Synthesis of nanoporous carbonaceous materials at lower temperatures.

Nanoporous carbonaceous materials are ideal ingredients in various industrial products due to their large specific surface area. They are typically prepared by post-synthesis activation and templating methods. Both methods require the input of large amounts of energy to sustain thermal treatment at high temperatures (typically >600°C), which is clearly in violation of the green-chemistry principles.

Toward development of single-atom ceramic catalysts for selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH.

Insertion of transition metal species into crystalline alumina at low temperatures is proposed to achieve the dispersion of these species at atomic level paired with exceptional textural properties. Precisely, MeAlO/γ-AlO (Me = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and/or Cu) nanostructured ceramic catalysts were fabricated with ultra large mesopores (16-30 nm), and high specific surface area (180-290 m g) and pore volume (1.1-1.

A generalized strategy for synthesizing crystalline bismuth-containing nanomaterials.

Bismuth oxide and its derivatives are promising materials that have applications varying from catalysis to energy-storage devices. Most of these applications benefit from the creation of crystalline nanostructures. Herein, we present a simple and fast polymer-assisted precipitation method to synthesize various crystalline bismuth oxide nanomaterials, including bismuth oxide (BiO) microrods, bismuth-transition metal mixed oxide (BiMO, M = V, Cr, Mo, or W) nanoparticles/rods, and bismuth oxyhalide (BiOX, X = Cl, Br, or I) nanoplates.

Identification of preferentially exposed crystal facets by X-ray diffraction.

Crystals with exposed facets are popular materials in many catalytic applications due to their high reactivity. Facet identification is often conducted by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In this work, we analyze the effects of doping, vacancy creation, anisotropic broadening, and preferred orientation on the intensity of X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks by using tetragonal bismuth oxyhalides (BiOX, X = Cl, Br, and I) as examples.

Evaporation-induced self-assembly synthesis of nanostructured alumina-based mixed metal oxides with tailored porosity.

The one-pot synthesis of nanostructured ternary mixed oxides is challenging due to the heterogeneous nature of the hydrolysis and condensation processes of all metal oxide precursors. In addition, the solvents and additives used can affect these processes too. Herein, we report the effect of different solvents (ethanol, 1- and 2-propanol, or butanol) and additives (citric acid or 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene) used on the formation of binary and ternary alumina-based oxides, NiO-AlO, NiO-TiO-AlO, and NiO-ZrO-AlO in the presence of triblock copolymer Pluronic P123 used as a soft template.

Effect of metal-ligand ratio on the CO adsorption properties of Cu-BTC metal-organic frameworks.

Initially, in the synthesis of Cu-BTC MOFs some fraction of Cu was expected to be replaced with Mg to enhance its CO adsorption properties. Indeed, an enhancement in the specific surface area, microporosity and CO adsorption capacity was observed; however, Mg was not detected. Therefore, additional syntheses of Cu-BTC MOFs with the same Cu to BTC ratios were performed but in the absence of Mg to explain the observed enhancement.

Importance of surface modification of γ-alumina in creating its nanostructured composites with zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-67.

Application of zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) as an adsorbent has been greatly hindered by slow mass transfer of adsorbate molecules due to its inherent microporosity. To address this limitation, we have developed binary nanostructures composed of ZIF-67 and γ-alumina (GA) containing respectively micropores and large mesopores. The nanostructured composites were successfully prepared by coupling ZIF-67 and GA with and without surface modification with imidazole silane that mimics the building blocks of ZIF-67 to obtain GA-Im-ZIF-67 (with imidazole silane) and GA-ZIF-67 (without imidazole silane).

Capture of Iodide by Bismuth Vanadate and Bismuth Oxide: An Insight into the Process and its Aftermath.

As a result of the scarcity of iodine, as well as its threat to the environment if it is present in excess, iodine as a waste needs to be captured. Compared with ion-exchange resins and Ag-containing materials, which are popular iodide adsorbents, Bi-containing compounds show some important advantages, such as high iodide-capture capacity and fast kinetics. In this study, two Bi-containing compounds, BiVO and Bi O , were investigated comprehensively for iodide immobilization.

Facile formation of metallic bismuth/bismuth oxide heterojunction on porous carbon with enhanced photocatalytic activity.

Bismuth/bismuth oxide heterojunction on porous carbon (Bi/BiO@C) was successfully prepared by a surfactant-assisted sol-gel method. This composite photocatalyst was fabricated by depositing BiO and metallic bismuth nanoparticles (NPs) on porous carbon sheets. Bi NPs were created by in-situ reduction of BiO with amorphous carbon.

One-Pot Synthesis of Mesoporous Ni-Ti-Al Ternary Oxides: Highly Active and Selective Catalysts for Steam Reforming of Ethanol.

One-pot synthesis of nanostructured ternary oxides of Ni, Al, and Ti was designed and performed via evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA). For the purpose of comparison, analogous oxides were also prepared by the impregnation method. The resulting materials were applied in two catalytic reactions: steam reforming of ethanol (SRE) for H production (subjected to prior activation with H) and ethanol dehydration (ED; used without prior activation), to in situ analyze carbon accumulation by ethylene depletion when ethanol interacts with acidic sites present on the support.