The popularity of electric vehicles is accelerating the move toward sustainable energy, but millions of end-of-life electric vehicles generated over the next decade pose serious waste management challenges, especially the recycling of spent batteries.Recently, a research group led by Prof. CHEN Zhongwei from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) realized two regeneration routes for scalable and affordable recycling of spent batteries into new lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and their alternatives.This study was published in Nature Sustainability.Various cathode regeneration processes （Image by YANG Tingzhou）In this study, the researchers designed various cathode regeneration methods to recover all high-value elements from Black mass and repurposed them to manufacture new cathode materials for LIBs and post-LIBs, enabling the transition to next-generation sustainable battery systems."The obtained cathode materials for LIBs and transition metal cyanide complex for post-LIBs with optimized microstructure and matched capacity are comparable to or better than commercial ones. Compared to battery packs with commercial materials, the manufacturing costs for LIB and post-LIB packs using our regenerated materials have dropped to an all-time low cost, accompanied by significantly reduced impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, and resource scarcity," said Prof. CHEN.This work was supported by the Power Battery & System Research Center from State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, DICP Foundation, the Dalian Revitalization Talents Program, and the Liaoning Binhai Laboratory. (Text by SHI Xin)

Flexible zinc-air batteries have the advantages of high theoretical energy density, good safety, and low cost, and they have broad application prospects in wearable devices and other fields.The widely used solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) for flexible zinc-air batteries are the gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) composed of KOH solution and inert polymer matrixes. High corrosion of KOH solution and the potential structure instability for GPEs under highly corrosive electrochemical environments cause severe safety risks and battery failure.Anion-exchange membranes (AEMs), another type of SSEs, avoid using highly corrosive solutions. However, the low ion conductivity and poor water uptake of AEMs lead to the fast degradation of battery performance within several hours. Therefore, the main challenge for the applications of flexible zinc-air batteries is the absence of reliable SSEs.Recently, a research group led by Prof. CHEN Zhongwei from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), inspired by plant roots and blood circulation systems, has constructed a safe, environment-friendly, single-anion conductive SSEs with hierarchical ionic highways. They assembled these SSEs on a zinc-air battery, which showed good electrochemical performance and long cycle life. The study was published in Angewandte Chemie-International Edition.Design and fabrication of single-anion conductive SSEs with hierarchical ionic highways for high-performance Zn-air battery（Image by XU Mi）The researchers constructed SSEs by in-situ polymerization of a single OH--conductive ionomer within the hybrid matrix of functional carbon nanotubes and polyacrylamide hydrophilic polymer. They have obtained the fabricated SSEs dual-penetrating ionomer-polymer networks and hierarchical ionic highways, which contributed to mechanical robustness with 1200% stretchability, decent water uptake and retention, and superhigh ion conductivity of 245 mS/cm and good Zn anode reversibility.Moreover, they assembled these SSEs on flexible solid-state zinc-air batteries, delivering a high specific capacity of 764 mAh/g, peak power density of 152 mW/cm2, and sustained good cycling stability for 1050 cycles (350 hours)."This work offers a new paradigm of OH- conductors and broadens the definition and scope of OH- conductors," said Prof. CHEN.This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS, the Energy Revolution S&T Program of Yulin Innovation Institute of Clean Energy, and the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF. (Text by XU Mi)

Halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs), produced by extensively using halogenated compounds, damage the environment. The repurposing of HOPs offers a means of pollution abatement and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.The utility of HOPs, especially halogens in HOPs, is limited due to the challenge of direct chlorination of C–H bonds in HOPs.Recently, a research group led by Prof. CHEN Qingan from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has realized the reuse of HOPs. They developed a bromide-catalyzed chlorine transfer reaction, which utilized HOPs as halogen sources, thereby enabling the reuse of various HOPs. This study was published in Nature Chemistry.Repurposing of halogenated organic pollutants via alkyl bromide-catalysed transfer chlorination (Image by LIU Heng)The developed strategy realized the repurposing of HOPs via alkyl bromide-catalysed transfer chlorination. It enabled the chlorination of ketones and facilitated the chlorohydroxylation of olefins via the chlorine-transfer reaction.The researchers found that the reaction proceeded through a halogen-exchange process, facilitating chlorine transfer between distinct molecules. Therefore, they realized the diversified use of the brominated pollutant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD).In addition, the researchers indicated that this strategy could repurpose a variety of chlorinated organic pollutants, including chlorinated paraffins (CPs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), chloromethyl polystyrene (CMPS) and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). The practical value of this reaction was further shown by synthesizing three pharmaceuticals and reusing PVC waste."Our study demonstrated that transfer chlorination could be facilitated by alkyl bromide catalysis, and the developed strategy will promote the development of transforming waste into value-added products," said Prof. CHEN.The research was supported by DICP, the Dalian Outstanding Young Scientific Talent, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Text by LIU Heng)

