ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies

Ensuring battery safety during overcharge is pivotal for advancing these technologies from research to commercial deployment. While existing external overcharge protection strategies are effective, their dependence on intricate sensor networks and complex control systems escalates costs, increases system complexity, and introduces potential reliability issues, all of which constrain widespread adoption. Therefore, an internal overcharge protection approach has emerged as a promising alternative, utilizing redox reactions of preinstalled compounds within the battery to prevent overcharge, either complementing or replacing external strategies. This review categorizes these compounds into redox shuttle additives, electro-polymerization additives, and potential sensitive polymers based on their underlying protection mechanisms. A comprehensive analysis is conducted on the activation potentials, overcharge protection lifespans, and mechanisms within various battery systems. Furthermore, the compounds are systematically organized by core structures to elucidate the intrinsic relationships fostered by modified functional groups. The review delves into strategies for enhancing activation potential, solubility (for additives), and stability to prolong the efficacy of overcharge protection. Finally, the modification principles for these compounds, focusing on functional group adjustments that could extend their protective lifespan are summarized. These insights offer a roadmap for future design and development of internal overcharge protection strategies, with the potential to accelerate their commercial application. • Introduces internal overcharge protection via redox-active compound strategies. • Links functional groups to activation potential, solubility, and stability. • Proposes functional-group modifications to extend overcharge protection lifespan. • Offers design principles guiding next-generation internal battery safeguards.

Piezoelectric materials, capable of harvesting and transforming mechanical energy into chemical energy, have recently emerged as promising catalysts in environmental wastewater remediation and clean energy production. While this approach holds potential to supplant other advanced techniques, enhancing the inherent piezoelectric properties of conventional inorganic materials remains challenging. This is primarily due to their structural inflexibility and limited surface area, restricting their catalytic efficiency. In comparison with conventional piezocatalysts, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) offer distinct advantages in terms of crystalline structure, piezoelectric responses, porosity, and surface area. Notably, their tunable structures might improve their thermal and chemical stability at specific condition, achieved through the precise and rational design of their reticular framework based on specific application requirements. This capability enables MOFs to enhance piezocatalytic performance. Over the past few years, significant strides have been made in developing MOF-based materials for piezocatalysis, yet there remains a notable absence of comprehensive review articles on this key topic. Herein this paper aims to fill that gap by presenting benefits and uses of MOFs in piezocatalysis. Commencing with the merits of MOFs, we explore five essential advantages. We also highlight the current utilisation of MOFs in reported piezocatalytic domains. Finally, we will address the future possibilities and opportunities for optimised structure, clarified mechanisms, improved efficiency, and considerations regarding material costs. This timely review aims to insights into the advancement of highly efficient MOF piezocatalysts, fostering potential applications not limited to hydrogen (H 2 ) generation and pollutant removal. • Systematically outlining all unique advantages of MOFs in piezocatalysis. • Fully integrating all reported types of MOFs used in piezocatalysis. • Broadening potential strategies for MOFs to encompass all possible areas in piezocatalysis.

Abstract Aqueous rechargeable Zn‐N 2 batteries with a unique configuration can realize co‐generation of NH 3 and electricity, of which the key is the design and fabrication of active N 2 electroreduction electrocatalysts. Here, a halogen‐capping engineering approach to fabricate halogen‐terminated Ti 3 C 2 T x MXenes for Zn‐N 2 batteries is reported, showing that the halogen terminals of Ti 3 C 2 T x (T = F, Cl, Br, and I) play a significant role in enhancing the N 2 adsorption on Ti active sites and the electron transfer from Ti to N 2 . The Ti 3 C 2 Cl x catalyst is the best in terms of both N 2 electroreduction and the Faradic efficiency among all reported MXene‐based catalysts due to the moderate electronegativity and small steric hindrance of Cl‐terminal. Impressively, the Ti 3 C 2 Cl x ‐based Zn‐N 2 battery with high power density can continuously produce NH 3 in high capacity in an alkaline electrolyte. This work will help to develop high‐performance MXene‐based NRR electrocatalysts and Zn‐N 2 batteries for continuous green NH 3 and electricity production.

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> The increasing release of Antarctic meltwater represents one of the most profound, yet uncertain, consequences of global climate change. The absence of interactive ice sheets in state-of-the-art climate models prevents the direct calculation of ice-ocean feedbacks, leaving significant uncertainty in the global and regional consequences of meltwater discharge. This study leverages results from the Southern Ocean Freshwater Input from Antarctica (SOFIA) initiative to assess the ocean response to a 0.1 Sv meltwater perturbation and to infer the resulting feedback on ice shelf basal melting across 10 CMIP6 models. We analyze meltwater-induced temperature anomalies across distinct continental shelf regimes, compare them with SSP5-8.5 global warming-induced anomalies, and translate these into basal melt rates using a parameterization calibrated with a new observational climatology. Although the meltwater feedback is generally thought to amplify basal melting, our results demonstrate large regional differences, with implied enhanced ice shelf mass loss in some sectors but suppressed basal melting in others. The model ensemble indicates a warming feedback on the continental shelf in most East Antarctic regions, whereas in West Antarctica, the region with the greatest observed ice shelf mass loss in recent decades, most models simulate cooling or reduced warming, suggesting a negative feedback. This regional contrast implies that East Antarctica may play an increasingly dominant role in future ice shelf mass loss. Simulations support existing hypotheses linking these asymmetric temperature responses to strong regional connectivity and shelf break dynamics, including a strengthened Antarctic Slope Front, an accelerated Antarctic Slope Current, and reduced dense shelf water formation.

LiCoO2 (LCO) is the first commercialized and still a widely used cathode material for lithium-ion batteries found in a range of modern applications. Even with decades of research, there is a lack of understanding of the nanoscale function and characteristics of LCO and other state-of-the-art cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries. This in turn limits opportunities to enhance battery performance. A key challenge in understanding and developing better electrode materials in lithium-ion batteries is the surface, in particular the evolution of the surface during use. The difficulty is compounded by the combination of limited analytical techniques that can probe the surface and their inherent condition requirements and the variability on the electrode surface depending on electrode processing steps used. Here, Li ion transport behavior in LCO thin films with differently oriented grains is studied by employing Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), conductive atomic force microscopy (c-AFM), and sequential excitation electrochemical strain microscopy (SE-ESM) to study the conductance and surface potential of LCO that are closely related to the local Li ion movement. Varying electric polarities lead to distinct relaxation times due to the attraction or repulsion between Li ions and injected charges, which are experimentally visualized. Notably, a localized charge–discharge behavior can be simulated when conducting c-AFM measurements, which illustrates the impact of these processes on the surface morphology. This study offers insight into the nanoscale surface-focused properties, which can now be tuned by changing the microstructure, and this may lead to improved lithium-ion battery performance.

The authors provide an exact solution to the problem of two atoms interacting in quasi-one-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional optical lattices. Based on the solution, they develop a formalism to determine the effective Hubbard on-site interaction for an optical lattice in a quantum gas microscope, which agrees with spectroscopic measurements.