The evolving oxygen state plays key roles in the performance and stability of high-energy batteries involving oxygen redox reactions. Comparison of the mRIXS profiles of four different oxygen states reveals that oxygen redox states in batteries have distinct widths and positions along the excitation energy. Read more »
How a New Electrocatalyst Enables Ultrafast Reactions
With key data from the ALS, researchers discovered how a new, low-cost electrocatalyst enables an important oxygen reaction to proceed at an ultrafast rate. The work provides rational guidance for the development of better electrocatalysts for applications such as hydrogen-fuel production and long-range batteries for electric vehicles. Read more »
Fingerprint Oxygen Redox Reactions in Batteries through High-Efficiency Mapping of Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering
We provide a comprehensive analysis and an explicit interpretation of the five evolving components of O-K mRIXS of the typical battery electrode that involves lattice oxygen redox reactions upon cycling. This work is the first benchmark for a complete assignment of all the important mRIXS features collected from battery materials, and thus delivers guidelines for future studies of oxygen redox reactions. Read more »
Reversible Lattice-Oxygen Reactions in Batteries
Researchers quantified a strong, beneficial, and reversible (over hundreds of cycles) chemical reaction involving oxygen ions in the crystal lattice of battery electrode materials. The results open up new ways to explore how to pack more energy into batteries with electrodes made out of low-cost, common materials. Read more » 
Plumbing the Depths of Interfaces and Finding Buried Treasure
Understanding the interfaces where solids and liquids meet is key to controlling a wide range of energy-relevant processes, from how batteries store energy to how metals corrode, and more. Now researchers have explored such interfaces and found what they describe as a treasure trove of unexpected results that expands our understanding of working interfaces and how to probe them. Read more »
Getting to the Bottom of a Metal/Acid Interface
Researchers identified the molecules that collect at the interface between a platinum electrode and an acidic electrolyte under an applied voltage. Knowledge of the structure and composition of such nanometer-thin interface regions is key to understanding topics such as corrosion, geochemistry, electrocatalysis, and energy storage. Read more »
New Manganese Materials Bolster Cathode Capacity
The most expensive component of a battery, the cathode, requires rare transition metals like cobalt. Previous attempts to replace cobalt with inexpensive and non-toxic manganese delivered insufficient performance. Now, researchers have optimized the composition of high-energy-density, high-capacity manganese-based cathodes. Read more »
Graphene-Based Catalyst Improves Peroxide Production
Scientists characterized a graphene-based electrocatalyst that potentially makes the production of hydrogen peroxide more selective, efficient, and cost effective. Hydrogen peroxide is an important commodity chemical with growing demand in many areas, including the electronics industry, wastewater treatment, and paper recycling. Read more »
New Clues to Oxygen’s Role in Higher-Capacity Batteries
As battery electrodes, layered transition-metal (TM) oxides demonstrate storage capacities far beyond what’s explained solely by TM redox activity. In this work, measurements of the lattice oxygen redox activity in two lithium-rich layered oxides showed strong oxygen redox when manganese was the TM, but not with ruthenium. Read more »
A facile route for the synthesis of heterogeneous crystal structures in hierarchical architectures with vacancy-driven defects via the oriented attachment growth mechanism
TiO2 nanorod arrays based on substrates with heterogeneous crystal structures and remarkable crystalline stability have potential as promising photocatalysts. Researchers synthesized a 1D anatase/rutile heterogeneous TiO2 crystal structure in a hierarchical architecture by forming hybrid organic–inorganic interfaces in a solution-based environment. Read more »