Nitrogen-doped amorphous monolayer carbon.

Monoatomic-layered carbon materials, such as graphene and amorphous monolayer carbon, have stimulated intense fundamental and applied research owing to their unprecedented physical properties and a wide range of promising applications. So far, such materials have mainly been produced by chemical vapour deposition, which typically requires stringent reaction conditions compared to solution-phase synthesis. Herein, we demonstrate the solution preparation of free-standing nitrogen-doped amorphous monolayer carbon with mixed five-, six- and seven-membered (5-6-7-membered) rings through the polymerization of pyrrole within the confined interlayer cavity of a removable layered-double-hydroxide template.

Amorphous Bismuth-Tin Oxide Nanosheets with Optimized C-N Coupling for Efficient Urea Synthesis.

Closing the carbon and nitrogen cycles by electrochemical methods using renewable energy to convert abundant or harmful feedstocks into high-value C- or N-containing chemicals has the potential to transform the global energy landscape. However, efficient conversion avenues have to date been mostly realized for the independent reduction of CO or NO. The synthesis of more complex C-N compounds still suffers from low conversion efficiency due to the inability to find effective catalysts.