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Designing cheap, stable, and efficient electrocatalysts for selective CO2 reduction to ethanol is a green and sustainable approach for converting the greenhouse gas into value-added products.

Post-synthetically modified defect-regulated Ce-UiO-66 MOF produces selective C2-based product (acetic acid) by visible light-driven CO2 reduction reaction.

An amorphous WO3 induced lattice distortion strategy leads to only 2 wt% Ir for efficient overall water splitting in acid.

For layered oxide cathodes, aluminum doping has widely been shown to improve performance, particularly at high degrees of delithiation. While this has led to increased interest in Al-doped systems, including $\mathrm{LiNi_{0.8}Co_{0.15}Al_{0.05}O_{2}}$ (NCA), the aluminum surface environment has not been thoroughly investigated. Using hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements of the Al 1s core region for NCA electrodes, we examined the evolution of the surface aluminum environment under electrochemical and thermal stress. By correlating the aluminum environment to transition metal reduction and electrolyte decomposition, we provide further insight into the cathode-electrolyte interface layer. A remarkable finding is that Al-O coatings in LiPF$_6$ electrolyte mimic the evolution observed for the aluminum surface environment in doped layered oxides. ECS transactions 80(10), 197 - 206 (2017). doi:10.1149/08010.0197ecst Published by Pennington, NJ

Although two-dimensional conjugated metal-organic frameworks (2D c-MOFs) provide an ideal platform for precise tailoring of capacitive electrode materials, high-capacitance 2D c-MOFs for non-aqueous supercapacitors remain to be further explored. Herein, we report a novel phthalocyanine-based nickel-bis(dithiolene) (NiS4)-linked 2D c-MOF (denoted as Ni2[CuPcS8]) with outstanding pseudocapacitive properties in 1 M TEABF4/acetonitrile. Each NiS4 linkage is disclosed to reversibly accommodate two electrons, conferring the Ni2[CuPcS8] electrode a two-step Faradic reaction with a record-high specific capacitance among the reported 2D c-MOFs in non-aqueous electrolytes (312 F g-1) and remarkable cycling stability (93.5% after 10,000 cycles). Multiple analyses unveil that the unique electron-storage capability of Ni2[CuPcS8] originates from its localized lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) over the nickel-bis(dithiolene) linkage, which allows the efficient delocalization of the injected electrons throughout the conjugated linkage units without inducing apparent bonding stress. The Ni2[CuPcS8] anode is used to demonstrate an asymmetric supercapacitor device that delivers a high operating voltage of 2.3 V, a maximum energy density of 57.4 Wh kg-1, and ultralong stability over 5000 cycles.