Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry A Recent Review Articles

This review summarizes the recent progress made in electrocatalysts with regard to oxygen evolution reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, and CO₂ reduction reaction by means of in situ X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

CO₂-switchable membranes represent an exciting separation technology based on gas-tunable pore sizes and surface properties.

Critical assessment of the present status of HEA NPs as catalysts, including an in-depth discussion of computational studies, combinatorial screening, or machine-learning studies to find the optimum composition and structure of HEA electrocatalysts.

Enhancing bulk perovskite photovoltaics by integrating perovskites and metal chalcogenide quantum dots.

This work researches and proposes methods for accelerating durability studies for the electroreduction of CO₂ to value added chemicals.

The design of dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole (DTP) based FREAs and dopant-free HTMs for record high power conversion efficiency and stable solar cells is updated to give insightful view on material design and device strategies to boast photovoltaic performance.

This review highlights recent pioneering studies involving the practical applications of organic thermoelectric devices.

Direct Ink Writing (DIW) potential in developing multi-material structures.

An overview of a variety of advanced alloy materials for catalytic use is provided.

Various types of molecular stacking can form in NFAs, which influence light absorption and efficiency of organic solar cells.

In the quest for finding non-toxic and stable lead-free perovskite nanocrystals (NCs), bismuth halide perovskites (BHP) have emerged as a promising alternative. This perspective presents an overview, challenges, and future opportunities in BHP NCs.

The desired properties, potential synthesis strategies, and an evaluation guideline of the electrodes are discussed with the review of the existing electrodes.

Highly efficient chalcopyrite photovoltaic cells display complex distributions of sodium dopant and gallium: how are these distributions related to each other?

Recent progress in the synthesis, modification, and application of Li-argyrodite-based solid-state electrolytes has been summarized.

Strategies for enhancing the electrocatalytic activities of transition metal chalcogenides by increasing the number of active sites and intrinsic activity.

This review elaborates on the decay mechanism of aluminum anodes from five different aspects and their modification from four different aspects.

Among the diverse graphitic carbon nitride (CN) nanostructures, CN nanotubes (CNNTs) are currently attracting increasing interest due to the appealing properties of CN and the geometric advantages of one-dimensional (1D) nanotubes.

The flexible materials, nanomaterials, and fabrication strategy of flexible sensors with stretchable and self-healing properties were reviewed.

This review focused on the surfactant-assisted synthesis of metal phosphate-based materials and summarized their potential based on the design of a mesoporous structure as well as the composition and crystal structure of the inorganic frameworks.

Great advances in rechargeable Mg batteries have been achieved. Through further exploration, their commercial application in the large-scale energy storage market will be realized soon.

Solar-driven evaporation as a promising and sustainable approach to convert solar energy into freshwater resource is attracting huge interest in the research community. This review aims to summarize the recent advances in system designs of solar-driven evaporation devices.

This review summarizes the recent progress of 3D network binders in silicon anodes with focusing on diverse crosslinking methods, and proposes a rational design principle.

The complex behaviour of layered oxide cathode materials at high voltages currently limits the energy densities which can be achieved by sodium-ion batteries.

The development of advanced functional materials is of great significance for applications in energy storage and conversion fields.

The recent advances in photo-promoted CO₂ hydrogenation over solid catalysts have been reviewed.

Recent theoretical and experimental studies for cation substitution in kesterite-based materials were summarized, with a particular focus on inhibiting defects for mitigating V_oc,def.

We highlight the recent advances of two-electron ORR catalysts for H₂O₂ synthesis and provide a state-of-the-art understanding of pH effects.

This review provides perspectives on metal sulfide-based gas sensors, including the crystal structure, gas sensing mechanisms, applications, and strengths–weaknesses–opportunities–threats (SWOT) analysis.

N-doped biochars (NPCs) derived from waste biomass are promising materials for the removal of acid gases, while waste biomass is a cheap and sustainable resource.

The separation mechanism and material design of advanced PEO membranes for CO₂ capture have been reviewed in detail and further directions in this field have been provided.

This review presents recent advances in the development of piezoelectric halide perovskite materials for high-performance piezoelectric nanogenerators.

Photo-driven Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) provides a attractive and sustainable alternative compared to traditional FTS. This minireview expatiates the recent advances of various metal-based catalysts for photo-driven FTS.

This review comprehensively introduced the electromagnetic wave absorbing and shielding (EMAS) materials with macrostructures and the multifunctionality of some advanced EMAS materials.

In this review, wood-based composites for efficient EMI shielding and MA are comprehensively introduced.

Bismuth-based nanomaterials comprise a rich family of narrow bandgap photocatalysts, providing excellent opportunities for converting sunlight into chemical energy. This article is believed to promote the development of efficient photocatalysts.

