Revealing the Crystal Phase-Activity Relationship on NiRu Alloy Nanoparticles Encapsulated in N-Doped Carbon towards Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Adjusting the crystal phase of a metal alloy is an important method to optimize catalytic performance. However, detailed understanding about the phase-property relationship for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is still limited. In this work, the crystal phase-activity relationship of NiRu nanoparticles is studied employing N-doped carbon shell coated NiRu nanoparticles with different phase contents.

Sulfonic Derivatives as Recyclable Acid Catalysts in the Dehydration of Fructose to 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural in Biphasic Solvent Systems.

Biphasic systems have received increasing attention for acid-catalyzed dehydration of hexoses to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) because of their high efficiency in in situ extraction and stabilization of HMF. Different organic solvents and acid catalysts were applied in these systems, but their effects on the dehydration activity and HMF yield, and the recycling of homogeneous acid catalysts remain largely unexplored. Here, we tested different solvent systems containing a wide range of organic solvents with low boiling points to study the effects of their chemical structures on fructose dehydration and provided stable HO-dioxane and HO-acetonitrile biphasic systems with high HMF yields of 76-79% using water-soluble sulfonic derivatives as homogeneous acid catalysts under mild conditions (383 K).