Highly efficient C(CO)-C(alkyl) bond cleavage in ketones to access esters over ultrathin N-doped carbon nanosheets.

Selective oxidative cleavage of the C(CO)-C bond in ketones to access esters is a highly attractive strategy for upgrading ketones. However, it remains a great challenge to realize this important transformation over heterogeneous metal-free catalysts. Herein, we designed a series of porous and ultrathin N-doped carbon nanosheets (denoted as CN-, where represents the pyrolysis temperature) as heterogeneous metal-free catalysts.

Highly Efficient Oxidative Cyanation of Aldehydes to Nitriles over Se,S,N-tri-Doped Hierarchically Porous Carbon Nanosheets.

Oxidative cyanation of aldehydes provides a promising strategy for the cyanide-free synthesis of organic nitriles. Design of robust and cost-effective catalysts is the key for this route. Herein, we designed a series of Se,S,N-tri-doped carbon nanosheets with a hierarchical porous structure (denoted as Se,S,N-CNs-x, x represents the pyrolysis temperature).

Robust selenium-doped carbon nitride nanotubes for selective electrocatalytic oxidation of furan compounds to maleic acid.

Selective oxidation of biomass-derived furan compounds to maleic acid (MA), an important bulk chemical, is a very attractive strategy for biomass transformation. However, achieving a high MA selectivity remains a great challenge. Herein, we for the first time successfully designed and fabricated Se-doped graphitic carbon nitride nanotubes with a chemical formula of CN-Se.

Highly Electrocatalytic Ethylene Production from CO on Nanodefective Cu Nanosheets.

The electrochemical synthesis of chemicals from carbon dioxide, which is an easily available and renewable carbon resource, is of great importance. However, to achieve high product selectivity for desirable C products like ethylene is a big challenge. Here we design Cu nanosheets with nanoscaled defects (2-14 nm) for the electrochemical production of ethylene from carbon dioxide.

Ordered-Mesoporous-Carbon-Confined Pb/PbO Composites: Superior Electrocatalysts for CO Reduction.

CO electroreduction has gained significant interest. However, fabricating cost-effective nonprecious-metal electrocatalysts that can selectively convert CO to a specific product remains highly challenging. Herein, Pb-based materials consisting of Pb and PbO confined in ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) (Pb/PbO@OMC) were constructed for CO electroreduction to CO.

An electrocatalytic route for transformation of biomass-derived furfural into 5-hydroxy-2(5)-furanone.

Development of efficient strategies for biomass valorization is a highly attractive topic. Herein, we conducted the first work on electrocatalytic oxidation of renewable furfural to produce the key bioactive intermediate 5-hydroxy-2(5)-furanone (HFO). It was demonstrated that using HO as the oxygen source and metal chalcogenides (CuS, ZnS, PbS, ) as electrocatalysts, the reaction could proceed efficiently, and the CuS nanosheets prepared in this work showed the best performance and provided high HFO selectivity (83.