Electrocatalytic hydrogenation dechlorination (EHDC) has emerged as a promising and environmentally benign strategy for the degradation of chlorinated phenols (CPs), owing to its green process characteristics and the absence of hazardous byproducts. Achieving high EHDC efficiency necessitates both a highly active electrocatalyst and optimized reaction conditions. In this work, we fabricated a Pd/Co3O4 electrode, comprising ultralow-loading Pd nanoparticles (0.011 mg Pd cm-2) supported on a Co3O4 nanoarray grown on carbon fiber paper (CFP), for EHDC applications. The well-defined array structure facilitates uniform potential and current density distribution while also expanding the number of electroactive sites. Electrochemical and theoretical analyses reveal that abundant oxygen vacancies (OVs) in Co3O4 induce a spatial charge redistribution in the Pd/Co3O4 heterostructure, thereby strengthening the metal-support interaction (SMSI). This optimization of geometric and electronic properties significantly enhances both hydrogen evolution capability and EHDC performance. Under optimized operational parameters, including pH, substrate concentration, and applied potential, the Pd/Co3O4/CFP electrode achieves nearly complete degradation (close to 100%) of 10 mg & centerdot;L-1 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) within 180 min at a cathodic potential of -0.8 V vs Ag/AgCl, with phenol (P) as the main product. The mass activity (MA) for 4-CP dechlorination reaches 1.0289 min-1 mg-1. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further illustrate that the underlying oxygen vacancy rich Co3O4 modulates the electronic structure of Pd, boosting hydrogenation capacity and EHDC efficiency. These findings underscore the great potential of the Pd/Co3O4/CFP electrode as an efficient and practical electrocatalyst for EHDC processes.

The designed deep-eutectic Sn-Bi bimetallic carbon composite microspheres (SnBi/C) with abundant phase boundaries, effectively alleviate volume deformation during sodium (de)intercalation. Accordingly, the anode fabricated with poly(ethylene oxide) binder delivers an ultrahigh initial Coulombic efficiency of 95.4%, along with high reversible capacity and excellent cycling stability.

Converting agricultural waste into high value carbon electrodes offers a sustainable route for electrochemical energy storage, yet conventional furnace pyrolysis remains energy intensive and time consuming. Here, we report an ultrafast Joule heating strategy that transforms discarded walnut shells into porous carbon (JH-C) within only 20 s at 1200 °C using potassium acetate activation. JH-C achieves a high specific surface area of 1880.9 m2 g−1 and delivers a capacitance of 226.9 F g−1, which is higher than that of conventional tubular furnace pyrolyzed carbon (CC, 211 F g−1). This strategy dramatically reducing processing time, energy consumption, and inert gas usage compared to CC. This work establishes ultrafast Joule heating of agricultural waste as a low cost, energy efficient, and scalable route to upcycle agricultural waste for high performance electrochemical capacitor electrodes.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is widely regarded as a clean and high-value chemical; however, its conventional industrial production remains both energy-intensive and environmentally unsustainable. In this study, sulfur-deficient ZnIn2S4 (denoted SDZIS) was developed as an efficient photocatalyst for H2O2 generation through oxygen reduction under visible-light irradiation. SDZIS photocatalysts with controllable sulfur-vacancy concentrations were synthesized via a one-step citric-acid-assisted hydrothermal process combined with NaOH etching. The results of transient photocurrent response and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy show that the separation efficiency of charge carriers has been improved. Compared with pristine ZnIn2S4, the optimized SDZIS catalyst achieved a nine-fold enhancement in the H2O2 production rate, reaching 2711.81 μmol g−1 h−1. Results of experimental and density functional theory calculations suggest that sulfur vacancies can modulate the catalyst work function and the adsorption energy of O2. Comparative experiments indicate that an appropriate concentration of sulfur vacancies can lead to a high H2O2 yield. Combined with scavenger tests, DMPO-EPR, and rotating ring disk electrode measurements, these results support a sulfur-vacancy-associated enhancement in charge separation and a tendency toward a superoxide-involved 2e− ORR pathway for H2O2 production.

