Achieving Excess Hydrogen Output via Concurrent Electrochemical and Chemical Redox Reactions on P-Doped Co-Based Catalysts with Electron Manipulation and Kinetic Regulation.

Electrolytic hydrogen production is of great significance in energy conversion and sustainable development. Traditional electrolytic water splitting confronts high anode voltage with oxygen generation and the amount of hydrogen produced at cathode depends entirely on the quantity of electric charge input. Herein, excess hydrogen output can be achieved by constructing a spontaneous hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) coupled hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) system.

"Seaweed Structure" design for solid gel electrolyte with hydroxide ion conductivity enabling flexible zinc air batteries.

The construction of solid-state electrolytes for flexible zinc-air batteries is extremely challenging. A flexible and highly conductive solid electrolyte designed with a "seaweed structure" is reported in this work. Sodium alginate serves as the backbone to form a robust network structure, and the grafted quaternary ammonium groups provide channels for rapid ion transport, achieving excellent flexibility and hydroxide conductivity.

A Thermo-Responsive MOFs for X-Ray Scintillator.

Thermo-responsive smart materials have aroused extensive interest due to the particular significance of temperature sensing. Although various photoluminescent materials are explored in thermal detection, it is not applicable enough in X-ray radiation environment where the accuracy and reliability will be influenced. Here, a strategy is proposed by introducing the concept of radio-luminescent functional building units (RBUs) to construct thermo-responsive lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) scintillators for self-calibrating thermometry.

Reinforcement of Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Activity Enabled by Constructing Silver-Incorporated NiCo-PBA@NiFe-LDH Hierarchical Nanoboxes.

Complicated oxygen evolution reaction (OER) poses the bottleneck in improving the efficiency of hydrogen production through water electrolysis. Herein, an integrated strategy to modulate the electronic structure of NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) is reported by constructing Ag-incorporated NiCo-PBA@NiFe-LDH heterojunction with a hierarchical hollow structure. This "double heterojunction" facilitates local charge polarization at the interface, thereby promoting electron transfer and reducing the adsorption energy of intermediates, ultimately enhancing the intrinsic activity of the catalyst.

Integrated PtCo-Hierarchical Carbon Matrix Electrocatalyst for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Pt-based catalysts are regarded as state-of-the-art electrocatalysts for producing clean hydrogen energy; however, their wide application is restricted by their low abundance, high cost, and poor stability. Herein, we report an integrated PtCo-hierarchical carbon matrix electrocatalyst (Pt/Co@NCNTs, PtCo@NCNTs, PtCo@NCNTs, and PtCo@NCNTs) that is developed using a thermally driven Co migration strategy forming alloy nanoparticles to achieve efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Benefiting from its electronic regulation effect and unique hierarchical hollow structure, the PtCo@NCNTs catalyst loaded with 11.

Reinforcing the Adsorption and Conversion of Polysulfides in Li-S Battery by Incorporating Molybdenum into MnS/MnO Nanorods.

The Sabatier principle suggests that an excessive adsorption of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) by metal compounds may hinder their conversion in the absence of a conversion module. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a synergetic effect mechanism between "strong adsorption" and "rapid conversion" for LiPSs. To achieve this coexistence, a molybdenum-doped MnS/MnO@C porous structure is designed as a multifunctional coating on the polypropylene (PP) separator.

A Highly-Lithiophilic MnO/ZnO-Modified Carbon Nanotube Film for Dendrite-Free Lithium Metal Anodes.

Lithium metal anode is deemed as a potential candidate for high energy density batteries, which has attracted increasing attention. Unfortunately, Li metal anode suffers from issues such as dendrite grown and volume expansion during cycling, which hinders its commercialization. Herein, we designed a porous and flexible self-supporting film comprising of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) modified with a highly-lithiophilic heterostructure (MnO/ZnO@SWCNT) as the host material for Li metal anodes.

Lithiophilic hollow Co[Co(CN)] embedded carbon nanotube film for dendrite-free lithium metal anodes.

Lithium metal is considered to be an ideal anode material due to its ultra-high theoretical capacity and extremely low electric potential. Unfortunately, the infinite volume expansion and unregulated formation of lithium dendrites in the plating/stripping process restrict its practical utilization. Herein, we designed a hollow Co[Co(CN)] (CoCoPBA) embedded high-conductivity carbon film as a three-dimensional (3D) lithiophilic current collector (h-CoCoPBAs@SWCNT).

Boosting oxygen evolution reaction activity and durability of phosphate doped Ni(OH)/FeOOH hierarchical microtubes by morphology engineering and reconstruction strategy.

Developing electrocatalysts with remarkable activity and durability is significant for efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we designed phosphate doped Ni(OH)/FeOOH hierarchical microtubes (denoted as PO-Ni(OH)/FeOOH HMTs), obtained by phosphate doped NiFe Prussian blue analogue hierarchical microtubes (denoted as P-NF-PBA HMTs) completely reconstructing in OER process. PO-Ni(OH)/FeOOH HMTs possess an extremely low overpotential of 237 mV at 30 mA cm in alkaline electrolyte with the Tafel slope of 35 mV dec, and the catalysts can maintain excellent durability for 100 h at 30 mA cm.

Polarized Laser Switching with Giant Contrast in MOF-Based Mixed-Matrix Membrane.

