Organic zinc-ion batteries (OZIBs) are emerging rechargeable energy storage devices and have attracted increasing attention as one of the promising alternatives of lithium-ion batteries, benefiting from the Zn metal (low cost, safety and small ionic size) and organic electrodes (flexibility, green and designable molecular structure). Organic electrodes have exhibited fine electrochemical performance

Hydrogen can be sustainably produced through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The process of PEC water splitting is composed of two vital half-reactions: water oxidation to O 2 on photoanode, and proton reduction to H 2 on photocathode. Both in thermodynamics and kinetics, the oxidation of water on photoanode is much more challenging, because the formation of O 2 involves the four-holes

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is one of the most promising ways to solve environmental problems and produce a sustainable energy source. To date, different types of photocatalysts have been developed and widely used in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Recently, multinary copper chalcogenides have attracted much attention and exhibited potential applications in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Solar water splitting is a promising strategy for the sustainable production of renewable hydrogen and solving the world’s crisis of energy and environment. The third-generation direct bandgap semiconductor of zinc oxide (ZnO) with properties of environmental friendliness and high efficiency for various photocatalytic reactions, is a suitable material for photoanodes because of its appropriate band

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with orderly porous structure, large surface area, high electrochemical response and chemical tunability have been widely studied for energy conversion and storage. However, most reported MOFs still suffer from poor stability, insufficient conductivity, and low utilization of active sites. One strategy to circumvent these issues is to optimize MOFs via designing composites

As a promising photocatalysis material, TiO 2 has long been studied by experimental and theoretical methods. The external strain could affect the catalytic reactivity of TiO 2 significantly due to the difference in surface elastic properties of different surface structures with different surface adsorption or defects. This article reviews our recent work by using density function theory calculations

The exploitation of renewable energy as well as the elimination of the harmful impact of excessive carbon emission are worldwide concerns for sustainable development of the ecological environment on earth. To address that, the technologies regarding energy conversion systems, such as water splitting and electroreduction of carbon dioxide, have attracted significant attention for a few decades. Yet

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery with a new configuration is demonstrated by inserting a flexible nitrogen-doping carbon nanofiber (N-CNFs) interlayer between the sulfur cathode and the separator. The N-CNFs film with high surface roughness and surface area is fabricated by electrospinning and a subsequent calcination process. The N-CNFs film interlayer not only effectively traps the shuttling migration

Due to the quantum size effect and other unique photoelectric properties, quantum dots (QDs) have attracted tremendous interest in nanoscience, leading a lot of milestone works. Meantime, the scope and scientific connotation of QDs are constantly expanding, which demonstrated amazing development vitality. Besides the well-developed Cd-containing II–VI semiconductors, QDs of environmentally friendly

As an emerging organic semiconductor, perylene diimide (PDI) self-assembly has attracted tremendous attention in the aspects of solar cells, sensors, fluorescence probes and n-transistors, etc. In term of photocatalysis, various photocatalysts based on PDI self-assembly exhibit some unique properties, such as intrinsic Π-Π stacking structure, fast internal charge transfer, band-like electronic structure

Black phosphorous (BP), an excellent two-dimensional (2D) monoelemental layered p-type semiconductor material with high carrier mobility and thickness-dependent tunable direct bandgap structure, has been widely applied in various devices. As the essential building blocks for modern electronic and optoelectronic devices, high quality PN junctions based on semiconductors have attracted widespread attention

Precise spatial control of 2D materials is the key capability of engineering their optical, electronic, and mechanical properties. However, growth of novel 2D Mo 2 C on Cu surface by chemical vapor deposition method was revealed to be seed-induced 2D growth, limiting further synthesis of complex Mo 2 C spatial structures. In this research, we demonstrate the controlled growth of Mo 2 C pyramids with

A large number of two-dimensional (2D) monoelemental materials with huge application potentials have been developed, since graphene was reported as a monoelemental material with unique properties. As cousins of graphene, 2D group-V elemental monolayers have gained tremendous interest due to their electronic properties with significant fundamental bandgap. In this review, we extensively summarize the

Due to the quantum confinement effect, atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) monolayer materials possess distinct characteristics from their corresponding bulk materials, which have received wide attention from science and industry. Among all the 2D materials, elemental 2D materials with the simplest components are most striking. As an emerging group-VIA elemental 2D monolayer material, tellurene exhibits

Two-dimensional (2D) bismuth, bismuthene, is an emerging pnictogen family member that has received increasing research attention in the past few years, which could yield exotic electrical, thermal, and optical properties due to unique band structure. This review provides a holistic view of recent research advances on 2D bismuth material synthesis and device applications in complementary metal oxide