The significant increase in energy demand and environmental challenges requires sustainable technologies to preserve the climate and minimize CO2 emissions. Electrocatalysis for energy conversion applications, such as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), and CO2 reduction reactions (CCR), are essential in renewable energy technologies. State-of-the-art catalysts are highly needed to enhance energy conversion efficiencies. Recently, Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with its distinguished physiochemical properties has been verified as a potential energy conversion material for catalyzing electrochemical reactions, ensuring excellent performance.Aside from graphene, which is unsuitable in some fields due to its zero-energy bandgap, alternative 2D materials like MoS2 have been developed and investigated. MoS2 nanostructures, with a relatively brief history, are emerging as suitable candidates in several applications, especially in electrocatalysis. Enhancing charge transfer and combining MoS2 with other materials can improve energy and environmental application performance.The excellent electrocatalytic progress of MoS2-based composites has been reported alongside enhanced and tunable properties like rich active edges, high density of structural defects, excellent conductivity, well-defined size dispersion, good electrode contact, favorable exposed crystal facets, and maximized phases. These properties, critical in electrocatalysis, are reviewed herein.We describe different methodologies for preparing MoS2 composite materials, illustrating their advantages and limitations for catalysis applications. We discuss the figure of merit of MoS2 composite nanostructures in electrocatalysis and present the challenges and outlooks for this new material class based on recent developments and potential applications in energy and the environment, suggesting promising research directions for the future.

Excellent CO2 adsorption ability and fast photogenerated carriers’ supply are vital conditions for efficient CO2 photoreduction. In this paper, Au localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been successfully applied in a R-CeO2/g-C3N4 S-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst for CO2 photoreduction. R-CeO2/Au/g-C3N4 (CAC-2) exhibited excellent CO2 photoreduction performance and great stability. The CO yield over CAC-2 is about 50.58 µmol·g−1·h−1 under UV–vis light irradiation, which is about 6.7 and 6.0 times higher than that of R-CeO2 and g-C3N4, respectively. FDTD simulation, DFT calculation and photoelectrochemical tests together prove the introduction of Au NPs not only enhances the photogenerated carriers’ separation efficiency, but also decreases the formation energy barrier of the important intermediate *COOH, which is beneficial for the CO2 photoreduction to CO. N2/CO2 adsorption-desorption curves indicated that the CAC-2 ternary composite had the largest specific surface area and the best CO2 adsorption capacity. Meanwhile, DFT calculation confirmed that the reduction sites of the CAC-2 had the highest electron density, which can synergistically enhance the CO2 photoreduction activity. The improvement of photocatalytic performance can be attributed to the synergistic enhancement of Au LSPR effect and S-scheme heterojunction at the interface. Based on the in situ FTIR, in situ ESR, and 13C isotope tracer experiment, a potential LSPR effect-enhanced S-scheme heterojunction catalytic mechanism has been provided, which may represent a significant advancement in the field.

The growing global energy demand and worsening climate change highlight the urgent need for clean, efficient and sustainable energy solutions. Among emerging technologies, atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials offer unique advantages in photovoltaics due to their tunable optoelectronic properties, high surface area and efficient charge transport capabilities. This review explores recent progress in photovoltaics incorporating 2D materials, focusing on their application as hole and electron transport layers to optimize bandgap alignment, enhance carrier mobility and improve chemical stability. A comprehensive analysis is presented on perovskite solar cells utilizing 2D materials, with a particular focus on strategies to enhance crystallization, passivate defects and improve overall cell efficiency. Additionally, the application of 2D materials in organic solar cells is examined, particularly for reducing recombination losses and enhancing charge extraction through work function modification. Their impact on dye-sensitized solar cells, including catalytic activity and counter electrode performance, is also explored. Finally, the review outlines key challenges, material limitations and performance metrics, offering insight into the future development of next-generation photovoltaic devices encouraged by 2D materials.

Wearable luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) hold significant promise for integrating energy harvesting with flexible textiles. However, most currently reported LSCs are either rigid or liquid-filled, making it challenging to achieve flexible devices with high efficiency and mechanical robustness. Here, we introduced Ca²⁺-capped carbon dots (C-dots) as dual-functional agents, simultaneously crosslinking sodium alginate hydrogels and serving as luminophores, eliminating the need for additional dopants. The resulting hydrogels exhibited tunable mechanical strength (0.25 MPa at 50 % strain), high transparency (64 % visible transmittance), and good stability. As a proof-of-concept, we fabricated wearable LSCs by embedding the hydrogel into flattened polyvinyl chloride tubes and weaving them into textiles. Under natural sunlight illumination (50 mW/cm²), the as-fabricated flexible LSC achieved a power conversion efficiency (ηPCE) of 0.26 % and an optical efficiency (ηopt) of 2.60 % with 64 % average visible transmittance. Remarkably, the device retains 72 % of its initial optical efficiency after 24 h continuous ultraviolet illumination (468 mW/cm2). This work demonstrates the first hydrogel-based LSCs for practical wearable energy harvesting.

