Decreasing Li/Ni Disorder and Improving the Electrochemical Performances of Ni-Rich LiNi<sub>0.8</sub>Co<sub>0.1</sub>Mn<sub>0.1</sub>O<sub>2</sub> by Ca DopingMinmin Chen, Enyue Zhao, Dongfeng Chen et al.|Inorganic Chemistry|2017 Decreasing Li/Ni disorder has been a challenging problem for layered oxide materials, where disorder seriously restricts their electrochemical performances for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Element doping is a great strategy that has been widely used to stabilize the structure of the cathode material of an LIB and improve its electrochemical performance. On the basis of the results of previous studies, we hypothesized that the element of Ca, which has a lower valence state and larger radius compared to Ni2+, would be an ideal doping element to decrease the Li/Ni disorder of LiMO2 materials and enhance their electrochemical performances. A Ni-rich LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 cathode material was selected as the bare material, which usually shows severe Li/Ni disorder and serious capacity attenuation at a high cutoff voltage. So, a series of Ca-doped LiNi0.8(1–x)Co0.1Mn0.1Ca0.8xO2 (x = 0–8%) samples were synthesized by a traditional solid-state method. As hypothesized, neutron diffraction showed that Ca-doped LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 possessed a lower degree of Li/Ni disorder, and potentiostatic intermittent titration results showed a faster diffusion coefficient of Li+ compared with that of LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2. The Ca-doped LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 samples exhibited higher discharge capacities and better cycle stabilities and rate capabilities, especially under a high cutoff voltage with 4.5 V. In addition, the problems of polarization and voltage reduction of LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 were also alleviated by doping with Ca. More importantly, we infer that it is crucial to choose an appropriate doping element and our findings will help in the research of other layered oxide materials.
Ethylene-vinyl Alcohol Copolymer–Montmorillonite Multilayer Barrier Film Coated with Mulberry Anthocyanin for Freshness MonitoringShaolei Kang, Hualin Wang, Min Guo et al.|Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry|2018 Colorimetric films incorporated with anthocyanins as an indicator for freshness monitoring have aroused growing interest recently. However, the application of the films is limited by the easily oxidizable nature of anthocyanins. In this work, we developed a novel colorimetric film with a barrier by coating mulberry anthocyanin (MBA) on the internal side of an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer–montmorillonite (EVOH–MMT) multilayer film. A facile layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly was employed under a parallel electric field to build the EVOH–MMT multilayer structure, in which the exfoliated MMT nanosheets were well-oriented and assembled on the EVOH matrix to form a tightly stacked layer between two EVOH layers. The interlayer of MMT significantly enhanced the barrier and mechanical properties of the films (below 40 layers). The interactions between EVOH and MMT and between EVOH and MBA were confirmed to be intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The colorimetric response of (EVOH–MMT)40–MBA3 to volatile ammonia and pH was sensitive, and the color change could be easily distinguished by the naked eye. The successful application of (EVOH–MMT)40–MBA3 to shrimp-freshness monitoring confirms its high potential for the freshness monitoring of packaged food.