Uncontrolled growth of Zn dendrites and side reactions are the major restrictions for the commercialization of Zn metal anodes. Herein, we develop a TiO x /Zn/N-doped carbon inverse opal (denoted as TZNC IO) host to regulate the Zn deposition. Amorphous TiO x and Zn/N-doped carbon can serve as the zincophilic nucleation sites to prevent the parasitic reactions. More importantly, the highly ordered IO host homogenizes the local current density and electric field to stabilize Zn deposition. Furthermore, the three-dimensional open networks could regulate Zn ion flux to enable stable cycling performance at large current densities. Owing to the abundant zincophilic sites and the open structure, granular Zn deposits could be realized. As expected, the TZNC IO host guarantees the steady Zn plating/stripping with a long-term stability over 450 h at the current density of 1 mA cm À 2 . As a proof-of-concept demonstration, a TZNC@Zn j j V 2 O 5 full cell shows long lifespan over 2000 cycles at 5.0 A g À 1 .

Photocatalytic water splitting using solar energy has been widely studied as a promising method for clean energy production. Continued efforts have been made to enhance the performance of solar-to-fuel energy conversion. The introduction of localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has been proposed as a promising strategy to enhance the efficiency of photocatalytic water splitting. This review presents an overview of the recent progress in the development of plasmonic photocatalysts for solar water splitting. Plasmon-enhanced mechanisms, including hot electron injection, near-field effects, and light scattering/trapping, are discussed. Furthermore, recent relevant works to discuss the emerging strategies for efficiency improvement and better understanding of the mechanisms are summarized. Finally, the perspectives of plasmonic photocatalysts for water splitting and the possible research directions are presented and discussed.

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For conventional dye or quantum dot sensitized solar cells, which are fabricated using mesoporous films, the inefficient electron transport due to defects such as grain boundaries and surface traps is a major drawback. To simultaneously increase the carrier transport efficiency as well as the surface area, optimal-assembling of hierarchical nanostructures is an attractive approach. Here, a three dimensional (3D) hierarchical heterostructure, consisting of CdS sensitized one dimensional (1D) ZnO nanorods deposited on two dimensional (2D) TiO2 (001) nanosheet, is prepared via a solution-process method. Such heterstructure exhibits significantly enhanced photoelectric and photocatalytic H2 evolution performance compared with CdS sensitized 1D ZnO nanorods/1D TiO2 nanorods photoanode, as a result of the more efficient light harvesting over the entire visible light spectrum and the effective electron transport through a highly connected 3D network.

Serious challenges in energy and the environment require us to find solutions that use sustainable processes. There are many sustainable electrocatalytic processes that might provide the answers to the above-mentioned challenges, such as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), water splitting, the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR), and the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). These reactions can enhance the value added by producing hydrogen energy through water splitting or convert useless CO2 and N2 into fuels and NH3. These electrocatalytic reactions can be driven by high-performance catalysts. Therefore, the exploration of novel electrocatalysts is one of the important electrocatalytic fields. In this paper, we aim to systematically discuss a variety of electrocatalysts used for sustainable processes and to give further insights into their status and associated challenges. We invited many famous research groups to write this roadmap with topics including platinum (Pt) and its alloys for ORR, oxides for ORR, chalcogenides for ORR, carbon-based hollow electrocatalysts for ORR, carbides for ORR, atomically dispersed Fe–N–C catalysts for ORR, metal-free catalysts for ORR, single-atom catalysts (SACs) for ORR, metal boride (MB) electrocatalysts for water splitting, transitional metal carbides (TMCs) for water splitting, transition metal (TM) phosphides for water splitting, oxides for water splitting, sulfides for water splitting, layered double hydroxides for water splitting, carbon-based electrocatalysts for water splitting, Ru-based electrocatalysts for water splitting, metal oxides for CO2RR, metal sulfides for CO2RR, metals for CO2RR, carbon for CO2RR, SACs for CO2RR, heterogeneous molecular catalysts for CO2RR, oxides for NRR, chalcogenides for NRR, C3N4 for NRR, SACs for NRR, etc. Their contributions enabled us to compile this 2020 roadmap on electrocatalysts for green catalytic processes and provide some suggestions for future researchers.

Electrochemical water splitting processes including hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are considered as one of the most promising methods for high-purity hydrogen production. Ni-Fe based compounds,...

Flexible Zn–air batteries (ZABs) draw much attention due to the merits of high energy density, stability, and safety, and show potential applications for wearable devices. However, the development of flexible ZABs with great energy density, high round‐trip efficiency, and long cycle life for practical applications is highly restricted by the lack of highly active oxygen catalysts, high ion‐conducting solid‐state electrolytes, appropriate Zn anodes, and advanced battery configuration. Promising oxygen catalysts should possess both, superior oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction performance and can be directly used as self‐supporting cathodes without loading catalysts on support materials such as carbon cloth. In addition, electrolytes play an important role in ZABs; a good electrolyte should be in all‐solid state with high ion conductivity. Moreover, for an excellent Zn anode, it is required to stably contact the electrolyte interface during the bending process. Therefore, in this review, recent advances in ZABs are summarized, including: i) the powder and 3D self‐supporting oxygen catalysts, ii) the species of solid‐state electrolytes, and iii) the rational design of Zn anodes. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of this promising field are presented.

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