The electrochemical discharge mechanism is reported for all-solid lithium sulfur batteries. Upon milling with carbon fibers, the solid electrolyte used within the cathode composite becomes electrochemically active. Analysis with Raman spectroscopy and XPS revealed the importance of bridging S-S bond formation and breaking in lithium polysulfidophosphates during electrochemical lithiation of the active solid electrolyte. Remarkably, when sulfur is introduced as an active material in the cathode composite, lithium polysulfides are formed as an intermediate product before full lithiation into lithium sulfide. The synthesis of materials based on bridging S-S bonds is an important avenue to the design of new cathodes for all-solid batteries.

Anti-black prejudice affects how some citizens evaluate black candidates. What does it take to reduce the role of prejudice in these evaluations? Using logical implications of relevant psychological phenomena, this article shows that repeated exposure to counter-stereotypical information is insufficient to reduce evaluative prejudice. Instead, citizens must associate this prejudice with adverse effects for themselves in contexts that induce them to rethink their existing racial beliefs. These findings explain important disagreements in empirical prejudice research, as only some empirical research designs supply the conditions for prejudice reduction predicted here. This study also clarifies why similarly situated citizens react so differently to counter-stereotypical information. In sum, we find that prejudice change is possible, but in a far narrower set of circumstances than many scholars claim.

Three-dimensional (3D) battery architectures have emerged as a new direction for powering microelectromechanical systems and other small autonomous devices. Although there are few examples to date of fully functioning 3D batteries, these power sources have the potential to achieve high power density and high energy density in a small footprint. This overview highlights the various architectures proposed for 3D batteries, the advances made in the fabrication of components designed for these devices, and the remaining technical challenges. Efforts directed at establishing design rules for 3D architectures and modeling are providing insight concerning the energy density and current uniformity achievable with these architectures. The significant progress made on the fabrication of electrodes and electrolytes designed for 3D batteries is an indication that a number of these battery architectures will be successfully demonstrated within the next few years.