Free‐Standing Polyurethane Nanofiber/Nets Air Filters for Effective PM Capture

The filtration performance and light transmittance of nanofiber air filters are restricted by their thick fiber diameter, large pore size, and substrate dependence, which can be solved by constructing substrate‐free fibrous membranes with true nanoscale diameters and ultrathin thicknesses, however, it has proven to be extremely challenging. Herein, a roust approach is presented to create free‐standing polyurethane (PU) nanofiber/nets air filters composed of bonded nanofibers and 2D nanonets for particular matter (PM) capture via combining electrospinning/netting technique and facile peel off process from designed substrates. This strategy causes widely distributed Steiner‐tree structured nanonets with diameters of ≈20 nm and bonded scaffold nanofibers to assemble into ultrathin membranes with small pore size, high porosity, and robust mechanical strength on a large scale based on ionic liquid inspiration and surface structure optimization of receiver substrates. As a consequence, the resulting free‐standing PU nanofiber/nets filters exhibit high PM_1–0.5 removal efficiency of >99.00% and PM_2.5–1 removal efficiency of >99.73%, maintaining high light transmittance of ≈70% and low pressure drop of 28 Pa; even achieve >99.97% removal efficiency with ≈40% transmittance for PM_0.3 filtration, and robust purification capacity for real smoke PM_2.5, making them promising high‐efficiency and transparent filtration materials for various filtration and separation applications.     

3D Graphene Fibers Grown by Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition

3D assembly of graphene sheets (GSs) is important for preserving the merits of the single‐atomic‐layered structure. Simultaneously, vertical growth of GSs has long been a challenge for thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Here, vertical growth of the GSs is achieved in a thermal CVD reactor and a novel 3D graphene structure, 3D graphene fibers (3DGFs), is developed. The 3DGFs are prepared by carbonizing electrospun polyacrylonitrile fibers in NH₃ and subsequently in situ growing the radially oriented GSs using thermal CVD. The GSs on the 3DGFs are densely arranged and interconnected with the edges fully exposed on the surface, resulting in high performances in multiple aspects such as electrical conductivity (3.4 × 10⁴–1.2 × 10⁵ S m^?1), electromagnetic shielding (60 932 dB cm² g^?1), and superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity, which are far superior to the existing 3D graphene materials. With the extraordinary properties along with the easy scalability of the simple thermal CVD, the novel 3DGFs are highly promising for many applications such as high‐strength and conducting composites, flexible conductors, electromagnetic shielding, energy storage, catalysis, and separation and purification. Furthermore, this strategy can be widely used to grow the vertical GSs on many other substrates by thermal CVD.     

Fabrication of the silver/polypyrrole/polyacrylonitrile composite nanofibrous mats

The AgNO₃/polyacrylonitrile hybrid nanofibers were prepared by using electrospinning technique, then the hybrid fibers of AgNO₃/polyacrylonitrile were treated with pyrrole in the boiling toluene medium, finally, the silver/polypyrrole/polyacrylonitrile composite fibrous mats were obtained. The scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra were used to characterize the obtained silver/polypyrrole/polyacrylonitrile composite fibrous mats. And the results indicated that the morphologies of the composite fibers were influenced by the content of AgNO₃ in the AgNO₃/polyacrylonitrile fibers. The silver/polypyrrole composite dispersed in the fibrous mats exhibited core-shell structure, and the conductivity of the optimum silver/polypyrrole/polyacrylonitrile composite fibrous mats is relatively high.     

Calcinable Polymer Membrane with Revivability for Efficient Oily‐Water Remediation

Fouling of polymeric membranes remains a major challenge for long‐term operation of oily‐water remediation. The common reclamation methods to recycle fouled membranes have the issues of either incomplete degradation of organic pollutants or damage to filter membranes. Here, a calcinable polymer membrane with effective reclamation after fouling is reported, which shows full recovery of the original oil/water separation efficiency. The membrane is made of polysulfonamide/polyacrylonitrile fibers by emulsion electrospinning, followed by hydrothermal decoration of TiO₂ nanoparticles. The bonding structured fibrous membrane displays outstanding thermal stability in air (400 °C), strong acid/alkali resistance (at the pH range from 1 to 13), and robust tensile strength. As a result, the chemically fouled polymeric membrane can be easily reclaimed without decreasing in separation performance and mechanical properties by annealing treatment. As a proof‐of‐concept, the as‐prepared membrane is integrated into a wastewater separation tank, which achieves a high water flux over 3000 L m^?2 h^?1 and oil rejection efficiency of 99.6% for various oil‐in‐water emulsions. The presented strategy on membrane fabrication is believed to be an effective remedy for membrane fouling, and should apply in a wider field of filtration industry.     