Fuel cell is an electrochemical device, which can directly convert the chemical energy of fuel into electric energy, without heat process, not limited by Carnot cycle, high energy conversion efficiency, no noise and pollution.

Carbon foam is a representative of porous-structured carbon material, which has attracted increasing attention from academic communities and industry because of its unique 3D porous structure and excellent performance for various applications.

LDHs have drawn great attention in Li–S batteries due to their various morphologies and topological transformation characteristics. We highlight recent advances of LDHs used in Li–S batteries and review its challenges in this area.

This review elaborates on the advantages of antiferroelectrics for energy storage applications and summarizes recent research activities on two lead-free antiferroelectric niobates.

Hydrogen production as very attractive clean energy technology has sparked the accelerated development of catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) towards efficient photo- and electrolytic water splitting.

Recent advances in non-Cu catalysts for electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to multi-carbon products are summarized, focusing on C–C bond formation mechanisms.

This review highlights recent design strategies used to fabricate high performance complex alloy catalysts for ORR and OER, including composition regulation, size optimization, morphology control, structure engineering, and interface engineering.

A comprehensive review on TOSCs, which can provide valuable guidance for the further development of high-performance TOSCs with good stability.

The systematic summarization of synthesis–structure–property–mechanism correlations provides guidance for the rational design of an atomically dispersed M–N–C catalyst for the ORR.

This review summaries recent progress of noble-metal-free electrocatalysts toward H₂O₂ production including carbon-based materials, metal compounds, single atom catalysts and metal complexes.

Electrocatalysts with high HER activity can be used as co-catalysts to improve the P-HER performance of photocatalysts.

Conductive polymer hydrogels, which combine the advantages of both polymers and conductive materials, have huge potential in flexible supercapacitors.

Radiation holds great potential to energize the synthesis and modification of nanomaterials with high efficiency, simplicity, scalability, and environmental friendliness.

Illustration of a flexible Na-ion battery system with associated components.

This article reviews the latest research results of advanced noble metal nanocluster and single-atom electrocatalysts for the HER.

Quantum dot (QD)-based materials have been employed to enhance thermodynamic and kinetic properties of electrochemical reactions for energy storage and engineering.

This article presents a systematic review on the history of production of lithium metal and an insightful outlook on its future development.

Overview of the use of 3D printing manufacturing methods to fabricate electrolytic and electrochemical flow systems.

The recent progress on designing novel carbons and the newly developed theories for high mass-loading supercapacitors have been summarized.

This review summarizes recent progress in the development of metal-based electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO₂ to formic acid/formate. The current challenges and the future research directions of metal-based materials are also proposed.

We review critical aspects of interface engineering of the absorber–buffer heterojunction in CZTSSe solar cells and highlight the importance of tools that are essential to identify and eradicate the root causes of low efficiency.

As new star carbon isomers Graphynes (GYs) have great potential in application. This review focuses on the mechanisms and applications of GYs in the fields of catalysis and energy storage.

This review provides a specialized summary of Na₃V₂(PO₄)₂F₃ cathodes for the first time, including an in-depth discussion of fabrication methods, modification strategies and applications.

An overview of important recent advances on synthesis, characterization and application of defective metal–organic frameworks is provided.

Recent progress in and future perspectives on strategies for improving the intrinsic properties of g-C₃N₄ and the quality of g-C₃N₄-based film electrodes for highly efficient and stable PEC water splitting.

Recent progress in the development of OPVs, PPVs and QDPVs for indoor applications.

Functionally modified natural materials based hydrogels were intensively reviewed for the adsorption of heavy metal ions, dyes, pharmaceuticals and hazardous organic micropollutants in industrial effluents.

In recent years, organic semiconductors which are lightweight, flexible, and low processing costs, have enabled significant progress in organic electronic fields [e.g., organic photovoltaics, perovskite solar cells, organic thin-film transistors].

The state-of-the-art progress in bismuth-rich bismuth oxyhalides is reviewed to clarify the key structure–activity relationship for enhanced photocatalytic performance.

Hybrid organic–inorganic halide perovskite based solar cell technology has passed through a phase of unprecedented growth in the efficiency scale from 3.8% to above 25% within a decade.

Polyelectrolytes self-assembly is developing rapidly as a fascinating family of functional membrane fabrication strategies with the ability to modulate the architectures and physical–chemical characteristics of membranes at the molecular level.

Recent progress in the development of metal-free carbon catalysts for ORR to H₂O₂.

This review summarizes the advances in nanostructured transition metal nitride materials for application in fuel cells.

The advances of non-fullerene ETMs in PerSCs and their design strategies were systematically summarized.

The synthetic methods for vanadium sulfide based materials and their applications in energy storage and conversion are discussed.