The development of Li-S batteries (LSBs) is hindered by the low utilization of S species and sluggish redox reaction kinetics. Polar metal oxides always possess high adsorption to polar S species, while conductive metal nitrides show fast electron transport and ensure fast redox reaction of S species. The combination merits of metal oxides and metal nitrides in one provide an effective strategy to improve the electrochemical performance of LSBs. In this work, defect design of niobium oxynitrides highly dispersed on graphene (NbON-G) is evaluated as effective trapper and catalyst for S species. Owning to the effective structural merits including enriched active sites, alleviated volume variation, defect modulated electronic property, and in-situ chemisorption and catalytic conversion of soluble lithium polysulfides (LiPSs), the LSBs with NbON-G modified separator show remarkably enhanced performance compared to NbN-G and Nb₂O₅-G. Surprisingly, even at low temperature of −40 °C, the LSBs with NbON-G can operate for 1,000 cycles with 0.04% capacity decay per cycle (Rate: 2 C).

The glycerol electro-oxidation reaction (GEOR) is a green and promising method for the glyceraldehyde production. In this work, Pd nanocrystals (Pd-NCs) modified ultrathin NiO nanoplates (NiO-uNPs) hybrids (Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs) are successfully synthesized using successive cyanogel hydrolysis, chemical reduction, and calcination treatment methods. Various electrochemical measurements and physicochemical characterization results demonstrate that Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs hybrids have excellent electrocatalytic performance for both GEOR and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline medium, which benefit from the large specific surface area, uniform distribution of Pd-NCs, and the modified electronic structure of Ni atoms. At Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs hybrids, only 1.43 V is needed to obtain the current density of 100 mA∙cm⁻² for GEOR, much lower than that for oxygen evolution reaction (1.82 V). In addition, Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs hybrids exhibit better HER performance than commercial Pd/C electrocatalyst. As a result, the constructed Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs||Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs glycerol electrolyzer only requires 1.62 V electrolysis voltage to reach 10 mA∙cm⁻² current density, showing an energy-efficient and economy-competitive synthesis for the coproduction of glyceraldehyde and hydrogen.