A palladium (Pd) nanoparticle catalyst supported on cerium oxide (CeO2)-modified activated carbon (AC) is synthesized and strategically applied in the Suzuki coupling reaction. Experimental results reveal that the AC support facilitates the generation of oxygen vacancy (OV) during calcination. CeO2, particularly its oxygen vacancies, enhances the metal-support interaction (MSI), leading to improved dispersion of Pd. The oxygen vacancies promote electron transfer across the metal-support interface, effectively modulating the electron density of Pd species and creating an optimized electronic state for catalytic activation. Through the precise optimization of calcination temperature and Ce loading, a favorable distribution of Pd valence states and accessible active sites is achieved, thereby maximizing catalytic performance. The obtained catalyst Pd-Ce-C-550 delivers an exceptional biphenyl yield of 99.2% at 70 degrees C within 6 min and maintains robust stability, delivering a yield of 85.5% after 5 consecutive cycles. Beyond providing an efficient catalytic platform for Suzuki coupling reaction, this study offers design guidelines for carbon-rare-earth composite supports to optimize metal-support interactions and defect-mediated activity.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohols offers a sustainable route to high‒value chemicals under the "Power‑to‑Chemicals" vision. Progress, however, is hindered not only by complex reaction networks but also by the fragmentation of research efforts across isolated scales. This review argues that further advances require deliberate cross‑scale integration rather than relying solely on parallel, scale-isolated optimization. We first focus on three currently disconnected streams: atomic‑site engineering, micro‑nano architecture construction, and interfacial microenvironment regulation. At the atomic scale, single/dual‑atom configurations, defects, and alloying tailor electronic and geometric structures to steer selectivity toward C1-C3 products. At the nano-micro scale, morphological and dimensional control enhances mass transport and active‑site accessibility, while heterointerfaces generate built‑in electric fields that accelerate kinetics. At the mesoscale, the dynamic interfacial microenvironment (including local pH, hydrogen‑bond networks, and ion effects) governs the actual catalytic performance and can be actively engineered through catalyst and electrolyte design. Finally, we outline future directions toward robust, low-carbon, and cascade catalytic systems, highlighting the transformative potential of cross-scale system integration in advancing the broader "Power‑to‑Chemicals" agenda.

Mali faces challenges in balancing electricity affordability, reliability, and decarbonization. This study evaluates grid-connected photovoltaic (PV), battery, and fuel-cell (FC) hybrid systems for sustainable electrification in Taoussa, Mali. Three configurations, PV/FC, PV/battery, and PV/battery/FC, are optimized under loss of load probability constraints of 1%, 3%, and 5%. A MATLAB-based hourly simulation is coupled with Pattern Search, Genetic Algorithm, and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to minimize levelized cost of energy (LCOE) while satisfying reliability and sizing constraints. PSO gives the best convergence and lowest costs. The grid-connected PV/battery system achieves the lowest LCOE, ranging from 0.119 to 0.120 USD/kWh, while PV/battery/FC reaches 0.134 to 0.141 USD/kWh. For PV/battery/FC at LLP <= 1%, the system delivers 224.32 GWh/year with 1.88% unmet load, 90.10% excess-energy utilization, and 59.89 kt CO 2 reduction. Results confirm that batteries support short-term balancing, while hydrogen enables seasonal energy shifting.

This study addresses the challenge of thermal accumulation and low efficiency in conventional ground heat exchangers for building heating and cooling applications. A novel direct-expansion CO2 borehole heat exchanger (BHE) backfilled with well water is proposed to enhance heat transfer and mitigate soil thermal imbalance. A dynamic thermal resistance-capacity model (TRCM) coupling CO2 phase change with natural convection in well water is developed and validated against full-scale field experiments (135 m depth), with prediction errors below 5% under cooling conditions (MAPE 2.29%, RMSE 2.49%). Quantitative analysis reveals that natural convection in well water enhances overall heat transfer by 14.9% compared to soil-backfilled systems, despite intensifying thermal short-circuiting. Two practical enhancement strategies for building energy efficiency are proposed: (1) adding insulation to the rising pipe, which increases the heat transfer rate by up to 35.1%; and (2) implementing artificial well-water circulation, which achieves up to 50.5% enhancement, with an equivalent coefficient of performance (COP) reaching 52.5 under intermittent operation. The proposed system and the parametric analysis of these strategies offer effective solutions for improving the energy performance of ground-source heat pumps in buildings, contributing to reduced operational energy consumption and enhanced system reliability.

