One-dimensional nanomaterials can offer large surface area, facile strain relaxation upon cycling and efficient electron transport pathway to achieve high electrochemical performance. Hence, nanowires have attracted increasing interest in energy related fields. We designed the single nanowire electrochemical device for in situ probing the direct relationship between electrical transport, structure, and electrochemical properties of the single nanowire electrode to understand intrinsic reason of capacity fading. The results show that during the electrochemical reaction, conductivity of the nanowire electrode decreased, which limits the cycle life of the devices.¹ Then, the prelithiation and Langmuir-Blodgett technique have been used to improve cycling properties of nanowire electrode. Recently, we have fabricated hierarchical MnMoO₄/CoMoO₄ heterostructured nanowires by combining "oriented attachment" and "self-assembly".² The asymmetric supercapacitors based on the hierarchical heterostructured nanowires show a high specific capacitance and good reversibility with a cycling efficiency of 98% after 1,000 cycles. Furthermore, we fabricated Li-air battery based on hierarchical mesoporous LSCO nanowires and nonaqueous electrolytes, which exhibits ultrahigh capacity over 11000 mAh g^-1.³ We also designed the general synthesis of complex nanotubes by gradient electrospinning, including Li₃V₂(PO₄)₃, Na_0.7Fe_0.7Mn_0.3O₂ and Co₃O₄ mesoporous nanotubes, which exhibit ultrastable electrochemical performance when used in lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, respectively.⁴ In addition, we fabricated all-solid-state 3D on-chip micropseudocapacitors with ultrahigh energy and power densities.⁵ Our work presented here can inspire new thought in constructing novel one-dimensional structures and accelerate the development of energy storage applications.

Reference

[1] L. Q. Mai, Y. J. Dong, L. Xu, C. H. Han. Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 4273;

[2] L. Q. Mai, F. Yang, Y. L. Zhao, X. Xu, L. Xu, Y. Z. Lou. Nature Commun. 2011, 2, 381;

[3] Y. L. Zhao, L. Xu, L. Q. Mai, C. H. Han, Q. Y. An, X. Xu, X. Liu, Q. J. Zhang. PNAS. 2012, 109, 19569;

[4] C. J. Niu, J. S. Meng, X. P. Wang, C. H. Han, M. Y. Yan, K. N. Zhao, X. M. Xu, W. H. Ren, Y. L. Zhao, L. Xu, Q. J. Zhang, D. Y. Zhao, L. Q. Mai. Nature Commun. 2015, 6, 7402;

[5] X. C. Tian, M. Z. Shi, X. Xu, M. Y. Yan, L. Xu, A. Minhas-Khan, C. H. Han, L. He, L. Q. Mai. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 7476.