Traditional challenges of poor cycling stability and low Coulombic efficiency in Zinc (Zn) metal anodes have limited their practical application. To overcome these issues, this work introduces a single metal‐atom design featuring atomically dispersed single copper (Cu) atoms on 3D nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) co‐doped porous carbon (CuNOC) as a highly reversible Zn host. The CuNOC structure provides highly active sites for initial Zn nucleation and further promotes uniform Zn deposition. The 3D porous architecture further mitigates the volume changes during the cycle with homogeneous Zn2+flux. Consequently, CuNOC demonstrates exceptional reversibility in Zn plating/stripping processes over 1000 cycles at 2 and 5 mA cm−2with a fixed capacity of 1 mAh cm−2, while achieving stable operation and low voltage hysteresis over 700 h at 5 mA cm−2and 5 mAh cm−2. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations show that co‐doping N and O on porous carbon with atomically dispersed single Cu atoms creates an efficient zincophilic site for stable Zn nucleation. A full cell with the CuNOC host anode and high loading V2O5cathode exhibits outstanding rate‐capability up to 5 A g−1and a stable cycle life over 400 cycles at 0.5 A g−1.
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Abstract The surging demand for environmental‐friendly and safe electrochemical energy storage systems has driven the development of aqueous zinc (Zn)‐ion batteries (ZIBs). However, metallic Zn anodes suffer from severe dendrite growth and large volume change, resulting in a limited lifetime for aqueous ZIB applications. Here, it is shown that 3D mesoporous carbon (MC) with controlled carbon and defect configurations can function as a highly reversible and dendrite‐free Zn host, enabling the stable operation of aqueous ZIBs. The MC host has a structure‐controlled architecture that contains optimal sp2‐carbon and defect sites, which results in an improved initial nucleation energy barrier and promotes uniform Zn deposition. As a consequence, the MC host shows outstanding Zn plating/stripping performance over 1000 cycles at 2 mA cm−2and over 250 cycles at 6 mA cm−2in asymmetric cells. Density functional theory calculations further reveal the role of the defective sp2‐carbon surface in Zn adsorption energy. Moreover, a full cell based on Zn@MC900 anode and V2O5cathode exhibits remarkable rate performance and cycling stability over 3500 cycles. These results establish a structure‐mechanism‐performance relationship of the carbon host as a highly reversible Zn anode for the reliable operation of ZIBs.
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Abstract Solid‐state lithium (Li)‐metal batteries (LMBs) are garnering attention as a next‐generation battery technology that can surpass conventional Li‐ion batteries in terms of energy density and operational safety under the condition that the issue of uncontrolled Li dendrite is resolved. In this study, various plastic crystal‐embedded elastomer electrolytes (PCEEs) are investigated with different phase‐separated structures, prepared by systematically adjusting the volume ratio of the phases, to elucidate the structure‐property‐electrochemical performance relationship of the PCEE in the LMBs. At an optimal volume ratio of elastomer phase to plastic‐crystal phase (i.e., 1:1), bicontinuous‐structured PCEE, consisting of efficient ion‐conducting, plastic‐crystal pathways with long‐range connectivity within a crosslinked elastomer matrix, exhibits exceptionally high ionic conductivity (≈10−3S cm−1) at 20 °C and excellent mechanical resilience (elongation at break ≈ 300%). A full cell featuring this optimized PCEE, a 35 µm thick Li anode, and a high loading LiNi0.83Mn0.06Co0.11O2(NMC‐83) cathode delivers a high energy density of 437 Wh kganode+cathode+electrolyte−1. The established structure–property–electrochemical performance relationship of the PCEE for solid‐state LMBs is expected to inform the development of the elastomeric electrolytes for various electrochemical energy systems.
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Abstract Sodium‐metal batteries (SMBs) are considered as a compliment to lithium‐metal batteries for next‐generation high‐energy batteries because of their low cost and the abundance of sodium (Na). Herein, a 3D nanostructured porous carbon particle containing carbon‐shell‐coated Fe nanoparticles (PC‐CFe) is employed as a highly reversible Na‐metal host. PC‐CFe has a unique 3D hierarchy based on sub‐micrometer‐sized carbon particles, ordered open channels, and evenly distributed carbon‐coated Fe nanoparticles (CFe) on the surface. PC‐CFe achieves high reversibility of Na plating/stripping processes over 500 cycles with a Coulombic efficiency of 99.6% at 10 mA cm–2with 10 mAh cm–2in Na//Cu asymmetric cells, as well as over 14 400 cycles at 60 mA cm–2in Na//Na symmetric cells. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the superior cycling performance of PC‐CFe stems from the stronger adsorption of Na on the surface of the CFe, providing initial nucleation sites more favorable to Na deposition. Moreover, the full cell with a PC‐CFe host without Na metal and a high‐loading Na3V2(PO4)3cathode (10 mg cm–2) maintains a high capacity of 103 mAh g–1at 1 mA cm–2even after 100 cycles, demonstrating the operation of anode‐free SMBs.
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Abstract Stage‐based demographic methods, such as matrix population models (MPMs), are powerful tools used to address a broad range of fundamental questions in ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation science. Accordingly, MPMs now exist for over 3000 species worldwide. These data are being digitised as an ongoing process and periodically released into two large open‐access online repositories: the COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database and the COMADRE Animal Matrix Database. During the last decade, data archiving and curation of COMPADRE and COMADRE, and subsequent comparative research, have revealed pronounced variation in how MPMs are parameterized and reported.
Here, we summarise current issues related to the parameterisation and reporting of MPMs that arise most frequently and outline how they affect MPM construction, analysis, and interpretation. To quantify variation in how MPMs are reported, we present results from a survey identifying key aspects of MPMs that are frequently unreported in manuscripts. We then screen COMPADRE and COMADRE to quantify how often key pieces of information are omitted from manuscripts using MPMs.
Over 80% of surveyed researchers (
n = 60) state a clear benefit to adopting more standardised methodologies for reporting MPMs. Furthermore, over 85% of the 300 MPMs assessed from COMPADRE and COMADRE omitted one or more elements that are key to their accurate interpretation. Based on these insights, we identify fundamental issues that can arise from MPM construction and communication and provide suggestions to improve clarity, reproducibility and future research utilising MPMs and their required metadata. To fortify reproducibility and empower researchers to take full advantage of their demographic data, we introduce a standardised protocol to present MPMs in publications. This standard is linked towww.compadre‐db.org , so that authors wishing to archive their MPMs can do so prior to submission of publications, following examples from other open‐access repositories such as DRYAD, Figshare and Zenodo.Combining and standardising MPMs parameterized from populations around the globe and across the tree of life opens up powerful research opportunities in evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation research. However, this potential can only be fully realised by adopting standardised methods to ensure reproducibility.