While surface engineering dominates the design of alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts, the critical role of subsurface architecture remains largely unexplored due to synthetic challenges. Herein, we present a "precursor hereditary" strategy that modulates the pH-dependent speciation of molybdate clusters to precisely dictate the migration kinetics of metal atoms during thermal reduction, thereby enabling the formation of a customized depth profile with optimized electronic structure. The resulting compositional gradient significantly downshifts the d-band center, balancing hydrogen adsorption/desorption energetics. Consequently, the optimized catalyst exhibits an ultralow overpotential of 61 mV at 200 mA cm-2 and outstanding kinetics. Notably, in an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE), it delivers an industrial-level current density of 1.5 A cm-2 at 1.88 V and operates stably for 2 500 h with a negligible degradation rate (28 µV h-1). This work establishes a universal paradigm for manipulating atomic-scale depth profiles to bridge the gap between fundamental surface science and practical electrolyzer applications.

Metal carbides, as one kinds of promising catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), show great potential for practical applications. To furtherly improve the catalytic performance for ORR, the composition and structure of metal carbides can be modulated by elemental doping. In this paper, Ni element is adopted to substitute partial Fe to enhance the catalytic performance for ORR of Fe3(B,C). The composition of the carbide is designed as Ni and iron based B-doped carbides ((Fe3-XNiX)(B,C)), where X is set as 1.8, 1.5 and 1.2, respectively. The preparation procedure of the catalysts was firstly investigated. The obtained results confirmed that 140 ℃ hydrothermal treatment following with 700 ℃ calcination under nitrogen atmosphere was the best synthesis procedure. The structure of the prepared (Fe3-XNiX)(B,C) series catalysts was investigated by HRTEM, XPS, XRD and SEM tests. Results showed that the catalysts still kept the orthorhombic structure of Fe3C based carbide despite the crystal cell parameters had slight changes with the substitution of Ni for Fe. XPS showed that the electronic states of Ni, Fe, C and B changed slightly with the changes of Ni content in the carbides. The electrocatalytic performances of (Fe3-XNiX)(B,C) for ORR were examined by CV, LSV, Tafel, i-t, RDE and RRDE tests. Results showed that the catalytic performance of the catalysts changed with the Ni content. In all the catalysts, (Fe1.5Ni1.5)(B,C) displayed the highest catalytic performance for ORR. RDE and RRDE test results showed that (Fe1.5Ni1.5)(B,C) catalyzed ORR was major happened through 4-electron pathway. Density functional theory calculations confirmed that the electrons that transferred from Ni to other elements modulated the electron state of Fe, C and B, which enhanced the electrocatalytic activity of the catalysts for ORR. The results of the paper revealed that the catalytic performance of metal carbides for ORR could be improved by the electronic state modulation through hetero-atom doping. The B-doped iron-nickel bimetallic carbides especially (Fe1.5Ni1.5)(B,C) show great promise to be alternate for Pt-group based catalysts for ORR.

The electrochemical sulfide oxidation reaction (SOR) has attracted increasing attention as a promising route for integrated energy conversion and environmental remediation. Herein, an energy-efficient strategy for electrocatalytic sulfide oxidation is reported by coupling the SOR with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) during seawater electrolysis. A bifunctional catalyst system was fabricated by sequentially growing molybdenum disulfide and flake-like copper(I) sulfide on nickel foam (NF). The resulting electrode exhibits excellent catalytic activity and operational stability. By integrating the thermodynamically favorable sulfide oxidation with HER in seawater, continuous hydrogen production was sustained for 340 h at a current density of 100 mA cm-2, requiring only 0.53 V. Moreover, the catalyst enables efficient treatment of low-concentration sulfur-containing wastewater. This integrated system shows significant potential for practical seawater hydrogen production, offering substantial economic benefits while facilitating environmental remediation.

