Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry A Recent Review Articles

Let's quantum: topological quantum materials offer high electron mobility, stable surface states, and resistance to contamination, making them ideal candidates for next-generation heterogeneous catalysts.

This perspective highlights advances in capturing pH-dependent surface structures, reactivity, and mechanisms via electric field-based methods.

Combining a comprehensive discussion of literature with new mechanistic insights, we derive two fundamental design principles for material systems with optimal oxygen exchange kinetics: a shallow O 2p band center and a low work function.

This work emphasizes the importance of performing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analyses in loading mode rather than under open circuit voltage conditions.

We discuss how tribocatalysis utilizes friction-generated charges to drive chemical transformations. The proposed mechanistic understanding, catalyst design, and future research directions are examined.

Entropy-engineered oxides for thermoelectric energy.

TOF reflects intrinsic catalytic activity by measuring per-site efficiency, unlike current density. Accurate TOF estimation requires identifying true active sites and RDS, enabling rational design of efficient electrocatalysts for sustainable water splitting.

PVA-based slime is an unexplored, cost-effective, and spill-proof alternative to conventional electrolytes. Its inherent ionic conductivity makes it a promising electrolyte for portable electrochemical surface-monitoring probes.

Ultrafine intermetallics (<5 nm) offer unique catalytic properties but face sintering challenges. We highlight carbon-supported synthesis strategies for precise control, focusing on electrocatalytic applications and future directions.

In addressing the urgent challenges facing the energy industry, this perspective emphasizes the importance of offering efficient, clean and low-carbon ordered energy conversion systems by integrating biology and engineering.

Plants and protists: promising sources for Si-based Li-ion battery anodes.

This work raises concerns about the unintentional mistakes made by researchers developing OER electrocatalysts by overlooking the fundamentals.

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.

Flexible supercapacitors have made significant progress, as they can be integral to the wearable technology field due to their unique ability to allow seamless movement for the wearer.

Evolution, research focus, industrialization and recovery techniques of LiFePO₄ cathodes are reviewed, highlighting their critical role in meeting energy demands, especially in EVs.

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.

Higher energy density can be obtained by increasing the charging cut-off voltage of Ni-rich materials to meet the range requirements of electric vehicles.

Fast-charging materials are necessary for a battery-centric future. Ionic and electronic transport crucially determine performance where their capacity-weighted figures-of-merit account for performance across all states-of-charge.

Scanning probe microscopy can be used to obtain topographical, mechanical, electrical, and electrochemical information on a wide range of materials in a variety of environments, including in situ and operando studies for rechargeable battery systems.

Atmospheric water harvesting is an emerging technique that can potentially increase water access to water-constrained communities.

This review sheds light on the developments made in the affordable Ni-based oxygen evolution catalysts and their potential application in anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) for green hydrogen production.

Five microenvironment engineering strategies are proposed to modulate single-atom active sites, integrating computational catalysis, functional materials design, and sustainable energy applications to drive interdisciplinary advances.

This review focuses on the humidity stability of halide solid-state electrolytes, including the root causes, characterization methods and mitigation strategies for humidity instability, as well as key challenges and future research directions.

Core–sheath phase change fibers provide an innovative strategy for precise thermal regulation, scalable PCM encapsulation, and multifunctional integration, offering scalable routes toward advanced thermal management and sustainable energy systems.

State-of-the-art strategies adopted for the improvement of photovoltaic performance and stability in multi-component perovskite materials and devices.

Schematic of a solid-state battery with a MOF-based electrolyte, where Li⁺ ions migrate through the porous framework, facilitating ionic conduction between the cathode and anode.

This review summarizes recent advances in spin- and ferroelectric-driven photocatalysts, highlighting material design strategies that control electron polarization to promote charge separation and boost CO₂ photoreduction efficiency.

This review comprehensively summarizes the recent advances in OSC reproducibility of organic solar cells from material synthesis, film preparation, and interfacial & electrode, which would provide significant insights into large-scale fabrication.

The present review systematically outlines recent progress in utilizing magnetron sputtering for lithium metal batteries, highlighting emerging coating strategies such as target design and their corresponding characterization methodologies.

This review highlights advanced hollow fiber membranes for natural gas processing, focusing on innovative materials and fabrication techniques that overcome permeance-selectivity trade-offs while addressing plasticization and aging challenges.

This review presents a comprehensive discussion of the multifunctional applications of 2DPA.

This review examines the operational mechanisms of radiative cooling, identifies limitations of conventional film materials, and evaluates recent progress in bio-inspired design strategies for radiative cooling films.

The experimental advances and computational predictions of the yne relatives of graphene, graphyne (GY), graphdiyne (GDY), graphtriyne (GTY) and graphtetrayne (GT4Y), in energy and environmental applications are reviewed.