Atmospheric Fine and Coarse Mode Aerosols at Different Environments of India and the Bay of Bengal During Winter-2014: Implications of a Coordinated Campaign

In this paper, we present mass concentrations of particulate matter [PM_2.5, PM₁₀ size fractions and total suspended particulates (TSP)] measured simultaneously over land stations (Kullu, Patiala, Delhi, Ajmer, Agra, Lucknow, Varanasi, Giridih, Kolkata, Darjeeling, Jorhat, Itanagar, Imphal, Bhubaneswar, and Kadapa), mostly distributed across the Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) of India as well as in the marine atmosphere over Bay of Bengal (BoB) in the period from 20 January to 3 February, 2014. The main objective of this study was to quantify the continental outflow of particulates (PM_2.5, PM₁₀ and TSP) from IGP and associated regions into the BoB along with low level north-east wind flow during winter monsoon period. The present study provides a glimpse of the aerosol loading over the IGP region. During this campaign, the highest average PM_2.5 (187.8 ± 36.5 µg m^?3, range 125.6–256.2 µg m^?3), PM₁₀ (272.6 ± 102.9 µg m^?3, range 147.6–520.1 µg m^?3) and TSP (325.0 ± 71.5 µg m^?3, range 220.4–536.6 µg m^?3) mass concentrations were recorded at Varanasi, Kolkata and Lucknow over middle and lower IGP regions. The PM_2.5 (average 41.3 ± 11.9 µg m^?3; range 15.0–54.4 µg m^?3), PM₁₀ (average 53.9 ± 18.9 µg m^?3; range 30.1–82.1 µg m^?3) and TSP (average 78.8 ± 29.7 µg m^?3; range 49.1–184.5 µg m^?3) loading over BoB were found to be comparable to land stations and suggests possible continental outflow. Over the continental region, the highest PM_2.5/PM₁₀ ratio was recorded at Delhi (0.87). The PM_2.5/PM₁₀ ratio over BoB (0.77) was found to be quite high and comparable to Varanasi (0.80) and Agra (0.79).     

Influence of clean air and inlet configuration on the performance of slit nozzle virtual impactor

A two-partitioned horizontal inlet was developed for improving the collection efficiency and minimizing the wall loss problem in slit virtual impactor. The two-partitions were provided to simultaneously supply both aerosol and clean air to the virtual impactor. Both numerical and experimental investigations were carried out on the developed inlet configuration by considering different flowrate ratios of aerosol to clean air. The horizontal inlet was helpful in reducing the cutoff diameter, whereas the clean air prevented the particle deposition on the virtual impactor walls. The performance of two-partitioned horizontal inlet was compared with the conventional vertical inlet configuration for PM_2.5, PM₅ and PM₁₀ virtual impactors. All the operating conditions and geometric parameters, such as the inlet flowrate; the width of collection nozzle; the width, length and span of acceleration nozzle; and the distance between collection and acceleration nozzles, were kept the same and only the inlet configuration was changed. The major-to-total flowrate ratio was kept at 0.9 and minor-to-total flowrate ratio at 0.1. It was observed that by using the two-partitioned horizontal inlet configuration, the cutoff diameters for PM_2.5, PM₅ and PM₁₀ virtual impactors, were reduced by 16%, 10% and 11%, respectively, while the wall loss of particles near the cutoff size in all three cases were reduced from 16% to about 1%.     

Vertical Profile of Particulate Matter Concentrations in Indoor Air (Case Study: Karaj,Iran)

Particulate matter is one of the most significant pollutants in indoor environments. The study of vertical profile concentration coefficients of different particulates leads us to figure out the most accurate pattern of vertical profile change of these hazardous particles. In this case, three different sizes of particulate vertical profile patterns, PM_1.0, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀, were evaluated in indoors in the city of Karaj. Samplings of first and fourth floors of 5 buildings located in different areas of Karaj were conducted constantly during 2011. The results of Mahestan Station illustrate the highest average concentration of PM₁₀ (173 µg/m³) whereas the RajaieShahr Station measurements indicates the highest average concentrations of PM_2.5(66 µg/m³) and also PM_1.0(51 µg/m³). Generally, the concentrations of the particulates in the first floors were higher than that in the fourth floors, and according to the air evaluation stations, all the particulates including PM_1.0, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀ had concentrations higher than the annual standard.     