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) are often hampered by intrinsic structural disorder, which leads to a critical trade-off among electrical conductivity, ion accessibility, and active site utilization, thereby creating a kinetic disparity between Faradaic reactions and charge transport. Here, we report a molecular anchoring strategy that guides a transition from amorphous to partially crystalline order within a CMPs framework. This is achieved through a "radial coordination-axial covalent" design, wherein the synergistic effect between rigid pyrene planes and Co-N/O coordination geometry acts as a molecular anchor, directing ordered polymer packing. Co-N2O2 coordination centers are constructed to narrow the bandgap via D-pi orbital hybridization and provide highly active Faradaic reaction sites. Concurrently, the axial covalent grafting of this coordinated framework onto single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) constructs a core-shell heterostructure, which establishes continuous electron pathways and hierarchical mass transfer channels. As a result, the Py-Co-Salen-CMP@SWCNTs composite demonstrates an exceptional three-electrode specific capacitance of 1131.5 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1 and maintaining 93 % capacitance retention after 5000 cycles. A symmetric two-electrode super-capacitor based on Py-Co-Salen-CMP@SWCNTs achieves a specific capacitance of 452 F g-1 within a 1 V voltage window, delivering a high energy density of 62.78 W h kg-1 and maintaining 91.1 % capacitance retention. This work demonstrates that molecular anchoring-induced structural ordering combined with interfacial engineering is an effective strategy to unlock the potential of CMPs for high-performance energy storage.

Weyl semimetals (WSMs) provide a promising platform for exploring strain modulation of the photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE) because of their topologically nontrivial band structures and strongly anisotropic optical responses. To clarify how strain modulates the PSHE through the optical response of WSMs, a first-principles-based strain–optical conductivity–PSHE framework was established, and a non-contact strain-measurement PSHE-based scheme was proposed. For this purpose, the type-II WSM Td-WTe2 was chosen as the study object, and density functional theory, Wannier interpolation, and the linear-response Kubo formalism were integrated to analyze the complex optical conductivity tensor, the Fresnel coefficients, and the resulting photonic spin Hall displacement. Under monochromatic illumination, the dependence of the photonic spin Hall displacement on incident angle and uniaxial strain was obtained by scanning incident angles from 30° to 90° and strains from −5% to +5%. The calculations showed that introducing Td-WTe2 at the reflection interface gave rise to a pronounced peak–valley pair within a narrow angular range. The angular positions of these features remained nearly unchanged, whereas their amplitudes varied systematically with strain. The strain-modulation mechanism was clarified by tracing the strain-dependent evolution of the conductivity tensor and its transfer, through the Fresnel response, to the photonic spin Hall displacement. Based on this relation, strain was quantitatively retrieved from the photonic spin Hall displacement measured at a fixed incident angle. This scheme provided a physics-based solution for optical strain analysis and measurement in anisotropic WSMs.

A FeCu dual single-atom catalyst with adjacent FeN4 and CuN4 sites was constructed in this work, where Cu atoms are cleverly employed as electronic and spin-regulating units to modulate the Fe active centers. Electrochemical measurements showed that the spin-modulated FeCu-based nitrogen-doped carbon (FeCu-NC) catalyst exhibited superior ORR activity, with a half-wave potential of 0.88 V and remarkable cycling stability in 0.1 M KOH compared with commercial Pt/C, as well as outstanding discharge performance in zinc-air batteries. Experimental results and theoretical calculations collectively confirmed that neighboring Cu atoms significantly enhanced the spin polarization of Fe sites. Spin-state modulation induces an upward shift of the Fe d-band center, increasing the density of reactive states near the Fermi level and strengthening Fe–O2 interactions, which facilitates O2 activation and accelerates ORR kinetics. This work demonstrates a neighboring-atom strategy for spin-state regulation in single-atom catalysts, offering new insights into spin-related oxygen activation and the design of efficient ORR catalysts.

Zinc pyrovanadate (Zn 3 (OH) 2 V 2 O 7 ∙2H 2 O, denoted as ZVO) has been a subject of considerable debate in aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) research, with conflicting reports regarding its electrochemical activity. This study resolves these controversies by demonstrating ZVO's inherent electrochemical inertness through a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches. It is revealed that the previously reported “active ZVO” originates from hydrated vanadium oxide (HVO) phase impurities. Furthermore, a dynamic pH‐dependent mechanism governing ZVO formation during long‐term cycling is elucidated, influenced by both the vanadium cathode and the zinc anode. Crucially, two often‐overlooked experimental artifacts — residual cathode water and delayed battery disassembly — that can lead to the erroneous detection of ZVO during ex situ characterization are identified. This work clarifies the role of ZVO in AZIBs, providing valuable insights for the rational design of high‐performance and stable aqueous energy storage systems.

