Electrocatalytic water splitting (2H₂O → 2H₂ + O₂) is a very promising avenue to effectively and environmentally friendly produce highly pure hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) at a large scale. Different materials have been developed to enhance the efficiency for water splitting. Among them, chalcogenides with unique atomic arrangement and high electronic transport show interesting catalytic properties in various electrochemical reactions, such as the hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, and overall water splitting, while the control of their morphology and structure is of vital importance to their catalytic performance. Herein, the general synthetic methods are summarized to prepare metal chalcogenides and different strategies are designed to improve their catalytic performance for water splitting. The remaining challenges in the research and development of metal chalcogenides and possible directions for future research are also summarized.

Assembly of micro-/nanocapsules holds great potential for catalysis, storage, and drug delivery due to their modifiable shell, high exposed surface area, and large accommodation space. Here, an ingenious one-step reaction strategy is presented to fabricate layered double hydroxide (LDH) microcapsules, which benefit from the oxyphilic and synergistic coordination of Ce species to stabilize the initial morphology of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). Taking advantage of this unique superstructure, the as-prepared Ni–Fe–Ce-LDH microcapsules demonstrate excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity with an overpotential of 242 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and long-term durability of at least 24 h. Density functional theory (DFT) results further confirm the electronic modulation induced by the Ce doping for both subtle 3D LDH architectures and superior OER performances. This work not only provides insight into the rare-earth (RE) doping mediated crystal growth and transformation process of MOFs but also represents a facile way to fabricate the desired microcapsule superstructure by virtue of the Lewis acid property and synergistic coordination of RE-ions.

By preparing biocompatible carbon dots (CDs) that act as the scaffold and fluorescence reference, a ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobe based on Tb³⁺ ions functionalized CDs was designed and fabricated to detect an anthrax biomarker with high selectivity and sensitivity.

As a member of the liquid electrolyte family, ionic liquids (ILs) possess distinctive chemical and electrochemical stability, offering a pathway to realize supercapacitors (SCs) with both outstanding energy density and high safety.