Constrained C adsorbate orientation enables CO-to-acetate electroreduction.

The carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide electroreduction reactions, when powered using low-carbon electricity, offer pathways to the decarbonization of chemical manufacture. Copper (Cu) is relied on today for carbon-carbon coupling, in which it produces mixtures of more than ten C chemicals: a long-standing challenge lies in achieving selectivity to a single principal C product. Acetate is one such C compound on the path to the large but fossil-derived acetic acid market.

Directivity-Enhanced Detection of a Single Nanoparticle Using a Plasmonic Slot Antenna.

In situ refractive index sensors integrated with nanoaperture-based optical tweezers possess stable and sensitive responsivity to single nanoparticles. In most existing works, detection events are only identified using the total light intensity with directivity information ignored, leading to a low signal-to-noise ratio. Here, we propose to detect an optically trapped 20 nm silica particle by monitoring directivity of a plasmonic antenna.