Electrocatalytic water splitting is limited by sluggish OER. Herein, self-supported Pd@NiFeB electrode with 1.51 wt% Pd loading is fabricated on nickel foam via electrodeposition, boronation and hydrothermal Pd modification. Trace Pd is introduced into the amorphous NiFeB matrix, where localized Pd-containing crystalline domains are observed. The resulting crystalline-amorphous structure is proposed to facilitate interfacial electronic interactions and promote OER kinetics. In 1 M KOH, Pd@NiFeB reaches 100 mA cm−2 at 1.49 V vs. RHE with a Tafel slope of 48 mV dec−1, and operates stably for 200 h at 1000 mA cm−2. The full electrolyzer achieves 230 mA cm−2 at 2.0 V and runs steadily for 100 h at 500 mA cm−2. This work provides a low-noble strategy for high-performance OER catalysts.

The ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) represents an effective strategy for the energy-efficient and environmentally benign synthesis of high-value nitrites, while simultaneously serving as a promising alternative to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for hydrogen production. Herein, Prussian blue analogues doped with Ni and Cu (NiCu-PBAs) are synthesized via a hydrothermal method and subsequently electrochemically activated to induce surface reconstruction, forming a NiOOH/Cu(OH)2 heterostructure. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations reveal that a built-in electric field is established at the heterointerface, which modifies charge distribution of NiOOH phase, enhances NH3 adsorption, and lowers the reaction energy barrier for AOR. The reconstructed NiCu-PBAs ((R)NiCu-PBAs) deliver excellent AOR activity, attaining a current density of 10 mA cm- 2 at 1.38 V vs. RHE and a nitrite selectivity of 88.9%. Moreover, when serving as both anode and cathode, the coupled AOR-hydrogen evolution system only requires 1.55 V to reach 10 mA cm- 2 in a two-electrode configuration, significantly lower than the 1.68 V needed for conventional HER-OER water splitting. This corresponds to an energy saving of approximately 15% for hydrogen production, while concurrently generating value-added nitrite. This work offers a viable strategy for design of low-cost, high-performance non-noble metal catalysts toward the sustainable synthesis of nitrite and production of hydrogen.

During long-term operation, lithium-ion batteries inevitably experience multidimensional aging, and these degradation processes markedly alter their safety responses under extreme conditions. To systematically elucidate the influence of aging on the thermal runaway characteristics of large-capacity cells, this study quantitatively analyzes their safety behavior from three perspectives: temperature response, gas generation, and explosion limits. The results show that as aging severity increases, the onset temperature of thermal runaway decreases, the peak temperature rises, the total gas generation increases significantly, and the explosion limit range of the evolved gas mixture narrows, making the system more prone to entering flammable regions. Hazard analysis further indicates that the most pronounced safety degradation occurs in the Fresh-90% state of health (SOH) interval, with a much steeper decline compared with the subsequent 90%-80% SOH stage, suggesting that early-stage aging contributes the highest increase in risk. Finally, this study establishes a multidimensional evaluation framework for assessing the thermal-runaway-related hazards of aged batteries, providing a scientific and effective basis for safety assessment and risk determination of end-of-life cells.

Abstract Hydrogen peroxide is an attractive and sustainable oxidant, yet its effective application in inert alkane oxidation is limited by the inability to precisely match the distribution, concentration, and reactivity of generated oxygen species with substrate activation requirements. Herein, a dual single-atom catalyst, FeCu/ZSM-CI, in which atomically dispersed Fe and Cu are spatially separated within the microporous framework of ZSM-5, with Fe located in the inner channels and Cu on the external surface, thereby enabling a controlled H2O2 activation gradient. This spatial configuration induces differentiated reactive oxygen species evolution: high-valent Fe=O and •OOH species form in the interior to activate methane into CH3OOH, while surface Cu sites selectively convert CH3OOH into methanol, mitigating overoxidation pathways. The optimized FeCu/ZSM-CI catalyst achieves a methanol yield of 20.2 mmol gcat −1 h−1 with 90.1% selectivity and a remarkable H2O2 utilization efficiency of 74.6%. Mechanistic studies combining kinetic isotope effects, scavenger assays, in-situ EPR/DRIFTS, and DFT calculations reveal that Fe-Cu synergy shifts the rate-determining step from H2O2 activation to C-H bond activation. These findings establish a generalizable strategy for manipulating ROS spatial distribution via spatial-configuration-driven synergy and a transferable design principle, offering new insights for designing advanced catalysts for selective hydrocarbon oxidation under ambient conditions.

