Heterostructure engineering combined with carbonaceous materials shows great promise toward promoting sluggish kinetics, improving electronic conductivity, and mitigating the huge expansion of transition metal sulfide electrodes for high-performance sodium storage. Herein, the iron sulfide-based heterostructures in situ hybridized with nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (Fe₇S₈/FeS₂/NCNT) have been prepared through a successive pyrolysis and sulfidation approach. The Fe₇S₈/FeS₂/NCNT heterostructure delivered a high reversible capacity of 403.2 mAh g⁻¹ up to 100 cycles at 1.0 A g⁻¹ and superior rate capability (273.4 mAh g⁻¹ at 20.0 A g⁻¹) in ester-based electrolyte. Meanwhile, the electrodes also demonstrated long-term cycling stability (466.7 mAh g⁻¹ after 1,000 cycles at 5.0 A g⁻¹) and outstanding rate capability (536.5 mAh g⁻¹ at 20.0 A g⁻¹) in ether-based electrolyte. This outstanding performance could be mainly attributed to the fast sodium-ion diffusion kinetics, high capacitive contribution, and convenient interfacial dynamics in ether-based electrolyte.

Nitrogen-doped carbons (NCs) have demonstrated notable advantages for application in capacitive deionization (CDI). However, the potential roles of different nitrogen configurations in the CDI process, especially how the neglected oxygen doping synergistically works, remain unclear. In this work, we systematically addressed these critical issues and revealed the significant role of trace oxygen doping in enhancing the desalination performance of NC electrodes. By introducing oxygen into nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets (ONC-S), using guanine as the precursor, we obtained abundant pyridinic and pyrrolic nitrogen configurations. This design aims to synergistically enhance the charge distribution, wettability, and ion diffusion of the target electrodes. Compared with commercial activated carbon and other state-of-the-art materials, our ONC-S electrode demonstrates superior specific capacitance, excellent cycling stability, and enhanced desalination efficiency. These findings highlight the synergistic effects of trace oxygen doping and the nitrogen configuration, offering valuable insights into the mechanisms driving the improved CDI performance.

The increasing urgency of the energy source crisis has accelerated the application of polymers in energy storage for renewable energy.

This review provides a specialized summary of metal–organic frameworks as separators and electrolytes for lithium–sulfur batteries, including design strategies and applications.

Due to the attraction of high specific capacity and abundant raw materials, scientists have extensively researched room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT-Na/S) batteries in recent years. However, unwanted dendrite growth, huge volume change, lower electrical conductivity and polysulfide shuttle effect make the RT-Na/S batteries performance unsatisfactory. This review focuses on the recent research results of RT-Na/S batteries in cathode material improvement, electrolyte optimization, separator modification and anode protection. The methods and innovations produced by previous researchers are also discussed, and possible solutions are proposed. It is expected that this review may spark fresh ideas for RT-Na/S batteries research. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT