Smart electrochromic devices based on reversible electrodeposition/dissolution have attracted increasing attention owing to their large optical modulation, simplified device configuration, and potential multifunctionality. Different from conventional electrochromic systems relying on ion insertion/extraction in pre-deposited films, these devices offer dynamic optical regulation through reversible electrochemical deposition and dissolution at the electrode/electrolyte interface. In this review, recent progress in reversible electrodeposition-based electrochromic devices is summarized with emphasis on three representative families: reversible metal, iodine, and MnO₂ electrodeposition. For metal-based devices, deposition morphology, alloy composition, electrolyte regulation, and electrode surface modification are key factors determining optical contrast, color tunability, and cycling stability. For iodine systems, the suppression of the polyiodide shuttle and dead iodine formation is central to achieving stable neutral-color modulation. For MnO₂ systems, reversible Mn²⁺/MnO₂ conversion enables wide UV–visible modulation and multicolor states, while dead manganese residues and non-uniform deposition remain major challenges. Finally, the common design principles and system-specific trade-offs are compared and discussed, followed by an outlook on practical reliability, large-area fabrication, adaptive thermal regulation, and multifunctional integration. This review aims at inspiring future endeavors towards implementation of reversible (non-)metal electrodeposition-based smart electrochromic devices.

Photothermal phase change materials (PCMs) are emerging as one kind of multifunctional wearable energy materials that integrate latent-heat storage with solar-to-thermal conversion, electrothermal heating, radiative regulation, and intelligent sensing. Unlike conventional PCMs, wearable photothermal PCMs should simultaneously satisfy thermal performance, flexibility, breathability, leakage resistance, cycling stability, and skin compatibility. We summarize recent progress in photothermal PCMs for wearable thermal management and intelligent healthcare, focusing on material systems, energy-conversion mechanisms, and application scenarios. Shape-stabilized solid-liquid composites, intrinsically flexible solid-solid/polymeric PCMs, photothermal-filler-enhanced composites, and PC-Azo molecular solar thermal systems are discussed. Their applications in personal thermal management, solar-thermal/optically switched heat release, wearable thermotherapy, intelligent healthcare, wearable electronics, and self-powered systems are highlighted. Finally, key challenges and future opportunities are proposed, including human-centered evaluation standards, multimodal thermal regulation, epidermal phase-change hydrogels, phase-change solar thermal textiles, and AI-guided material design.

Seawater electrolysis is a promising route for sustainable hydrogen production, yet its practical deployment is severely restricted by the chloride-rich electrolyte environment, which imposes more stringent demands on anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts than conventional purified water electrolysis. Chloride ions not only trigger competing chlorine-related reactions but also accelerate catalyst corrosion, surface reconstruction, active-site degradation, and interfacial reaction complexity, making the rational design of active and durable chloride-resistant catalysts a central challenge in this field. In this context, synchrotron radiation (SR)-based spectroscopies have emerged as indispensable tools for bridging catalyst design and mechanistic understanding under operating conditions. In particular, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) enables direct probing of the oxidation state, electronic structure, and local coordination environment of catalytic centers, providing atomic-scale insights into chloride-induced structural evolution, active-site reconstruction, and stability regulation. SR-based infrared spectroscopy (SR-IR) offers molecular-level information on adsorbed intermediates, surface functional groups, and interfacial water structure, thereby revealing how chloride perturbs reaction pathways and interfacial chemistry during seawater electrolysis with large-scale applications in the future. This review first summarizes the fundamental challenges of seawater electrolysis, with emphasis on the critical role of chloride in governing catalyst selectivity and durability; it then introduces the basic principles and unique advantages of XAS and IR, highlighting their irreplaceable value in studying working electrocatalytic systems; subsequently, recent progress in applying these techniques to chloride-resistant catalyst design and reaction mechanism studies is discussed; finally, future opportunities are outlined, which are expected to substantially deepen the understanding of chloride-related processes and guide the rational development of efficient, robust, and low-cost catalysts for seawater electrolysis.

