MoCF/WS: Two-Dimensional Van Der Waals Heterostructure for Overall Water Splitting Photocatalyst from Five-Step Screening.

With the increasing demand for renewable energy and clean energy, photocatalysis is considered an economical and feasible source of energy. In this work, we select two-dimensional (2D) materials of XCT (X = Cr, Hf, Mo, Sc, Ti, Zr; T = Cl, F, O, OH), Mxene, and MS (M = Mo, W) to form 20 systems of 2D van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures. We establish five screening steps, and the 2D MoCF/WS vdW heterostructures meet all the screening conditions.

Strong Metal-Support Interactions of Ni-CeO Effectively Improve the Performance of a Molten Hydroxide Direct Carbon Fuel Cell.

A strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) type catalyst has been synthesized and applied to a molten hydroxide direct carbon fuel cell (MHDCFC) to enhance the reaction activity of the anode carbon fuel through the interaction between the metal Ni and the support CeO. Two catalysts have been prepared by a direct precipitation method (denoted NiO@CeO) and a hydrothermal method (denoted NiO-CeO), which are reduced by H to obtain Ni@CeO and Ni-CeO, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman, and temperature-programmed hydrogen reduction (H-TPR) analysis results show that there are obvious oxygen vacancies and a Ni-O-Ce interface structure in NiO-CeO and Ni-CeO, which is induced by the interaction between Ni and CeO.

A Dearomatization/Debromination Strategy for the [4+1] Spiroannulation of Bromophenols with α,β-Unsaturated Imines.

A novel [4+1] spiroannulation of o- & p-bromophenols with α,β-unsaturated imines has been developed for the direct synthesis of a new family of azaspirocyclic molecules. Notably, several other halophenols (X=Cl, I) were also applicable for this transformation. Moreover, a catalytic asymmetric version of the reaction was realized with 1-bromo-2-naphthols by using a chiral Sc /Py-Box catalyst.

Hydroxylamines As Bifunctional Single-Nitrogen Sources for the Rapid Assembly of Diverse Tricyclic Indole Scaffolds.

Conventional approaches on using hydroxylamine derivatives as single nitrogen sources, for the construction of -membered ( > 3) N-heterocycles, rely upon two chemical operations by involving sequential nucleophilic and electrophilic C-N bond formations. Here, we report a highly efficient cascade of alkyne insertion/C-H activation/amination for the rapid preparation of a myriad of tricyclic indoles, in a single-step transformation, by using bifunctional secondary hydroxylamines. It is noteworthy that judicious selection of applicable amino agents, for enabling the prior oxidative addition of aryl iodide to initial Pd(0) species and subsequent two C-N bonds formation, was the key to the success of this reaction.