Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted much attention in the field of electrochemical energy storage due to their high energy density and low cost. However, the “shuttle effect” of the sulfur cathode, resulting in poor cyclic performance, is a big barrier for the development of Li–S batteries. Herein, a novel sulfur cathode integrating sulfur, flexible carbon cloth, and metal–organic framework (MOF)‐derived N‐doped carbon nanoarrays with embedded CoP (CC@CoP/C) is designed. These unique flexible nanoarrays with embedded polar CoP nanoparticles not only offer enough voids for volume expansion to maintain the structural stability during the electrochemical process, but also promote the physical encapsulation and chemical entrapment of all sulfur species. Such designed CC@CoP/C cathodes with synergistic confinement (physical adsorption and chemical interactions) for soluble intermediate lithium polysulfides possess high sulfur loadings (as high as 4.17 mg cm–2) and exhibit large specific capacities at different C‐rates. Specially, an outstanding long‐term cycling performance can be reached. For example, an ultralow decay of 0.016% per cycle during the whole 600 cycles at a high current density of 2C is displayed. The current work provides a promising design strategy for high‐energy‐density Li–S batteries.

On account of increasing demand for energy storage devices, sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) with abundant reserve, low cost, and similar electrochemical properties have the potential to partly replace the commercial lithium‐ion batteries. In this study, a facile metal‐organic framework (MOF)‐derived selenidation strategy to synthesize in situ carbon‐encapsulated selenides as superior anode for SIBs is rationally designed. These selenides with particular micro‐ and nanostructured features deliver ultrastable cycling performance at high charge–discharge rate and demonstrate ultraexcellent rate capability. For example, the uniform peapod‐like Fe7Se8@C nanorods represent a high specific capacity of 218 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 3 A g−1 and the porous NiSe@C spheres display a high specific capacity of 160 mAh g−1 after 2000 cycles at 3 A g−1. The current simple MOF‐derived method could be a promising strategy for boosting the development of new functional inorganic materials for energy storage, catalysis, and sensors.

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To solve the serious problems (the agglomeration of nano-Fe, dissolution of polysulfide, and low electronic conductivity of LiS) of earth-abundant pyrite (FeS) cathodes for lithium batteries, a simple in situ encapsulation and transformation route has been successfully developed to synthesis pitaya-structured porous carbon embedded with FeS nanoparticles. Due to such a hierarchical architecture design, this cathode of pitaya-structured FeS@C can effectively avoid the serious agglomeration and coarsening of small Fe nanoparticles, reduce the dissolution of polysulfide, and provide superior kinetics toward lithium storage, resulting in enhanced reversibility and rate capability. Cycling in the voltage region of 1.0-3.0 V at 0.3 A g, the current conversion-based FeS@C cathode displays a high and stable energy density (about 1100 Wh kg), ultrahigh rate capability (a reversible capability of 660, 609, 554, 499, 449, and 400 mA h g at 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0, and 10 A g, respectively), and stable cycling performance.

Lithium metal is an exciting anode candidate with extra high theoretical specific capacity for new high‐energy rechargeable batteries. However, uncontrolled Li deposition and an unsteady solid electrolyte interface seriously obstruct the commercial application of Li anodes in Li metal batteries. Herein, 3D carbon cloth (CC) supporting N‐doped carbon (CN) nanosheet arrays embedded with tiny Co nanoparticles (CC@CN‐Co) are employed as a lithiophilic framework to regulate homogenous Li nucleation/growth behavior in a working Li metal anode. The emergence of Li dendrites is supposed to be inhibited by the conductive 3D scaffold that reduces local current density. The uniform nucleation of Li can be guided by N‐containing functional groups as they have a strong interaction with Li atoms, and the tiny Co nanoparticles can provide active sites to guide Li deposition. As a result, the current CC@CN‐Co host exhibits Li dendrite–free features and stable cycling performance with a low overpotential (20 mV) throughout 800 h cycles. When paired with the typical LiFePO4 (LFP) cathode, the assembled CC@CN‐Co@Li//LFP@C full cell exhibits outstanding rate capability and improved cycling performance.