Loosely packed MoS₂ nanosheets with thin carbon coating were synthesized via a facile, one-pot hydrothermal growth method. In the resulting optimally-designed nanoarchitecture, the ultrathin nanosheets, with a wall-thickness of approximately 5–10 nm, provide a large electrode–electrolyte interface so as to facilitate faster lithium-ion intercalation and diffusion. The flexible and conductive carbon overcoats stabilize the disordered structure of flower-like MoS₂ nanosheets to accommodate more lithium-ions intercalation and thus maintain the structural and electrical integrity during cycling processes. In favor of the synergy and interplay of the carbon effect and intrinsic structural advantages, C@MoS₂ (2 : 1) composites synthesized with a D-glucose precursor: MoO₃ molar ratio of 2 : 1 exhibit high reversible specific capacity of 1419 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹, retain 80% of the capacity after 50 cycles, and excellent rate capability as high as 672 mA h g⁻¹ at 10 A g⁻¹ with nearly 100% coulombic efficiency. The good electrochemical performance suggests that these C@MoS₂ composites with unique flower-like morphology could be a promising candidate as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries.

We report the sea sponge-inspired design and preparation of piezoelectric composite generators (PCGs) based on a three-dimensional electroceramic skeleton. The remarkable improvements in the piezopotential of the bioinspired structure have been theoretically analyzed using numerical simulations based on a phase-field simulation. The open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density and instantaneous power density of the bioinspired PCG reach up to ∼25 V, ∼550 nA cm⁻² and ∼2.6 μW cm⁻², respectively, corresponding to about 16 times higher power than that of conventional particle based piezoelectric polymer composites. Moreover, the bioinspired PCG displays 30 times higher strain–voltage efficiency under stretching than the state-of-the-art performance of the flexible piezoelectric energy harvesters reported so far.