Porous high-entropy materials (PHEMs) integrate the solid-solution characteristics of multiple elements with hierarchical porous structures, combining intrinsic advantages such as high-entropy effects and lattice distortion with structural benefits like high active specific surface area and efficient mass transport channels. They demonstrate remarkable potential in energy conversion reactions including hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution, and nitrate reduction to ammonia, offering a promising alternative to traditional noble metal catalysts. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the synthesis, structural regulation and electrocatalytic performance research of PHEMs. However, this field is still in the development stage. Currently, there is a lack of comprehensive and systematic understanding of the intrinsic relationship between material composition, microstructure, and macroscopic catalytic performance. Synthesis methods remain to be systematically summarized, and the multi-component nature poses challenges in controlling composition and phase structure. Some approaches also suffer from issues such as non-uniform pore size distribution and element segregation, which hinder practical application and commercialization. Therefore, this review systematically outlines the core definition and features of PHEMs, elaborates on the principles and advances of mainstream synthesis strategies, summarizes the governing principles of structural regulation, analyzes their electrocatalytic performance, discusses existing key challenges, and looks forward to future research directions, aiming to provide systematic guidance for related studies.

Developing cost-effective and high-performance bifunctional electrocatalysts is crucial for addressing the kinetic limitations of water electrolysis. Here, we successfully fabricate strained phosphorus-doped nickel-iron oxide on iron foam (P-NiFe₂O₄/IF) via simple corrosion-annealing coupling strategy. In situ Raman and electrochemical analyses reveal that the tensile lattice strain induced by P doping reorganizes the interfacial hydrogen-bond network and enhances its connectivity, accelerating proton transfer and deprotonation processes. Combined with theoretical calculations, it is confirmed that strain regulation effectively modulates the adsorption of *OH/*H, avoiding the *OH poisoning and poor deprotonation. In addition, the strain effect promotes surface reconstruction to generate active phases. Benefiting from the above advantages, P-NiFe₂O₄/IF exhibits excellent bifunctional electrocatalytic activity. A two-electrode electrolyzer constructed with P-NiFe₂O₄/IF requires only 1.45 V to reach 10 mA·cm^–2 and maintains outstanding operational durability even under high current conditions. This research sheds light on fabricating efficient and robust bifunctional electrocatalysts for water-splitting by regulating interfacial water and intermediate adsorption via strain engineering.

Developing active and durable air cathodes for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is pivotal for rechargeable aqueous Zn-air battery (A-ZAB) and chlor-alkali electrolysis. Fe-N-C single-atom catalysts have shown great promise, yet the critical role of the carbon support structure remains underexplored. Herein, we report the Fe single-atom on hierarchically ordered porous carbon (Fe-N-HOC) with an inverse opal structure. Fe-N-HOC features high-density Fe-N₄ sites and delivers highly active ORR performance in alkaline media, attaining substantially enhanced half-wave potential (E_1/2) of 0.90 V. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations manifest that the curved configuration Fe-N₄ enhances electron transfer, weakens the binding strength of oxygen intermediates, and reduces the energy barrier of *OH desorption significantly by 0.79 eV relative to planar analogues, boosting ORR kinetics. Consequently, Fe-N-HOC delivers excellent durability, with only 8 mV loss in E_1/2 after 50,000 cycles. In practical applications, A-ZAB with Fe-N-HOC achieves remarkable cycling for 1600 h at 5 mA cm⁻². Fe-N-HOC-based quasi-solid-state ZAB (QSS-ZAB) also exhibits large peak power density of 216.7 mW cm⁻² and extended cycle life (>130 h) across the current densities of 0.5−2.0 mA cm⁻². Furthermore, in chlor-alkali electrolysis, the Fe-N-HOC||RuO₂ system operates at 1.62 V for large current density of 300 mA cm⁻² with minimal performance decay. This work presents a multi-dimensional modification strategy encompassing morphology control, element doping, and electronic tuning, providing crucial guidance for the development of efficient catalysts in energy conversion and storage systems.