Producing valuable multicarbon (C2+) chemicals and fuels like ethylene via catalytic conversion of carbon monoxide (CO) derived from coal, natural gas, and biomass is an important nonpetroleum route. The thermocatalytic CO conversion processes such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) suffer from substantial CO2 emission as well as the formation of undesired methane by-products.Renewable energy-driven CO electrolysis is an emerging catalytic CO conversion route. This reaction proceeds with water as a hydrogen source under ambient conditions and can electrochemically eliminate the formation of CO2 by applying a negative potential on CO molecules.Recently, a research team from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) achieved high-rate electrosynthesis of C2+ chemicals and fuels via CO electrolysis.This study was published in Nature Communications on May 30.High-rate electrosynthesis of multicarbon chemicals and fuels from carbon monoxide (Image by LI Hefei)The researchers developed a Cu nanoparticle catalyst with high-density grain boundaries (GBs) via a facile wet-chemistry synthesis approach. In combination with advanced alkaline membrane electrode assembly electrolyzers developed by the team, they achieved a C2+ partial current density as high as 4.35 A cm-2 at a low cell voltage of 2.78 V, with a C2+ Faradaic efficiency of 87% and a notable C2+ yield as high as 85%.Operando Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation results revealed that the abundant grain boundaries of Cu nanoparticles facilitate CO adsorption and C-C coupling, thus rationalizing the impressive C2+ production.A scale-up demonstration using the above Cu catalyst and an electrolyzer stack with five 100 cm2 membrane electrode assembly achieved high C2+ and ethylene formation rates of 118.9 mmol min-1 and 1.2 L min-1 at a total current of 400 A, respectively."This work demonstrates the great promise of CO electrolysis as a sustainable and practical route for the electrochemical synthesis of valuable C2+ chemicals," said Prof. GAO Dunfeng who is the author of this study. "Our work also highlights the significance of coupling catalyst design and device design in developing highly-efficient electrolysis technology," said Prof. WANG Guoxiong who is another author of this study.The above work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program, and the Youth Innovation Fund of DICP. (Text by GAO Dunfeng)

Microbial biosynthesis provides a feasible approach to sustainably produce advanced biofuels and biochemicals from renewable feedstocks. Methanol is an ideal feedstock for bio-manufacturing since it can be produced from CO2 through green energy, such as solar energy.Recently, A joint research group led by Prof. ZHOU Yongjin and Prof. ZHANG Lihua from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) engineered and optimized Pichia pastoris for bioproduction of α-bisabolene from sole methanol with the aid of proteomics.This study was published in JACS Au on April 29.Engineering α-bisabolene production from sole methanol might provide a sustainable approach for advanced biofuel production (Imaged by GAO Linhui)The researchers extensively engineered industrial yeast Pichia pastoris for overproduction of bisabolene by optimizing isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway in Pichia pastoris cytosol and peroxisome. By quantitative proteomic analysis, they have identified that acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase was a bottleneck in the peroxisomal isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway. And they enhanced the expression of acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase to improve the α-bisabolene biosynthesis by 100%, which realized 1.1 g/L α-bisabolene production under fed-batch in shake-flask.This study provides a feasible approach for optimizing the metabolic pathway for overproduction of other chemicals from sole methanol in Pichia pastoris."Engineering α-bisabolene production from sole methanol might provide a sustainable approach for advanced biofuel production," Prof. ZHOU said. "We here clearly showed that proteomic analysis can help to optimize the biosynthetic pathway by identifying the pathway bottleneck," Prof. ZHANG said.

Plastics are one of the most produced synthetic materials and the largest commodities, making our lives convenient and facilitating industrial processes.The global production of plastics was reported to reach 9.2 billion tons in 2020, and it is still increasing every year. Among them, polyolefins, represented by polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), account for about 55% of the total plastics. However, only about 10% of plastic wastes were recycled due to their chemical inertness.Recently, a research group led by Prof. PAN Xiulian from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) achieved the upcycling of polyolefin waste plastics and carbon dioxide (CO2) to aromatics with a high selectivity. This study was published in the journal of National Science Review.Scheme of upcycling polyolefin waste plastics and CO2 to aromatics (Image by DING Yi)Inspired by the concept of oxide-zeolite (OXZEO) bifunctional catalysts for syngas conversion and CO2 hydrogenation, the researchers designed a bifunctional catalyst composed of ZSM-5 zeolite and Pt/MnOx for combined upcycling of polyolefin plastics and CO2 neutralization. ZSM-5 catalyzed the cracking of polyolefins and aromatization, generating hydrogen simultaneously while Pt/MnOx catalyzed the reaction of hydrogen with CO2, consequently driving the reaction toward aromatization. CO2 acted not only as a hydrogen scavenger but also as a carbon source that was incorporated into the aromatic-products.With this bifunctional catalyst, the researchers proved that 1.0 kg polyolefin consumed 0.2 kg CO2, and 90% of the consumed CO2 was incorporated into the aromatic products. It yielded 0.63 kg aromatics, 0.28 kg liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and naphtha, with monocyclic aromatics accounting for 87% and benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) accounting for 60% of the aromatics. By contrast, the conventional pyrolysis or hydrocracking processes produced only 0.33 kg aromatics at 300 °C and 1 MPa.Furthermore, the researchers indicated that this designed bifunctional catalyst enabled upcycling of different polyolefins, including polyethylene, polypropylene, and their plastic products in different forms."We not only achieved the selective production of high value-added aromatic hydrocarbons such as BTX from waste polyolefin plastics under mild conditions but also provided a new strategy for the utilization of CO2," said Prof. PAN.