In this work, an Si/SiO -ordered-mesoporous carbon (Si/SiO -OMC) nanocomposite was initially fabricated through a magnesiothermic reduction strategy by using a two-dimensional bicontinuous mesochannel of SiO -OMC as a precursor, combined with an NaOH etching process, in which crystal Si/amorphous SiO nanoparticles were encapsulated into the OMC matrix. Not only can such unique porous crystal Si/amorphous SiO nanoparticles uniformly dispersed in the OMC matrix mitigate the volume change of active materials during the cycling process, but they can also improve electrical conductivity of Si/SiO and facilitate the Li /Na diffusion. When applied as an anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the Si/SiO -OMC composite displayed superior reversible capacity (958 mA h g at 0.2 A g after 100 cycles) and good cycling life (retaining a capacity of 459 mA h g at 2 A g after 1000 cycles). For sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), the composite maintained a high capacity of 423 mA h g after 100 cycles at 0.05 A g and an extremely stable reversible capacity of 190 mA h g was retained even after 500 cycles at 1 A g . This performance is one of the best long-term cycling properties of Si-based SIB anode materials. The Si/SiO -OMC composites exhibited great potential as an alternative material for both lithium- and sodium-ion battery anodes.

Sodium/potassium‐ion batteries (SIBs/PIBs) arouse intensive interest on account of the natural abundance of sodium/potassium resources, the competitive cost and appropriate redox potential. Nevertheless, the huge challenge for SIBs/PIBs lies in the scarcity of an anode material with high capacity and stable structure, which are capable of accommodating large‐size ions during cycling. Furthermore, using sustainable natural biomass to fabricate electrodes for energy storage applications is a hot topic. Herein, an ultra‐small few‐layer nanostructured MoSe2 embedded on N, P co‐doped bio‐carbon is reported, which is synthesized by using chlorella as the adsorbent and precursor. As a consequence, the MoSe2/NP‐C‐2 composite represents exceedingly impressive electrochemical performance for both sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) and potassium‐ion batteries (PIBs). It displays a promising reversible capacity (523 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1 after 100 cycles) and impressive long‐term cycling performance (192 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1 even after 1000 cycles) in SIBs, which are some of the best properties of MoSe2‐based anode materials for SIBs to date. To further probe the great potential applications, full SIBs pairing the MoSe2/NP‐C‐2 composite anode with a Na3V2(PO4)3 cathode also exhibits a satisfactory capacity of 215 mAh g−1 at 500 mA g−1 after 100 cycles. Moreover, it also delivers a decent reversible capacity of 131 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 even after 250 cycles for PIBs.

The VSe1.5/CNF composite was fabricated as a superior performance anode material for alkali metal ion batteries.

A VN/CNF composite was fabricated as an anode material exhibiting superior performance for half/full sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries.

A Se/HPCF–rGO composite was synthesized as a highly stable cathode material for Li–Se batteries.

A V2O3/carbon-nanofiber composite was initially synthesized, which exhibited large reversible capacity and excellent long-term cycling performance for lithium-ion batteries.

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Hierarchical MoO2–C hollow spheres were initially synthesized, which exhibited large reversible capacity and excellent high rate performance for lithium-ion batteries.