Newswise — Liquid electrolytes enable fast ion transport but can raise safety concerns, and lithium metal anodes—despite their high capacity—can grow dendrites that trigger short circuits and rapid failure. Solid polymer electrolytes are attractive because they are processable and potentially compatible with lithium metal, yet many polymer systems (especially PEO-based) become highly crystalline at room temperature, restricting Li⁺ mobility. Adding plasticizers can improve conductivity, but excessive softening may weaken mechanical protection and destabilize interfaces. Meanwhile, strengthening the polymer often worsens ionic transport, leaving researchers stuck between conductivity and robustness. Based on these challenges, deeper research is needed to develop solid polymer electrolytes that simultaneously deliver high ionic conductivity and high mechanical strength.

Researchers at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University report a fiber-reinforced composite solid polymer electrolyte designed to overcome the long-standing “conductivity–strength” dilemma in polymer-based solid-state batteries. In a study published (DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3515-3) online on January 19, 2026 in the Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, the team shows that combining a porous PTFE fibrous membrane (as a reinforcing framework) with the plastic-crystal additive succinonitrile yields an electrolyte that is both mechanically robust and electrochemically effective for lithium metal battery operation.

The team’s concept borrows from structural engineering: a lightweight porous framework provides mechanical reinforcement, while the polymer phase supplies ion transport. They infiltrated a PEO/PVDF-HFP/LiTFSI matrix containing succinonitrile into a porous PTFE fibrous membrane via solution casting, aiming for uniform filling and intimate interfacial contact. Microscopy suggests the PTFE scaffold helps “hold” the electrolyte in a continuous network, while the succinonitrile component improves wetting and reduces PEO crystallinity—two factors expected to open faster Li⁺ pathways.

Material optimization mattered. At an optimized 20 wt% succinonitrile, the electrolyte achieved an ionic conductivity of 7.6×10⁻⁴ S·cm⁻¹ at 60 °C while retaining strong mechanical performance, reaching 3.31 MPa tensile strength with 352% elongation—a combination intended to resist dendrite penetration without sacrificing flexibility. Electrochemically, the composite sustained lithium symmetric-cell cycling for about 2,500 hours at 0.15 mA·cm⁻², indicating stable interfacial behavior during repeated plating/stripping. In Li//LiFePO₄ full cells, the electrolyte delivered durable cycling with 91.6% capacity retention after 300 cycles at 0.5C and coulombic efficiency consistently above 99.9%, supporting the claim that the composite design improves both stability and longevity.

According to the authors, the performance comes from a deliberate “division of labor” inside the composite. The PTFE fibrous membrane acts as a thermally stable, mechanically strong backbone that helps maintain structural integrity under cycling stress. Succinonitrile suppresses polymer crystallinity and promotes faster Li⁺ transport, while PVDF-HFP improves salt dissolution and contributes to electrochemical stability. Together, these components create a reinforced yet conductive electrolyte architecture that can be fabricated by straightforward casting and still deliver long-duration symmetric-cell stability and reliable full-cell cycling.

For solid-state lithium metal batteries to become practical, electrolytes must be manufacturable at scale, mechanically resilient, and consistently conductive—especially under conditions where dendrites are likely. This work points to a pragmatic materials strategy: instead of chasing a single “perfect” polymer, build composites in which a porous fiber scaffold provides structural protection and a carefully tuned additive accelerates ion transport. The demonstrated thousands-hour lithium cycling stability and strong capacity retention in LiFePO₄ full cells suggest potential for safer, longer-lived energy storage. If the approach translates to broader cathode chemistries and lower-temperature operation, it could help move polymer-based solid-state batteries closer to real-world deployment.

###

References

DOI

10.1007/s10118-025-3515-3

Original Souce URL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-025-3515-3

Funding information

This research was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFB3801500) and Fundamental Research Funds of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (No. 24202105-Y).

About Chinese Journal of Polymer Science (CJPS)

Chinese Journal of Polymer Science (CJPS) is a monthly journal published in English and sponsored by the Chinese Chemical Society and the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. CJPS is edited by a distinguished Editorial Board headed by Professor Qi-Feng Zhou and supported by an International Advisory Board in which many famous active polymer scientists all over the world are included. Manuscript types include Editorials, Rapid Communications, Perspectives, Tutorials, Feature Articles, Reviews and Research Articles. According to the Journal Citation Reports, 2024 Impact Factor (IF) of CJPS is 4.0.

Newswise — MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (03/18/2026) — University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers working on the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) experiment are part of a team who successfully cooled the experiment to its base temperature—the temperature required for the superconducting detectors to become operational, which is hundreds of times colder than outer space.

Reaching base temperature marks a major transition for SuperCDMS, from construction and installation to commissioning and science operations. For SuperCDMS, that temperature is thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, where atomic and molecular motion ceases.

The experiment is designed to detect dark matter particles—mysterious particles that make up 85 percent of all matter in the Universe—that are already passing through Earth. Dark matter remains strange and illusive but tremendously important to our understanding of nature, from the most fundamental particles to origins and evolution of the Universe.

