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The electrochemical synthesis of ethylene oxide (EO) using ethylene and water under ambient conditions presents a low‐carbon alternative to existing industrial production process. Yet, the electrocatalytic ethylene epoxidation route is currently hindered by largely insufficient activity, EO selectivity, and long‐term stability. Here we report a single atom Ru‐doped hollandite structure KIr4O8 (KIrRuO) nanowire catalyst for efficient EO production via a chloride‐mediated ethylene epoxidation process. The KIrRuO catalyst exhibits an EO partial current density up to 0.7 A cm−2 and an EO yield as high as 92.0 %. The impressive electrocatalytic performance towards ethylene epoxidation is ascribed to the modulation of electronic structures of adjacent Ir sites by single Ru atoms, which stabilizes the *CH2CH2OH intermediate and facilitates the formation of active Cl2 species during the generation of 2‐chloroethanol, the precursor of EO. This work provides a single atom modulation strategy for improving the reactivity of adjacent metal sites in heterogeneous electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZBs) show promises for large‐scale energy storage. However, the zinc utilization rate (ZUR) is generally low due to side reactions in the aqueous electrolyte caused by the active water molecules. Here, we design a novel solvation structure in the electrolyte by introduction of sulfolane (SL). Theoretical calculations, molecular dynamics simulations and experimental tests show that SL remodels the primary solvation shell of Zn2+, which significantly reduces the side reactions of Zn anode and achieves high ZUR under large capacities. Specifically, the symmetric and asymmetric cells could achieve a maximum of ∼96 % ZUR at an areal capacity of 24 mAh cm−2. In a ZUR of ∼67 %, the developed Zn−V2O5 full cell can be stably cycled for 500 cycles with an energy density of 180 Wh kg−1 and Zn‐AC capacitor is stable for 5000 cycles. This electrolyte structural engineering strategy provides new insight into achieving high ZUR of Zn anodes for high performance AZBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appling an electrochemical catalyst is an efficient strategy for inhibiting the shuttle effect and enhancing the S utilization of Li‐S batteries. Carbon‐based materials are the most common conductive agents and catalyst supports used in Li‐S batteries, but the correlation between the diversity of hybridizations and sulfur reduction reaction (SRR) catalytic activity remains unclear. Here, by establishing two forms of carbon models, i.e. graphitic carbon (GC) and amorphous carbon (AC), we observe that the nitrogen atom doped in the GC possesses a higher local charge density and a lower Gibbs free energy towards the formation of polysulfides than in the AC. And the GC‐based electrode consistently inherits considerably enhanced SRR kinetics and superior cycling stability and rate capability in Li‐S batteries. Therefore, the function of carbon in Li‐S batteries is not only limited as conductive support but also plays an unignorable contribution to the electrocatalytic activities of SRR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]