Recent advancements in lithium–oxygen (Li–O₂) batteries have focused on incorporating redox mediators (RMs) into the electrolyte to address challenges of low energy efficiency and poor cycle life. However, various soluble RMs induce parasitic reactions with Li, compromising the anode stability. In this study, we design optimized Li–O₂ batteries by introducing ZnI₂ into the electrolyte, which serves a dual function: facilitating a stable LiZn/Zn protective layer on the Li metal anode and acting as an effective RM. The in situ formed LiZn/Zn layer prevents I₃⁻ shuttle effects, stabilizing the Li anode and promoting uniform Li plating and stripping. Additionally, the ZnI₂ mediator facilitates rapid conversion of the I⁻/I₃⁻ and I₃⁻/I₂ redox couples at the cathode, contributing to a more reversible and lower overpotential Li₂O₂ cycle. Notably, ZnI₂ enhances early-stage LiO₂ formation, verified by in situ Raman spectroscopy, which supports uniform sheet-like Li₂O₂ deposition and contributes to stable cycling. These synergistic effects caused a significant reduction in the charge potential to less than 3.4 V, enabling over 800 stable cycles. This approach provides a viable pathway to achieving high energy density and long cycle life in Li–O₂ batteries, positioning them for practical applications.

Advanced photochromic wearables have aroused growing research interest in customizable pattern display, information security encryption, and intelligent fabrics. Molybdenum trioxide (MoO₃), distinguished by its superior photochromic capabilities, has emerged as a prime contender for photochromic wearables among several photochromic materials. However, the advancement of rewritable wearables with MoO₃ is constrained by inadequate adhesion, insufficient stability, and limited scalability. Herein, a fiber-based photochromic wearable is designed and developed by covalently bonding MoO₃ microcapsules (MM) nanoparticles with a sheath-core structure into pristine cotton fabrics and integrating MM nanoparticles with sodium alginate (SA) through electrostatic forces and peptide linkages. The resulting photochromic wearable exhibits reversible color transformation and exceptional photochromic characteristics, including remarkable fatigue resistance (>40 cycles), rapid light response, and outstanding color retention (>60 days). Moreover, the photochromic wearable exhibits exceptional stability in diverse harsh environments, including different acid-base solutions (pH 2.0–9.0), various temperatures (−30°C–60°C), indoor light and sunshine exposure, and repeated laundering (>15 cycles). This photochromic fabric exhibits exceptional wearability, boasting remarkable flexibility (17 mm) and biocompatibility (cell viability >95%). Notably, rewritable T-shirts and QR code information security encryption systems are demonstrated, highlighting their potential in customizable designs, flexible rewritable textiles, and information security encryption.

The synergistic effect of bi-component support catalysts via facile synthesis remains a pivotal challenge in catalysis, particularly under mild conditions. Therefore, this study reports an ultrasonication-plasma strategy to produce a PtGaPCoCoO@TiO_x site catalyst encapsulated within a high-entropy alloy framework. This approach harnesses instantaneous high-temperature plasma generated using an electrical field and ultrasonication under ambient conditions in H₂O. This study also elucidates the origin of the bifunctional effect in high-loading, ultra-stable, and ultra-fine PtGaPCoCoO catalysts, which are coated with a reducible TiO_x layer, thereby achieving optimal catalytic activity and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance. PtGaPCo intimacy in PtGaPCoCoO@TiO_x is tuned and distributed on the porous titania coating based on strong metal–support interactions by leveraging the instantaneous high-energy input from plasma discharge and ultrasonication under ambient conditions in H₂O. PtGaPCoCoO@TiO_x exhibits remarkable selectivity and durability in the hydrogenation of 3-nitrophenylacetylene, even after 25 cycles with high conversion rates, significantly outperforming comparative catalysts lacking the ultrasonication plasma treatment and other reported catalysts. Furthermore, the catalyst exhibits exceptional HER activity, demonstrated by an overpotential of 187 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² and a Tafel slope of 152 mV dec⁻¹. This enhancement can be attributed to an increased electron density on the Pt surface within the PtGaPCo alloy. These findings highlight the potential of achieving synergistic chemical interactions among active metal sites in stable, industry-applicable catalysts.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing sustainable materials science, yet a comprehensive and timely evaluation of the rapidly evolving AI techniques applied across the entire materials lifecycle remains lacking. This work reviews AI-driven advances in sustainable materials, specifically focusing on battery materials, thermal management materials, energy conversion materials, and catalysts. The key patterns, capabilities, and limitations of AI are identified across three interconnected phases: sustainable materials design (leveraging predictive and generative models for accelerated discovery), green processing (integrating adaptive synthesis optimization and autonomous experimentation), and extending to lifecycle management (encompassing real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and intelligent recycling). Then, the persistent challenges, including data sparsity, domain-specific knowledge integration, and limited model generalizability, are investigated, followed by an exploration of emerging solutions such as federated learning for privacy-preserving data sharing, physics-informed neural networks for knowledge integration, and multimodal AI for cross-modal knowledge transfer. Finally, the computational sustainability challenges of AI methods themselves are also discussed. This review highlights key bottlenecks impeding scalable adoption and discuss pathways for realizing the full potential of AI in sustainable materials development.

