Catalysts that can rapidly degrade tetracycline (TC) in water without introducing secondary ion pollution have always been challenging. Herein, a cobalt-based catalyst (CoO@P-C) is prepared so that CoO quantum particles (5–10 nm) are uniformly distributed on a linear substrate, and the outer layer is covered with a shell (P-C). The quantum particles of CoO provide many active sites for the reaction, which ensures the efficient degradation effect of the catalyst, and 30 mg/L TC can be completely degraded in only 5 min. The shell of the quantum particles' outer layer can effectively reduce ions' extravasation. The combination of the shell-like structure and the linear substrate greatly enhances the catalysis's stability and ensures that the catalyst is prepared into a film for practical application. The high catalytic activity of CoO@P-C is mainly due to the following factors: (1) Uniformly distributed ultra-small nanoparticles can provide many active sites. (2) The microenvironment formed by the core-shell structure enhances not only catalytic stability but also provides the driving force to improve the reaction rate. (3) The composite of CoO and P-C core-shell structure can accelerate electron transfer and generate many reactive oxygen species in a short time, which makes TC degrade extremely rapidly.

Although Zn metal has been regarded as the most promising anode for aqueous batteries, its practical application is still restricted by side reactions and dendrite growth. Herein, an in-situ solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film formed on the interface of electrode/electrolyte during the plating/stripping of zinc anodes by introducing trace amounts of multidentate ligand sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) additive into 1 M ZnSO₄. The synergistic effect of in-situ solid electrolyte interphase forming and chelate effect endows Zn²⁺ with uniform and rapid interface-diffusion kinetics against dendrite growth and surface side reactions. As a result, the Zn anode in 1 M ZnSO₄ + DDTC electrolytes displays an ultra-high coulombic efficiency of 99.5% and cycling stability (more than 2000 h), especially at high current density (more than 600 cycles at 40 mA cm⁻²). Moreover, the Zn//MnO₂ full cells in the ZnSO₄ + DDTC electrolyte exhibit outstanding cyclic stability (with 98.6% capacity retention after 2000 cycles at 10 C). This electrode/electrolyte interfacial chemistry modulated strategy provides new insight into enhancing zinc anode stability for high-performance aqueous zinc batteries.

Nickel cobalt sulfides (Ni-Co-S) have attracted extensive attention for application in electronic devices owing to their excellent conductivity and high electrochemical capacitance. To facilitate the large-scale practical application of Ni-Co-S, the excellent rate capability and cyclic stability of these compounds must be fully exploited. Thus, hierarchical Ni-Co-S@Ni-W-O (Ni-Co-S-W) core/shell hybrid nanosheet arrays on nickel foam were designed and synthesized herein via a facile three-step hydrothermal method, followed by annealing in a tubular furnace under argon atmosphere. The hybrid structure was directly assembled as a free-standing electrode, which exhibited a high specific capacitance of 1, 988 F·g^-1 at 2 A·g^-1 and retained an excellent capacitance of approximately 1, 500 F·g^-1 at 30 A·g^-1, which is superior to the performance of the pristine Ni-Co-S nanosheet electrode. The assembled asymmetric supercapacitors achieved high specific capacitance (155 F·g^-1 at 1 A·g^-1), electrochemical stability, and a high energy density of 55.1 W·h·kg^-1 at a power density of 799.8 W·kg^-1 with the optimized Ni-Co-S-W core/shell nanosheets as the positive electrode, activated carbon as the negative electrode, and 6 M KOH as the electrolyte.