Targeted Regulation of the Electronic States of Nickel Toward the Efficient Electrosynthesis of Benzonitrile and Hydrogen Production.

Highly efficient electro-oxidation of benzylamine to generate value-added chemicals coupled with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial but challenging. Herein, targeted regulation of the electronic states of Ni sites was realized via simple yet precise nitridation engineering. Benefiting from the insertion of N atoms into the Ni lattice, the NiN electrode exhibits superior activity, selectivity, and stability for the benzylamine oxidation reaction (BOR).

BiVO Ceramic Photoanode with Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Stability.

Monoclinic bismuth vanadate (BiVO) is an attractive material with which to fabricate photoanodes due to its suitable band structure and excellent photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance. However, the poor PEC stability originating from its severe photo-corrosion greatly restricts its practical applications. In this paper, pristine and Mo doped BiVO ceramics were prepared using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method, and their photoelectrochemical properties as photoanodes were investigated.

Boron containing metal-organic framework for highly selective photocatalytic production of HO by promoting two-electron O reduction.

A zirconium-based metal-organic framework containing boron (UiO-66-B) is prepared, which displays efficient photocatalytic HO production. The HO evolution rate is about 1002 μmol g h, much higher than that of most known photocatalysts. Pristine UiO-66 displays a much lower activity (314 μmol g h) under the same conditions, suggesting the significant role of boron.

Surface Fluorination Engineering of NiFe Prussian Blue Analogue Derivatives for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Surface engineering is of importance to reduce the reaction barrier of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, the NiFe Prussian blue analogue (NiFe-PBA)-F catalyst with a multilevel structure was obtained from NiFe-PBAs via a fluorination strategy, which presents an ultralow OER overpotential of 190 mV at 10 mA cm in alkaline solution, with a small Tafel slope of 57 mV dec and excellent stability. Interestingly, surface fluorination engineering could achieve a controllable removal of ligands of the cyan group, contributing to keep the framework structure of NiFe-PBAs.