Research on PM_2.5 Concentration Prediction Algorithm Based on Temporal and Spatial Features

PM_2.5 has a non-negligible impact on visibility and air quality as an important component of haze and can affect cloud formation and rainfall and thus change the climate, and it is an evaluation indicator of air pollution level. Achieving PM_2.5 concentration prediction based on relevant historical data mining can effectively improve air pollution forecasting ability and guide air pollution prevention and control. The past methods neglected the impact caused by PM_2.5 flow between cities when analyzing the impact of inter-city PM_2.5 concentrations, making it difficult to further improve the prediction accuracy. However, factors including geographical information such as altitude and distance and meteorological information such as wind speed and wind direction affect the flow of PM_2.5 between cities, leading to the change of PM_2.5 concentration in cities. So a PM_2.5 directed flow graph is constructed in this paper. Geographic and meteorological data is introduced into the graph structure to simulate the spatial PM_2.5 flow transmission relationship between cities. The introduction of meteorological factors like wind direction depicts the unequal flow relationship of PM_2.5 between cities. Based on this, a PM_2.5 concentration prediction method integrating spatial-temporal factors is proposed in this paper. A spatial feature extraction method based on weight aggregation graph attention network (WGAT) is proposed to extract the spatial correlation features of PM_2.5 in the flow graph, and a multi-step PM_2.5 prediction method based on attention gate control loop unit (AGRU) is proposed. The PM_2.5 concentration prediction model WGAT-AGRU with fused spatiotemporal features is constructed by combining the two methods to achieve multi-step PM_2.5 concentration prediction. Finally, accuracy and validity experiments are conducted on the KnowAir dataset, and the results show that the WGAT-AGRU model proposed in the paper has good performance in terms of prediction accuracy and validates the effectiveness of the model.     

Measurements of Particulate (PM2.5), BC and Trace Gases Over the Northwestern Himalayan Region of India

Ambient trace gases (NH₃, NO, NO₂ and SO₂) and black carbon (BC) were measured along with particulate matter (PM_2.5) over the northwestern Himalayan region (Palampur, Kullu, Shimla, Solan and Nahan) of Himachal Pradesh (HP), India in a campaign mode during 12–22 March 2013 to evaluate the ambient air quality of the region. The average mixing ratio of ambient NH₃, NO, NO₂ and SO₂ were recorded as 7.1 ± 2.6, 3.1 ± 1.3, 3.9 ± 1.4 and 1.7 ± 0.7 ppb respectively over the northwestern Himalayan region. The average concentration of BC was estimated as 2.2 ± 0.5 µg m^?3 over the region whereas average concentration of PM_2.5 mass was estimated as 41.8 ± 7.9 µg m^?3. The spatial variation of ambient trace gases (NH₃, NO, NO₂ and SO₂), BC and PM_2.5 over the northwestern Himalayan region, India reveals that the region is mainly influenced by local activities, i.e., tourism activities, agricultural activities, biomass burning and vehicular emission. A significant positive linear correlation of NH₃ and NH₄ ⁺ with SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^? and Cl^? (NH₄ ⁺ vs. SO₄ ^2? , r ² = 0.652; NH₄ ⁺ vs. NO₃ ^?, r ² = 0.701; and NH₄ ⁺ vs. Cl^?, r ² = 0.627) of the PM_2.5 indicates the possible formation of (NH₄)₂SO₄, NH₄NO₃ and NH₄Cl aerosols over the region.     

Colloidal Cobalt Phosphide Nanocrystals as Trifunctional Electrocatalysts for Overall Water Splitting Powered by a Zinc–Air Battery

Highly efficient and stable electrocatalysts, particularly those that are capable of multifunctionality in the same electrolyte, are in high demand for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this work, highly monodisperse CoP and Co₂P nanocrystals (NCs) are synthesized using a robust solution‐phase method. The highly exposed (211) crystal plane and abundant surface phosphide atoms make the CoP NCs efficient catalysts toward ORR and HER, while metal‐rich Co₂P NCs show higher OER performance owing to easier formation of plentiful Co₂P@COOH heterojunctions. Density functional theory calculation results indicate that the desorption of OH* from cobalt sites is the rate‐limiting step for both CoP and Co₂P in ORR and that the high content of phosphide can lower the reaction barrier. A water electrolyzer constructed with a CoP NC cathode and a Co₂P NC anode can achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^?2 at 1.56 V, comparable even to the noble metal‐based Pt/C and RuO₂/C pair. Furthermore, the CoP NCs are employed as an air cathode in a primary zinc–air battery, exhibiting a high power density of 62 mW cm^?2 and good stability.     

