Red phosphorus (P) has attracted intense attention as promising anode material for high-energy density sodium-ion batteries (NIBs), owing to its high sodium storage theoretical capacity (2595 mAh g ). Nevertheless, natural insulating property and large volume variation of red P during cycling result in extremely low electrochemical activity, leading to poor electrochemical performance. Herein, the authors demonstrate a rational strategy to improve sodium storage performance of red P by confining nanosized amorphous red P into zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) -derived nitrogen-doped microporous carbon matrix (denoted as P@N-MPC). When used as anode for NIBs, the P@N-MPC composite displays a high reversible specific capacity of ≈600 mAh g at 0.15 A g and improved rate capacity (≈450 mAh g at 1 A g after 1000 cycles with an extremely low capacity fading rate of 0.02% per cycle). The superior sodium storage performance of the P@N-MPC is mainly attributed to the novel structure. The N-doped porous carbon with sub-1 nm micropore facilitates the rapid diffusion of organic electrolyte ions and improves the conductivity of the encapsulated red P. Furthermore, the porous carbon matrix can buffer the volume change of red P during repeat sodiation/desodiation process, keeping the structure intact after long cycle life.

Exploring how hydrophilicity regulates catalytic properties at the molecular level remains a grand challenge, although it has great potential to offer guidelines for developing highly efficient catalysts and deepen the mechanistic understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. Here, we provide molecular-level insight into the influence of surface hydroxyl groups on hydrophilic SiC quantum dots (QDs) on CO 2 hydrogenation. In CO 2 hydrogenation into methanol, SiC QDs exhibited higher catalytic activity and lower activation energy than commercial SiC. Mechanistic studies revealed that the surface hydroxyl species on SiC QDs was directly involved in CO 2 hydrogenation through the addition of H atoms in hydroxyl groups into CO 2 to form HCOO* as the intermediate. The unique reaction path decreased the energy barrier for the formation of HCOO*, facilitating the activation of CO 2 . Our understanding of surface hydrophilicity directly instructs the development of efficient catalysts toward CO 2 hydrogenation.