Metallic zinc (Zn) for next-generation aqueous batteries often suffers from severe dendrite growth, unfavorable hydrogen evolution, and self-corrosion, especially in alkaline electrolyte. Herein, the authors demonstrate a facile and efficient strategy to tackle above issues by electrochemically depositing Zn onto the Cu-Zn alloy surface (CZ-Zn). The zincophilic Cu sites throughout the Cu-Zn alloy can remarkably enhance the Zn 2+ adsorption and promote homogeneous Zn nucleation on its surface, endowing it with highly reversible Zn plating/stripping chemistry. Furthermore, the intrinsically inert nature of Cu toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and high dezincification potential of the Cu-Zn alloy can effectively alleviate the hydrogen evolution and Zn corrosion in aqueous electrolyte. Consequently, the symmetric cells with the CZ-Zn electrodes exhibit outstanding cycling life in both alkaline and neutral electrolytes, which can operate steadily over 800 h and 1600 h at 2.5 mAh cm -2 , respectively, far surpassing the pristine Zn electrodes. In addition, a high-performance alkaline full battery with ultra-long cyclic stability (no capacity degradation after 5000 cycles) and excellent Coulombic efficiency (CE) (100%) is achieved by pairing this CZ-Zn anode with a Ni 3 S 2 @ polyaniline cathode. This study sheds light on the design of robust and ultra-stable Zn anodes for the state-of-art aqueous energy storage devices.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) typically suffers from compromised anticancer efficacy owing to the low reactive oxygen species (ROS) yield and complicated tumor microenvironment (TME) which can consume ROS and support the occurrence and development of tumors. Herein, ultrathin‐FeOOH‐coated MnO2 nanospheres (denoted as MO@FHO) as sonosensitizers which can not only facilitate ultrasound (US)‐triggered ROS but also tune the TME by hypoxia alleviation, H2O2 consumption as well as glutathione (GSH) depletion are designed. The FeOOH coating will boost the production yield of singlet oxygen (1O2) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH) by inhibiting the recombination of US‐initiated electron–hole pairs and Fenton‐like reaction, respectively. Additionally, the catalase‐like and GSH peroxidase‐like activities of MO@FHO nanospheres enable them to break the TME equilibrium via hypoxia alleviation and GSH depletion. The combination of high ROS yield and fundamental destruction of TME equilibrium results in satisfactory antitumor outcomes, as demonstrated by the high tumor suppression efficacy of MO@FHO on MDA‐MB‐231‐tumor‐bearing mice. No obvious toxicity is detected to normal tissues at therapeutic doses in vivo. The capability to modulate the ROS production and TME simultaneously can afford new probability for the development of advanced sonosensitizers for synergistic comprehensive cancer therapy.

The development of high-performance, low-cost carbon cathodes is desperately desired but remains challenging for further widespread application of aqueous Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZHSCs). Herein, we propose nitrogen-doped carbon materials derived from inexpensive industrial byproducts, pitch, as advanced ZHSCs cathodes. The nitrogen dopants significantly enhance the conductivity of pitch-derived carbon while the electrochemically active pyrrolic nitrogen substantially accelerates the reaction kinetics for energy storage and yields more pseudocapacitance via nitrogen redox mechanism. Consequently, the as-designed cathode shows satisfactory Zn ion storage ability as well as distinct anti self-discharge ability resulting. When assembled as a ZHSC device, the supercapacitor delivers a high capacity of 136.2 mA h g–1, excellent rate performance (50.8% capacity retention from 0.3 A g–1 to 15 A g–1) and satisfactory anti self-discharge ability (only 4.6% capacity loss after 24 h rest). This finding highlights the potential high-value utilization of industry byproducts and provides insight for understanding nitrogen redox chemistry in aqueous energy storage.

Carbon‐based cathodes for aqueous zinc ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZHSCs) typically undergo low Zn ion storage capability due to their electric double layer capacitance (EDLC) energy storage mechanism that is restricted by specific surface area and thickness of electric double layer (EDL). Here, we report a universal surface charge modulation strategy to effectively enhance the capacitance of carbon materials by decreasing the thickness of EDL. Amino groups with lone pair electrons were chosen to increase the surface charge density and enhanced the interaction between carbon electrode and Zn ions, thus effectively compacting the EDL. Consequently, amino functionalized porous carbon based ZHSCs can deliver an ultrahigh capacity of 255.2 mAh g−1 along with excellent cycling stability (95.5 % capacity retention after 50 000 cycles) in 1 M ZnCl2 electrolyte. This study demonstrates the feasibility of EDL modified carbon as Zn2+ storage cathode and great prospect for constructing high performance ZHSCs.

Overuse of antibiotics has led to multidrug resistance in bacteria, posing a tremendous challenge to the healthcare system. There is an urgent need to explore unconventional strategies to overcome this issue. Herein, for the first time, we report a capacitive Co 3 O 4 nanowire (NW) electrode coated on flexible carbon cloth, which is capable of eliminating bacteria while discharging, for the treatment of skin infection. Benefiting from the unique NW-like morphology, the Co 3 O 4 NW electrode with increased active sites and enhanced capacitive property exhibits a prominent antibacterial effect against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria after charging at a low voltage of 2 V for 30 min. Furthermore, the electrode is demonstrated to be recharged for multiple antibacterial treatment cycles without significant change of antibacterial activity, allowing for practical use in a non-clinical setting. More importantly, this Co 3 O 4 NW electrode is capable of damaging bacterial cell membrane and inducing the accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species without impairing viability of skin keratinocytes. In a mouse model of bacterial skin infection, the Co 3 O 4 electrode shows significant therapeutic efficacy by eradicating colonized bacteria, thus accelerating the healing process of infected wounds. This nanostructured capacitive electrode provides an antibiotic-free, rechargeable, and wearable approach to treat bacterial skin infection.