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Cost‐effective carbon‐based catalysts are promising for catalyzing the electrochemical N2 reduction reaction (NRR). However, the activity origin of carbon‐based catalysts towards NRR remains unclear, and regularities and rules for the rational design of carbon‐based NRR electrocatalysts are still lacking. Based on a combination of theoretical calculations and experimental observations, chalcogen/oxygen group element (O, S, Se, Te) doped carbon materials were systematically evaluated as potential NRR catalysts. Heteroatom‐doping‐induced charge accumulation facilitates N2 adsorption on carbon atoms and spin polarization boosts the potential‐determining step of the first protonation to form *NNH. Te‐doped and Se‐doped C catalysts exhibited high intrinsic NRR activity that is superior to most metal‐based catalysts. Establishing the correlation between the electronic structure and NRR performance for carbon‐based materials paves the pathway for their NRR application.

This review presents the applications of biomass-derived porous graphitic carbon materials and their synthetic methods.

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Symmetry-breaking synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals with desired structures and properties has aroused widespread interest in various fields, but the lack of robust synthetic protocols and the complex growth kinetics limit their practical applications. Herein, a general strategy is developed to synthesize the Au-Cu Janus nanocrystals (JNCs) through the site-selective growth of Cu nanodomains on Au nanocrystals, which is directed by the substantial lattice mismatch between them, with the assistance of judicious manipulation of the growth kinetics. This strategy can work on Au nanocrystals with different architectures for the achievement of diverse asymmetric Au-Cu hybrid nanostructures. Of particular note, the obtained Au nanobipyramids (Au NBPs)-based JNCs facilitate the conversion of CO 2 to C 2 hydrocarbon production during electrocatalysis, with the Faradaic efficiency and maximum partial current density being 4.1-fold and 6.4-fold higher than those of their monometallic Cu counterparts, respectively. The excellent electrocatalytic performances benefit from the special design of the Au-Cu Janus architectures and their tandem catalysis mechanism as well as the high-index facets on Au nanocrystals. This research provides a new approach to synthesize various hybrid Janus nanostructures, facilitating the study of structure-function relationship in the catalytic process and the rational design of efficient heterogeneous electrocatalysts.

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