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Tungsten dioxide imbedded in mesoporous carbon (WO 2 ÀMC) was obtained by in situ synthesis and then introduced into dyesensitized solar cells (DSCs) as a counter electrode (CE) catalyst. Catalytic activity for redox couple regeneration was improved significantly through combining high electrical conductivity and catalytic activity into one material, WO 2 ÀMC, in which WO 2 served as a catalyst and MC served as an electrical conductor. This has been proved by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The triiodide/iodide-based DSC using WO 2 ÀMC as CE showed a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.76%, which surpassed the performance of the DSC using traditional Pt CE (7.55%). In addition, the WO 2 ÀMC and WO 2 nanorods exhibited higher catalytic activity than Pt for the regeneration of a new organic redox couple, di-5-(1-methyltetrazole) disulfide/5-mercapto-1-methyltetrazole NÀtetramethylammonium salt (T 2 /T À ). The PCE of the T 2 /T Àbased DSCs using WO 2 ÀMC, WO 2 , and Pt were 5.22, 4.66, and 3.09%, respectively.

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Superparamagnetic materials have elicited increasing interest due to their high-efficiency magnetothermal conversion. However, it is difficult to effectively manage the magnetothermal energy due to the continuous magnetothermal effect at present. In this study, we designed and synthesized a novel Fe 3 O 4 /PEG/SiO 2 composite phase change material (PCM) that can simultaneously realize magnetic-to-thermal conversion and thermal energy management because of outstanding thermal energy storage ability of PCM. The composite was fabricated by in situ doping of superparamagnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoclusters through a simple sol-gel method. The synthesized Fe 3 O 4 /PEG/SiO 2 PCM exhibited good thermal stability, high phase change enthalpy, and excellent shape-stabilized property. This study provides an additional promising route for application of the magnetothermal effect.

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Nickel silicate–nickel hydroxide composite with two morphologies was synthesized for application in high-performance hybrid supercapacitors.