As a core geometric parameter of nanocarriers, curvature exerts crucial regulatory effects in diverse fields such as biomedicine, catalysis, and materials assembly. For nanocarriers with regular geometric morphologies, the absolute value of curvature is inversely proportional to their characteristic sizes (e.g., particle size, tube diameter), and the smaller the characteristic size, the more significant the curvature effect. This paper presents the first systematic review of the design and synthesis strategies of curvature-tailored nanocarriers, while also providing an in-depth discussion of their performance across multiple application scenarios. In terms of design and synthesis, this paper establishes a classification system encompassing positive curvature, negative curvature, and mixed curvature, introduces various curvature characterization techniques including electron microscopy, scattering methods, and atomic force microscopy, and summarizes precise curvature-control synthesis strategies such as the template method, self-assembly method, controlled buckling method, and etching method. In the aspect of application evaluation, curvature-tailored nanocarriers significantly enhance intracellular endocytosis efficiency and tumor tissue penetration capacity in drug delivery; in catalytic applications, they achieve improvements in catalyst performance by regulating electronic structures, reaction kinetics, and reaction mechanisms; in materials assembly, curvature serves as a structural modulation tool to promote the development of ordered assembled architectures. This paper provides systematic theoretical support and methodological guidance for the rational design and functionalized application of curvature-tailored nanocarriers, and further prospects their future development directions in intelligent design, multifunctional integration, and industrialization.

Electrochemical water splitting represents a highly promising technology for high-purity hydrogen production. By replacing the kinetically sluggish anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with a thermodynamically more favorable oxidation reaction, energy-efficient hydrogen generation can be achieved. This thermodynamic superiority provides the fundamental driving force for energy saving. Significant research efforts have been devoted to designing advanced electrocatalysts for small-molecule oxidation that not only improve reaction kinetics but, more fundamentally, optimize the adsorption free energy of reactive intermediates to minimize the practical overpotential. To gain deeper insights into the current progress and future directions of small-molecule electrochemical oxidation reaction (SMOR) assisted hydrogen production, this review systematically summarizes optimization strategies for electrocatalysts, spanning active sites, electrochemical interfaces, electron transfer pathways and d-band center modulation to maximize their catalytic performance in small-molecule oxidation reactions. Moreover, this review highlights innovative design strategies for high-performance SMOR electrocatalysts, addressing the distinct challenges associated with different reaction systems. It further outlines future research directions for catalyst development and identifies key areas requiring deeper investigation.

Atomic scale surface engineering of metal nanocatalysts is a key strategy for enhancing their catalytic performance. By precisely controlling the arrangement of surface atoms and their electronic structure, reaction activity, selectivity, and stability can be significantly improved. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in atomic level surface processing, including strategies, such as surface defect engineering, interface regulation, and dynamic encapsulation, and delves into their application mechanisms in fields like electrocatalysis and energy conversion. Nevertheless, challenges persist in this field, including synthetic controllability, tracking of dynamic structural evolution, precise design of active sites, and industrial-scale scaling. Future research must integrate multidisciplinary approaches, such as in situ characterization, theoretical simulations, and artificial intelligence, to advance the rational design and practical application of atomically precise catalysts, thereby providing novel insights for achieving highly efficient and stable energy conversion systems.

The continuous advancement of integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing technology has posed unprecedented challenges to the electronic electroplating process, with its core lying in achieving precise regulation of metal deposition behavior within micro/nanoscale structures, especially those with high aspect ratios (HAR). This review systematically summarizes the key progress in the research on multi-scale metal nucleation and growth mechanisms in IC electronic electroplating. We first analyze the unique mechanisms of mass transfer and electric field distribution at the micro/nanoscale, revealing the electric field inhomogeneity caused by geometric effects and polarization effects in HAR structures, as well as the diffusion-dominated mass transfer process. Furthermore, we delve into the complexity of additive effects, including their adsorption behavior in nano-confined spaces and the intricate synergistic and competitive relationships among inhibitors, accelerators, and levelers, while reviewing the development of innovative additives based on molecular design. Targeting the aforementioned complex system involving multi-physics and multi-scale coupling, this paper focuses on elaborating the construction methods of cross-scale theoretical models, the latest advances in multi-physics coupling solution technologies, and the enormous potential of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing model predictive capabilities and optimizing processes. Finally, we prospect the frontier development directions such as novel electroplating processes, in-situ monitoring and feedback control technologies, exploration of new material systems, and process integration and equipment innovation. This review aims to provide a comprehensive theoretical framework and technical perspective for in-depth understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of micro/nano electronic electroplating and the development of next-generation high-performance interconnect technologies.