This work summarizes research progress in molten salt synthesis of low dimensional nanostructured perovskite oxide electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction, which covers their synthesis, structural characterization and applications.

This review focuses on the modification measures of polyanionic cathode materials, pays attention to their improvement effect on the performance of active materials, and discusses the modification mechanism and the latest development trend.

This review provides an introduction to the recent progress of solvent-free syntheses of COFs, summarizes their preparation methods, unique advantages and applications in catalysis and batteries and discusses the opportunities and challenges.

The application of carbon electrodes, as an interface and a terminal electrode in carbon-based perovskite solar cells (C-PSCs).

Non-free water dominated electrolyte architecture is reviewed based on a new perspective of different forms of electrolytes, mainly including lean-water liquid electrolytes, gelatinized electrolytes, and solidified electrolytes.

Advancement of different microwave absorbing materials and their absorption mechanism for emerging technologies.

As global climate change and energy crises continue to escalate, the development of efficient solar energy conversion technologies has become imperative for addressing pressing environmental and energy-related challenges.

This review explores four emerging CO₂-based energy technologies that utilize CO₂ as an active energy carrier, highlighting its roles, challenges, and future strategies in sustainable energy conversion and storage.

Synergistic multi-field photocatalysis—integrating photo-piezoelectric, photothermal, photomagnetic, and other effects—uses in situ characterization and ab initio methods to boost charge separation and reaction kinetics for environmental/energy use.

AFP-based anti-icing coatings prevent surface icing through dual mechanisms: dynamic repulsion of impacting water droplets and significant suppression of ice-adhesion forces.

This review summarizes recent strategies to enhance AZSBs and AZSeBs, including cathode and electrolyte optimization, advanced characterization, and reaction mechanism studies, while highlighting current challenges and future development directions.

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising sustainable technology for addressing global energy shortages and environmental pollution, attracting increasing research interest in recent years.

This study explores advancements of Li–S batteries with dual atom catalysts (DACs), focusing on support morphology, DAC atomic coordination, battery performance, and simulations of both electronic structure and atomistic mechanisms.

A comprehensive review of the design, preparation, and performance of biomass-based separators in ZIBs, highlighting their roles in enhancing safety, ion transport, and dendrite suppression, along with current challenges and future prospects.

Lowering the operating temperature of reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells below 723 K can not only prevent component degradation and lower system costs but also enhance the overall efficiency.

The multi-functional features of carbon-based materials have shown significant potential in addressing the challenges associated with advanced solid-state lithium batteries.

This review summarizes the research advancements of self-supported TMPs in alkaline HER, including machine learning-assisted screening, strategies for activity enhancement, and factors influencing stability along with improvement methodologies.

This review highlights the recent progress in the development of anion-exchange membranes for affordable electrochemical energy devices-electrolyzers, fuel cells, and vanadium redox-flow batteries.

Single-atom alloys are presented through synthesis, mechanisms, and photocatalytic applications, highlighting atomic-level and alloying effects in light-driven catalysis.

Multimetal LMFP cathodes offer enhanced conductivity, stability, and energy density for lithium-ion batteries. This review outlines doping, structural integration, and entropy strategies to overcome key limitations and guide future developments.

This review highlights how crystallographic and interfacial defects control charge storage in supercapacitors by modulating electronic structure, ion transport, and redox kinetics, ultimately shaping capacitive behavior and stability.

A systematic review of energy filtering (EF) engineering in polymer-based TE composites is presented. The effect of EF on ionic organic films, organic–inorganic composites, MXene-based hybrids and aerogel composites is analysed.

The well-defined crystal structure of VO₂ polymorphs have gained significant attention as a promising electrode material. Furthermore, its composites with MXenes are summarized for efficient energy storage applications.

The technology for achieving controlled degradation of plastics at the polymer and molecular levels has been comprehensively reviewed.

The United Nations has prioritized decarbonization and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, leading nations to adopt policies for increased renewable energy use. Lithium-ion batteries are key to this shift, though they present challenges to overcome.

The application of electricity to RO and NF, through the superimposition of external electric fields (ENF, ERO) or the integration of electrically conductive membranes (ECMs), represents a promising approach to outperform conventional processes.

Overview of the mechanisms and categories of photothermal materials for photothermal CO₂ capture and methanation.

This review presents the recent advances in liquid metals (LMs) as key electrodes, electrolyte materials, and interface stabilizers for lithium and other batteries. The remaining challenges and future opportunities are also illustrated.

This review provides the recent progress on the synthesis and electrocatalytic applications of novel Janus metal-based nanomaterials.

This work considers different catalyst design ideas for enhancing the low-temperature WGSR performance based on the combination of two half-reactions, which occur on different active sites with different optimizing strategies.