Lithium (Li) metal anodes have been regarded as the most promising candidates for high energy density secondary lithium batteries due to their high specific capacity and low redox potential. However, the issues of Li dendrites caused by nonuniform lithium deposition during battery cycling severely hinder the practical applications of Li metal anodes. Herein, a hybrid of black phosphorus-graphite (BP-G) is introduced to serve as an artificial protective layer for the Li metal anode. The two-dimensional few-layer BP, which is lithophilic, combined with the high electronic conductive graphite can act as a regulator to adjust the migration of Li ions, delivering a uniform and stable lithium deposition. As the growth of lithium dendrites is inhibited, the utilization of Li metal achieves > 98.5% for over 500 cycles in Li||Cu half cells, and the life span is maintained over 2000 h in Li||Li symmetric cells with a low voltage hysteresis of 50 mV. Moreover, the LiFePO₄||Li full cell with a BP-G Li-ion regulator presents significantly better specific capacity and cycling stability than that with the bare Li metal anode. Therefore, the introduction of the BP-G Li-ion regulator is demonstrated to be an effective approach to enable stable lithium deposition for rechargeable Li metal batteries.

Metal halide perovskites, as a promising semiconductor material, have been successfully used in electroluminescent devices because of their desirable characteristics, such as good conductivity, high color purity, tunable bandgap, low cost and solution process ability. In the past few years, significant progress has been made in the development of high-efficiency perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs). These efficient PeLEDs are mainly achieved by sophisticated spin-coating methods, which can easily control the perovskite's composition, film thickness, morphology and crystallinity. However, with the continuous development of PeLEDs, commercial production problems have to be solved, such as large area production, high resolution patterning and substrate diversity, which are difficult for the current spin-coating process.

A three-dimensional elastic carbon nanotube aerogel is fabricated via a simple solution-based strategy using Te nanowires as templates, which can be recycled. The pipe diameter and wall thickness of the carbon nanotube are strongly dependent on the diameter of the Te nanowires and carbon source. The obtained free-standing carbon nanotube aerogel with a large specific surface area (up to 1865 m²∙g^-1) is promising as an electrode material for supercapacitors. After combination with MnO₂, the capacitor exhibits a specific capacitance of 360.4 F∙g^-1 at a current of 1 A∙g^-1 and retention of 97% after 2000 cycles. The high power capabilities and good stability make it a promising candidate as an electrode for supercapacitors.

Palladium-catalyzed C-C coupling reactions are of significant importance, but they often require harsh conditions. Herein, we report an interface-regulated photocatalytic Suzuki coupling reaction over Pd nanoparticles supported on a metal-organic framework (MOF), ZIF-8. Two Pd/MOFs were synthesized, Pd_PVP/ZIF-8 and Pd/ZIF-8, which have similar Pd sizes and loading amounts, except that the former contains poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as a surfactant. The diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier transform of CO adsorption (CO-DRIFT) indicates that Pd/ZIF-8 represents a more negative electronic state of Pd than Pd_PVP/ZIF-8. In the photocatalytic Suzuki coupling reaction between iodobenzene and phenylboronic acid, Pd/ZIF-8 exhibits excellent performance (99.1% yield), much better than that of Pd_PVP/ZIF-8 (57.9% yield). Moreover, Pd/ZIF-8 is highly stable and shows broad substrate scope for this reaction. The superior activity of Pd/ZIF-8 can be attributed to sufficient electron transfer between the MOFs and Pd nanoparticles in the absence of an interfacial surfactant. This work provides new insights into a Pd-catalyzed C-C coupling reaction involving photocatalysis and interfacial electron transfer.

Natural nacre, one of the most studied biological structural materials with delicate hierarchical structures and extraordinary performance, has inspired the design and fabrication of artificial structural ceramics with high fracture toughness. However, to meet the diverse requirements of different applications, future structural materials must be multifunctional with superior mechanical properties, such as strength, hardness, and toughness. Herein, based on the matrix-directed mineralization method for producing biomimetic structural materials, we introduce nanoparticles with different inherent functions into the platelets of artificial nacre via the co-mineralization of aragonite and the nanoparticles. Besides their enhanced mechanical properties, the obtained artificial nacre materials also exhibit different functions depending on the type of the nanoparticles. To extend the versatility of this strategy, the effects of nanoparticles of different sizes and zeta potentials on mineralization are also analyzed. This universal strategy can be applied to the fabrication of other types of functionalized biomimetic structural ceramics that have potential applications in various fields, such as biomedical science.

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is a robust strategy for the syntheses of block copolymer nano-objects with various morphologies. Although PISA has been extensively studied, the use of cyclic macromolecular chain transfer agents (macroCTAs) as the hydrophilic block has not been reported. We explored the effects of macroCTA topology on the polymerization kinetics and morphologies of block copolymer assemblies during reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization. To this end, linear and cyclic poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) with 4-(4-cyanopentanoic acid) dithiobenzoate (CPADB) groups were synthesized and used as CTAs to mediate the RAFT polymerization of benzyl methacrylate (BzMA) and 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorostyrene (PFSt) under PISA formulation. Interestingly, the nucleation period of the linear PEO is slightly shorter than that of its cyclic analog, and the cyclic hydrophilic segment leads to a delayed morphological transition during PISA.

Ultraviolet photodetection plays an important role in optical communication and chemical- and bio- related sensing applications. Gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires-based photoelectrochemical-type photodetectors, which operate particularly in acqueous conditions, have been attracted extensive interest because of their low cost, fast photoresponse, and excellent responsivity. However, GaN nanowires, which have a large surface-to-volume ratio, suffer suffered from instability in photoelectrochemical environments because of photocorrosion. In this study, the structural and photoelectrochemical properties of GaN nanowires with improved photoresponse and chemical stability obtained by coating the nanowire surface with an ultrathin TiO₂ protective layer were investigated. The photocurrent density of TiO₂-coated GaN nanowires changed minimally over a relatively long operation time of 2000 s under 365-nm illumination. Meanwhile, the attenuation coefficient of the photocurrent density could be reduced to 49%, whereas it is as high as 85% in uncoated GaN nanowires. Furthermore, the photoelectrochemical behavior of the nanowires was investigated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The results shed light on the construction of long-term-stable GaN-nanowire-based photoelectrochemical-type photodetectors.