Multi-Unit Needleless Electrospinning for One-Step Construction of 3D Waterproof MF-PVA Nanofibrous Membranes as High-Performance Air Filters

The airborne particulate matter (PM) seriously threatens people's health. Personal protective equipment with electrospun nanofibers is an effective method to make people away from air pollutants. Herein, 3D waterproof melamine-formaldehyde polyvinyl alcohol (MF-PVA) nanofibrous membranes are fabricated by a one-step method combining multi-unit needleless electrospinning and a thermal treatment device in a line. 3D nanofibrous structures can be controlled by adjusting the solution concentration of each unit. The PVA nanofibrous membranes become waterproof after cross-linking with MF resin in the following thermal treatment device. The optimized MF-PVA nanofibrous membrane shows excellent air filtration performance (97.3% for PM_0.3, 100% for PM_1.0, and 100% for PM_2.5) and low air resistance (76 Pa). These 3D waterproof MF-PVA nanofibrous membranes exhibit ultra-stable performance in various practical environments.     

High‐Temperature Particulate Matter Filtration with Resilient Yttria‐Stabilized ZrO2 Nanofiber Sponge

Particulate matter (PM) is a major air pollutant in many regions, jeopardizing ecosystems and public health. Filtration at pollutant source is one of the most important ways to protect the environment, however, considering the high‐temperature exhaust gas emissions, effective removal of PM and related pollutants from their sources remains a major challenge. In this study, a resilient, heat‐resisting, and high‐efficiency PM filter based on yttria‐stabilized ZrO₂ (YSZ) nanofiber sponge produced with a scalable solution blow spinning process is reported. The porous 3D sponge composed of YSZ nanofibers is lightweight (density of 20 mg cm^?3) and resilient at both room temperature and high temperatures. At room‐temperature conditions, the YSZ nanofiber sponge exhibits 99.4% filtration efficiency for aerosol particles with size in the range of 20–600 nm, associated with a low pressure drop of only 57 Pa under an airflow velocity of 4.8 cm s^?1. At a high temperature of 750 °C, the ceramic sponge maintains a high filtration efficiency of 99.97% for PM_0.3–2.5 under a high airflow velocity of 10 cm s^?1. A practical vehicle exhaust filter to capture particles with filtration efficiency of >98.3% is also assembled. Hence, the YSZ nanofiber sponge has enormous potential to be applied in industry.     

Bifunctional Transition Metal Hydroxysulfides: Room‐Temperature Sulfurization and Their Applications in Zn–Air Batteries

Bifunctional electrocatalysis for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) constitutes the bottleneck of various sustainable energy devices and systems like rechargeable metal–air batteries. Emerging catalyst materials are strongly requested toward superior electrocatalytic activities and practical applications. In this study, transition metal hydroxysulfides are presented as bifunctional OER/ORR electrocatalysts for Zn–air batteries. By simply immersing Co‐based hydroxide precursor into solution with high‐concentration S^2?, transition metal hydroxides convert to hydroxysulfides with excellent morphology preservation at room temperature. The as‐obtained Co‐based metal hydroxysulfides are with high intrinsic reactivity and electrical conductivity. The electron structure of the active sites is adjusted by anion modulation. The potential for 10 mA cm^?2 OER current density is 1.588 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), and the ORR half‐wave potential is 0.721 V versus RHE, with a potential gap of 0.867 V for bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysis. The Co₃FeS_1.5(OH)₆ hydroxysulfides are employed in the air electrode for a rechargeable Zn–air battery with a small overpotential of 0.86 V at 20.0 mA cm^?2, a high specific capacity of 898 mAh g^?1, and a long cycling life, which is much better than Pt and Ir‐based electrocatalyst in Zn–air batteries.     