P2-type layered manganese-based oxides are promising cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) but suffer from structural instability and irreversible phase transitions. This study demonstrates that iron doping in P2-Na_2/3Li_1/6Fe_1/6Mn_2/3O₂ (NLFM) effectively reconfigures the structural and redox chemistry. Structural and electrochemical analyses reveal that Fe³⁺ incorporation expands the Na⁺ interlayer spacing, enhances reversible cationic (Fe³⁺/Fe⁴⁺) and anionic redox activity, and promotes a dominant surface-controlled charge storage mechanism. Consequently, the NLFM cathode delivers a high initial capacity of 225 mAh·g^-1 at 0.1 C, an impressive initial Coulombic efficiency of 110.21%, and superior cycling stability (73.6% capacity retention after 100 cycles at 1 C). Furthermore, Fe doping effectively mitigates the Jahn-Teller distortion and the reversible P2 to O2 phase transition at high voltages. This work highlights the multi-functional role of iron doping in stabilizing the structure and optimizing the redox chemistry of P2-type cathodes, providing an effective strategy for developing high-energy and durable SIBs cathodes.

In the past decades, multi-functional materials have attracted significant attention for applications in electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, thermal management, and intelligent sensing. Extensive efforts have focused on developing conductive composites with enhanced functional performance. Increasing evidence indicates that the structural characteristics of conductive networks play a decisive role in determining material properties. Among various structural engineering strategies, oriented conductive networks have emerged as a highly effective platform for optimizing charge transport, heat transfer, and electromagnetic wave attenuation through the deliberate alignment of functional fillers. Unlike isotropic networks, oriented architectures provide new opportunities for achieving high performance with reduced filler loading by forming anisotropic transport pathways. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in multi-functional materials based on oriented conductive networks, with particular emphasis on the underlying structure–property relationships governing sensing, EMI shielding, and thermal management performances. The effects of filler characteristics, orientation degree, and structural features on functional properties are critically analyzed. More importantly, this review highlights oriented conductive networks as a universal structural design strategy for multifunctional materials and discusses emerging opportunities associated with advanced fabrication technologies, AI-assisted materials design, and integrated material–structure engineering. Finally, the remaining challenges and future perspectives regarding scalability, structural precision, reliability, and multifunctional integration are discussed to guide the future development of next-generation multifunctional composites.

Supercapacitors (SCs) are critical for high-power energy storage, yet their practical deployment is still limited by insufficient energy density. MXenes have emerged as promising electrode materials owing to inherent metallic conductivity, hydrophilic terminations, and intercalation pseudocapacitance, but suffer from layer restacking and oxidative degradation. Hybridizing MXenes with 3D carbon scaffolds offers a synergistic strategy by providing interlayer spacers, hierarchical ion transport pathways, and oxidation barriers. To the best of our knowledge, this review is the first to systematically couple the structural design of MXene/3D-carbon composites with machine learning (ML) guided optimization, summarizing recent advances in MXene/3D-carbon composite electrodes. This review systematically evaluates MXene etching routes and representative composite assembly strategies, and classifies existing systems into three structural categories, critically comparing their performance metrics, strengths, and inherent limitations. It further highlights the frontier applications of ML in performance prediction, compositional optimization, and mechanical design, along with current challenges, including data bias, the black-box nature of models, and the gap between idealized predictions and real synthesis. Overall, this work aims to provide a framework for integrating advanced synthesis strategies, 3D architectures, and data-driven tools toward the rational design of high-performance SCs.

The flight of insects exemplifies nature’s use of resonance to achieve large-amplitude, high-frequency motion with exceptional energy efficiency. Emulating this resonant amplification effect (RAE) in artificial systems remains a key challenge in soft robotics. Conventional dielectric elastomers (DEs) can be tuned electrically but rely on in-plane deformation. This generates insufficient inertial forces for resonance and thus requires rigid external frames, which consequently add fabrication complexity and reduces energy density. Here, we present a material-level approach to achieve intrinsic resonance amplification using space charge-driven dielectric elastomers (SC-DEs), which generate asymmetric electric fields and self-induced bending without external support. The optimized materials exhibited efficient actuation at low driving fields (~1 V μm^-1), with bending angles amplified from 20° to 150° through resonance without increasing field strength. This work establishes a framework for realizing resonance-amplified electromechanical actuation intrinsically within soft materials, offering new design routes toward lightweight, energy-efficient, and high-performance soft robotic systems.

