As a natural linear polysaccharide, alginate can be gelled into calcium alginate fiber and exploited for functional material applications. Owing to its high hygroscopicity, biocompatibility, nontoxicity and non-flammability, calcium alginate fiber has found a variety of potential applications. This article gives a comprehensive overview of research on calcium alginate fiber, starting from the fabrication technique of wet spinning and microfluidic spinning, followed by a detailed description of the moisture absorption ability, biocompatibility and intrinsic fire-resistant performance of calcium alginate fiber, and briefly introduces its corresponding applications in biomaterials, fire-retardant and other advanced materials that have been extensively studied over the past decade. This review assists in better design and preparation of the alginate bio-based fiber and puts forward new perspectives for further study on alginate fiber, which can benefit the future development of the booming eco-friendly marine biomass polysaccharide fiber.

A novel product consisting of a homogeneous tin oxide nanowall array with abundant oxygen deficiencies and partial Ni-Sn alloying onto a Ni foam substrate was successfully prepared using a facile solvothermal synthesis process with subsequent thermal treatment in a reductive atmosphere. Such a product could be directly used as integrated anodes for supercapacitors, which showed outstanding electrochemical properties with a maximum specific capacitance of 31.50 mAh·g⁻¹ at 0.1 A·g⁻¹, as well as good cycling performance, with a 1.35-fold increase in capacitance after 10,000 cycles. An asymmetric supercapacitor composed of the obtained product as the anode and activated carbon as the cathode was shown to achieve a high potential window of 1.4 V. The excellent electrochemical performance of the obtained product is mainly ascribed to the hierarchical structure provided by the integrated, vertically grown nanowall array on 3D Ni foam, the existence of oxygen deficiency and the formation of Ni-Sn alloys in the nanostructures. This work provides a general strategy for preparing other high-performance metal oxide electrodes for electrochemical applications.