Xiwen Chi

All Publications

• NiSO4-Driven In Situ Alloy Formation To Unlock Highly Reversible Iron Electrochemistry in Aqueous Batteries. Journal of the American Chemical Society Feng, G., Liu, Z., Li, J., Li, Y., Guan, X., Ravi, A., Liu, C., Chi, X., Ai, H., Zheng, X., Cui, Y. 2026

  Abstract

  Grid-scale stationary energy storage requires technologies that are both safe and economically viable. Iron (Fe) metal-based aqueous batteries offer an attractive option owing to the abundance, low cost, and environmental benignity of iron, but their development has been hampered by uncontrolled hydrogen evolution and poor reversibility of iron plating and stripping. Here, we report using nickel sulfate (NiSO4) as an electrolyte additive to induce the in situ formation of a FeNi3 alloy interphase during early cycling. This alloy lowers the Fe nucleation barrier and promotes uniform iron deposition. Moreover, dynamic codeposition and stripping of Ni with Fe sustains fast reaction kinetics and stabilizes the alloy interphase during long-term cycling. As a result, Fe||Fe symmetric cells achieve over 3000 h of stable cycling, nearly an order of magnitude improvement over the baseline electrolyte. Fe||Cu cells with NiSO4 additives enable stable long-term cycling with a high average Coulombic efficiency (CE) of ∼99.4%, while the control electrolyte rapidly fails with an average CE of 82.9%. These findings demonstrate that functional electrolyte additives and the controlled alloying interphase provide a viable pathway to high-performance, cost-effective iron metal-based aqueous batteries for large-scale energy storage.

  View details for DOI 10.1021/jacs.5c15954

  View details for PubMedID 41593008

• Programmable Food-Derived Peptide Coassembly Strategies for Boosting Targeted Colitis Therapy by Enhancing Oral Bioavailability and Restoring Gut Microenvironment Homeostasis. ACS nano Yang, M., Liu, J., Liu, C., Zhang, H., Li, S., Zhang, T., Yu, Z., Chi, X., Zhang, Z., Du, Z. 2025

  Abstract

  Orally targeting nanostrategies of multiple nutraceuticals have attracted increasing attention in ulcerative colitis (UC) therapy for superior patient compliance, cost-effectiveness, and biocompatibility. However, the actual targeting delivery and bioefficacy of nutraceuticals are extremely restricted by their poor solubility, interior gastrointestinal retention, and base permeability. Herein, we developed controllable colon-targeting nanoparticles (NPs) composed of a quaternary ammonium chitosan (HTCC) shell and succinic acid-modified γ-cyclodextrin (SACD) core for precise UC treatment. Egg white-derived peptides (EWDP, typical food-derived peptides) could not only function as potential cross-linkers to induce the differential coassembly with the above biopolymers but also aid the hydrophobic curcumin (Cur) solubility as well as nutrition enhancers for oral synergism of colitis therapy. More specifically, NPs with higher EWDP coassembly efficiency exhibited better pH-sensitive colloidal tunability (e.g., smaller size, higher rigidity, and roughness) and robust nutraceuticals (EWDP/Cur) coloading capacity (24.0-33.2% ≫ 10%, pH 2.0-7.0). Compared with pure nutraceuticals, NPs exhibited excellent cellular absorption (almost 10 times) and oral bioavailability (4.19-5.05 times) enhancement via faster mucus permeation and macropinocytosis transport, indirectly regulating the systemic inflammatory response. The sustainable sequential release and targeted accumulation profiles of NPs directly facilitated the interactions with the colonic microenvironment, verified by the intestinal barrier recovery and gut microbiota restoration. Moreover, the critical role of amino acid metabolism reconfirmed the importance of EWDP coassembly efficiency in maintaining intestinal homeostasis. Overall, this study would provide a facile, quantitative, and versatile perspective into the programmable design of food-derived peptide (e.g., EWDP) coassembled nanoplatforms for oral targeted therapy of UC.

  View details for DOI 10.1021/acsnano.4c11108

  View details for PubMedID 39745599

• In situ formation of liquid crystal interphase in electrolytes with soft templating effects for aqueous dual-electrode-free batteries NATURE ENERGY Li, Y., Zheng, X., Carlson, E. Z., Xiao, X., Chi, X., Greenburg, L. C., Zhang, G., Zhang, E., Liu, C., Yang, Y., Kim, M., Feng, G., Zhang, P., Su, H., Guan, X., Zhou, J., Wu, Y., Xue, Z., Li, W., Bajdich, M., Cui, Y. 2024

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41560-024-01638-z

  View details for Web of Science ID 001317361000002