Silver nanowire (AgNW) networks are promising electrode candidates for flexible organic solar cells (FOSCs) due to their outstanding optoelectronic properties and mechanical flexibility. However, their practical deployment remains hindered by high junction resistance and inherent surface irregularities, which lead to non-uniform current distribution and increased energy dissipation. Here, we report a hyaluronic acid (HA)-assisted Joule-heating strategy that enables spatially uniform yet junction-selective sintering within AgNWs. The HA treatment increases the density of effective inter-nanowire contacts and improves interfacial adhesion, thereby preconditioning the network for a more homogeneous current distribution. As a result, Joule heating is preferentially localized at electrically active junctions, leading to efficient welding without damaging the overall network. This synergistic regulation produces AgNW electrodes with reduced sheet resistance, improved surface smoothness, and enhanced mechanical robustness, while preserving high optical transparency. Based on the transition from localized current crowding to a homogenized transport regime, which contributes to reduced resistive losses and suppressed recombination, the FOSCs achieve a power conversion efficiency increased from 16.85% to 18.09%, which is the highest reported value of inverted FOSCs. This work establishes a general strategy for coupling network densification with electrically driven selective sintering, offering a scalable route toward high-performance transparent electrodes for next-generation flexible optoelectronics.

Heavy metal ions (HMIs) pose persistent risks to ecosystems and human health owing to their toxicity, environmental persistence, and bioaccumulation. Conventional laboratory techniques provide high sensitivity and accuracy, but their dependence on bulky instruments, skilled operators, and complex pretreatment restricts rapid on-site screening. Portable electrochemical systems offer a complementary strategy by integrating sensing electrodes, potentiostatic control, weak-current readout, and software-based signal processing to convert interfacial redox reactions into measurable electrical signals. This review examines portable electrochemical HMI detection from three perspectives: detection principles, hardware architectures, and field applications. It summarizes redox and stripping mechanisms, baseline correction, limit-of-detection (LOD) estimation, potentiostat evolution, and single- and multi-metal detection in complex matrices. Key bottlenecks include matrix-induced peak drift and fouling, coexisting-ion interference, limitations in weak-current readout, and insufficient field standardization. Future progress will require co-optimized sensing interfaces, low-noise electronics, multichannel and flow-cell formats, field calibration, and data-driven peak analysis.

Conductive microneedles (CMNs) combine the minimally invasive characteristics of microneedles with the electrical functionality required for sensing, recording, stimulation, and controlled drug delivery. By penetrating the stratum corneum with reduced pain and tissue damage, they provide efficient access to the skin microenvironment and have shown strong potential in wearable healthcare, precision diagnostics, and intelligent therapeutics. Despite these advantages, challenges remain in balancing mechanical robustness with electrical functionality, improving fabrication precision and reproducibility, maintaining interfacial stability, and achieving scalable manufacturing. In this review, the major fabrication routes for CMNs are summarized and compared in terms of forming principles, material compatibility, and conductivity-introduction strategies. Secondly, research on the key performances of CMNs is discussed. After that, the applications of CMNs in electrochemical sensing, bioelectrical signal acquisition, electrostimulation therapy, and drug delivery are overviewed, followed by a brief discussion of current challenges and future perspectives.

Friction dampers dissipate seismic energy through sliding but lack self-sensing capability. This study integrates friction dampers with triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), which convert mechanical energy into electrical signals, creating a self-sensing damper. Using friction pairs with large triboelectric differences, the system simultaneously achieves energy dissipation and sensing. During sliding, mechanical energy is partially converted into heat (dissipation) and electricity (sensing). Theoretical models link displacement and velocity to voltage and current, validated through cyclic loading tests varying velocity, displacement, and friction force. Results show stable energy dissipation (300-770 J/cycle) comparable to conventional dampers. Sensing performance is strong: voltage correlates linearly with displacement (0.00526 V/mm, R² = 0.94), and current with velocity (0.01914 μA/(mm/s), R² > 0.99). Unlike conventional TENGs, high friction alters triboelectric behavior via wear and heating, producing a unique voltage-velocity relationship. Scanning electron microscopy analysis confirms maximum wear at 34.2 kN, aligning with inflection points in electrical response. An empirical Q-V-f formula for high-friction conditions enriches triboelectric theory and guides damper design, emphasizing friction optimization for balanced dissipation and sensing stability.

