Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) dominate the electrochemical energy storage field currently, yet undergraduate materials science and engineering students often encounter LIB technology primarily via classroom studies. Despite having a fundamental knowledge of electrochemistry, still hands-on experience with cell construction, testing, and performance analysis is missing. This article describes a structured, short-term laboratory module, allowing students to apply fundamental electrochemical principles by assembling and evaluating lithium-ion coin cells. Students construct CR2032 coin cells with graphite anodes and lithium oxide-based cathodes (particularly lithium cobalt oxide or lithium manganese oxide) and test their electrochemical performance under controlled cycling settings. This report shows the analysis of six basic charts, assisting the discussion of important performance metrics such as capacity retention and coulombic efficiency. The subject is purposely comprehensive and analytical, pushing students to use theoretical knowledge, while gaining also practical understanding of experimental constraints and design choices. In addition, general battery-related difficulties and future prospects are raised to encourage additional theoretical and experimental research. This hands-on teaching approach is straightforward, versatile, and easily adaptable to various battery chemistries or extended testing of performance deterioration during cycling.

The electrodeposition of copper particles inside carbon nanotube (CNT) tissues is presented here. Copper electrodeposition inside CNT from aqueous electrolytes has been challenging researchers in recent years, as deposition was mostly restricted to the external surface of the tissue. This work introduces several organic additives, promoting deposition inside the tissue, as well. Electrochemical methods were applied and utilized in order to study the behavior of the CNT in the plating bath, and to analyze the effect of different additives on the deposition of the copper particles. Surface morphology of the coating and the deposits inside the tissue were examined and studies. This work presents an alternative method for the deposition and implementation of copper crystals inside CNT tissue.

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are used as anodes for flexible Li-ion micro-batteries. However, one of the major challenges in the growth of flexible micro-batteries with CNT as the anode is their immense capacity loss and a very low initial coulombic efficiency. In this study, we report the use of a facile direct pre-lithiation to suppress high irreversible capacity of the CNT electrodes in the first cycles. Pre-lithiated polymer-coated CNT anodes displayed good rate capabilities, studied up to 30 C and delivered high capacities of 850 mAh g−1 (313 μAh cm−2) at 1 C rate over 50 charge-discharge cycles.

Electrodeposition of aluminum (Al) from an organic non-aqueous electrolyte of ethylbenzene containing aluminum bromide is demonstrated. It is offered as a simple method for the preparation of Al coatings. This work employs distinct electrochemical techniques and explores the effects of the experimental parameters on the kinetics of the process and the quality of the final coatings. The process presented here enables deposition of pure and crystalline Al at room temperature and facilitates the production of uniform Al coatings on various metallic substrates. Morphological studies establish that the growth of Al deposits follows an island mode, and thus, the most noteworthy effect of the substrate over the morphology of the deposits originates from its impact over the nucleation stage, and the density of islands. This study is complemented by theoretical modeling for the adsorption of Al atoms at the different surfaces. Corrosion evaluation determines the dissolution mechanisms of each of the studied substrates in the examined electrolyte. These findings further corroborate the claim that this electrolyte enables the reversible electrodeposition of Al.

In an attempt to upgrade the performance of lithium (Li)-ion batteries, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been suggested as a high-energy anode material. However, CNTs induce high irreversible capacity loss during the first cycle of the battery, which still poses a scientific challenge. This study explores CNT tissue as a flexible light-weight alternative to the copper (Cu) foil as an anode current collector in Li-ion batteries, employing graphite active material. The study demonstrates the impact of the graphite mass loaded on the anode performance and suggests that with the increase in the graphite mass, the irreversible capacity loss is considerably decreased. At sufficiently high graphite loadings, the performance during the first cycle becomes comparable to that of an anode utilizing the Cu current collector. This research also presents several distinct chemical pretreatments to the tissue, aiming to further decrease the irreversible capacity loss. It is suggested that this goal may be accomplished by washing the CNT with sulfuric acid prior to anode preparation, prompting better performance.

The influence of an alkyl side chain attached to the nitrogen-centered cationic group on the properties and chemical stability of poly(phenylene oxide) based anion exchange membrane is the focus of this study. Two different cationic groups were investigated: one is the common benzyl trimethyl ammonium (BTMA) cationic group, and the other is benzyl dimethyldecyl ammonium with a C10 alkyl chain pendant to the cation-centered quaternary nitrogen. Swelling measurements were performed over a range of temperatures for both types of samples. Water uptake was found to be lower for the C10 (21 wt%) membrane than for the BTMA (53 wt%) membrane, due to the hydrophobicity of the long alkyl side chain and hydrophilic/hydrophobic phase separation. Degradation measurements under alkaline conditions indicated that the C10 membrane degraded more slowly than the BTMA sample at 60 degrees C. At 80 degrees C the C10 sample showed degradation likely due to the irreversible swelling and poor mechanical properties of the C10 membrane at high temperature due to the weakening of the poly(phenylene oxide) backbone interchain interactions by the C10 pendant group. (c) The Author(s) 2018. Published by ECS.