Photothermal devices and thermoelectric cells hold great promise for energy generation but integration of the two remains a considerable challenge in real-life power supply for sensors. Here, a novel photo-thermo-electric hydrogel (PTEH-Interlocking) was constructed by synthesis of a photothermal layer on a thermoelectric hydrogel with the redox pair Fe(CN)63−/Fe(CN)64−. The smart design of using oxidation of pyrogallic acid by Fe(CN)63− to construct the photothermal layer for photo-to-heat conversion protected the redox couple of the thermogalvanic ion pair from ultraviolet damage, as well as triggered the formation of an interlocking structure at the interface of the photothermal layer and the thermoelectric hydrogel. The as-prepared PTEH-Interlocking have shown a high Seebeck coefficient and rapid heat transfer, boosting the photo-thermo-electric conversion. As a demonstration of a practical application, the PTEH-Interlocking cells is successfully used as the energy supply for a mechanical sensor.

Eco-friendly and sustainable energy harvests that can alleviate concerns on the energy crisis and environmental pollution are in demand. Exploiting nature-derived biomaterials is imperative to develop these carbon-neutral energy harvesters. In this study, lignin/polycaprolactone nanofiber (NF)-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are fabricated using an electrospinning technique. Nanotextured morphology of electrospun lignin/polycaprolactone NFs and wettability modification of lignin into hydrophilicity can significantly enhance electron transfer between tribopositive and tribonegative materials, resulting in the highest energy-harvesting efficiency in their class. The output voltage of the lignin-based TENG exceeds 95 V despite relatively low tapping force of 9 N and frequency of 9 Hz. Various mechanical and physicochemical characterizations, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, and atomic force microscopy (AFM), are performed, confirming the mechanical durability, biocompatibility, and industrial viability of lignin-based TENG developed here.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is a sustainable and economical technology for fresh water generation. Structural design of photothermal material is an effective strategy to improve the evaporation performance but usually bothered by complicated processes and non-adjustability. Herein, magnetic nanoparticles assembled photothermal evaporator was developed, which showed an adjustable spinal array surface under uniform magnetic field induction. By regulating position in the magnetic field, the desirable surface structures could be uniform at relatively low load density of magnetic nanoparticles to improve light absorption via multiple reflection. Magnetic field induced evaporator could accelerate evaporation to over 1.39 kg m-3 h-1 under 1-sun illumination, which was 2.8 times that of natural evaporation. After coated by carbon layer, magnetic nanoparticles could overcome the oxidation to realize stable evaporation in long-term desalination. The facile strategy to optimize the surface structure via magnetic field is appropriate for various fields with special requirements on surface structure.

Global warming has been affecting human health, including direct mortality and morbidity from extreme heat, storms, drought and indirect infectious diseases. It is not only “global” but extremely “personal” – it is a matter of life and death for many of us. In this perspective, we propose the use of wearable technologies for localized personal thermoregulation as an innovative method to reduce the impact on health and enable wider adaptability to extreme thermal environments. The start-to-art thermoregulation methods and wearable sensing technology are summarized. In addition, the feasibility of thermoregulation technology in preventive medicine for promoting health under climate change is comprehensively discussed. Further, we provided an outlook on health-oriented closed loop that can be achieved based on parallel thermoregulation and multiple data inputs from the physiological, environmental, and psychological cues, which could promote individuals and the public to better adapt to global warming.

Although three-dimensional (3D) host is effective in restricting Li dendrite growth, problems associated with the unstable electrode/electrolyte interphase becomes more severe due to increased interfacial area that is intrinsic of the 3D structures, being a major cause for the low Coulombic efficiency.While building a desirable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) serves as an effective solution to improve the electrode/electrolyte interfacial stability, the 3D nature of the electrode makes the task challenging.Herein,we demonstrated the in-situ formation of SEI on chemically/structurally modified carbon cloth that is used as the 3D host.We shown that ZnS/ZnO nanotube arrays uniformly grown on the carbon cloth served as precursors for the in-situ formation of Li2S/Li2O/LiZn containing artificial SEI. While Li2S and Li2O are preferred components in SEI, Zn functions as lithiophilic site that guides the uniform lithium deposition.The present work shed light on effective design strategies for SEI formation on 3D electrode host with controllable SEI composition.

