Oxygen Vacancy-Enriched Alumina Stabilized Pd Nanocatalysts for Selective Hydrogenation of Phenols.

The prevalence of electronic defects has not been successfully demonstrated in nonreducible oxides. This work presents a straightforward approach to the preparation of a yellow alumina rich in F-centers (oxygen vacancies containing free electrons), which is well characterized by systematic spectral methods. The surface electron density of the as-prepared F-center enriched alumina sample was estimated to be approximately 0.

Selectivity descriptors of the catalytic -hexane cracking process over 10-membered ring zeolites.

Zeolite-mediated catalytic cracking of alkanes is pivotal in the petrochemical and refining industry, breaking down heavier hydrocarbon feedstocks into fuels and chemicals. Its relevance also extends to emerging technologies such as biomass and plastic valorization. Zeolite catalysts, with shape selectivity and selective adsorption capabilities, enhance efficiency and sustainability due to their well-defined network of pores, dimensionality, cages/cavities, and channels.

Frustrated Lewis pairs on pentacoordinated Al-enriched AlO promote heterolytic hydrogen activation and hydrogenation.

As an emerging class of metal-free catalysts, frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) catalysts have been greatly constructed and applied in many fields. Homogeneous FLPs have witnessed significant development, while limited heterogeneous FLPs catalysts are available. Herein, we report that heterogeneous FLPs on pentacoordinated Al-enriched AlO readily promote the heterolytic activation of H and thus hydrogenation catalysis.

Engineering linkage as functional moiety into irreversible thiourea-linked covalent organic framework for ultrafast adsorption of Hg(II).

Development of novel functionalized covalent organic frameworks (COFs) as adsorbent for removal of mercury from environment is of great significance, but the conventional strategies for functionalizing COFs always sacrifice porous properties and suppress the exposure of functional sites, which goes against the rapid adsorption of Hg(II). Here, we show the rational design and preparation of the first thiourea-linked COFs via engineering the COFs linkage as functional moiety for ultrafast and selective adsorption of Hg(II). Two thiourea-linked COFs JNU-3 and JNU-4 were prepared via tautomerism reaction of 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol with 1,4-phenylenebis(thiourea) and 1,4-biphenylenebis(thiourea), respectively.

Aggregation-Switching Strategy for Promoting Fluorescent Sensing of Biologically Relevant Species: A Simple Near-Infrared Cyanine Dye Highly Sensitive and Selective for ATP.

We report a strategy for enhanced performance of fluorescent sensing of biologically relevant species that often bind with natural receptors via multiple interactions. We propose making a fluorescent sensory molecule to form H-aggregates such that its emission is quenched leaving a low background, and upon binding to a biologically relevant species, the aggregate switches to another form in which the fluorescent species is better protected to afford a stronger emission signal. Meanwhile, the aggregated fluorescent dyes afford multiple interactions with the sensing species that require multiple binding sites.

Helical Aggregates of Building Blocks Formed In Situ from Five Components.

Reported here is the induced helical aggregation of an achiral cationic perylene-3,4-dicarboximide (1) that contains a phenylboronic acid group, together with UMP that bears a cis-diol moiety able to interact with boronic acid and an imide group known to coordinate with Hg . In selected solvents, 1 exists in monomer form, even in the presence of either UMP or Hg . Helical aggregation only takes place if 1 is mixed with both UMP and Hg , which is shown to result from the formation of a building block consisting of five components in the form 1-U-Hg -U-1.