With the fast development of the power electronics, dielectric materials with high energy-storage density, low loss, and good temperature stability are eagerly desired for the potential application in advanced pulsed capacitors. Based on the physical principals, the materials with higher saturated polarization, smaller remnant polarization, and higher electrical breakdown field are the most promising candidates. According to this rule, so far, four kinds of materials, namely antiferroelectrics, dielectric glass-ceramics, relaxor ferroelectric and polymer-based ferroelectrics are thought to be more likely used in next-generation pulsed capacitors, and have been widely studied. Thus, this review serves to give an overall summary on the state-of-the-art progress on electric energy-storage performance in these materials. Moreover, some general future prospects are also provided from the existed theoretical and experimental results in this work, in order to propel their application in practice.

Land application of biochar is increasingly being considered for potential agronomic and environmental benefits, e.g., enhancing carbon sequestration, nutrient retention, water holding capacity, and crop productivity; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and bioavailability of environmental contaminants. However, little is known about the transport of biochar particles in the aqueous environment, which represents a critical knowledge gap because biochar particles can facilitate the transport of adsorbed contaminants. In this study, column experiments were conducted to investigate biochar particle transport and retention in water-saturated quartz sand. Specific factors considered included biochar feedstocks (wheat straw and pine needle), pyrolysis temperature (350 and 550 °C), and particle size (micrometer-particle (MP) and nanoparticle (NP)). Greater mobility was observed for the biochars of lower pyrolysis temperatures and smaller particle sizes. Extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (XDLVO) calculations that considered measured zeta potentials and Lewis acid-base interactions were used to better understand the influence of pyrolysis temperature on biochars particle transport. Most biochars exhibited attractive acid-base interactions that impeded their transport, whereas the biochar with the greatest mobility had repulsive acid-base interaction. Nonetheless, greater retention of the MPs than that of the NPs was in contrast with the XDLVO predictions. Straining and biochar surface charge heterogeneity were found to enhance the retention of biochar MPs, but played an insignificant role in the biochar NP retention. Experimental breakthrough curves and retention profiles were well-described using a two-site kinetic retention model that accounted for depth-dependent retention at one site. Modeled first-order retention coefficients on both sites 1 and 2 increased with increasing pyrolysis temperature and particle size.

Although progress has been made to improve photocatalytic CO2 reduction under visible light (λ>400 nm), the development of photocatalysts that can work under a longer wavelength (λ>600 nm) remains a challenge. Now, a heterogeneous photocatalyst system consisting of a ruthenium complex and a monolayer nickel‐alumina layered double hydroxide (NiAl‐LDH), which act as light‐harvesting and catalytic units for selective photoreduction of CO2 and H2O into CH4 and CO under irradiation with λ>400 nm. By precisely tuning the irradiation wavelength, the selectivity of CH4 can be improved to 70.3 %, and the H2 evolution reaction can be completely suppressed under irradiation with λ>600 nm. The photogenerated electrons matching the energy levels of photosensitizer and m‐NiAl‐LDH only localized at the defect state, providing a driving force of 0.313 eV to overcome the Gibbs free energy barrier of CO2 reduction to CH4 (0.127 eV), rather than that for H2 evolution (0.425 eV).

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