Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry A HOT Papers

This perspective highlights how electrode substrate choice critically affects electrocatalyst performance in water splitting, guiding researchers to design better catalysts by leveraging each substrate’s unique properties.

Zinc–air batteries (ZABs) stand at the forefront of energy storage technologies. However, challenges like slow kinetics and low rechargeability persist. MOF–MXene hybrids enhance performance, enabling sustainable ZAB technology.

A review about 2D covalent organic frameworks as organic electrode materials for aqueous batteries.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current development of smart batteries, which can be divided into three parts: smart materials, smart manufacturing and smart sensing.

By adjusting the composition of the inner Helmholtz plane and the outer Helmholtz plane, it is expected to improve the desolvation structure of zinc ions, inhibit the side reaction of zinc anode and enhance the long-cycle performance of the battery.

This review clearly elucidates the lineage of the development of NO₃⁻RR from the theoretical mechanism to practical reactions and deepens the understanding of NO₃⁻RR, pointing out the direction for the advanced design of NO₃⁻RR electrocatalysts.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have emerged as a compelling alternative to lithium-ion batteries, driven by the abundance of raw materials and lower costs.

The utilization of nickel-based catalysts in hybrid CO₂ electrolysis systems enhances the efficiency of CO₂ reduction by coupling low-energy alternative oxidation reactions, thereby offering an innovative route towards a sustainable carbon economy.

Overview of the applications and performance improvement strategies of pyro-catalysis.

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2DTMDCs) are promising in quantum computing, flexible electronics, spintronics, sustainable energy systems, and advanced healthcare.

This review summarizes the recent progress of atomically dispersed metal catalysts for oxygen reduction electrocatalysis, including advanced theories and descriptors, active site structure, and advanced characterization techniques.

The utilization of 2D CTFs in advanced electrochemical energy storage systems not only demonstrates the enhancement of the energy and power densities of these devices, but also promotes their cycling stability and rate performance.

We explored the cutting-edge dual-functional CaL-ICCC process, addressing current limitations and proposing future strategies to minimize energy penalties through integrated multiscale approaches spanning materials, reactors, and systems.

We review the progress on MOF-based separators for LSBs, with a particular focus on the relationship between the MOF structures and their functional roles in polysulfide capture, catalytic conversion, and uniform Li⁺ ion flux regulation.

This review highlights that screen-printed gas sensors are cost-effective and scalable, ideal for environmental, industrial, and healthcare applications.

This review focuses on the transformative role of the carbon-based covalent bridging bonds in the field of sodium-ion batteries, providing valuable insights for advancing the next-generation high-performance sodium-ion batteries.

The construction of multilayer electrolytes can improve the electrode interface and enhance the performance of solid-state batteries.

This review focuses on pore engineering (intrinsic pore size, extrinsic porosity, and pore environment) in porous organic cages and summarizes the roles of pore engineering in various fields.

This review highlights recent advances in Ir-based electrocatalysts based on different design strategies. This review will guide future research in the development of high-performance Ir-based HOR electrocatalysts for AEMFCs.

The utilization of ferroelectrics offers an additional lever to surpass the performance limits of traditional photoelectrodes. In this review, design strategies for ferroelectric photoelectrodes from materials to PEC system design are assessed.

This review examines the integration of artificial intelligence with nanogenerators to develop self-powered, adaptive systems for applications in robotics, wearables, and environmental monitoring.

This work shows that reconstructing a Gd³⁺-enriched Helmholtz plane enhances interfacial stability, improves Zn anode reversibility, and boosts capacity and cycling stability in zinc–bromine flow batteries.

Nitrogen doping in flash graphene modulates interfacial interactions to enable polymer composites with enhanced properties.

A polarization-sensitive photodetector based on 1D vdW Nb₂Pd_1−xSe₅ is reported. Image convolutional processing and proof-of-concept multiplexing optical communications and polarization imaging are demonstrated based on the devices.

Disk-like CuS nanoparticles facilitate the photocatalytic conversion of carbonate-rich waste marble-dust to acetic acid under monochromatic green light, offering a green route for carbon upcycling and waste utilization.

Nickel-mediated interfacial design in Mo₂C/Ni/Fe₃O₄ ternary heterostructures establishes decoupled hydrogen/oxygen-containing intermediate spillover pathways via interfacial Ni–C–Mo and Ni–O–Fe interactions and moderation.

A novel 2PACz/MA composite HTL strategy improves the efficiency and stability of OSCs by optimizing interface quality.

A weakly solvated electrolyte strategy for high-performance fluoride-ion batteries at room temperature.

This work systematically investigates the influence of the sp/sp² hybrid carbon ratio on the NRR catalytic performance of Ti@GY/Gr heterojunctions and explores the underlying mechanisms and relevant descriptor relationships.

Structured macro-droplets, stabilized by self-assembled and jammed hemispherical Janus particles at water–oil interfaces, enable scalable fabrication of multi-functional granular materials, e.g., magnetic/fluorescent capsules.

