The utilization of renewable electricity to drive the electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) presents an attractive avenue for achieving carbon neutrality, as it facilitates the conversion of CO₂ into valuable chemicals and fuels. However, producing high-energy-density multi-carbon hydrocarbon products (C₂₊) still suffers from low selectivity, and the process proves highly sensitive to both catalyst structure and electrolyte conditions. Here, we report the synthesis of fluorinated mesoporous carbon-confined copper nanoparticles (Cu@F-MC) via a bottom-up molecular self-assembly and carbonization strategy. The Cu@F-MC catalyst establishes a 2D mesoporous structure with well-dispersed 6.5 nm-wide mesopores and a high surface area. The confinement effect of mesoporous carbon enables the small size and well dispersion of Cu nanoparticles (~ 10 nm). The fluorine doped structure not only effectively inhibit the side hydrogen evolution reaction, but also modulate the local electronic structures of Cu nanoparticles toward multi-carbon product generation. Thus, the Cu@F-MC exhibits a high current density of 500 mA cm^-2 with an ethanol Faradaic efficiency of 40% for CO₂ reduction in a flow cell, and a prolonged stability with over 50% selectivity for FE_C2+ during a 70-hour continuous electrolysis in the membrane electrode assembly test. This strategy offers a promising approach to concurrently improve the selectivity and stability of copper-based catalysts in CO₂RR.

The selective hydrogenolysis of glycerol exhibits great prospects, while the catalysts with high selectivity and activity are still missing and need to be created urgently. Herein, we report the synthesis of hollow mesoporous Pt/WO_x/SiO₂-TiO₂ nanosphere catalysts with bi-functional interfaces synergistically for high efficiency conversion of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol. The hollow mesoporous Pt/WO_x/SiO₂-TiO₂ catalysts show a typical brick-concrete liked framework with a high surface area (179.3 m²·g⁻¹), large mesopore size (10.6 nm), uniform particle size (~ 400 nm), and ultrathin shell thickness (~ 75 nm). The brick anatase nanocrystals and concrete amorphous SiO₂ networks can selectively rivet Pt nanoparticles and WO_x nanocluster species, respectively, thus constructing two interfaces for effective adsorption, rapidly catalytic dehydration and hydrogenation processes. The hollow mesoporous Pt/WO_x/SiO₂-TiO₂ catalysts deliver a high selectivity of 53.8% for 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) at a very high glycerol conversion of 85.0%. As a result, a favorable 1,3-PDO yield of 45.7% can be obtained with excellent stability, which is among the best performances of previously reported catalysts. This work paves a new way to synthesize catalysts with high selectivity, high activity and high stability.

Regulating the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of metallic nanostructures is of great interests for optical and catalytic applications, however, it is still a great challenge for tuning SPR features of small metallic nanoparticles (< 10 nm). In this work, we design a unique dielectric support—urchin-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles (U-SiO₂) with ordered long spikes on its surface, which can well enhance the SPR properties of ~ 3 nm gold nanocrystals (AuNCs). The U-SiO₂ not only realizes the uniform self-assembly of AuNCs, but also prevents their aggregation due to the unique confinement effect. The finite-difference time-domain simulations show that the AuNCs on U-SiO₂ can generate plasmonic hot spots with highly enhanced electromagnetic field. Moreover, the hot electrons can be effectively and rapidly transferred through the interface junction to TiO₂. Thus, a high visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity can be observed, which is 3.8 times higher than that of smooth photocatalysts. The concept of dielectric supports engineering provides a new strategy for tuning SPR of small metallic nanocrystals towards the development of advanced plasmon-based applications.

Initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) has been widely adopted in battery research as a quantifiable indicator for the lifespan, energy density and rate performance of batteries. Hard carbon materials have been accepted as a promising anode family for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) owing to their outstanding performance. However, the booming application of hard carbon anodes has been significantly slowed by the low ICE, leading to a reduced energy density at the cell level. This offers a challenge to develop high ICE hard carbon anodes to meet the applications of high-performance SIBs. Here, we discuss the definition and factors of ICE and describe several typical strategies to improve the ICE of hard carbon anodes. The strategies for boosting the ICE of such anodes are also systematically categorized into several aspects including structure design, surface engineering, electrolyte optimization and pre-sodiation. The key challenges and perspectives in the development of high ICE hard carbon anodes are also outlined.

Implant-associated bacterial infection remains one of the most common and serious complications. Therefore, a surface boasting long-term antibacterial ability for implants is highly desirable. Herein, mesoporous silica coatings (MSCs) with vertical and size-tunable mesochannels are fabricated on a variety of metal substrates via a nano-interfacial oriented assembly approach. Such facile and versatile approach relies on the vertically oriented fusion of composite micelles on the nanoscale flatness surface of substrates. Such orientation assembly process endows the MSCs with vertical mesochannels, tunable mesopore size (ca. 5.5–13.5 nm), and switchable substrates even with complex and diversified surfaces. Importantly, the MSCs on titanium substrates (Ti@MSCs) exhibit excellent performances for drug adsorption and sustained release. The saturation adsorption capacity can reach 0.544 μg·cm⁻² towards minocycline hydrochloride (MC-HCl) antibiotic molecules, which is 6.5 times as the bare titanium (Ti) substrate. In addition, the drug release time can be controlled from 84 to 216 h by simply adjusting the mesopore size. As a proof of concept, the Ti@MSCs can realize a higher antibacterial rate (95.9%), compared with the bare Ti (70.3%). The results highlight the high potential of MSCs as implant coating for long-term preventing and eliminating peri-implantitis.