal‐VO₂phase boundaries. This demonstration paved a novel approach for tuning the phase transition property of Mott‐insulating materials to near room temperature transition, which is important for sensors, electrical switches, smart windows, and actuators.