Deep eutectic solvents (DESs), as a green alternative technology, exhibit great potential to recycle valuable elements from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).

Ferro-, piezo-, and pyroelectric materials are emerging as potential candidates for converting various forms of primary energy from the ambient environment (e.g., sunlight, mechanical, and thermal energy) into secondary energy (e.g., chemical energy). Despite the relatively short investigation time, much progress has been made related to this field. This review covers the fundamental principles of coupling ferro-, piezo-, and pyroelectric effects with different catalytic reactions; the crucial role of a polarization-induced internal electric field in charge separation and transport in these materials is discussed. We particularly focus on recent notable examples of using these three types of nanostructured materials for a variety of catalytic applications in the fields of renewable energy production (e.g., water splitting and CO 2 reduction), environmental remediation (e.g., organic pollutant decontamination), and materials synthesis (e.g., selective growth/deposition and organic synthesis). Finally, we conclude this review by proposing critical challenges and future perspectives for developing ferro-, piezo-, and pyroelectric nanomaterial-based catalysts for efficient energy harvesting.

Highlights Medical wastes will drastically increase due to Covid-19-outbreak. Safe and sustainable waste management is a major concern. Experience and lessons can be learned for medical waste management in China.

No abstract

Closing the anthropogenic carbon cycle is one important strategy to combat climate change, and requires the chemistry to effectively combine CO2 capture with its conversion. Here, we propose a novel in situ CO2 utilization concept, calcium-looping reforming of methane, to realize the capture and conversion of CO2 in one integrated chemical process. This process couples the calcium-looping CO2 capture and the CH4 dry reforming reactions in the CaO-Ni bifunctional sorbent-catalyst, where the CO2 captured by CaO is reduced in situ by CH4 to CO, a reaction catalyzed by catalyzed by the adjacent metallic Ni. The process coupling scheme exhibits excellent decarbonation kinetics by exploiting Le Chatelier’s principle to shift reaction equilibrium through continuous conversion of CO2, and results in an energy consumption 22% lower than that of conventional CH4 dry reforming for CO2 utilization. The proposed CO2 utilization concept offers a promising option to recycle carbon directly at large CO2 stationary sources in an energy-efficient manner.