Lignin-derived chemicals are important renewable building blocks for a sustainable chemical industry, and their selective hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) into cyclohexanol offers a promising route to high-value products; however, efficient C–O bond cleavage over non-noble-metal catalysts remains challenging. Herein, a series of oxygen-vacancy-regulated Co/CeO2 catalysts was prepared by supporting Co on hydrothermally synthesized CeO2 nanocubes, with the CeO2 calcination temperature (400–800 °C) used to tune the defect density and interfacial structure. Low-temperature calcination preserved the nanocubic morphology, high surface area, abundant Ce3+–OV sites, and highly dispersed reduced Co species, whereas higher calcination temperatures promoted crystallite growth, surface-area loss, oxygen-vacancy depletion, and Co aggregation. These structural changes directly governed guaiacol HDO performance. Under optimized conditions (160 °C, 2 MPa H2, 4 h, isopropanol), Co/CeO2-400 achieved nearly complete guaiacol conversion, with cyclohexanol accounting for approximately 99% of the relative GC–MS product distribution. Mechanistic studies indicate that metallic Co promotes H2 activation and aromatic-ring hydrogenation, while adjacent Ce3+–OV sites facilitate adsorption and cleavage of oxygen-containing groups. The resulting Co–CeO2 interfacial synergy drives a sequential hydrogenation–deoxygenation pathway and suppresses the accumulation of partially hydrogenated intermediates. Co/CeO2-400 also showed activity toward representative lignin-derived oxygenates and retained over 90% of its initial activity after five cycles. This work highlights oxygen-vacancy engineering as an effective strategy for designing robust non-noble-metal catalysts for selective lignin valorization.

Converting agricultural waste into high value carbon electrodes offers a sustainable route for electrochemical energy storage, yet conventional furnace pyrolysis remains energy intensive and time consuming. Here, we report an ultrafast Joule heating strategy that transforms discarded walnut shells into porous carbon (JH-C) within only 20 seconds at 1200 °C using potassium acetate activation. This strategy dramatically reducing processing time, energy consumption, and inert gas usage compared to conventional tubular furnace pyrolyzed carbon (C-C). This work establishes ultrafast Joule heating of agricultural waste as a low cost, energy efficient, and scalable route to upcycle agricultural waste for high performance electrochemical capacitor electrodes.

Thermally treated covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) have emerged as promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) due to their tunable molecular structures and robust physicochemical stability. However, the structural evolution of CTFs during pyrolysis is difficult to precisely control, leading to a trade-off between nitrogen content and carbon network integrity that limits electrochemical performance. In this work, the structural evolution from a nitrogen-rich conjugated framework to nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon was systematically elucidated. Notably, N-doped amorphous carbon (NC-700) features a well-balanced distribution of nitrogen species and good wettability toward ester-based electrolytes, maintaining stable cycling over 1000 cycles. Theoretical calculations further confirm that the electron-rich nitrogen sites in NC-700 facilitate Na+ adsorption and charge transfer, accounting for its superior electrochemical performance at the atomic level. This work provides a rational design strategy for carbon anodes through precursor engineering and controlled pyrolysis.

The NASICON-based solid-state electrolyte, synthesized through a strategic Sc 3+ /Zn 2+ co-doping approach, demonstrates excellent Na + transport properties (2.41 × 10 −3 S cm −1 ) and stable Na plating/stripping curves.

