To safeguard the development of nuclear energy, practical techniques for capture and storage of radioiodine are of critical importance but remain a significant challenge. Here we report the synergistic effect of physical and chemical adsorption of iodine in tetrathiafulvalene-based covalent organic frameworks (COFs), which can markedly improve both iodine adsorption capacity and adsorption kinetics due to their strong interaction. These functionalized architectures are designed to have high specific surface areas (up to 2359 m² g⁻¹) for efficient physisorption of iodine, and abundant tetrathiafulvalene functional groups for strong chemisorption of iodine. We demonstrate that these frameworks achieve excellent iodine adsorption capacity (up to 8.19 g g⁻¹), which is much higher than those of other materials reported so far, including silver-doped adsorbents, inorganic porous materials, metal–organic frameworks, porous organic frameworks, and other COFs. Furthermore, a combined theoretical and experimental study, including DFT calculations, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy, reveals the strong chemical interaction between iodine and the frameworks of the materials. Our study thus opens an avenue to construct functional COFs for a critical environment-related application.

Ultra-thin N-doped-graphene encapsulated Ni nanoparticles coupled with MoO₂ nanosheets are prepared for HER and OER. As used for overall water splitting, it can work for 196 h at 1000 mA cm⁻².

Efficient pH-universal overall water splitting electrocatalysts are critical but remain challenging. Herein, a highly efficient, pH-universal overall water-splitting electrocatalyst, was reported by ingeniously controlling the bulk and surface electronic structures of Ru with Co-doping and interfacial incorporation of carbon dots (CDs), respectively. The developed RuCo@CD electrocatalyst present superior hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activities with great durability over a wide pH range, achieving a very low overpotential of 51 mV, 11 mV and 67 mV for HER, and 190 mV, 257 mV and 410 mV for OER at 10 mA cm⁻² in 0.5 M H₂SO₄, 1.0 M KOH and neutral 1.0 M phosphate buffer solution (PBS), respectively. A modified chemical/valence state originating from the strong electronic coupling process among Co, Ru and CDs, is revealed by combined experimental and theoretical results, which contributes to the optimization of water dissociation kinetics. A RuCo alloy was unprecedentedly endowed with efficient and stable bi-functional activities for the first time through electronic coupling with CDs. This reflects the dependence of catalytic activity on chemical/valence states and electronic structures at the atomic level. The work provides a new approach for the design of excellent Ru-based overall water splitting electrocatalysts.

Ir nanoparticles on Co ₆ Mo ₆ C nanofibers bridging with a carbon layer have been fabricated as efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting, presenting ultrahigh electrocatalytic performance at ampere-level current density.

Metal-ionic-conductor K₂Fe₄O₇ (KFO) with instinct superhydrophilic properties was hydrothermally grown on nickel foam (NF), the formed binder-free nano-KFO/NF can deliver extremely large current density for water splitting.