Structure-Tailored Surface Oxide on Cu-Ga Intermetallics Enhances CO Reduction Selectivity to Methanol at Ultralow Potential.

Electrochemical CO reduction reaction (eCO RR) is performed on two intermetallic compounds formed by copper and gallium metals (CuGa and Cu Ga ). Among them, CuGa selectively converts CO to methanol with remarkable Faradaic efficiency of 77.26% at an extremely low potential of -0.

Highly efficient bifunctional oxygen reduction/evolution activity of a non-precious nanocomposite derived from a tetrazine-COF.

We report a novel s-tetrazine based covalent organic framework (TZA-COF) and its hybrid nanocomposites with reduced graphene oxide (TZA-COF-rGO) and Co metal to illustrate novel structure-activity relationships in this class of compounds for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The Co-impregnated hybrid composites (TZA-COF-rGO-Co) were further annealed to yield Co-encapsulated nitrogen doped graphitic carbon (Co@NC-600), which exhibited excellent ORR activity comparable to that of the state-of-the art Pt/C in terms of onset potential, E1/2 (half-wave potential), 4e- reduction selectivity and methanol tolerance. Sequential mechanistic analyses of activity enhancement and electron transfer pathways for the ORR, at different stages of controlled catalyst engineering, elucidated the crucial role of active sites and overall catalyst nature in tuning the ORR mechanism.

Two Keggin-Based Isostructural POMOF Hybrids: Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Catalytic Properties.

In this work we synthesized two novel isostructural twin hybrids Comp1: [H(CHN)Cu][PMoO] & Comp2: [H(CHN)Cu][PWO], based on the Keggin ions (PMoO & PWO), Cu(I) cation, and 4,4'-bipyridine, by in situ hydrothermal reduction of Cu, facilitated through extensive standardizations of synthetic pH conditions. Both compounds crystallized in monoclinic P2/ c space group with similar lattice parameters and crystal structures. The structural similarity prompted us to explore comparative catalytic properties of the hybrids, to understand the relative role of the POM species in the activity.