Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry A Recent Review Articles

We highlight how DTEM reveals catalytic dynamics and outline key advances, challenges, and future opportunities.

Flexible dual-linker-based three-component self-assembly provides a new paradigm for constructing functional 2D and 3D MOFs and understanding their structure–property-relationships in heterogeneous catalysis and environmental remediation.

The convergence of photoelectrode engineering and organic synthesis offers a new paradigm for sustainable chemical transformations.

A failure-cascade framework organizes degradation in aqueous Zn cathodes (Mn oxides, V hosts, and PBAs) by linking chemistry-specific triggers to sequential damage, guiding high-leverage intervention strategies.

Recycled polymers from e-waste are good candidate materials for sensors from the point of view of circularity and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The binding energy in clusters (BEC) serves as an effective bridge connecting the microscopic structure and macroscopic properties of molecular crystal materials.

How M–O bonding governs the transition between charge storage and catalytic activity.

This perspective discusses how advances in quantum science and technology can be utilized to improve, design, and better understand heterogeneous catalysis.

Research on high-energy-density materials (HEDMs) has largely centered around molecules derived from the classical CHNO framework.

This perspective defines quantitative ‘target design windows’ for contact resistivity and shear strength, mapping four dominant strategies to guide the transition from empirical metallization to engineered reliability.

The sustainable production and efficient utilization of hydrogen are central to achieving global carbon neutrality.

Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionise materials discovery through accelerated prediction and optimisation, yet this transformation brings critical data integrity challenges that threaten the scientific record.

Two‑dimensional (2D) hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) exhibit pressure‑tunable structures and properties that enable optimized performance in energy and optoelectronic devices.

Thermoelectric energy conversion is a promising pathway toward sustainable energy technologies, enabling the direct conversion of temperature gradients into electrical power as well as solid-state cooling without moving parts.

The review bridges fundamental bubble lifecycle dynamics (left) with active and passive field-induced management strategies (right) to enable high-efficiency water electrolysis.

This review addresses the scientific challenges of scaling perovskite solar cells from laboratory to industry, as outlined in the graphical abstract. It highlights key bottlenecks like film heterogeneity, transport losses, and stability.

Isomerism in energetic materials strongly influences melting point, density, thermal stability, sensitivity, and processability. This review highlights stereoisomerism and regio-/positional isomerism as key design parameters for performance tuning.

Silicon anodes exhibit a coulombic efficiency trough associated with volume expansion, repeated SEI rupture, and irreversible lithium loss, which can be mitigated by LiF-rich interphases, adaptive binders, and voltage window optimization.

Electrochemical hydrogen production from seawater offers a promising pathway toward large-scale green hydrogen generation while alleviating dependence on freshwater resources.

This review article highlights the engineering of MoSe₂-based catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction.

This review summarizes the current research progress as well as challenges and future opportunities of newly emerging π frameworks in photocatalysis.

This review links CO₂ capture solvents and materials to practical processes and contactors, explores integrated capture-conversion routes for upgrading CO₂, and assesses techno-economic feasibility and the current status of capture technologies.

Chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) enables spin-polarized electron transfer, modulating key steps in electrochemical reduction reactions. By stabilizing spin-sensitive intermediates, CISS enhances activity and selectivity, offering a new strategy for catalyst design.

This review focuses on the fabrication of hydrogels via physical and chemical cross-linking and the anticorrosion mechanisms of hydrogel coatings on metal surfaces, with a particular emphasis on physical barrier effects and active protection.

This review presents an overview of recent progress on conductive metallogels and their applications in the fabrication of various electronic devices.

Triple-interface heterojunctions enhance water electrolysis by optimizing complex reaction steps. This review covers their design, mechanisms, and real-time behavior, along with current challenges and future directions.

Conventional supercapacitors are limited by their use of liquid electrolytes, which pose safety risks, leakage, stability, and flexibility issues. Herein, solid-state electrolytes with interface coatings improve contact, and ionic conductivity.

This review highlights how integrating single atom catalysts with high entropy alloy matrices enables atomic level control of electronic structure, coordination and reaction energetics, thereby advancing sustainable N₂ fixation under mild conditions.

Oxy-sulfides are mixed-anion semiconductors capable of bridging the complementary strengths of oxides (structural stability) and sulfides (narrow band gap, enhanced conductivity) for the photocatalytic H₂ production from pure water.

This review elucidates the structure–property relationships between encapsulation layers and the performance of air‐stable hydrogen storage composites, offering guidance for the design of next‐generation hydrogen storage materials.

This review shows how QD photophysics, interfacial charge transfer, and microbial metabolism together govern QMH performance. It outlines multiscale design principles for programmable, selective, and scalable semi-artificial photosynthesis.

A comprehensive review of the transition from slurry-cast anode limitations to engineered binder-free Sn architectures, highlighting fabrication strategies, structural design, and performance principles for next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Integrated thermo-, photo-, and electrocatalysis, along with photothermal, electrothermal, and photo-electrochemical routes, enable efficient CO₂-to-CH₄ conversion. Advanced catalyst design drives sustainable carbon recycling and energy storage.