The rapid expansion of wearable electronics and distributed sensing is sharpening the demand for sustainable, maintenance free power sources that can operate quietly over long periods. Thermoelectric conversion is attractive here because it can harvest low grade heat, especially body heat, and translate small temperature differences into usable electrical power. Organic thermoelectric materials have therefore drawn sustained interest. They combine mechanical flexibility, low density, solution processability, and generally favorable biocompatibility, which aligns naturally with soft, skin interfaced devices. Their intrinsically low thermal conductivity, together with charge transport tunability enabled by molecular design and doping control, supports efficient operation under modest temperature gradients and conformal integration with compliant substrates. Recent progress in molecular engineering, secondary doping, microstructural regulation, and flexible device architectures has pushed performance forward, with reported power factors exceeding 1,000 μW m^-1 K^-2 and figure of merit values approaching unity at room temperature in selected systems. However, turning these advances into practical wearable generators remains nontrivial. Key bottlenecks include incomplete decoupling of electrical and thermal transport, limited long term stability under mechanical deformation and environmental exposure, and the persistent gap between laboratory scale demonstrations and scalable fabrication. This review summarizes recent developments in organic thermoelectric materials and wearable devices, and distills design principles aimed at enabling robust, manufacturable, and truly self-powered wearable systems.

The efficient activation of CO₂ molecules is imperative for the development of a high-performance catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane with carbon dioxide (CO₂-ODP). To enhance the activation of CO₂ over ceria, in this work, rare earth doped ceria (RE-CeO₂, RE=La, Pr, Nd, and Sm) is comparatively studied as a support for PtSn for CO₂-ODP. Compared with PtSn/CeO₂, Ce_1-xRE_xO₂ solid solution is formed for the RE-doped PtSn/CeO₂ catalysts, which increases the oxygen defect content, promotes the dispersion of Pt, and strengthens the ability of CO₂ to supplement lattice oxygen in the catalyst, thereby enhancing the catalytic performance for CO₂-ODP. Among the investigated catalysts, PtSn/ Nd-CeO₂ shows the best CO₂-ODP performance, with an initial propane conversion and propylene selectivity of 52.7% and 86.1%, respectively. Moreover, the Pt electron density and oxygen-defect content over PtSn/RE-CeO₂ catalysts, which can be regulated to relatively large extents by doping ceria with different RE metals, are key factors in determining the activity of CO₂-ODP. These findings regarding the CeO₂-based binary RE solid solutions with adjustable oxygen defects and the derived impacts on supported Pt provide important references for advancing the design of oxygen-defect involved supported metal catalysts, including Pt-based catalysts, for the oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes with carbon dioxide.

Despite rapid progress in health monitoring, many smart wearable devices still function primarily as passive sensing-and-logging platforms. Their performance is constrained by fixed hardware configurations and cloud-centric analytics pipelines. As a result, they often fail to deliver real-time responses to user intent and rarely support closed-loop physical intervention. This perspective argues that enabling embodied intelligence in wearables requires three paradigm shifts. First, wearables should transition from closed, integrated hardware to open, modular computing architectures that can accommodate evolving on-device artificial intelligence (AI) demands. Second, cloud-dependent inference should be replaced, where appropriate, by ultra-low-latency edge intelligence to support millisecond-scale prediction and control. Third, devices should evolve from passive information feedback to active physical intervention supported by human-in-the-loop optimization. Together, these shifts may reshape the human–machine relationship by moving wearables from external tools toward digital partners that operate under explicit user intent and safety constraints.

Radiative thermal management (RTM) smart windows represent an emerging class of adaptive building-envelope technologies that combine dynamic spectral regulation with passive heat dissipation through the atmospheric window. By simultaneously modulating visible light (VIS), near-infrared solar radiation (NIR), and mid-infrared thermal emission (MIR), these systems enable year-round thermal regulation with reduced building energy consumption. This review systematically summarizes recent progress and mechanisms of RTM smart windows. Compared with existing reviews that mainly focus on static radiative cooling materials or single-mode smart windows, this review emphasizes integrated RTM smart windows featuring tri-band (VIS/NIR/MIR) spectral regulation and dual-responsive mechanisms. Firstly, the fundamental principles of radiative thermal management and intelligent response mechanisms are introduced, followed by an overview of key performance. Secondly, the latest progress in electrochromic, thermochromic, and photochromic RTM smart windows is comprehensively reviewed. Particular attention is devoted to dual-responsive mechanism RTM smart windows, which integrate passive and active control to achieve synergistic performance. In summary, this review presents an overview of recent advances and underlying mechanisms in intelligent windows for radiative heat management.