Flexible wearable devices, especially strain sensors, have attracted extensive attention in recent years due to their promising applications in health monitoring and human-machine interaction. However, most reported flexible strain sensors could not be repaired/healed or recycled, which is vital for their long-term use and a sustainable society. Furthermore, their existing fabrication process often requires expensive raw materials and complex techniques. Here, we develop high-performance flexible strain sensors with both repairable and recyclable capacity, by simply hot-pressing highly electroconductive carbonized silk fabric (CSF) into the surface of exchangeable polyurethane (xPU). The obtained CSF-xPU strain sensors show a large workable strain range (> 80%), fast response (< 60 ms), high sensitivity, and excellent durability. Moreover, the sensors could also be efficiently repaired/healed and recycled based on the dynamic carbamate bonds in the xPU. Due to the abundant source of silk fabric and large-scale production of polyurethane, as well as the simple hot-pressing process to composite the CSF and the xPU, this CSF-xPU strain sensor is low-cost. Therefore, the repairable/healable and recyclable strain sensors here show great potential as high-performance and sustainable wearable devices for practical applications.

Lignin-based photothermal conversion materials provide effective solutions for advancing next-generation photothermal generators. However, recently reported lignin-based photothermal conversion materials face significant challenges due to poor mechanical strength, unstable solar energy collection, and difficulty in recycling. In response, high-performance photothermal materials based on lignin–tung oil covalent adaptive networks (LTs) are produced. The dynamic β-hydroxyl esters and multiple hydrogen bonds confer LTs with mechanical robustness, high adhesive strength, swelling resistance, and cycle processing performance. The π–π conjugation of aromatic rings imparts efficient photothermal conversion performance to LTs. Under xenon light irradiation (200 s, 1.2 W cm⁻²), LTs achieved a photothermal temperature exceeding 125°C. Furthermore, LTs demonstrated excellent maximum temperature stability over five light-heating and cooling cycles. The generator voltage remained stable within four cycles under leaf occlusion or real sunlight and could be artificially regulated when integrated into a thermoelectric generator. Consequently, the bio-based, mechanically strong, highly efficient, and stable-responding photothermal materials produced via a simple strategy hold significant potential for next generation solar thermal generators, suitable for industrial scale and large-scale production.

Dynamic molecular crystals represent an emerging class of adaptive smart crystalline materials, which have been found to be used as energy-converting materials in recent years. In this perspective, we highlight several excellent examples of dynamic molecular crystals for energy conversion, involving the transformation from light energy into kinetic energy, heat energy into kinetic energy, and mechanical energy into electrical energy. Although significant progress has been made in the field of energy conversion in dynamic molecular crystals, the realization of practical applications poses challenges with precise control over molecular movements and macroscopic dynamic behaviors of molecular crystals, mechanical response speed, mechanical damage, lifetime, etc. Future research efforts should be focused on the establishment of predictive approaches toward dynamic molecular crystals as energy-converting materials with desired dynamic properties such as controllable mechanical deformation, reversible and fast response, efficient energy conversion, low cost, and low-to-none fatigue in operation.

The advancement of electric vehicles necessitates power lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with fast-charging capability across a broader temperature range. Traditional carbonate-based electrolytes struggle to meet these demands due to their high solvation energy, elevated melting points, and poor interphase stability. In this study, we present an innovative electrolyte featuring a small-sized aggregate solvation structure. This structure improves Li⁺ migration kinetics and promotes inorganic-rich interphase formation. Consequently, the graphite (Gr) anode demonstrates outstanding cycling stability, retaining 98.6% of its capacity after 1300 cycles and achieving a high-rate performance of 254.5 mAh g⁻¹ (over 70%) at 10 C. Moreover, this electrolyte delivers excellent rate performance for the LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ (NCM811) cathode, achieving 118.9 mAh g⁻¹ (65%) at 10 C. In a commercial 1 Ah Gr||NCM811 pouch cell, the electrolyte sustains more than 80% capacity at 3 C and achieves 91.5% capacity retention after 1000 cycles. Notably, even at −20°C, the cell maintains a high capacity of 0.73 Ah at 0.5 C, and at an elevated temperature of 55°C, it delivers stable cycling for over 200 cycles. This small-sized aggregate electrolyte enables fast charging of LIBs across a wide temperature range and offers valuable insights into the design of electrolytes for other cation-based batteries.