Inner-shell electrons enable both high power and energy densities
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Updated: May 14, 2025

Preparation and Reactivity of Gasless Nanostructured Energetic Materials
Published on: April 2, 2015
Yi Jiang1, Kaiwen Zeng1, Zhe Yang1
1State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Institute of Fiber Materials and Devices, and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
Abstract:
Energy supply technologies are mainly based on lithium-ion batteries, which are approaching their theoretical power density of 1901 W⋅L-1 and energy density of 568 Wh⋅kg-1 with the use of outer-shell electrons. The above limitations are recognized as a critical problem in energy science and have severely hindered the development of modern electronics. Herein, we explore the potential of utilizing the transition of inner-shell electrons for energy conversion. Flexible Atomic Code on the radiative recombination of highly charged xenon ions with free electrons shows a radiative power output of 2.35 × 105 W⋅L-1 and an energy release of 8.65 × 107 Wh⋅kg-1 under specific ion and electron density conditions. This finding suggests a promising strategy to discover new energy technologies with extremely high power and energy densities in the future.
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