Although bulk MoS2 is a promising anode candidate for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), its practical deployment is severely restricted by low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) and structural instability caused by substantial volume expansion and phase changes. Conventional pre-sodiation methods to address these issues often suffer from safety hazards, complex procedures, or poor scalability. Herein, a facile and safe solid-phase pre-sodiation strategy is proposed that allows for the large-scale synthesis of pre-intercalated MoS2 (Na0.02MoS2) within just 15 min. The incorporated Na+ acts as an active reservoir, boosting the ICE to a remarkable 93.5%. In situ characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal that pre-intercalated Na+ not only expands the interlayer spacing for faster kinetics, but also triggers a premature 2H-to-1T phase transition, thereby preventing structural dissociation during deep cycling. Consequently, the anode delivers a high reversible capacity of 508.5 mAh g(-1) and ultra-long cycling stability (retaining 400 mAh g(-1) after 5000 cycles at 10 A g(-1)). This work demonstrates a commercially viable pathway to upgrade transition metal dichalcogenides for advanced energy storage applications.

Phosphatase is a kind of hydrolase that can catalyze the hydrolysis of phosphoester bonds. Nanozymes with phosphatase-like activity, also called phosphatase-mimicking nanozymes, have attracted much attention in recently years. Different types of nanomaterial have been reported to exhibit phosphatase-like activity, such as Ce-based nanomaterials, Zr-based nanomaterials, and boron-based nanomaterials, etc. Due to their excellent catalytic activity, phosphatase-mimicking nanozymes have found wide applications in the field of analytical chemistry including immunoassays, aptamer-based sensors, pesticide detection, ions sensing, and bioimaging. In this review, the recent advances of phosphatase-mimicking nanozymes were introduced including the types of phosphatase-mimicking nanozymes, the different substrates, and the analytical applications. The trends and challenges of phosphatase-mimicking nanozymes were discussed and the future research focus were envisaged. The study will help researchers know well the current status of phosphatase-mimicking nanozymes and promote the applications of phosphatase-mimicking nanozymes in the field of analytical chemistry.

With the widespread application of high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), capacity fade and gas generation during long-term cycling have emerged as critical factors limiting their service life. In this work, a large-capacity NCM523 LIB with a nominal capacity of 115 Ah was investigated through 1C charge-discharge cycling aging tests conducted at 25 degrees C. The results indicate that the capacity degradation process can be divided into two distinct stages. In the first stage, capacity decay is dominated by electrolyte decomposition and gradual consumption, resulting in a relatively slow degradation rate. Ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) preferentially decomposes to generate CH4, CQHs, CO, and COQ, leading to increased gas evolution and a pronounced rise in the charge-transfer resistance (Rct). In the second stage, capacity degradation accelerates markedly, with a rate approximately five times higher than that in the first stage, primarily due to severe damage to the cathode active material. Concurrently, electrolyte decomposition shifts from EMC-dominated pathways to those governed by ethylene carbonate (EC) consumption, resulting in a reduced proportion of organic gases, while CO and COQ become the dominant gaseous products. These findings reveal the coupled evolution of gas generation behavior and structural degradation during cell aging, providing valuable insights for the design and lifetime optimization of high-performance and high-safety LIBs.

The hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of long-chain lipids or fatty acids represents a pivotal process for synthesizing bio-based chemicals and sustainable aviation fuels, yet achieving high selectivity towards a single product remains a significant challenge. In this study, we address this limitation by engineering MoS2 catalysts with controlled sulfur vacancy (SV) distributions through two distinct crystallization pathways. The direct crystallization-derived MoS2(P) generates abundant in-plane SVs during thermal annealing, whereas the crystal seed-induced MoS2(E) retains oxidized Mo5+/Mo6+ species that suppress planar sulfur depletion. These markedly different SV configurations profoundly influence catalytic performance. MoS2(P)-A, dominated by in-plane SV, achieves near-quantitative hexadecane yield (99.5 %) in palmitic acid HDO, while edge SV-rich MoS2 (E)-A predominantly yields hexadecanol (80.6 %). In-situ DRIFTS results show that palmitic acid adopts distinct adsorption configurations (bidentate vs. bridging) on the two SV types, leading to different reactivities. The superior alcohol dehydration efficiency of MoS2(P)-A is attributed to its in-plane SV architecture, which not only circumvents steric hindrance effects but also provides abundant Lewis acid sites, thereby promoting efficient C-O bond cleavage. This work elucidates the structure-activity relationship for tuning the selectivity of MoS2 catalysts through precise control of sulfur vacancy spatial distribution, providing a crucial theoretical foundation and experimental guidance for the future design of HDO catalysts with customizable product distributions.