Zunbin Duan

The selective removal of trace heteroatomic contaminants from fuel remains a critical challenge for clean combustion and refinery upgrading, particularly due to the chemical stability and structural similarity of sulfur- and nitrogen-containing aromatics. Herein, a surface-engineered graphene oxide aerogel functionalized with cyclodextrin (β-CD-CONH-GO) is developed via covalent grafting to introduce well-defined host–guest recognition sites within a porous framework. Spectroscopic and microscopic characterizations confirm successful functionalization, preserved aerogel morphology, and accessible hybrid interfaces. The removal process for monocyclic, bicyclic, and tricyclic impurities is governed by synergistic molecular inclusion within the cyclodextrin cavity, interfacial hydrogen bonding, and secondary confinement provided by the aerogel porosity. Thus, the β-CD-CONH-GO exhibits efficient adsorption toward representative bicyclic impurities, and the removal performance follows the order of indole > quinoline > benzothiophene. Kinetic analysis demonstrates pseudo-second-order adsorption behavior, indicating chemisorption dominated by cooperative host–guest recognition and hydrogen bonding. It possesses removal selectivity even in mixed systems containing structurally similar aliphatic and aromatic competitors and maintains > 95% efficiency after five regeneration cycles via ethanol extraction, confirming superb durability. This study demonstrates a feasible pathway to design adsorbents for deep fuel refining and highlights cyclodextrin-based graphene hybrid aerogels as promising candidates for separations.

An aerogel-inspired mechanochemical hybridization strategy enables the construction of a MOF-BP heterojunction with robust interfacial coupling, where the composite stabilizes key reaction intermediates to efficiently promote CO ₂ -to-CO conversion.

Phosphorus-carbon composites show promise as high-performance lithium-ion battery anodes but present inherent challenges related to uneven hybridization, poor electrochemical interfaces, and flammability during repeated alloying/dealloying. Here, we propose a countermeasure of hierarchical phosphor-carbon (h-PC) microarchitectures to overcome the aforementioned obstacles. The micromesopores, highly hybridized composites, and enhanced conductivity facilitate accelerated lithium-ion kinetics and robust properties of h-PC, featuring a high-rate capacity of 1040 mAh g^-1 @ 10 A g^-1 and persistent stability for 1000 cycles of 5 A g^-1. The full-cell comprising an h-PC anode and a lithium iron phosphate cathode exhibits a capacity-retention of 98% after 150 cycles. In conjunction with security from hierarchical microarchitectures, the h-PC possesses potential as a robust and secure anode in a commercial setting.

A flexible all-solid-state supercapacitor with fast charging speed and high power density is a promising high-performance energy storage and sensor device in photovoltaic systems. Two-dimensional black phosphorus (BP) is a prospective electrode nanomaterial, but it struggles to fully exert its properties limited by its self-stacking. Herein, by embedding carbon nanoparticles into the interlayer of BP microplates, the designed BP/carbon nanoframe (BP/C NF) forms a certain nano-gap on the substrate for promoting the orderly transport of charges. The corresponding supercapacitor BP/C SC has a capacity of 372 F g⁻¹, which is higher than that constructed from BP microplates (32.6 F g⁻¹). Moreover, the BP/C SC exhibits good stability with a ca. 90% of capacitance retentions after 10,000 repeated bending and long-term cycles. Thus, the proposed strategy of using BP/carbon nanoframes is feasible to develop exceptional flexible energy devices, and it can guide the design of relevant two-dimensional nanocomposites.

The uniformly dispersed black phosphorus nanosheets with an appropriate size in the epoxy resin improve flame retardancy.