Commercial zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicate materials with high surface area and porosity which can be used in several applications. This study aims at adding luminescent functionality to the zeolite network, either enabling optical monitoring of the capturing process or towards the development of efficient light-emitting materials. Two representative commercial zeolites were chosen: 5A and 13X, adding europium (Eu³⁺) by an ion-exchange process. The effects of different solvents (water and ethanol) and thermal treatments on the structural and optical properties of the doped zeolites were investigated. The results demonstrate that 13X zeolites have superior Eu uptake and luminescent properties compared to 5A. XRD analysis suggests that Eu exchange can stress and disorder the network, which is recovered by annealing up to 600 °C. Instead, a higher temperature of 800 °C induces the collapsing of the porosity, with partial amorphization and significant reduction of the surface area of the material. The optical analysis showed that the PL intensities for 13X samples can be 60 times higher than those obtained for 5A samples. Moreover, ethanol emerged as a superior solvent to water, avoiding the presence of -OH vibrational energies detrimental to the luminescence of rare earth ions.

The sustainable production of renewable fuels and feedstocks is currently constrained by the slow kinetics of anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Precious metal-based catalysts such as Ir suffer from stability issues as well as high capital cost. To enforce the future of green hydrogen production, this study develops Ru-integrated W18O49 nanowires (NWs), as an efficient and stable OER electrocatalyst. This study obtains Ru-W₁₈O₄₉ NWs by a combined physical vapor deposition–chemical vapor deposition approach. It discovers the NWs growth mechanism, characterized by two different growth kinetics. Herein, it finds that the integration of just 3% of Ru in the oxygen-deficient W₁₈O₄₉ NWs remarkably increases the number of active catalytic sites during OER, showing faster kinetics (60 mV dec⁻¹) and a reduced overpotential of 360 mV at 10 mA cm⁻². The electrode's observed catalytic performance and long-term durability over 36 h (12 h each at 10, 30, and 100 mA cm⁻²) combined with the versatility of the two-step synthetic route, are a promising research approach for future industrial applications.

Semitransparent thin film solar cells based on wide bandgap absorber Sb2S3 have immense potential in building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) applications. A typical thin film Sb2S3 solar cell using low-cost solution-based methods (such as hydrothermal deposition) utilizes a toxic CdS film with a narrow bandgap (2.4 eV) as the electron transport layer (ETL). Wide bandgap (3.1–3.4 eV) non-toxic TiO2 meets the optoelectronic requirements for a Cd-free ETL alternative but the hydrothermal deposition of Sb2S3 on TiO2 results in a non-uniform island-like growth, which is unsuitable for semitransparent applications (utilizing less than 100 nm Sb2S3). Therefore, in this study, using the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method, an ultrathin ZnS layer (1–3 nm) is coated on TiO2 as a surface modification layer to improve the nucleation and growth characteristics of Sb2S3 during hydrothermal deposition. The introduction of ZnS results in a pinhole-free compact mirrorlike Sb2S3 film similar to that obtained on CdS. The optimized solar cells based on CdS, TiO2, and TiO2-ZnS ETLs showed photoconversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 5.2 %, 5.1 %, and 4.3 %, respectively. A comprehensive comparative study is then reported highlighting the relationship between morphology, optoelectronic properties, and photovoltaic performance of the Sb2S3 films grown on the three ETLs. Furthermore, utilizing the excellent film morphology of Sb2S3 on TiO2-ZnS ETL, semitransparent solar cells were fabricated using an ultrathin Au (<10 nm) electrode. Semitransparent solar cells using 65 and 80 nm Sb2S3 absorber layers on TiO2-ZnS obtained PCEs (and average visible transmittances, AVTs) of 3.3 % (11.2 %) and 3.6 % (8.8 %), respectively. These results are critical to the development of the BIPV sector through environmentally friendly and non-critical materials-based solutions.

Cerium-doped titania nanoflowers are obtained by hydrothermal synthesis, with different amounts of cerium (0.3, 0.5, and 1.0 at%). Both undoped nanoflowers (TNF) and Ce-doped TNF (Cex) are tested as photocatalysts in the degradation of the target pollutant (metronidazole) under simulated solar light. The samples are rutile polymorphs with high crystallinity and present a nanoflower-like morphology of about 1 µm in diameter and are made up of nanoscale petals (in the range of 100–300 nm). EDX spectroscopy was coupled with SEM and performed on the Ce-doped samples to determine the elemental composition of the catalysts and the Ce distribution in each sample. Optical and electronic spectroscopies reveal that Ce loading narrows the band gap from 3.0 to 2.8 eV, extending light absorption into the visible range of the spectrum and thus enhancing the photocatalytic activity. The best sample, Ce1, achieved 67% degradation of metronidazole after 360 min under solar irradiation at pH 4, compared to bare TNF, which reached 35%. Reusability tests confirm the chemical stability and photocatalytic efficiency of Ce1 over three cycles, and free-radical trapping experiments confirmed ·O2− and ·OH as major active species in metronidazole degradation. This study highlights the synergistic impact of morphology and doping on solar-driven organic pollutant degradation.