Electrochemical water splitting is a highly promising approach for producing carbon–neutral hydrogen. The development of efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial to lowering the energy barriers and enhancing hydrogen production. This drives the search for HER electrocatalysts that are not only cost‐effective and abundant but also exhibit high activity and long‐term stability. In this review, we provide an in‐depth analysis of recent progress in the application of ruthenium phosphides as HER electrocatalysts, offering key insights into their design and performance. Meanwhile, we explore various strategies to enhance their catalytic efficiency, such as increasing the availability of active sites and optimizing their electronic structure. Finally, we outline the key challenges and future directions for developing the next generation of ruthenium phosphide‐based HER electrocatalysts.

Rechargeable aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted much interest as next-generation power sources due to their economical, safe, and capacity superiorities. However, the cathodes used in AZIBs always suffer from sluggish kinetics, inducing inadequate rate performance and poor cycle ability. Pre-intercalating transition metal element in the cathode materials offers an effective strategy for improving diffusion kinetics of Zn ²⁺ and thus the electrochemical activity. In this work, different proportions of Cu pre-intercalated V ₂ O ₅ were synthesized to form a composite phase of Cu _0.4 V ₂ O ₅ and VO ₂ · n H ₂ O nanosheets through the hydrothermal method. The reversible redox reaction of Cu ²⁺ and Cu ⁰ , accompanied by the phase changes of copper vanadate and zinc vanadate, contributes to an excellent battery performance. When the molar ratio between Cu precursor and commercial V ₂ O ₅ in the reaction solution is 1:2, the obtained material presents an outstanding electrochemical performance with the initial discharge capacity of 332 mAh g ⁻¹ at 0.2 A g ⁻¹ . The enlarged lattice distance together with the high conductivity leads to a high Zn ions diffusion rate of 10 ⁻⁵ cm ² s ⁻¹ . Even after 1,000 cycles at a current density of 2 A g ⁻¹ , the capacity attenuation is only 0.035% per cycle, exhibiting distinctive activities toward AZIBs.

Heteroatom-doped carbon is widely used in the fields of adsorbents, electrode materials and catalysts due to its excellent physicochemical properties. N and S co-doped porous carbon spheres (N,S-PCSs) were synthesized using glucose and L-cysteine as carbon and heteroatom sources using a combined hydrothermal and KOH activation process. The physicochemical structures and single-factor methylene blue (MB) adsorption properties of the N,S-PCSs were then studied. The optimized N,S-PCSs-1 possessed a perfect spherical morphology with a 2–8-μm diameter and a large specific area of 1769.41 m² g⁻¹, in which the N and S contents were 2.97 at% and 0.88 at%, respectively. In the single-factor adsorption experiment for MB, the MB adsorption rate increased with an increase in carbon dosage and MB initial concentration, and the adsorption reached equilibrium within 2–3 h. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model could excellently fit the experimental data with a high R² (0.9999). The Langmuir isothermal adsorption equation fitted well with the experimental results with an R² value of 0.9618, and the MB maximum adsorption quantity was 909.10 mg g⁻¹. The adsorption of MB by N,S-PCSs-1 was a spontaneous, endothermic, and random process based on the thermodynamics analyses. The adsorption mechanism mainly involved Van der Waals force adsorption, π-π stacking, hydrogen bonds and Lewis acid–base interactions.

Iron oxides are potential electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries because of their high theoretical capacities, low cost, rich resources, and their non-polluting properties. However, iron oxides demonstrate large volume expansion during the lithium intercalation process, resulting in the electrode material being crushed, which always results in poor cycle performance. In this paper, to solve the above problem, iron oxide/carbon nanocomposites with a hollow core–shell structure were designed. Firstly, an Fe₂O₃@polydopamine nanocomposite was prepared using an Fe₂O₃ nanocube and dopamine hydrochloride as precursors. Secondly, an Fe₃O₄@N-doped C composite was obtained by means of further carbonization treatment. Finally, Fe₃O₄@void@N-Doped C-x composites with core–shell structures with different void sizes were obtained by means of Fe₃O₄ etching. The effect of the etching time on the void size was studied. The electrochemical properties of the composites when used as lithium-ion battery materials were studied in more detail. The results showed that the sample that was obtained via etching for 5 h using 2 mol L⁻¹ HCl solution at 30 °C demonstrated better electrochemical performance. The discharge capacity of the Fe₃O₄@void@N-Doped C-5 was able to reach up to 1222 mA g h⁻¹ under 200 mA g⁻¹ after 100 cycles.

At present, most studies focus on Cu-W composites with high W content (W content > 50 wt%), while there are only sporadic reports on Cu-W composites with low W content (W content < 50 wt%). In this work, Cu-W composites with different W contents (0, 10 wt%, 20 wt% and 30 wt%) were prepared, and the effects of W content on microstructure, density, hardness, electrical conductivity, strength and electrical contact properties were systematically studied, with the expectation of providing an experimental basis and theoretical support for expanding the application range of Cu-W composites with low W content. The results showed that, with the increase in W content, the Cu matrices divided into finer and more uniform grains; the density and electrical conductivity of Cu-W composites decreased; and the compressive yield strength and hardness gradually increased. As the content of W increased, the arc burning time of the Cu-W composite contacts began to fluctuate. There was a loss of both the cathode and the anode contacts of the pure Cu, but the mass transfer of the Cu-W composite contacts occurred as follows: the anode weight increases, while the cathode weight decreases. The addition of W particles changed the non-uniform ablation of the pure Cu, and the surface ablation of the Cu-W composite contacts remained uniform.