The overall energy efficiency (EE) is critical for commercializing promising electrochemical technologies, such as the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO₂RR). Despite the rapid development of advanced catalysts and reactors for CO₂RR, its commercial potential is still hindered by the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which causes high cell voltages and low EEs. Herein, we developed a NiOOH@Ni₃S₂ catalyst on the surface of nickel foam (NF) via an electrochemical surface reconstruction strategy. We observed that the oxidation of glycerol (GLY) to formate (FA) is more thermodynamically favorable than the OER on the developed NiOOH@Ni₃S₂/NF catalysts. The Ni²⁺/Ni³⁺ redox couples within the NiOOH@Ni₃S₂ heterojunction enhance the charge transfer kinetics between the active sites and adsorbed reaction intermediates, facilitating the highly selective and active generation of FA from GLY oxidation reaction (GOR), with a remarkable Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 94% achieved at 100 mA·cm⁻². Comprehensive mechanistic studies identified that the reaction pathway towards FA generation starts from glyceraldehyde intermediates, and glycolate was considered as the key species. Moreover, benefiting from the efficient conversion of CO₂ to FA on bismuth nanosheets, the GOR//CO₂RR paired electrolysis system realizes a remarkable overall FE of ca. 190% for FA co-production at 160 mA·cm⁻² (cathodic FE: 91.25% and anodic FE: 98.70%). This proceeds at a cell voltage of ca. 2.32 V, which is ca. 0.85 V lower than that of OER-assisted CO₂RR system at the same current density. This work provides new insights for co-upgrading CO₂ and biomass to value-added chemicals.

The systematic advances in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been driven by the developments of perovskite materials, electron transport layer (ETL) materials, and interfacial passivation between the relevant layers. While zinc oxide (ZnO) is a promising ETL in thin film photovoltaics, it is still highly desirable to develop novel synthetic methods that allow both fine-tuning the versatility of ZnO nanomaterials and improving the ZnO/perovskite interface. Among various inorganic and organic additives, zwitterions have been effectively utilized to passivate the perovskite films. In this vein, we develop novel, well-characterized betaine-coated ZnO QDs and use them as an ETL in the planar n-i-p PSC architecture, combining the ZnO QDs-based ETL with the ZnO/perovskite interface passivation by a series of ammonium halides (NH₄X, where X = F, Cl, Br). The champion device with the NH₄F passivation achieves one of the highest performances reported for ZnO-based PSCs, exhibiting a maximum PCE of ~22% with a high fill factor of 80.3% and competitive stability, retaining ~78% of its initial PCE under 1 Sun illumination with maximum power tracking for 250 h.