Flexible zinc-air batteries (ZABs) have been scrutinized as a type of promising flexible power source for next-generation electronic devices, but the batteries’ temperature adaptability has been a major hurdle due...

Polyaniline (PANI) hybrid defective ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile chemisorption method together with a cold plasma treatment (CPT) technique. The PANI was dispersed uniformly onto the defective ZnO surface, and an intimate contact on the interface was observed. The coated PANI could act cooperatively with deliberately introduced defects (oxygen vacancy and interstitial zinc) to achieve remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity. Moreover, the monomolecular-layered PANI could effectively stabilize defects on the surface of ZnO, which is of significance for practical application. It is hoped that the present work may provide an efficient and applicable method to develop photocatalysts with excellent performance.

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Metal-free electrocatalysts represent a main branch of active materials for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), but they excessively rely on functionalized conjugated carbon materials, which substantially restricts the screening of potential efficient carbonaceous electrocatalysts. Herein, we demonstrate that a mesostructured polyacrylate hydrogel can afford an unexpected and exceptional OER activity – on par with that of benchmark IrO2 catalyst in alkaline electrolyte, together with a high durability and good adaptability in various pH environments. Combined theoretical and electrokinetic studies reveal that the positively charged carbon atoms within the carboxylate units are intrinsically active toward OER, and spectroscopic operando characterizations also identify the fingerprint superoxide intermediate generated on the polymeric hydrogel backbone. This work expands the scope of metal-free materials for OER by providing a new class of polymeric hydrogel electrocatalysts with huge extension potentials.

A facile approach was developed for preparing defective, self-doped TiO2, which shows remarkable visible light activity in the photocatalytic degradation of RhB and hydrogen liberation from water. Moreover, noble metal was directly deposited onto the TiO2 surface via an in situ redox reaction between surficial Ti(3+) and metal salt. The lack of involvement of foreign reducing agents or stabilizers permits intimate contact between metal nanoparticles and the TiO2 substrate, which ensures the facilitated interfacial charge transfer. The strategy presented in this work may be applied to design other defect and noble metal mediated visible-light-active photocatalysts.