An encapsulated graphene oxide/silk protein aerogel fiber made by coaxial spinning is reported to exhibit ultra-high mechanical properties. The aerogel fiber showed efficient performance in thermal management applications.

DFT reveals oxygen vacancies on SnO₂ stabilize polarons, driving efficient O₂ activation and CO oxidation. These findings enable advanced SnO₂-based sensor design, leveraging defect engineering to boost catalytic and sensing performance.

The cobalt single atoms integrated N-doped hollow bowl-like hard carbon significantly improve potassium storage kinetics and surface capacitive behaviors due to the synergistic structural and chemical modulation.

SnSe demonstrates unparalleled potential in thermoelectric applications, combining non-toxicity, low cost, and abundant sources.

Thermal regulation plays a significant role in maintaining human physiological homeostasis, yet conventional thermal management systems face limitations due to their unidirectional operation and insufficient adaptability in extreme environments.

An ¹⁸O isotope labelling study reveals that the oxygen atom of benzaldehyde originates from benzyl alcohol rather than O₂ during visible light-initiated selective oxidation over Nb₂O₅ nanowires.

Electro-epoxidation of ethylene/propylene using *O intermediates generated through water electrolysis under low applied potentials and over a wide potential range.

Composition-tuned WSe₂–MoSe₂ alloy nanosheets were synthesized via a colloidal reaction. They show the decreased stability of 2M phase at higher Mo composition, which was supported by first-principles calculations using metal vacancy models.

A novel bi-encoder architecture RoBERTa framework (BiBERTa) integrates self-supervised pretraining to accelerate the discovery of high-performance organic photovoltaic materials with limited experimental data (MAE = 1.67%).

The schematic structure and selective adsorption of rare earth ions (Sm³⁺) by functionalized hierarchical porous (macro–meso–microporous) carbon materials (HPC) are illustrated.

CoFeP cubes/rGO/Ni foam with a CoFeP–rGO interface is synthesized via a facile wet-chemical method and capable of effective electrooxidation of HMF into FDCA, and electroreduction of nitrobenzene into N-containing chemicals.

This research introduces a novel PAPEI-based flexible humidity sensor that addresses the challenges of high humidity monitoring with unprecedented sensitivity, minimal hysteresis, exceptional linearity, and high resolution.

Ionic COF@CNT with tailored anion centers for wide-temperature Li–S batteries.

A scalable dip-coating method enables the deposition of a broadband SiO₂/P (VDF-HFP) composite layer on PET to improve the charge barrier and dielectric strength of polymer capacitors at high temperatures.

Li-rich cathodes are gaining popularity for Li-ion batteries due to their higher capacity compared to standard layered cathodes. Here we elucidate the complex redox and O dimerization mechanisms using advanced materials theory.

Carbon fiber (CF)–reinforced epoxy resin (EP) composites (E/C composites) have been widely used in numerous fields, but they are always plagued by the low flame retardancy because of the ‘candlewick’ effect of the CF.

A nanoporous Co^2+δ-incorporated RuO₂ (Co/RuO₂-1/50) catalyst, featuring unique Ov–Ru–O–Co coordination, achieved an impressive HER/OER performance (26/243 mV@10 mA cm⁻¹, 54/88 mV dec⁻¹) with superior stability for water electrolysis.

A flexible sensor is designed with a dual structure combining straight and serpentine LIG lines in parallel, enabling high sensitivity under micro-strain and extended-range sensing.

New organic anode active materials for lithium-ion batteries, such as dichlorobenzene and pyrrole derivatives, have been efficiently identified using performance prediction models based on natural products from flower scents.

We studied the effects of pressure on two water-stable 1D perovskites, using organic cations with high and low degrees of freedom. In an aqueous environment, we revealed impact on the structural and optical properties of materials under pressure.

Vitamin C is used to optimize cathode interlayers in organic photovoltaics, achieving a power conversion efficiency of 19.8% in opaque devices and a light utilization efficiency of 4.53% in semitransparent devices.

The alternately stacked waffle-like NS-ZIF@V₂CT_x heterostructures with plentiful exposed active sites, enhanced electrical conductivity and superior structural stability have been fabricated and utilized as anodes in potassium-ion batteries.

Ni/Al doping significantly enhances the catalytic performance and oxygen transport capability of Ca₂Fe₂O₅ in the CLSMR process, thereby achieving higher syngas and hydrogen yields.

This study demonstrates how an interaction between the additive BrFBN and a perovskite precursor results in a perovskite film with fewer defect states. This work provides insights on the feasibility of manufacturing stable, high-performance PSCs.

The multiscale topological learning framework, based on persistent topological Laplacians, captures complex interactions and enhances energy prediction accuracy in multi-atom systems.

The electrocatalytic synthesis of urea from CO₂ and NO₃⁻ represents a sustainable alternative to traditional energy-intensive processes.

In this work, two novel polymer acceptors, P-phCN and P-BphCN, were designed and synthesized by modifying central cores with asymmetric cyanobenzene. The P-phCN-based device achieved a PCE of 17.10% with low energy loss of 0.518 eV.