Sulfide solid state electrolyte (SSE) possesses high ionic conductivity and great processability but suffers from narrow electrochemical window. Conversion sulfide cathode FeS2 has higher specific capacity and moderate redox potential, making it appropriate towards sulfide SSE. However, the complex reaction pathway and capacity fading mechanism in FeS2 are rarely studied, especially in all-solid-state lithium battery (ASSLB). Herein, argyrodite sulfide SSE is paired with FeS2 to investigate the electrochemical reaction pathways and the capacity fade mechanism. Instead of single conversion reaction, an anionic redox driven reaction of FeS2 is revealed. The oxidization of Li2S vanishes and large quantity of inactive Li2S accumulates to cause the interfacial deterioration, along with the stress concentration during cycling, which leads to the rapid capacity fade of FeS2. Finally, a simple strategy of slurry-coated composite electrode with highly conductive network is proposed to direct the uniform deposition of Li2S and alleviate the stress concentration.

The liquid-like thermoelectric materials have fascinated extensive attention in the field of waste heat recovery into useful energy. In this aspect, di-chalcogenides Cu2X were considered superionic thermoelectric materials due to their highly disordered degree of Cu-ion in the lattice, which realizes the ultralow thermal conductivity. However, their rigid sublattice can decently maintain the electrical performance, and thus make this group distinct from the other state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials. This review summarizes the well-designed strategies to realize the impressive performance in thermoelectric materials and their modules by linking the adopted approaches, with the moderate design of the device. Some recent reports are selected to outline the fundamentals, underlined challenges, outlooks, and future development of Cu2(S, Se, Te) liquid-like thermoelectric materials. We expect that this review will cover the needs of future researchers in choosing some potential materials to further explore thermoelectricity in other energy storage and efficient conversion technologies.

Despite of superior performance of the oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) in producing valuable hydrocarbons during CO2RR, its fabrication process is still ambiguous and complicated. In this work, we develop a simple microwave-assisted method to synthesize the oxide-derived Cu nanosheet (OD-Cu NS) and reveal that the oxidation state of Cu species is controlled by varying the Cu precursor amount. Notably, the simultaneous formation of nano-sized Cu domains influence the surface roughness of OD-Cu NS. The partially oxidized Cu surface exhibits a superior faradaic efficiency (FE) of C2+ products up to 72%, along with a partial current density of 55 mA cm−2 in a neutral KHCO3 solution. More importantly, the as-obtained OD-Cu NS shows a synergetic effect on dissociating of CO2 molecules by the strong binding energy and promoting of C2+ compounds productivity by the enlarged electrochemical surface area. This work provides a new insight for designing efficient OD-Cu catalysts towards CO2RR.

An effective method for obtaining large amounts of metal nanoparticles encapsulated by carbon layers through upcycling from floating-catalyst aerosol chemical vapor deposited carbon nanotubes is demonstrated. Nanoparticles with diameters of less than 20 µm are selectively extracted from the synthesized carbon assortments through sonication, centrifugation, and filtration. The particles show an aggregation behavior owing to the π–π interaction between the graphitic carbon shells surrounding the iron carbides. By controlling the degree of the aggregation and arrangement, the light scattering by the gap-surface plasmon effect in perovskite solar cells is maximized. Application of the nanoparticles to the devices increased the power conversion efficiency from 19.71% to 21.15%. The short-circuit current density (JSC) trend over the particle aggregation time accounts for the plasmonic effect. The devices show high stability analogue to the control devices, confirming that no metal-ion migration took place thanks to the encapsulation.