A family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides known as MXenes has received increasing attention since the discovery of Ti3C2 in 2011. To date, about 30 different MXenes with well‐defined structures and properties have been synthesized, and many more are theoretically predicted to exist. Due to the numerous assets including excellent mechanical properties, metallic conductivity, unique in‐plane anisotropic structure, tunable band gap, and so on, MXenes rapidly positioned themselves at the forefront of the 2D materials world and have found numerous promising applications. Particular interest is devoted to applications in electrochemical energy storage, whereby 2D MXenes work either as electrodes, additives, separators, or hosts. This review summarizes recent advances in the synthesis, fundamental properties and composites of MXene and highlights the state‐of‐the‐art electrochemical performance of MXene‐based electrodes/devices. The progresses in the field of supercapacitors and Li‐ion batteries, Li‐S batteries, Na‐ and other alkali metal ion batteries are reviewed, and current challenges and new opportunities for MXenes in this surging energy storage field are presented. In the focus of interest is the possibility to boost device‐level performance, particularly that of rechargeable batteries, which are of utmost importance in future energy technologies. Very recently, the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the inventors of the Li‐ion battery. For sure, this will provide an additional stimulation to study fundamental aspects of electrochemical energy storage.

It has been an outstanding challenge to achieve implantable energy modules that are mechanically soft (compatible with soft organs and tissues), have compact form factors, and are biodegradable (present for a desired time frame to power biodegradable, implantable medical electronics). Here, we present a fully biodegradable and bioabsorbable high-performance supercapacitor implant, which is lightweight and has a thin structure, mechanical flexibility, tunable degradation duration, and biocompatibility. The supercapacitor with a high areal capacitance (112.5 mF cm−2 at 1 mA cm−2) and energy density (15.64 μWh cm−2) uses two-dimensional, amorphous molybdenum oxide (MoOx) flakes as electrodes, which are grown in situ on water-soluble Mo foil using a green electrochemical strategy. Biodegradation behaviors and biocompatibility of the associated materials and the supercapacitor implant are systematically studied. Demonstrations of a supercapacitor implant that powers several electronic devices and that is completely degraded after implantation and absorbed in rat body shed light on its potential uses.

The emerging field of implantable bioelectronics has attracted widespread attention in modern society because it can improve treatment outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and lead to an improvement in the quality of life. However, their continuous operation is often limited by conventional bulky and rigid batteries with a limited lifespan, which must be surgically removed after completing their missions and/or replaced after being exhausted. Herein, this paper gives a comprehensive review of recent advances in nonconventional energy solutions for implantable bioelectronics, emphasizing the miniaturized, flexible, biocompatible, and biodegradable power devices. According to their source of energy, the promising alternative energy solutions are sorted into three main categories, including energy storage devices (batteries and supercapacitors), internal energy‐harvesting devices (including biofuel cells, piezoelectric/triboelectric energy harvesters, thermoelectric and biopotential power generators), and external wireless power transmission technologies (including inductive coupling/radiofrequency, ultrasound‐induced, and photovoltaic devices). Their fundamentals, materials strategies, structural design, output performances, animal experiments, and typical biomedical applications are also discussed. It is expected to offer complementary power sources to extend the battery lifetime of bioelectronics while acting as an independent power supply. Thereafter, the existing challenges and perspectives associated with these powering devices are also outlined, with a focus on implantable bioelectronics.

Developing high-performance, flexible, transparent supercapacitors for wearable electronics represents an important challenge, as it requires active materials to be sufficiently transparent without compromising energy storage. Here, we manipulate the morphology of the active materials and the junctions on the current collector to achieve optimum electronic/ionic transport kinetics. Two-dimensional Co­(OH)2 nanosheets with single or two layers were vertically aligned onto a modified Ag nanowires (AgNWs) network using an electrochemical deposition–UV irradiation approach. The metallic AgNWs network endows high transparency while minimizing the contact resistance with the pseudocapacitive Co­(OH)2 nanosheets. The Co­(OH)2 nanosheets self-assembled into a three-dimensional array, which is beneficial for the fast ion movements. The rational materials design greatly boosts the electrochemical performance of the hybrid network, including an ultrahigh areal capacitance up to 3108 μC cm–2 (5180 μF cm–2) coupled with long cycle life (20 000 cycles). As a prototype device, the symmetric supercapacitor well combines high energy/power density and excellent mechanical flexibility and long-term performance, suggesting a promising application for the next-generation wearable electronics.

Observers can quickly search among shaded cubes for one lit from a unique direction. However, replace the cubes with similar 2-D patterns that do not appear to have a 3-D shape, and search difficulty increases. These results have challenged models of visual search and attention. We demonstrate that cube search displays differ from those with "equivalent" 2-D search items in terms of the informativeness of fairly low-level image statistics. This informativeness predicts peripheral discriminability of target-present from target-absent patches, which in turn predicts visual search performance, across a wide range of conditions. Comparing model performance on a number of classic search tasks, cube search does not appear unexpectedly easy. Easy cube search, per se, does not provide evidence for preattentive computation of 3-D scene properties. However, search asymmetries derived from rotating and/or flipping the cube search displays cannot be explained by the information in our current set of image statistics. This may merely suggest a need to modify the model's set of 2-D image statistics. Alternatively, it may be difficult cube search that provides evidence for preattentive computation of 3-D scene properties. By attributing 2-D luminance variations to a shaded 3-D shape, 3-D scene understanding may slow search for 2-D features of the target.