“Getting to base temperature is a major milestone in a years-long campaign to build a low-background facility capable of housing our sensitive cryogenic solid state detectors,” said Priscilla Cushman, a professor in the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy and the Spokesperson of SuperCDMS. “At these extremely low temperatures, our installed detectors can now scan a whole new region of parameter space where the lightest dark matter particles may be lurking.”

The University of Minnesota team designed, procured, and assembled the low background shield that protects the detectors from trace radioactivity and neutrons produced by high-energy cosmic rays in the cavern walls. The four-meter tall, four-meter-diameter cylindrical enclosure is made of layers of ultra-pure lead to stop the gammas and high-density polyethylene to moderate the neutrons. 

In addition to major roles in the installation and cooldown of the experiment, University of Minnesota researchers have developed new reconstruction algorithms and analysis techniques designed to rapidly extract dark matter signals from the data that will be flowing in a few months. The group is at the forefront of the science effort, with the help of School of Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Yan Liu, who is the Analysis Working Group Chair for the experiment.

The SuperCDMS experiment is sited at SNOLAB, a research facility located roughly 6,800 feet underground in an active nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario. Buried at this depth, the experiment is protected from cosmic rays and other background particles that could drown out the faint signals scientists are trying to observe.

With base temperature achieved, the collaboration will move into detector commissioning, a months-long process of turning on, calibrating and optimizing each detector channel. Beyond dark matter, SuperCDMS will allow scientists to study rare isotopes, probe energies no one has measured before and maybe uncover entirely new kinds of particle interactions.

The SuperCDMS experiment is a joint project of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

In addition to Cushman and Liu, the University of Minnesota team includes postdoctoral researchers Shubham Pandey and Himangshu Neog, research scientist Scott Fallows, and graduate students, Zachary Williams, Elliott Tanner and Chi Cap—all from the School of Physics and Astronomy.

For more information about the SuperCDMS experiment and collaboration, visit the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory website. Read the news release on the SLAC website.

Newswise — Lithium-ion batteries currently dominate portable electronics and electric vehicles, but the uneven distribution and high cost of lithium resources have raised concerns about long-term supply. Sodium-ion batteries have emerged as a promising alternative because sodium is abundant, inexpensive, and widely distributed. Among the many cathode materials studied, layered transition-metal oxides have attracted particular attention due to their high capacity and relatively simple synthesis. However, these materials suffer from several major limitations, including structural instability, complex phase transitions during cycling, and poor air stability. When exposed to moisture or carbon dioxide, the active sodium can react to form inactive compounds, blocking ion transport and reducing battery performance. Based on these challenges, further research is needed to develop more stable cathode structures for sodium-ion batteries.

Researchers from Central South University and collaborating institutions reported (DOI: 10.1002/cey2.70115) a new cathode design strategy in the journal Carbon Energy that enhances the stability of sodium-ion batteries. The study introduces a layered cathode material with a radial gradient distribution of sodium content, phase structure, and transition-metal valence states. This structural design simultaneously improves ion transport kinetics and resistance to environmental degradation. By preventing harmful reactions with water and carbon dioxide, the cathode maintains its electrochemical performance even under humid conditions, addressing one of the key challenges limiting the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries.

To construct the gradient structure, the team first synthesized nickel–manganese hydroxide precursors with a core–shell configuration using a controlled coprecipitation method. The inner core consisted mainly of Ni₀.₅Mn₀.₅(OH)₂, while the outer layer had a different composition, forming a radial concentration gradient. During subsequent solid-state sintering, elemental diffusion gradually blurred the interface between layers, generating a continuous transition from an outer P2/O3 mixed phase to an inner O3 phase structure.

Advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques confirmed the presence of radial gradients in sodium concentration, phase distribution, and transition-metal valence states. This architecture provides multiple functional advantages. The surface P2/O3 mixed phase increases the oxidation state of transition metals, suppressing Na⁺/H⁺ exchange reactions and improving resistance to water and CO₂. Meanwhile, the O3 phase in the interior maintains high sodium storage capacity.

Electrochemical tests showed that the optimized material delivered significantly improved cycling stability compared with the conventional cathode. After 200 cycles, the modified sample retained about 80% of its capacity, whereas the unmodified material retained only about 21%. The gradient structure also enhanced sodium-ion diffusion kinetics and reduced polarization during charge and discharge.
Importantly, the cathode demonstrated remarkable environmental stability. Even after 10 hours of exposure to humid air containing CO₂, the material maintained a first-cycle capacity of 103.8 mAh g⁻¹, and the capacity loss decreased dramatically from 50.12% to 12.35%.

According to the researchers, the success of the design lies in integrating multiple stability mechanisms into a single architecture. The radial gradient structure simultaneously regulates composition, phase distribution, and electronic states across the material. This approach not only stabilizes the crystal lattice during repeated sodium insertion and extraction but also protects the surface from environmental reactions. The team notes that such structural engineering could serve as a general strategy for designing next-generation cathode materials with improved durability and safety, especially for large-scale energy storage technologies where cost and long-term stability are critical.

