Strategic Design and Insights into Lanthanum and Strontium Perovskite Oxides for Oxygen Reduction and Oxygen Evolution Reactions.

Perovskite oxides exhibit bifunctional activity for both oxygen reduction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER), making them prime candidates for energy conversion in applications like fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Their intrinsic catalytic prowess, combined with low-cost, abundance, and diversity, positions them as compelling alternatives to noble metal and metal oxides catalysts. This review encapsulates the nuances of perovskite oxide structures and synthesis techniques, providing insight into pivotal active sites that underscore their bifunctional behavior.

Chemoenzymatic Photoreforming: A Sustainable Approach for Solar Fuel Generation from Plastic Feedstocks.

Plastic upcycling through catalytic transformations is an attractive concept to valorize waste, but the clean and energy-efficient production of high-value products from plastics remains challenging. Here, we introduce chemoenzymatic photoreforming as a process coupling enzymatic pretreatment and solar-driven reforming of polyester plastics under mild temperatures and pH to produce clean H and value-added chemicals. Chemoenzymatic photoreforming demonstrates versatility in upcycling polyester films and nanoplastics to produce H at high yields reaching ∼10-10 μmol g and activities at >500 μmol g h.

Thermoelectric-Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting under Concentrated Solar Irradiation.

Photoelectrochemical devices could play a crucial role toward fuel production in a circular economy. Yet, light absorption suffers losses from thermalization and the inability to use low-energy photons. Here, we demonstrate that photoelectrochemical reactors can utilize this waste heat by integrating thermoelectric modules, which provide additional voltage under concentrated light irradiation.

Paramagnetic Clusters of Mn(OCCH)(Bpy) in Polyacrylamide Nanobeads as a New Design Approach to a T- T Multimodal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agent.

There is an increasing need for gadolinium-free magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, particularly for patients suffering from chronic kidney disease. Using a cluster-nanocarrier combination, we have identified a novel approach to the design of biomedical nanomaterials and report here the criteria for the cluster and the nanocarrier and the advantages of this combination. We have investigated the relaxivity of the following manganese oxo clusters: the parent cluster Mn(OCCH)(Bpy) (1) where Bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine and three new analogs, Mn(OCCHCH═CH)(Bpy) (2), Mn(OCC(CH)═CH)(Bpy) (3), and MnO(OCCH)(Pyr) (4) where Pyr = pyridine.

A promising visible light-driven photocatalytic activity of conjugated polymer nanocrystals.

Conjugated polymers have recently emerged as a new class of photocatalysts. However, many conjugated polymer photocatalysts are not as effective as inorganic materials due to the limited electronic properties of their LUMO and HOMO and low long-term stability caused by the degradation of the conjugated backbone. In the present study, we have demonstrated, for the first time, the superior Visible (Vis) light-driven photocatalytic activity of conjugated polymer nanocrystals (NCs) of polydiacetylene (PDA) derivatives, namely, p-DCHD NCs for the photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) compared with that of the state-of-the-art P25 TiO nanoparticles (NPs).