Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry A Lunar New Year collection 2021

Ferrites are promising photoelectrode materials for solar water splitting to produce clean and storable hydrogen energy.

This review highlights recent advances and future opportunities in pristine MOF nanosheets for electrocatalysis.

Recent progress of MXene QDs, including their synthesis, properties, applications, and their future perspectives and challenges.

Porous organic polymers are efficient photocatalysts in organic synthesis, hydrogen evolution, CO₂ reduction, and degradation of organic pollutants.

In this review, a comprehensive summary of the potential photocatalytic applications realized to date in the fast-growing field of COFs is provided with the aim to present a full blueprint of COFs for photochemical energy conversion and reactions.

This review presents the applications of biomass-derived porous graphitic carbon materials and their synthetic methods.

Nickel chalcogenides are a special class of electrocatalysts that possess exceptional HER activity and this review gives a comprehensive overview of their recent development.

Various strategies to design LDH catalysts for advanced oxidation processes.

As a promising and important carbon source, utilization of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can effectively solve the energy crisis caused by fossil resource consumption and the environmental problems arising from the emission of CO₂.

This review systematically summarizes the preparation strategies of metal–organic frameworks and their derivatives with graphene composites for promising applications in electrocatalysis and photocatalysis.

This review outlines recent advances in strategies to improve the photoreaction stability of photocatalytic/photoelectrochemical water splitting systems, and discusses the tactics involved in improving the stability of such systems with different photocorrosion mechanisms.

In this review, we provide an in-depth overview of perovskite film formation mechanism and highlight the important role of nucleation/crystal growth in perovskite photovoltaics by using scalable solution deposition techniques.

A plasmonic solar absorber, featuring broadband light harvesting by manipulating the structural anisotropy at the single nanoparticle level, enables absorption over the entire solar spectrum.

Mo-doped SnS₂ nanosheets with enriched S-vacancies exhibited a greatly enhanced NRR activity, which is attributed to the creation of Mo–Sn–Sn trimer catalytic sites that can strongly activate N₂ with a largely reduced energy barrier.

Laser-induced graphene based gas sensor conformable to skin with low detection limit at low temperature.

Fe-doping induced synergetic effects, including the morphological change of crystalline CeO₂ to partial-amorphous nanosheets, enriched O-vacancies and active Ce³⁺–Ce³⁺ pairs, were all responsible for the significantly enhanced NRR activity of Fe-CeO₂.

A systematic approach involving conjugation extension and end group chlorination is capable of enhancing both J_SC and PCE. Overall, the PM6:DTTC-4Cl-based device delivers a remarkable PCE of 15.42% with a V_OC of 0.92 V, a J_SC of 22.64 mA cm⁻² and an FF of 74.04%.

Gold-embedded, nitrogen-deficient hollow mesoporous carbon nitride spheres are constructed to give a solar-to-ammonia conversion efficiency of 0.032% for nitrogen photofixation.

Bi_0.5Na_0.5TiO₃ nanospheres show superior piezo-photocatalytic activity in water splitting, Cr(VI) reduction and degradation of organic pollutants.

N-doped carbon nanofibers embedded with Fe/Fe₃C nanodomains demonstrate superior electrocatalytic nitrate reduction ability and nitrogen selectivity.

Interfacial coordination of tannic acid with metal ions enables conformal coating on nickel hydroxide nanowalls for enhancing the water-splitting performance.

An effective strategy was demonstrated to develop a highly durable catalyst prototype that combines superfine Pt-based intermetallic nanoparticles with mesoporous carbon.

A unique MoO₃/MoO₂ heterostructure with an active interface is an ideal host for Li₂S₈, exhibiting superior rate and long-term cycling performance.

Dual-metal-site catalysts could exhibit superior activity for CO₂ electroreduction to CO due to the breaking of scaling relationship.

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes composed of aromatic porous polymer networks are fabricated by in situ cross-linking. They exhibit excellent chemical/structural stability, molecular-sieving selectivity, and high permeability for OSN.

For the aqueous Zn–CO₂ system, strongly embedded Ru nanoparticles on the substrate reveal the improved hydrogen generation activities for indirect CO₂ utilization.

Wood-based materials are attracting extensive attention for applications in energy storage due to their environmental friendliness and the presence of numerous channels in their structure.