Biomass-derived hard carbon has emerged as a highly promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), owing to its exceptional sodium storage capacity, cost-effectiveness, and sustainable sourcing advantages. However, its widespread commercialization faces significant challenges, including unsatisfactory carbon yield and inadequate rate capability. To address these limitations, this study presents a facile approach to synthesize high-performance soft-hard carbon composites through the strategic combination of pitch and hawthorn seeds. Our research demonstrates that the presence of highly graphitized soft carbon effectively mitigates the inherent drawbacks of hard carbon material. Specifically, the optimized composite with a hawthorn seed-to-pitch mass ratio of 100:10 exhibits superior electrochemical performance compared to pure hawthorn seed-derived hard carbon prepared under identical conditions. The incorporation of pitch-derived soft carbon enhanced the carbon yield from 45.8% to 51.5%. The composite anode delivers a high capacity of 295.9 mAh g −1 (at 20 mA g −1 ), an outstanding cycling stability (retaining 75.0% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 500 mA g −1 ), and significantly enhanced rate capability. Through these studies, we attempted to establish fundamental structure-property relationships and provide valuable guidance for their commercial implementation in SIB systems.

We report a streamlined one-pot methodology for the efficient synthesis of β-chlorosulfoxides from unactivated alkenes and aryl thiophenols using environmentally benign ethyl acetate as the reaction medium. The protocol utilizes N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) in a dual capacity as both chlorine donor and intrinsic oxidant, thereby eliminating hazardous hydrochloric acid and external oxidizing agents. The scalability and reduced environmental impact position this strategy as a practical alternative to traditional multistep approaches.

The electrocatalytic dichlorination (EHDC) shows a promising potential to degrade chlorinated phenols (CPs). It is also a green technology in reducing the corresponding hazardous impact on the environment. In this study, we constructed a catalytic structure which was Pd on a TiO 2 array with oxygen vacancies on carbon fibre paper substrate (Pd/TiO 2 /CFP) by a relatively mild route. Due to the presence of the oxygen vacancies, the resulting strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) effect has been identified which featured a redistribution of spatial charge in Pd/TiO 2 . The electron flow from the oxygen vacancies in the TiO 2 to Pd facilitated the adsorption of Pd with 4-chlorophenol (4 -CP) and endowed the Pd metal with an improved chemical reaction kinetics even at a low Pd loading. Experimentally, we studied the dependence of pH, concentration of 4 -CP, and working potential on the reaction conditions of EHDC. The results showed that the conversion of 4 -CP reached 100 % within 180 min with an apparent rate constant of 2.9 x 10 -2 min -1 and the dominant product was phenol (P). The multi-cycle test illustrated that the Pd/TiO 2 /CFP electrode showed superior stability. The results also revealed that the comprehensive catalytic behavior was much better than those of the Pd/CFP and the TiO 2 /CFP electrodes. The density function theory (DFT) calculations indicated that 4 -CP was more preferably absorbed on Pd/TiO 2 /CFP than Pd/CFP due to the SMSI assistance. This study provides a valuable guide in the preparation of precious metal-based electrodes for EHDC with a reduced loading and cost but without performance compromise.

Carbon nitride (C3N4) has attracted immense interest as a low-cost, non-toxic and naturally abundant raw material. However, graphite-like phase carbon nitride (g-C3N4) still suffers from poor visible light absorption, fast charge carrier recombination, slow electron mobility and relatively fewer surface-active sites. In this work, we synthesized silver-doped N vacancy-rich carbon nitride (AgCN) with convoluted ultra-thin lamellar layers from Ag precursors and melamine-cyanuric acid monomers using a self-assembly supramolecular strategy. AgCN exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance and stability. The introduction of N vacancies disrupted the offdomain pi-bonds and weakened the conjugation effect of the triazine ring elements. The large specific surface area of the convoluted ultra-thin lamellar structure helps suppress the aggregation of active silver centers, and the AgN2C2 bond acts as a bridge for photoexcited charge transfer to promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated electron/hole pairs for surface redox reactions. As a result, AgCN exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance for photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and hydrogen production (1.69 mmol g-1h- 1), well outperforming the pristine CN. Density flooding theory (DFT) calculations revealed the improved conductivity and efficient separation of electron-hole pairs in AgCN at the excited state, generating superoxide radicals, singlet oxygen and holes.