Electrocatalytic water splitting is a key technology for sustainable hydrogen production, but its efficiency is limited by the slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Spinel oxides (AB₂O₄) have drawn significant interest due to their electrochemical stability, tunable electronic properties, and low cost. Their catalytic performance is highly influenced by the crystalline phase, which governs charge transport, active site density, and reaction energetics. However, the effects of phase transitions and structural variations on electrocatalysis remain insufficiently explored. This review systematically evaluates the performance of spinel oxides across six primary crystal phases: cubic, hexagonal, tetragonal, orthorhombic, rhombohedral, and monoclinic, discussing how these structural features affect charge transport, intermediate adsorption, and reaction energetics. The review emphasizes the structure-electronic-catalytic performance relationships and covers phase variants, including coordination environment modulation, defect regulation, metastable phase transitions, and strain engineering. It further examines how phase symmetry, oxygen coordination, orbital rearrangement, and interfacial characteristics influence OER and HER kinetics. Challenges in phase engineering, such as controlling phase transitions and stabilizing metastable phases, are also highlighted. This review provides a framework for understanding the electrocatalytic behavior of spinel oxides and offers guidance for designing high-performance catalysts for water splitting.

The aggregation, distribution, spreading, elongation and shrinking, as well as other behaviors of liquids, along with mass transfer and thermal exchange, are ubiquitous in both natural creatures and human daily life. These phenomena greatly inspire the advancement of liquid manipulating interfaces in theoretical models, production processes, and performance optimization. After decades of development, regulating liquid movements through surface chemistry, micro/nano structures, and geometrical gradients is becoming increasingly prevalent but still faces challenges. This review discusses the design principles of liquid manipulating interfaces, bionic prototypes and its models behind, and introduces their specific role within these works. We summarize state-of-the-art works from different motion dimensions, as well as the most widely mentioned applications. We believe this can inspire the transfer of bioinspired structures into functional devices through continued innovative breakthroughs and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Immobilized photocatalyst devices for overall water splitting (OWS) have emerged as a promising strategy for practical hydrogen production. Compared with traditional powder suspension systems, they offer great advantages, including scalability, facile recovery/replacement of photocatalysts, and the elimination of extra dispersion operations. Over the past decade, significant progress has been achieved in this field, especially in material screening, device construction, and system integration for scalable applications. However, up until now, there have been no related reviews focusing on this topic. This review aims to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive and structured overview of the immobilized photocatalyst devices for efficient OWS. Firstly, the basics of OWS process, including one-step and two-step photoexcitation mechanisms, are elaborated. Subsequently, recent advances in immobilized photocatalyst devices for scalable OWS via these two different approaches are summarized, based on which various solid-state electron mediators are classified and exemplified. The essential structure-performance relationship is also analyzed and revealed. Finally, the future prospects and challenges in this field are proposed and discussed.

Stiffness of the primary longitudinal rubber joints is critical for both the high-speed stability and curve trafficability of the train. However, existing joints with fixed stiffness inevitably generate large wheel-rail lateral forces and wear on curves. To address this issue, a fail-safe rubber joint incorporating magnetorheological fluid (MRF) technology is proposed, enabling bidirectional variable stiffness. First, the structure and working principle of MRF rubber joint are described in detail. Subsequently, prototypes of the MRF damper and the MRF rubber joint are assembled and tested, yielding satisfactory variable damping and stiffness performance. Moreover, dynamic simulations further demonstrate the joint’s effectiveness in improving both stability and curve trafficability. A control algorithm based on track curvature identification is also proposed. The co-simulation results validate the potential of the MRF rubber joint on reducing wheel-rail wear and enhancing safety of trains.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes, known as alcohol oxidation reactions (AOR), provides a sustainable and efficient route for converting low-value feedstocks such as ethanol, glycerol, and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural into high-value chemicals, including organic acids and aldehydes, in line with the chemical industry’s transition toward carbon neutrality. This review synthesizes recent advancements in electrocatalytic AOR, emphasizing advances in catalyst design and detailed reaction mechanisms. A broad spectrum of catalysts is explored, ranging from noble metal-based (e.g., Pt, Pd, Au) to cost-effective non-noble metal-based (e.g., Ni, Cu, Co) materials, with attention to advanced strategies such as heteroatom doping, vacancy engineering, and alloying for fine-tuning electronic structures and optimizing intermediate adsorption. The review also delves into mechanistic insights, elucidating rate-determining steps, adsorption geometries, and electron-transfer pathways that govern AOR performance, supported by density functional theory analyses. Special emphasis is placed on the interplay between catalyst electronic structure and reaction kinetics, offering fresh perspectives for improving yield, selectivity, and Faradaic efficiency. Finally, current challenges, including catalyst stability, product selectivity, and scalability, are critically evaluated, and future directions such as in situ characterization and the development of non-noble metal catalysts are proposed to advance AOR toward large-scale, sustainable chemical synthesis.