Zinc Assisted Thermal Etching for Rich Edge-Located Fe-N Active Sites in Defective Carbon Nanofiber for Activity Enhancement of Oxygen Electroreduction.

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) with edge-located metal active sites exhibit superior oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance due to their narrower energy gap and higher electron density. However, controllably designing such active sites to fully reveal their advantages remains challenging. Herein, rich edge-located Fe-N active sites anchored in hierarchically porous carbon nanofibers (denoted as e-Fe-N-C) are fabricated via an in situ zinc-assisted thermal etching strategy.

Boosting Oxygen Reduction Reaction Kinetics by Designing Rich Vacancy Coupling Pentagons in the Defective Carbon.

In the energy conversion context, the design and synthesis of high-performance metal-free carbon nanomaterials with topological defects for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are essential. Herein, we first report a template-assisted strategy to fabricate carbon defect electrocatalysts with rich vacancy coupling pentagons (VP) as active sites in two-dimensional (2D) carbon nanosheets (VP/CNs). Experimental characterizations verify the presence of abundant VP active sites in the VP/CNs electrocatalyst, and the ORR activity is linearly related to the amounts of VP active sites.

Facile Uniaxial Electrospinning Strategy To Embed CsPbBr Nanocrystals with Enhanced Water/Thermal Stabilities for Reversible Fluorescence Switches.

All-inorganic halide perovskite nanocrystals with their fascinating optical properties have drawn increasing attention as promising nanoemitters. However, due to the intrinsic poor colloidal stability against the external environment, the practical applications are greatly limited. Herein, a facile and effective strategy for the in situ encapsulation of CsPbBr NCs into highly dense multichannel polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers via a uniaxial electrospinning strategy is presented.

Identifying Luminol Electrochemiluminescence at the Cathode via Single-Atom Catalysts Tuned Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

Luminol-based electrochemiluminescence (ECL) can be readily excited by various reactive oxygen species (ROS) electrogenerated with an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the multiple active intermediates involved in the ORR catalyzed with complex nanomaterials lead to recognizing the role of ROS still elusive. Moreover, suffering from the absence of the direct electrochemical oxidation of luminol at the cathode and poor transformation efficiency of O to ROS, the weak cathodic ECL emission of luminol is often neglected.

Supramolecular Anchoring Strategy for Facile Production of Ruthenium Nanoparticles Embedded in N-Doped Mesoporous Carbon Nanospheres for Efficient Hydrogen Generation.

Because of the favorable mass transport and increased available active sites, the rational design and preparation of porous carbon structures are essential but still challenging. Herein, a novel and facile supramolecular anchoring strategy was developed to achieve the embedding of ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles in N-doped mesoporous carbon nanospheres through pyrolyzing the precursor formed by coordination assembly between metal ions and zinc gluconate (G(Zn)). Featuring rich hydroxyl groups, the G(Zn) can effectively chelate Ru via metal-oxygen bonds to form 3D supramolecular nanospheres, and meanwhile, mesopores in carbon nanospheres were expanded after subsequent pyrolysis thanks to the volatilization of zincic species at high temperature.

A General Method for Transition Metal Single Atoms Anchored on Honeycomb-Like Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanosheets.

Excavating and developing highly efficient and cost-effective nonnoble metal single-atom catalysts for electrocatalytic reactions is of paramount significance but still in its infancy. Herein, reported is a general NaCl template-assisted strategy for rationally designing and preparing a series of isolated transition metal single atoms (Fe/Co/Ni) anchored on honeycomb-like nitrogen-doped carbon matrix (M -HNC-T -T , M = Fe/Co/Ni, T = 500 °C, T = 850 °C). The resulting M -HNC-500-850 with M-N active sites exhibits superior capability for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with the half-wave potential order of Fe -HNC-500-850 > Co -HNC-500-850 > Ni -HNC-500-850, in which Fe -HNC-500-850 shows better performance than commercial Pt/C.