An efficient and novel method for the direct synthesis of β-phenylthio enamides via intramolecular 1,2-thiol migration has been developed.

Optimizing the local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of non-noble metals through alloying has been crucial for improving its practical application in the field of photocatalysis. Rare studies capture the detail that the change in the electronic structure of metal elements caused by alloying affects plasma carrier concentration and the local surface plasmon resonance effect. Herein, NiCuCoFe medium-entropy alloys (MEAs) nanoclusters were designed and used to modify the Bi3O4Br/CNNs Z-scheme heterojunction. The cocktail effect of MEAs causes the 3d-orbital hybridization of various metal elements, which promotes the release of charge carriers. The higher the carrier concentration, the stronger the LSPR effect of MEAs. In addition, the mechanism of three typical working pathways of the LSPR effect to improve the photocatalytic performance of heterojunction is discussed. And compared with those of Bi3O4Br, CNNs, and Bi3O4Br/CNNs, the rate constant of MEAs-Bi3O4Br/CNNs was 3.26, 11.16, and 3.17 times higher during the degradation of norfloxacin, respectively. This study provides a new strategy for understanding the mechanism of LSPR and the rational design of plasmonic coupling architectures for enhanced photocatalysis.

Layered nickel-cobalt double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) with a high theoretical charge storage capacity has great potential to be used as a supercapacitor (SC) electrode. However, its low electronic conductivity, low stability, and aggregation tendency has been recognized as the main drawbacks. Herein, solvent-induced interfacialconfined process was used to synthesize an unusual brush-like heterostructure of NiCo-LDH vertically anchored on conductive MXene nanosheets, enabled by the solvent-induced effect of the polar hydroxyl group of ethylene glycol and the limited domain effect of MXene nanosheets. This unique brush-like structure promoted mass transfer and improves charge transport behaviours compared to the pure NiCo-LDHs. The resultant NiCoLDH@MXene had an ideal larger peak pore size of 3.8 nm and BET specific surface area of 175.13 m2 g-1 compared to those of NiCo-LDH, which facilitates the exposure of active sites and mass transfer. In threeelectrode configuration, NiCo-LDH@MXene provided a significant specific capacity of 1310 F g-1 at a 1 A g-1 current density. At a power density of 699.1 W kg-1, NiCo-LDH@MXene showcased a substantial energy density of 73.8 Wh kg-1 in a symmetric supercapacitor. At a 6 A g-1 current density, NiCo-LDH@MXene-based SC could retain 92.5% of its capacitance at the end of 10,000 charge and discharge cycles, underscoring its excellent stability in practical application. Electrochemical tests and DFT simulation further revealed enhanced ionic adsorption/transport and electron transport, more enriched active sites, and altered electrical configuration on account of the lower energy barrier for NiCo-LDH@MXene relative to NiCo-LDH. The synthesis route and the insights reported here pave a way toward advanced electrode design and development.