Controllable Construction of Core–Shell Polymer@Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks Fiber Derived Heteroatom‐Doped Carbon Nanofiber Network for Efficient Oxygen Electrocatalysis

Designing rational nanostructures of metal–organic frameworks based carbon materials to promote the bifunctional catalytic activity of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly desired but still remains a great challenge. Herein, an in situ growth method to achieve 1D structure‐controllable zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) core/shell fiber (PAN@ZIFs) is developed. Subsequent pyrolysis of this precursor can obtain a heteroatom‐doped carbon nanofiber network as an efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst. The electrocatalytic performance of derived carbon nanofiber is dominated by the structures of PAN@ZIFs fiber, which is facilely regulated by efficiently controlling the nucleation and growth process of ZIFs on the surface of polymer fiber as well as optimizing the components of ZIFs. Benefiting from the core–shell structures with appropriate dopants and porosity, as‐prepared catalysts show brilliant bifunctional ORR/OER catalytic activity and durability. Finally, the rechargeable Zn‐air battery assembled from the optimized catalyst (CNF@Zn/CoNC) displays a peak power density of 140.1 mW cm^?2, energy density of 878.9 Wh kg_Zn^?1, and excellent cyclic stability over 150 h, giving a promising performance in realistic application.     

Solar Energy Triggered Clean Water Harvesting from Humid Air Existing above Sea Surface Enabled by a Hydrogel with Ultrahigh Hygroscopicity

Water scarcity is a ubiquitous problem with its magnitude expected to rise in the near future, and efforts to seek alternative water sources are on the rise. Harvesting water from air has intrigued enormous research interest among many groups with Scientific American listing this technology as the second most impactful technology that can bring about a massive change in people's lives. Though desalination offers a huge prospect in mitigating water crisis, its practicality is limited by exorbitant energy requirement. Alternatively, the air above sea water is moisture rich, with the quantity of vapor increasing at the rate of 0.41 kg m^?2. Herein, a method to sustainably harvest water from this moisture rich zone is demonstrated by employing a nanoporous superhygroscopic hydrogel, which is capable of absorbing water from highly humid atmospheres by over 420% (highest) of its own weight. The desorption process from the hydrogel, occurring at 55 °C (lowest), is triggered by natural sunlight (A.M 1.5) thereby ensuing an external energy‐less water harvesting approach. The hydrogel exhibits excellent stability even after 1000 absorption/desorption cycles. Through multiple absorption/desorption cycles, it is possible to harvest over 10 L water per kg of hydrogel daily.     

Status of PM in Seoul metropolitan subway cabins and effectiveness of subway cabin air purifier (SCAP)

The increasing importance of indoor air quality management on public transport led the Korean government to amend the indoor air quality control in public use facilities, etc. Act including modes of public transport under the Act from June 2013. Particulate matter (PM) in subway systems is reported as being mostly generated by friction—between the wheels and the rails, between the wheels and the brake pads, and between the catenaries and the pantographs. In order to reduce PM level in subway cabins, a newly developed subway cabin air purifier (SCAP) was installed on the ceilings of the cabins. In this study, we analyzed indoor PM concentrations through continuous measurement of PMs less than 10 μm in diameter (PM₁₀) and PMs less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM_2.5) in the cabins of line 2 and line 5 of the Seoul metropolitan subway network, comparing the concentrations in cabins where SCAP devices were installed to cabins without them in order to verify SCAP effectiveness. In both cabins with and without SCAP, the ratio of indoor to outdoor PM₁₀ (I/O for PM₁₀) showed a two-times higher value in line 5 than in line 2, which indicated that the entirely underground line 5 was less ventilated with outdoor air. In addition, the ratio of indoor PM_2.5/PM₁₀ showed that coarse mode PM was more abundant in line 5 due to poor ventilation in the tunnel sections compared to that of line 2. Regarding the effectiveness of SCAP, it was found that changes of PM₁₀ concentrations in line 2 and line 5 were from 132.8 to 112.2 μg/m³ (15.5 % efficiency) and from 154.4 to 114.2 μg/m³ (26.0 % efficiency) after SCAP installation, respectively.     