A super-stretchable and self-recoverable ionic conductive hydrogel was designed and used as a wearable stretchable sensor to monitor human body motions.

In operando XAS investigation on FeCoNi-based thin film unravels that Fe³⁺-assisted water dissociation promotes the formation of Co²⁺–μ-H–Ni³⁺ species, and the conductive character of Co²⁺Ni³⁺-oxide matrix facilitates the coupling of adjacent [Fe⁴⁺O/Fe³⁺–O˙] motifs.

A yolk–shell structured metal–organic framework (MOF) with encapsulated 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrinatoiron (FeTPP) in a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-L-ZIF-8 is reported.

Superhydrophilic porous carbon foam was successfully synthesized by facile carbonization of potato, providing a new perspective to design self-desalting monolithic ISSG to satisfy the demand for highly efficient and enduring solar desalination.

A chlorinated acceptor with 2-butyloctyl side chains and a 3D interpenetrated structure in the single crystal shows excellent PCE up to 16.43%.

An asymmetric gel polymer electrolyte is designed for regulating ions and suppressing Li dendrite growth in high-performance Li metal batteries.

Octahedral MOF@COF core–shell hetero-framework photocatalysts were designed which achieved superior photocatalytic H₂-evolution activity.

Constructing a multi-junction structure by integrating homojunction and heterojunction is an effective strategy for adequate light absorption, effective charge separation and transfer of WO₃ photoanodes.

Copper catalyst with high C2 selectivity was synthesized by one-step electrospray pyrolysis. The C2/C1 ratio can be controlled easily by the spray amount of catalyst, and the C2 selectivity is very closely related to the structure of the catalyst.

Ultrahigh efficiencies over 95% and high energy densities are concurrently achieved in rationally designed bilayer polyetherimide–BaTiO₃/P(VDF-HFP) composites.

The synergistic effect of B-dopants and B-dopant-induced O-vacancies led to the significantly enhanced NRR activity of MnO₂ nanosheets with an NH₃ yield of 54.2 μg h⁻¹ mg⁻¹ (−0.4 V) and a faradaic efficiency of 16.8% (−0.2 V).

Inspired by the competition-driven evolution in nature such as for organismal complexity expansion, the covalent bond (CB)/coordination bond (COB) competitive reactions as the universal toolbox were conceived to construct the unparalleled molecular separation trinity coating.

Hydrogel-based self-healing ionic skins possess high mechanical strength, excellent resilience, anti-freezing properties and high sensitivity and can heal fatigue and mechanical damage to restore the original sensing performance.

A universal route based on benzoquinone and amines with different chemical structures and compositions is developed to engineer geometrically tailored, highly redox-active O/N codoped porous carbons for high-efficiency energy storage.

To endow strain sensors with superhydrophobicity may be a promising approach to improve the infrastructure safety in harsh environments.

Permanent adsorption-conversion of lithium polysulfides by iron single atom anchored porous nitrogen-rich carbon nanocages endows lithium sulfur batteries with long lasting rate performance.

A 3D double-carbon scaffold is delicately constructed as a universal host to engineer both SeS₂ cathodes and dendrite-free Li metal anodes along with achieving reliable electrochemistry simultaneously for advanced Li–SeS₂ batteries.

Tin perovskite solar cells (TPSCs) as one of the most promising candidates for lead-free PSCs have large potential to be industrialized in the future.

In this work, we have rationally designed a new necklace-like V₃S₄/carbon composite composed of V₃S₄ microspheres encapsulated into N-doped carbon nanofibers as advanced anode for potassium-ion batteries.

MoFe-PC exhibits a high yield rate and faradaic efficiency for NH₃ electrosynthesis in acidic electrolytes due to the multicomponent active sites and inherent porous structure.

Bimetallic phosphides have been identified as promising alternative electrode materials owing to their admirable conductivity and electrochemical activity.

SnSe/rGO nanocomposites can be synthesised in situ via a facile solution method; once sintered, the lattice thermal conductivity and ZT of the composites are significantly reduced and enhanced respectively compared to SnSe itself.

We have demonstrated a highly stable electric heater made of oxidation-resistant MXene film, which was capable of stable operation in air under highly oxidizing conditions (70 °C, 100% RH).