As the only carbon-free energy carrier without CO2 emission upon decomposition, ammonia is an ideal storage medium for H2. However, the current low efficiency of ammonia synthesis is a main challenge on intermediate-temperature proton-conducting electrochemical cells. Herein, we develop a novel non-precious cathode catalyst consisting of Fe nanoparticles loaded on two-dimensional MXene nanosheets (Fe@MXene) that can achieve a high Faradaic efficiency of 8.4% and an NH3 yield of 8.24 x 10-9 mol. s-1.cm-2 on an anode-supported Ba0.95Ce0.6Tb0.1Y0.2Zr0.1O3-d-based electrolyte. The resultant catalyst with high specific surface area and catalytic active sites is beneficial to N2 reduction, resulting from the effective activation of N2 molecules imposed by the transported protons. The mechanism of catalytic NRR reveals that Fe@MXene catalyst can increase the elec-trocatalytic efficiency because of the improvement in the reaction rate constant. These show a promising catalyst of Fe@MXene for N2 reduction reaction using intermediate-temperature proton-conducting solid oxide cell.(c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The development of green extraction metallurgy and recycling technology of rare earth metals is of great significance and strategic value to accelerate the breakthrough of key common technologies in the field of rare earth functional materials.The industrial production of rare-earth metals is often achieved by molten salt electrolysis or vacuum thermal reduction,which has the disadvantages of high energy consumption,long process and complex operation.Ionic liquid is a room temperature molten salt with unique physical and chemical properties,providing new ideas for the low-temperature electrochemical and efficient preparation of rare earth metals.Therefore,it has attracted extensive attention in the field of rare earth metals electrowinning.However,at present,the synthesis process of ionic liquids is complex and the cost is high,and the synthesized ionic liquids have disadvantages such as strong water sensitivity,high viscosity and poor solubility,which seriously restrict the large-scale process in the electrodeposition of rare earth metals.Therefore,the development of a new functional electrolyte system with low cost,practicality and excellent physicochemical properties（such as high chemical solubility,high stability,low viscosity,high boiling point,etc.） has important scientific significance and application value for green,economic and efficient electrochemical extraction,separation or recovery of rare earth metals.In this study,a cationic solvate room temperature molten salt or Li-containing solvate ionic liquid （[Li（DMI） n ] + [NO 3 ] - ） electrolyte system prepared by adding a certain amount of LiNO 3 into the organic molecular liquid 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolinone （DMI）,was proposed and applied to the electrochemical extraction of metallic samarium at room temperature with Sm Cl 3 as raw material.~7Li nuclear magnetic resonance （NMR） technology confirmed that Li + existed in the form of solvated cation,and the binary DMI-LiNO 3 system could be regarded as solvation medium.DMI was a highly polar functional aprotic solvent with high boiling point and excellent salt solubility,and had the background of industrial synthesis.Therefore,compared with the traditional first/second generation and reported special ionic liquids,it had more metallurgical application prospects.The electrochemical behavior and deposition mechanism of Sm （Ⅲ） in this new solvation medium were explored by cyclic voltammetry （CV） technology.CV and potentiostatic experimental results showed that the binary DMI-Sm Cl 3 system could not be used for Sm electrodeposition.This was because rare earth elements had a relatively complex coordination environment,and DMI could form a highly stable complex with Sm （Ⅲ）,which made it impossible to electrodeposit metallic Sm.However,CV results showed that it was possible to electrodeposit Sm in this electrolyte system under the support of LiNO 3 .The reduction of samarium was a two-step electron reduction reaction including Sm（Ⅲ）+e - →Sm（Ⅱ） and Sm（Ⅱ）+2e - →Sm（0）.The oxidation signals of Sm were also observed in CV curves from the ternary DMI-Sm Cl 3 -LiNO 3 system.It was considered that LiNO 3 played a key role in the electrochemical performance of Sm electrodeposition in such electrolyte system.Nitrate anions could destroy the strong coordination complex formed between Sm （Ⅲ） and DMI to some extent,resulting in electroactive species which easily discharged.The observed electrochemical reduction signals could be preliminarily attributed to the mutual exclusion of Lewis acidic NO 3 - and solvate Lewis acidic Sm-containing ionized species.Furthermore,the addition of Li + could increase the conductivity of the overall electrolyte and reduce the solvation number of Sm （Ⅲ）.Therefore,it was conducive to the electrodeposition of metallic Sm.The metals obtained by potentiation deposition （-2.5 V （vs.Ag/Ag + ）） on high purity Al substrate during 30 min were characterized and evaluated by high resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） and scanning electron microscope （SEM） combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy （EDS）.XPS confirmed that the deposit contained Sm in the form of metals and oxides and the presence of Sm 2+ was not found.SEM with different magnification also showed that the metallic Sm was spherical particles with partial oxidation.In the selected area,the content of samarium element determined by EDS was up to 72.25%（mass fraction）.In addition to Al element energy spectrum signal caused by Al substrate,it was found that there was a content of 7.93%（mass fraction） belonging to oxygen signal.This was because the oxidation of the sample in contact with the air during the inspection process and entering the instrument test bench,showing the difficulty and complexity of electrodeposition of active metals at room temperature.Finally,a short process for the preparation of rare earth metals and their alloys by room temperature electrochemical solve metallurgy-heat treatment was proposed.Compared with the preparation of rare earth metals by molten salt electrolysis and thermal reduction,the technical path proposed in this study had obvious advantages.To summarize,this study could provide scientific and application basis for low-carbon and low-cost electrochemical extraction of rare earth metals at the lowest possible temperature.

