Highly blue luminescent carbon nanoparticles with photo-luminescence quantum yields of 31.6%-40.6% were prepared by a one-step pyrolytic route from ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid salts and a unique emission that is strongly dependent on pH, solvent, spin, and excitation wavelength was observed.

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Sodium metal is an ideal anode material for metal rechargeable batteries, owing to its high theoretical capacity (1166 mAh g−1), low cost, and earth‐abundance. However, the dendritic growth upon Na plating, stemming from unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film, is a major and most notable problem. Here, a sodium benzenedithiolate (PhS2Na2)‐rich protection layer is synthesized in situ on sodium by a facile method that effectively prevents dendrite growth in the carbonate electrolyte, leading to stabilized sodium metal electrodeposition for 400 cycles (800 h) of repeated plating/stripping at a current density of 1 mA cm−2. The organic salt, PhS2Na2, is found to be a critical component in the protection layer. This finding opens up a new and promising avenue, based on organic sodium slats, to stabilize sodium metals with a protection layer.

A crucial challenge for the commercialization of Ni-rich layered cathodes (LiNi0.88Co0.09Al0.03O2) is capacity decay during the cycling process, which originates from their interfacial instability and structural degradation. Herein, a one-step, dual-modified strategy is put forward to in situ synthesize the yttrium (Y)-doped and yttrium orthophosphate (YPO4)-modified LiNi0.88Co0.09Al0.03O2 cathode material. It is confirmed that the YPO4 coating layer as a good ion conductor can stabilize the solid–electrolyte interface, while the formative strong Y–O bond can bridle TM–O slabs to intensify the lattice structure in the state of deep delithium (>4.3 V). In particular, both the combined advantages effectively withstand the anisotropic strain generated upon the H2–H3 phase transition and further alleviate the crack generation in unit-cell dimensions, assuring a high-capacity delivery and fast Li+ diffusion kinetics. This dual-modified cathode shows advanced cycling stability (94.1% at 1C after 100 cycles in 2.7–4.3 V), even at a high cutoff voltage and high rate, and advanced rate capability (159.7 mAh g–1 at 10C). Therefore, it provides a novel solution to achieve both high capacity and highly stable cyclability in Ni-rich cathode materials.