Intractable hurdles of low Coulombic efficiency and dendritic Li formation during a repeated deposition/stripping process hinder the commercial use of  Li metal anode for next-generation battery systems. Achieving uniform Li nucleation is one of the effective strategies to address these issues, and it is of practical importance to realize this on a commercial Cu current collector that is lithiophobic. Herein, we design a nanostructured Ag lithiophilic layer on a Cu foil via an electroless plating process for a Li metal current collector. The deposition of lithiophilic Ag particles that are homogeneously distributed on the Cu foil can reduce the nucleation overpotential, realizing uniform Li nucleation and subsequently flat Li plating. As a result, a stable cycle stability of up to 360 h (1 mA cm–2) and an average Columbic efficiency of 94.5% for 100 cycles (1 mA cm–2) are achieved. Furthermore, CuAg full cells with LiFePO4 as a cathode exhibit good cycle performances and low polarization voltage. This approach provides another facile way for a stable lithium metal anode.

Developing efficient and stable electrocatalysts within a wide potential range is vital for the mature applications of the electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) into value-added chemical products. Herein, we engineered a NC@Ni/C nano-composite featuring a core−shell structure of a pyridinic-N-rich carbon layer encapsulating Ni nanoparticles (NPs) as a highly effective electrocatalyst for CO 2 RR to CO over a wide potential range. The catalyst demonstrates a high CO Faradaic efficiency (FE CO ) of >90% in a wide potential range from −0.65 to −1.45 V [vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)] with the maximum FE CO of 97% at −1.05 V (vs RHE). Strikingly, it exhibits an excellent stability with a constant current density and a FE CO > 95% for 92 h at −1.05 V (vs RHE). Structural studies and DFT calculations further reveal that pyridinic-N doping in the carbon shell of Ni NPs plays a dual role in promoting the CO 2 RR activity. It not only alleviates the mass transfer limitation of CO 2 by enhancing the CO 2 adsorption capacity, but it also lowers the reaction energy barrier of the *COOH formation rate-determining step with the electronic structure modulation by Ni. This work may shed more light on the seeking of practical catalysts for high-efficiency electrochemical CO 2 reduction over a broad potential window.

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We report a facile method to realize the selective synthesis of Cs PbBr -based perovskites, including CsPbBr, CsPbBr and CsPbBr. The use of an appropriate amount of N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent is experimentally determined to play a critical role in the controlled formation of various perovskite products. With continuously increasing DMF concentration, first CsPbBr nanocrystals with tunable size can be achieved, and then the production of CsPbBr and CsPbBr perovskite analogues is successively realized. Our findings present a novel path for the controlled synthesis of other perovskite analogues for specific applications.

Yolk–shell structured SnSe nanoparticles have been investigated as anode materials in Na-ion batteries for the first time, and exhibit excellent Na+ storage performance.