Water shortages and water pollution have seriously threatened the sustainable development of the community. The grid-connected microbial fuel cell is an effective way to control the cost of wastewater treatment plants. Moreover, it solves the problem of low efficiency and high energy consumption. In view of the characteristics of strong coupling, non-linearity, and internal load in the process of microbial fuel cell grid connection, it is necessary to design the grid-connected unit of power electronic device. Based on the establishment of the microbial fuel cell stack model, the stability control and the constant power control scheme were designed for the chopper and inverter, respectively. The simulation results showed that the control strategy with the combination of voltage stabilizer and constant power can make a grid-connected system of all phase voltage and frequency output. The three-phase voltage Uabc was steady at 7 h and the voltage amplitude was controlled at roughly 380 V, according to the output voltage waveform. The value was 50 Hz, which satisfies the criteria for grid connection.

Patterned electrolyte surfaces are considered an effective strategy to enhance the cell performance of solid oxide fuel cells by increasing the contact area between the electrode and electrolyte, and subsequently reducing the area specific resistance. In this study, the patterning of an 8 mol% yttria stabilised zirconia (8YSZ) electrolyte surface tailored using the stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing technology and the effects of the electrolyte surface geometry on the cell performance were investigated using multi-physical field simulation and quantitative analysis. Defect-free densified planar and concavo-convex electrolytes were successfully prepared by applying SLA, and the concavo-convex cell yielded a maximum output power density of 288.9 mW cm(-2) at 850 ?, which was 46.2 % higher than that of the planar cell. The simulation results revealed significant consumption of reactants and strong electrochemical reactions at the concave surface. Moreover, the hydrogen and oxygen consumptions at the edges were greater than those at the centre of both the concave and convex surfaces, whereas the edges of the concavo-convex structure were more conducive to the electrochemical reaction. Finally, the quantitative correlation between cell performance and the influencing factors was obtained by conducting stepwise linear regression analysis. Reducing the ion transfer path length and providing a sufficiently large effective contact area proved to be a productive strategy for improving cell output performance.

The high chemical activity of metallic Li hinders its efficient electrochemical extraction at low temperatures, necessitating the use of energy- and cost-intensive methods such as vacuum thermal reduction or electrodeposition from ionic-liquid and molten-salt electrolytes. Herein, we report the direct room-temperature electrowinning of metallic Li from a simple low-cost electrolyte, namely a solution of LiCl in dimethylacetamide (DMAc), determine the optimal concentration of LiCl, and examine the redox processes in the optimized system. Potentiostatic deposition on high-purity Al is shown to induce solid-state cathode alloying and thus produce a uniform, flat, and dense coating of a LiAl master alloy comprising spherical clusters formed by LiAl alloy nanosheets. Finally, the direct smelting of electrodeposited films is proposed as a method of rapidly realizing the "thin film " to "bulk " transformation of electrodeposited materials to stabilize metallic Li and form bulk Li-based alloys. Thus, this study provides a basis for the continuous, low-cost, sustainable, and fast electrochemical production of bulk active metals or their alloys.