The findings provide an important step toward the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries. Because sodium is abundant and inexpensive, these batteries are considered strong candidates for grid-scale energy storage, renewable energy integration, and backup power systems. However, poor air stability of cathode materials has been a major obstacle to practical deployment. The gradient-structured cathode introduced in this study addresses this issue by preventing moisture- and CO₂-induced degradation while maintaining high electrochemical performance. In the future, similar gradient design strategies could be applied to other battery materials, accelerating the development of cost-effective and environmentally resilient energy storage technologies for the global transition toward clean energy.

###

References

DOI

10.1002/cey2.70115

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1002/cey2.70115

Funding information

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52202338).

About Carbon Energy

Carbon Energy is an open access energy technology journal publishing innovative interdisciplinary clean energy research from around the world. The journal welcomes contributions detailing cutting-edge energy technology involving carbon utilization and carbon emission control, such as energy storage, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis and thermocatalysis.

BYLINE: Lauren Biron

Newswise — Although dark matter makes up most of the mass in our universe, it has never been directly observed. To hunt for lighter dark matter and other rare phenomena, researchers must solve a puzzle in their supersensitive detectors: an unexpected number of low-energy events, called the “low-energy excess” or LEE, that can obscure the rare signals they seek.

In a study published on Dec. 30, 2025, in Applied Physics Letters, researchers with the TESSERACT (Transition-Edge Sensors with Sub-EV Resolution And Cryogenic Targets) experiment identified one of the culprits behind the low-energy excess. They found that the noise comes not from the electronics or the surrounding environment, but from tiny bursts of vibrational energy within the silicon crystal of the detectors themselves. And the thicker the silicon, the more LEE events there are.

Since at least some LEE events come from tiny changes in the detector material itself, researchers estimate they also cause problems in superconducting qubits, the sensitive building blocks of quantum computers that are often made of silicon. The bursts of energy can create “quasiparticles” that disturb a qubit’s fragile quantum state, causing it to decohere or fail. So even in carefully shielded quantum systems, some errors could be coming from inside the house.

“Quantum computers could perform calculations our current systems can’t, but only if people can make qubits that are stable,” said Dan McKinsey, the director of TESSERACT and a scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), which leads the experiment. “Because the detectors we use for our dark matter experiment have a similar backbone to what is in qubits, by understanding a problem in particle physics, we’re also getting information on how to improve the quantum computing side.”

To pinpoint where LEE events were coming from, TESSERACT collaborators fabricated superconducting phonon sensors (which pick up quantum vibrations, or phonons) on two nearly identical silicon chips that were 1 and 4 millimeters thick. In both detectors, the number of events decreased over time as they were cooled, and the thicker chip saw four times as many low-energy events — pointing to the volume of silicon itself as the source, rather than outside causes.

Now that the scientific community knows the number of LEE events relates to how thick the silicon is, some groups will be able to improve their sensors simply by scaling back how much silicon they use. But it’s still just the first step in understanding exactly what causes the bursts of energy and finding an engineering solution to get rid of the background noise completely.

“Superconducting qubits for computers are designed to ignore the environment so that their quantum state survives,” said Matt Pyle, a TESSERACT collaborator, associate professor at UC Berkeley, and researcher at Berkeley Lab. “In contrast, our photon and phonon sensors use similar technology, but they’re designed to be incredibly sensitive to their environment so that they can sense dark matter. That makes our detectors unique and powerful tools for diagnosing environmental sources that cause decoherence and limit quantum computers.”

During the experiment, TESSERACT’s thinner detector also achieved a world-leading energy resolution of 258.5 millielectronvolts. That means it could distinguish between two events with energies differing by only a few hundredths of an electronvolt, several times smaller than the amount of energy carried by a single particle of visible light. That precision will allow scientists to distinguish extremely faint signals from background noise, essential for tracking down dark matter.

TESSERACT is currently in the prototype and construction phase, and will eventually be installed in France’s Modane Underground Laboratory. The TESSERACT collaboration also includes researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, Caltech, Florida State University, IJCLab (Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Iréne Joliot-Curie), IP2I (Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon), LPSC (Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie), Texas A&M University, UC Berkeley, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Zürich, and QUP (the International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles).

###

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

A drone attack at the United Arab Emirates’ key oil trading hub of Fujairah triggered a large fire, authorities said on Monday, with no injuries reported.

“Civil Defense teams in the Emirate immediately responded to the incident and are continuing their efforts to control it,” Fujairah Media Office said on social media, according to a Google translation.

Oil loading operations at the major oil bunkering hub had been suspended as a result of the drone attack, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed sources. CNBC has contacted the UAE’s ADNOC and is awaiting a response.

The attack comes after a separate drone strike and fire at Fujairah on Saturday, underlining the vulnerability of the UAE’s only export route that bypasses the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

Shipping traffic through one of the world’s most important energy choke points has virtually ground to a halt since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran has retaliated by targeting ships trying to pass through the maritime corridor, with several incidents reported in recent days.