An Interfacial Solar‐Driven Atmospheric Water Generator Based on a Liquid Sorbent with Simultaneous Adsorption–Desorption

Water scarcity is one of the greatest challenges facing human society. Because of the abundant amount of water present in the atmosphere, there are significant efforts to harvest water from air. Particularly, solar‐driven atmospheric water generators based on sequential adsorption–desorption processes are attracting much attention. However, incomplete daytime desorption is the limiting factor for final water production, as the rate of water desorption typically decreases very quickly with decreased water content in the sorbents. Hereby combining tailored interfacial solar absorbers with an ionic‐liquid‐based sorbent, an atmospheric water generator with a simultaneous adsorption–desorption process is generated. With enhanced desorption capability and stabilized water content in the sorbent, this interfacial solar‐driven atmospheric water generator enables a high rate of water production (≈0.5 L m^?2 h^?1) and 2.8 L m^?2 d^?1 for the outdoor environment. It is expected that this interfacial solar‐driven atmospheric water generator, based on the liquid sorbent with a simultaneous adsorption–desorption process opens up a promising pathway to effectively harvest water from air.     

Amorphous Bimetallic Oxide–Graphene Hybrids as Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Zn–Air Batteries

Metal oxides of earth‐abundant elements are promising electrocatalysts to overcome the sluggish oxygen evolution and oxygen reduction reaction (OER/ORR) in many electrochemical energy‐conversion devices. However, it is difficult to control their catalytic activity precisely. Here, a general three‐stage synthesis strategy is described to produce a family of hybrid materials comprising amorphous bimetallic oxide nanoparticles anchored on N‐doped reduced graphene oxide with simultaneous control of nanoparticle elemental composition, size, and crystallinity. Amorphous Fe_0.5Co_0.5O_x is obtained from Prussian blue analog nanocrystals, showing excellent OER activity with a Tafel slope of 30.1 mV dec^?1 and an overpotential of 257 mV for 10 mA cm^?2 and superior ORR activity with a large limiting current density of ?5.25 mA cm^?2 at 0.6 V. A fabricated Zn–air battery delivers a specific capacity of 756 mA h g_Zn^?1 (corresponding to an energy density of 904 W h kg_Zn^?1), a peak power density of 86 mW cm^?2 and can be cycled over 120 h at 10 mA cm^?2. Other two amorphous bimetallic, Ni_0.4Fe_0.6O_x and Ni_0.33Co_0.67O_x , are also produced to demonstrate the general applicability of this method for synthesizing binary metal oxides with controllable structures as electrocatalysts for energy conversion.     

Textile Inspired Lithium–Oxygen Battery Cathode with Decoupled Oxygen and Electrolyte Pathways

The lithium–air (Li–O₂) battery has been deemed one of the most promising next‐generation energy‐storage devices due to its ultrahigh energy density. However, in conventional porous carbon–air cathodes, the oxygen gas and electrolyte often compete for transport pathways, which limit battery performance. Here, a novel textile‐based air cathode is developed with a triple‐phase structure to improve overall battery performance. The hierarchical structure of the conductive textile network leads to decoupled pathways for oxygen gas and electrolyte: oxygen flows through the woven mesh while the electrolyte diffuses along the textile fibers. Due to noncompetitive transport, the textile‐based Li–O₂ cathode exhibits a high discharge capacity of 8.6 mAh cm^?2, a low overpotential of 1.15 V, and stable operation exceeding 50 cycles. The textile‐based structure can be applied to a range of applications (fuel cells, water splitting, and redox flow batteries) that involve multiple phase reactions. The reported decoupled transport pathway design also spurs potential toward flexible/wearable Li–O₂ batteries.     

Efficient Bifunctional Catalytic Electrodes with Uniformly Distributed NiN2 Active Sites and Channels for Long‐Lasting Rechargeable Zinc–Air Batteries

Freestanding bifunctional electrodes with outstanding oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) properties are of great significance for zinc–air batteries, attributed to the avoided use of organic binder and strong adhesion with substrates. Herein, a strategy is developed to fabricate freestanding bifunctional electrodes from the predeposited nickel nanoparticles (Ni‐NCNT) on carbon fiber paper. The steric effect of monodispersed SiO₂ nanospheres limits the configuration of carbon atoms forming 3D interconnected nanotubes with uniformly distributed NiN₂ active sites. The bifunctional electrodes (Ni‐NCNT) demonstrate ideal ORR and OER properties. The zinc–air batteries assembled with Ni‐NCNT directly exhibit extremely outstanding long term stability (2250 cycles with 10 mA cm^?2 charge/discharge current density) along with high power density of 120 mV cm^?2 and specific capacity of 834.1 mA h g^?1. This work provides a new view to optimize the distribution of active sites and the electrode structure.