Nonlinear optical (NLO) switch materials have attracted considerable attention in photonics. Although various materials based on complex structural transitions have been developed extensively, the studies on light-driven up-conversion laser switches are rare, which have advantages including easy operations at room temperature and high contrasts. Here, the concept of photoswitch building unit is proposed to construct a novel sandwich-like mixed-matrix membrane.

Boosting Hydrogen Evolution through the Interface Effects of Amorphous NiMoO-MoO and Crystalline Cu.

The rational design and synthesis of a highly efficient and cost-effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are of great importance for the efficient generation of sustainable energy. Herein, amorphous/crystalline heterophase Ni-Mo-O/Cu (denoted as a/c Ni-Mo-O/Cu) was synthesized by a one-pot electrodeposition method. Thanks to the introduction of metallic Cu and the formation of amorphous Ni-Mo-O, the prepared electrocatalyst exhibits favorable conductivity and abundant active sites, which are favorable to the HER progress.

Benchmark C H /CO Separation in an Ultra-Microporous Metal-Organic Framework via Copper(I)-Alkynyl Chemistry.

Separation of acetylene from carbon dioxide remains a daunting challenge because of their very similar molecular sizes and physical properties. We herein report the first example of using copper(I)-alkynyl chemistry within an ultra-microporous MOF (Cu @UiO-66-(COOH) ) to achieve ultrahigh C H /CO separation selectivity. The anchored Cu ions on the pore surfaces can specifically and strongly interact with C H molecule through copper(I)-alkynyl π-complexation and thus rapidly adsorb large amount of C H at low-pressure region, while effectively reduce CO uptake due to the small pore sizes.

Boosting hydrogen generation by anodic oxidation of iodide over Ni-Co(OH) nanosheet arrays.

For overall water electrolysis, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is severely limited by the sluggish kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Therefore, replacing the OER with a more favorable anodic oxidation reaction with remarkable kinetics is of paramount significance, especially the one that can produce value-added chemicals. Moreover, time-saving and cost-effective strategies for the fabrication of electrodes are helpful for the wide application of electrolysis.

Boosting Ethylene/Ethane Separation within Copper(I)-Chelated Metal-Organic Frameworks through Tailor-Made Aperture and Specific π-Complexation.

The development of new materials for separating ethylene (CH) from ethane (CH) by adsorption is of great importance in the petrochemical industry, but remains very challenging owing to their close molecular sizes and physical properties. Using isoreticular chemistry in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) enables the precise design and construction of target materials with suitable aperture sizes and functional sites for gas separations. Herein, it is described that fine-tuning of pore size and π-complexation simultaneously in microporous copper(I)-chelated MOFs can remarkably boost the CH/CH adsorption selectivity.

Facile in-situ growth of NiP/FeP nanohybrids on Ni foam for highly efficient urea electrolysis.

Urea electrolysis is regarded as an alternative energy-saving hydrogen production technique to replace the conventional water splitting method due to the predicted lower thermodynamic potential. Herein, we demonstrate a robust and mass-produced strategy to in-situ grow NiP/FeP nanohybrids on Ni foam (NiP/FeP/NF) as an advanced electrode for overall urea electrolysis via a 30 s manual shaking reaction of FeCl·6HO, K[Fe(CN)] and pre-treated NF, followed by a facile phosphorization treatment. The as-prepared NiP/FeP/NF electrode exhibits high activity for the HER at 115 mV and UOR at 1.

A Room-Temperature Postsynthetic Ligand Exchange Strategy to Construct Mesoporous Fe-Doped CoP Hollow Triangle Plate Arrays for Efficient Electrocatalytic Water Splitting.

Hollow nanostructures with mesoporous shells are attractive for their advantageous structure-dependent high-efficiency electrochemical catalytic performances. In this work, a novel nanostructure of Fe-doped CoP hollow triangle plate arrays (Fe-CoP HTPAs) with unique mesoporous shells is designed and synthesized through a room-temperature postsynthetic ligand exchange reaction followed by a facile phosphorization treatment. The mild postsynthetic ligand exchange reaction of the presynthesized ZIF-67 TPAs with K [Fe(CN) ] in an aqueous solution at room temperature is of critical importance in achieving the final hollow nanostructure, which results in the production of CoFe(II)-PBA HTPAs that not only determine the formation of the interior voids in the nanostructure, but also provide the doping of Fe atoms to the CoP lattice.

Facile formation of mesoporous BiVO4/Ag/AgCl heterostructured microspheres with enhanced visible-light photoactivity.

In this study, we demonstrate a facile and novel dual-ion-exchange method together with subsequent visible-light induced reduction for synthesis of mesoporous BiVO4/Ag/AgCl ternary heterostructured microspheres (HSMSs) with uniform size distribution. Using flower-like BiOCl microspheres as the starting material, and introducing NaVO3 and AgNO3 by a facile impregnation method, mesoporous BiVO4/AgCl HSMSs have been obtained through solid-phase dual-ion-exchange reactions at 400 °C for 2 h. Interestingly, it has been found that Ag(+) ions play an indispensable role on the dual-ion-exchange reactions, and then the BiVO4/AgCl HSMSs are converted into BiVO4/Ag/AgCl ternary HSMSs by a facile visible-light illumination for 2 h.