The inherent quasi-brittleness of cement-based materials, due to the disorder of their hydration products and pore structures, present significant challenges for directional matrix toughening. In this work, a rigid layered skeleton of cement slurry was prepared using a simplified ice-template method, and subsequently flexible polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel was introduced into the unidirectional pores between neighboring cement platelets, resulting in the formation of a multi-layered cement-based composite. A toughness improvement of over 175 times is achieved by the implantation of such hard-soft alternatively layered microstructure. The toughening mechanism is the stretching of hydrogels at the nano-scale and deflections of micro-cracks at the interfaces, which avoid stress concentration and dissipate huge energy. Furthermore, this cement-hydrogel composite also exhibits a low thermal conductivity (around 1/10 of normal cement) and density, high specific strength and self-healing properties, which can be used in thermal insulation, seismic high-rise buildings and long-span bridges.

Ammonium ion batteries are promising for energy storage with the merits of low cost, inherent security, environmental friendliness, and excellent electrochemical properties. Unfortunately, the lack of anode materials restricts their development. Herein, we utilized density functional theory calculations to explore the V₂CT_x MXene as a promising anode with a low working potential. V₂CT_x MXene demonstrates pseudocapacitive behavior for ammonium ion storage, delivering a high specific capacity of 115.9 mAh g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹ and excellent capacity retention of 100% after 5000 cycles at 5 A g⁻¹. In-situ electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance measurement verifies a two-step electrochemical process of this unique pseudocapacitive storage behavior in the ammonium acetate electrolyte. Theoretical simulation reveals reversible electron transfer reactions with [NH₄⁺(HAc)₃]···O coordination bonds, resulting in a superior ammonium ion storage capacity. The generality of this acetate ion enhancement effect is also confirmed in the MoS₂-based ammonium-ion battery system. These findings open a new door to realizing high capacity on ammonium ion storage through acetate ion enhancement, breaking the capacity limitations of both Faradaic and non-Faradaic energy storage.

Cement-based materials are the foundation of modern buildings but suffer from intensive energy consumption. Utilizing cement-based materials for efficient energy storage is one of the most promising strategies for realizing zero-energy buildings. However, cement-based materials encounter challenges in achieving excellent electrochemical performance without compromising mechanical properties. Here, we introduce a biomimetic cement-based solid-state electrolyte (labeled as l -CPSSE) with artificially organized layered microstructures by proposing an in situ ice-templating strategy upon the cement hydration, in which the layered micropores are further filled with fast-ion-conducting hydrogels and serve as ion diffusion highways. With these merits, the obtained l -CPSSE not only presents marked specific bending and compressive strength (2.2 and 1.2 times that of traditional cement, respectively) but also exhibits excellent ionic conductivity (27.8 mS·cm ⁻¹ ), overwhelming most previously reported cement-based and hydrogel-based electrolytes. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we assemble the l -CPSSE electrolytes with cement-based electrodes to achieve all-cement-based solid-state energy storage devices, delivering an outstanding full-cell specific capacity of 72.2 mF·cm ⁻² . More importantly, a 5 × 5 cm ² sized building model is successfully fabricated and operated by connecting 4 l -CPSSE-based full cells in series, showcasing its great potential in self-energy-storage buildings. This work provides a general methodology for preparing revolutionary cement-based electrolytes and may pave the way for achieving zero-carbon buildings.