The application of conventional metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as electrode materials in supercapacitors is largely hindered by their conventionally poor electrical conductivity. This study reports the fabrication of conductive MOF nanowire arrays (NWAs) and the application of them as the sole electrode material for solid‐state supercapacitors. By taking advantage of the nanostructure and making full use of the high porosity and excellent conductivity, the MOF NWAs in solid‐state supercapacitor show the highest areal capacitance and best rate performance of all reported MOF materials for supercapacitors, which is even comparable to most carbon materials.

A flexible nanoporous carbon-fiber film for wearable electronics is prepared by a facile and scalable method through pyrolysis of electrospun polyimide. It exhibits excellent bifunctional electrocatalytic activities for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution. Flexible rechargeable zinc-air batteries based on the carbon-fiber film show high round-trip efficiency and mechanical stability.

Identification of catalytic sites for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in carbon materials remains a great challenge. Here, we construct a pyridinic-N-dominated doped graphene with abundant vacancy defects. The optimized sample with an ultrahigh pore volume (3.43 cm3 g–1) exhibits unprecedented ORR activity with a half-wave potential of 0.85 V in alkaline. For the first time, density functional theory results indicate that the quadri-pyridinic N-doped carbon site synergized with a vacancy defect is the active site, which presents the lowest overpotential of 0.28 V for ORR and 0.28 V for OER. The primary Zn–air batteries display a maximum power density of 115.2 mW cm–2 and an energy density as high as 872.3 Wh kg–1. The rechargeable Zn–air batteries illustrate a low discharge–charge overpotential and high stability (>78 h). This work provides new insight into the correlation between the N configuration synergized with a vacancy defect in electrocatalysis.

The controlled synthesis of two novel h-WO3 hierarchical structures made of nanorods/nanowires has been successfully realized in a large scale via a simple hydrothermal method. It is demonstrated that the morphology of the final products is significantly influenced by adding different sulfates. The urchinlike and ribbonlike structures of WO3 can be selectively prepared by adding Rb2SO4 and K2SO4, respectively. The morphology evolvement and the growth mechanism were studied carefully. The sulfate-induced oriented attachment growth mechanism has been proposed for the possible formation mechanism of the ribbonlike sample. For urchinlike products, two growing stages are believed to be involved in the growth process. The current understanding of the growth mechanism of these nanostructures may be potentially applied for designing other oriented or hierarchical nanostructures based on 1D nanoscale building blocks through the direct solution-growth.

A covalent organic framework integrating naphthalenediimide and triphenylamine units (NT-COF) is presented. Two-dimensional porous nanosheets are packed with a high specific surface area of 1276 m g . Photo/electrochemical measurements reveal the ultrahigh efficient intramolecular charge transfer from the TPA to the NDI and the highly reversible electrochemical reaction in NT-COF. There is a synergetic effect in NT-COF between the reversible electrochemical reaction and intramolecular charge transfer with enhanced solar energy efficiency and an accelerated electrochemical reaction. This synergetic mechanism provides the key basis for direct solar-to-electrochemical energy conversion/storage. With the NT-COF as the cathode materials, a solar Li-ion battery is realized with decreased charge voltage (by 0.5 V), increased discharge voltage (by 0.5 V), and extra 38.7 % battery efficiency.

3d transition metals or their derivatives encapsulated in nitrogen-doped nanocarbon show promising potential in non-precious metal oxygen electrocatalysts.

The electrochemical CO reduction (ECDRR), as a key reaction in artificial photosynthesis to implement renewable energy conversion/storage, has been inhibited by the low efficiency and high costs of the electrocatalysts. Herein, we synthesize a fluorine-doped carbon (FC) catalyst by pyrolyzing commercial BP 2000 with a fluorine source, enabling a highly selective CO -to-CO conversion with a maximum Faradaic efficiency of 90 % at a low overpotential of 510 mV and a small Tafel slope of 81 mV dec , outcompeting current metal-free catalysts. Moreover, the higher partial current density of CO and lower partial current density of H on FC relative to pristine carbon suggest an enhanced inherent activity towards ECDRR as well as a suppressed hydrogen evolution by fluorine doping. Fluorine doping activates the neighbor carbon atoms and facilitates the stabilization of the key intermediate COOH* on the fluorine-doped carbon material, which are also blocked for competing hydrogen evolution, resulting in superior CO -to-CO conversion.

With the extensive research and development of renewable energy technologies, there is an increasing interest in developing metal‐free carbons as a new class of bifunctional electrocatalysts for boosting the performance of metal–air batteries. Along with significant understanding of the electrocatalytic nature and the rapid development of techniques, the activities of carbon electrocatalysts are well‐tailored by introducing particular dopants/defects and structure regulation. Herein, the recent advances regarding the rational design of carbon‐based electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction are summarized, with a special focus on the bifunctional applications in Zn–air and Li–air batteries. Specifically, the atomic modulation strategies to regulate the electrocatalytic activities of carbons and structure modification are summarized to gain deep insights into bifunctional mechanisms and boost advanced Zn–air and Li–air batteries. The current challenges and future perspectives are also addressed to accelerate the exploration of promising bifunctional carbon catalysts for renewable energy technologies, particularly metal–air batteries.