Currently, seawater electrolysis is an effective technology for the large-scale production of green hydrogen, but the issues of poisoning active sites and catalyst corrosion caused by chloride ions in seawater urgently need to be addressed. This paper reports a non-precious metal cobalt sulfide with sulfur vacancies (v-Co₉S₈) catalyst, where the presence of sulfur vacancies can accelerate the formation of metal hydroxyl oxides and induce the generation of high-valent Co, enabling v-Co₉S₈ to exhibit long-term stability and excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity in seawater electrolysis. At the same time, the high-valent Co acts as a Lewis acid, providing stronger OH⁻ adsorption and Cl⁻ repulsion capabilities during the seawater OER process. Therefore, v-Co₉S₈ catalyst achieves an overpotential of only 420 mV at 1000 mA·cm⁻² in alkaline seawater. At the same time, the assembled alkaline seawater anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyzer operates stably for over 130 h under the condition of 500 mA·cm⁻². This work reports a mechanism where anion vacancy-induced metal sulfide reconstruction forms high-valent metals, which is expected to provide effective guidance for the development of seawater electrocatalysts.

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial for Zn-air batteries, while also serves as a core electrochemical process in oxygen depolarized cathodes (ODCs) for chlor-alkali electrolysis. The lack of cost-effective, highly active ORR electrocatalysts with superior kinetics hinders progress in this field. Herein, we report the Fe/Ni dual single-atomic sites anchored by commercial carbon black (Fe/Ni-N/CB) using rigid ligand confined and high-temperature shock (HTS) strategy in less than 0.5 s. Theoretical calculation reveals that single-atomic Fe is the real active site. Single-atomic Fe and Ni species in Fe/Ni-N/CB synergistically accelerate the kinetics of ORR by reducing the energy barrier of the rate-determining step. A large half-wave potential (E_1/2) of 0.907 V is achieved in 0.1 M KOH aqueous solution. The assembled aqueous Zn-air battery (A-ZAB) with Fe/Ni-N/CB cathode presents remarkable charge–discharge cycling stability for over 650 h without voltage gap degradation. The quasi-solid-state Zn-air battery (QSS-ZAB) exhibits excellent reversibility over a 150-h operation at 0.5 mA·cm⁻² with negligible energy conversion efficiency recession. Impressively, Fe/Ni-N/CB||RuO₂ chlor-alkali flow cell exhibits a low cell voltage of 1.60 V at a large current density of 300 mA·cm⁻² at 80 °C, and demonstrates exceptional durability with 7% current density decay over 150 h of continuous operation at 100 mA·cm⁻². Fe/Ni-N/CB||RuO₂ achieves near-ideal caustic current efficiency (~ 97.2%) at the current density of 300 mA·cm⁻². This work provides a rapid and economical synthesis technique for the synthesis of catalysts at the atomic scale while demonstrating significant potential for application in energy-saving chlor-alkali electrolyzer.

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to produce valuable chemicals is a promising strategy to address environmental issues and energy crisis. However, achieving high efficiency and selectivity for converting CO₂ into higher-energy CH₄ remains challenging due to the competitive two-electron reduction pathway producing CO. In this study, Cu₂O clusters were strongly anchored onto ultrathin TiO₂ nanosheets (Cu(I)-TiO₂) using a simple photo-deposition method. Compared to pure TiO₂, Cu(I)-TiO₂ samples exhibited a significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity and selectivity for CO₂-to-CH₄. The presence of Cu₂O can also enhance the photogenerated carrier separation and light absorption. By optimizing the amount of Cu₂O, the CH₄ production rate of 45.73 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹ with selectivity up to 97.47% was achieved. Mechanistic investigations demonstrate that the presence of Cu₂O lowers the formation energy barrier of *COOH, a key intermediate for the photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. Moreover, Cu(I)-TiO₂ promotes the adsorption and hydrogenation of *CO to *CHO_x species, favoring CH₄ production over CO. This work provides valuable insights for designing highly efficient and selective photocatalyst for CO₂ reduction and deepens the understanding of reaction mechanism.