Plastics threaten ecosystems but possess untapped hydrocarbon potential. This review summarizes the mechanisms, diverse photocatalysts, typical conversion examples, challenges, and prospects of photocatalytic plastic conversion.

Precise control of MoS₂ phase transitions optimizes its lubrication performance. The tribological efficiency is influenced by environmental conditions and phase state. Nonlinear friction regulation techniques are crucial for phase evolution.

This review presents a multi-scale design framework for ordered small-molecule assemblies, highlighting how molecular features, supramolecular arrangement, and exciton dynamics jointly govern charge separation and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Alloy-type anodes are promising for K-ion batteries: multi-electron reactions, high capacity, suitable potentials and abundance. This review summarizes advances and synthesis, outlining a roadmap, mechanism and engineering guided future directions.

A schematic representation of charge-storage mechanisms in transition metal chalcogenide supercapacitors by integrating in situ/operando spectroscopy and DFT studies.

Strategies to enhance the supercapacitance performance of rising 2D MXenes through defect engineering, doping, hybridization, and magnetic field assistance.

LiF-dominated interphase is uniquely critical due to the high shear modulus for physical dendrite suppression, ultra-low electronic conductivity to prevent electrolyte depletion, and high interfacial energy for uniform planar lithium plating.

This review summarizes positive electrode materials and design strategies for aqueous magnesium batteries, including Mn/V-based, PBAs, polyanionic, LDHs, and organic materials, for high voltage and long cycle life.

Constructing high-energy batteries through three structural design strategies of LMAs using pure Li, alloys and composite structures.

Solar-driven photocatalysis enables coupled H₂ production and degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater. This waste-to-energy approach uses contaminants as sacrificial donors, enabling efficient purification and supporting a circular economy.

Polyamines have emerged as a leading materials platform for sorbents in direct air capture (DAC) of CO₂ and membranes for post-combustion capture (PCC) due to their reactions with CO₂.

Illustration of TMDs based supercapacitor and their engineered structures for advanced supercapacitor performance.

Solar-driven photocatalytic water-splitting offers a promising route toward sustainable hydrogen (H₂) production and decarbonization.

This review summarizes recent advances in TENGenabled cathodic protection, covering self-powered and direct TENG systems, DC-TENG architectures, self-healing materials, dualmode outputs, and multilayer strategies for sustainable corrosion mitigation.

This review rethinks the traditional dichotomy between homogeneous single-phase and heterogeneous multi-phase HER electrocatalysts. An extended Sabatier principle is proposed to optimize the entire reaction pathway across catalytic domains.

This review focuses on the progress of perovskite/C₆₀ interface engineering in high-efficiency and stable perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, including their functionalities and future application directions.

Amorphous (red) are disordered with defects and active sites; crystalline (blue) are ordered, conductive, and stable; A–C heterostructures combine both for superior UOR performance.

The rapid development of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has led to an urgent need for efficient recycling.

This review highlights recent advances in the synthesis, surface/interface modification, and performance optimization of monometallic Ni HER electrodes, emphasizing how rational engineering can elevate their reactivity toward state-of-the-art levels.

This review highlights recent advancements in antimony-based solar cells, focusing on non-radiative recombination mechanisms. It discusses strategies to mitigate these losses and provides critical insights into future research directions.

Metal–oxygen coordination environments dictate band structure, charge transport, and surface stability in transition metal oxide (TMO) photoanodes, providing design principles for robust photoelectrochemical seawater splitting.

Coordination chemistry enables descriptor-driven control of electronic and thermal transport in metal–organic coordination polymers, closing the theory – experiment gap in organic thermoelectrics.

Surface defect engineering, including the creation of surface vacancies, heteroatom doping and other defect strategies, is leveraged to enable the efficient photocatalytic conversion of NO into N₂, NH₃, and NO₃⁻.

The review summarizes the classification of high entropy materials from thermodynamic aspects, different synthesis techniques, and specific focus on PGM based HEMs as electrocatalysts for various energy conversion applications.

This review introduces a mechanism-oriented framework for polymer protective layers in Zn batteries. It covers two functions, six mechanisms, a structure–property database, failure coupling, and trade-offs for rational material design.

This review summarizes the fundamental mechanisms of photocatalytic C–H bond activation and recent advances in ethane-to-ethylene and propane-to-propylene conversion, with emphasis on the catalyst engineering strategies involved.

A mechanism-driven and material-centered framework is proposed to advance CDI technologies toward targeted anion removal for sustainable water treatment.

This review provides a timely summary of the design of stimulus-responsive materials and their applications in the construction of smart supercapacitors, with a focus on the influence of external forces/stimuli on electrochemical performance.

A meta-analysis of 200+ studies maps MXene strategies for Li–S batteries, linking composition and synthesis to stability and performance trends to guide next-gen battery design.