Why we need scientists to make sustainable policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us the importance of having scientists in public health policymaking. As with the pandemic, humanity faces another crisis at a greater scale: global climate change. Here, two carbontech researchers and Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees reflect on their unique paths toward influencing sustainable policies in government and international organizations.

Stabilizing Highly Active Ru Sites by Suppressing Lattice Oxygen Participation in Acidic Water Oxidation.

In hydrogen production, the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) limits the energy conversion efficiency and also impacts stability in proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzers. Widely used Ir-based catalysts suffer from insufficient activity, while more active Ru-based catalysts tend to dissolve under OER conditions. This has been associated with the participation of lattice oxygen (lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism (LOM)), which may lead to the collapse of the crystal structure and accelerate the leaching of active Ru species, leading to low operating stability.

Three-Dimensional Cathodes for Electrochemical Reduction of CO: From Macro- to Nano-Engineering.

Rising anthropogenic CO emissions and their climate warming effects have triggered a global response in research and development to reduce the emissions of this harmful greenhouse gas. The use of CO as a feedstock for the production of value-added fuels and chemicals is a promising pathway for development of renewable energy storage and reduction of carbon emissions. Electrochemical CO conversion offers a promising route for value-added products.

Metal-Free Hydrogen-Bonded Polymers Mimic Noble Metal Electrocatalysts.

The most active and efficient catalysts for the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) rely on platinum, a fact that increases the cost of producing hydrogen and thereby limits the widespread adoption of this fuel. Here, a metal-free organic electrocatalyst that mimics the platinum surface by implementing a high work function and incorporating hydrogen-affine hydrogen bonds is introduced. These motifs, inspired from enzymology, are deployed here as selective reaction centres.

Accelerated discovery of CO electrocatalysts using active machine learning.

The rapid increase in global energy demand and the need to replace carbon dioxide (CO)-emitting fossil fuels with renewable sources have driven interest in chemical storage of intermittent solar and wind energy. Particularly attractive is the electrochemical reduction of CO to chemical feedstocks, which uses both CO and renewable energy. Copper has been the predominant electrocatalyst for this reaction when aiming for more valuable multi-carbon products, and process improvements have been particularly notable when targeting ethylene.

Molecular enhancement of heterogeneous CO reduction.

The electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CORR) addresses the need for storage of renewable energy in valuable carbon-based fuels and feedstocks, yet challenges remain in the improvement of electrosynthesis pathways for highly selective hydrocarbon production. To improve catalysis further, it is of increasing interest to lever synergies between heterogeneous and homogeneous approaches. Organic molecules or metal complexes adjacent to heterogeneous active sites provide additional binding interactions that may tune the stability of intermediates, improving catalytic performance by increasing Faradaic efficiency (product selectivity), as well as decreasing overpotential.

Publisher Correction: Copper adparticle enabled selective electrosynthesis of n-propanol.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Author Correction: Dopant-induced electron localization drives CO reduction to C hydrocarbons.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Robust Antibacterial Activity of Tungsten Oxide (WO) Nanodots.

Antibacterial agents are an important tool in the prevention of bacterial infections. Inorganic materials are attractive due to their high stability under a variety of conditions compared to organic antibacterial agents. Herein tungsten oxide nanodots (WO), synthesized by a simple one-pot synthetic approach, were found to exhibit strong antibacterial capabilities.

What would it take for renewably powered electrosynthesis to displace petrochemical processes?

Electrocatalytic transformation of carbon dioxide (CO) and water into chemical feedstocks offers the potential to reduce carbon emissions by shifting the chemical industry away from fossil fuel dependence. We provide a technoeconomic and carbon emission analysis of possible products, offering targets that would need to be met for economically compelling industrial implementation to be achieved. We also provide a comparison of the projected costs and CO emissions across electrocatalytic, biocatalytic, and fossil fuel-derived production of chemical feedstocks.

Copper adparticle enabled selective electrosynthesis of n-propanol.

The electrochemical reduction of carbon monoxide is a promising approach for the renewable production of carbon-based fuels and chemicals. Copper shows activity toward multi-carbon products from CO reduction, with reaction selectivity favoring two-carbon products; however, efficient conversion of CO to higher carbon products such as n-propanol, a liquid fuel, has yet to be achieved. We hypothesize that copper adparticles, possessing a high density of under-coordinated atoms, could serve as preferential sites for n-propanol formation.

A Surface Reconstruction Route to High Productivity and Selectivity in CO Electroreduction toward C Hydrocarbons.

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (CO ) is a promising technology to use renewable electricity to convert CO into valuable carbon-based products. For commercial-scale applications, however, the productivity and selectivity toward multi-carbon products must be enhanced. A facile surface reconstruction approach that enables tuning of CO -reduction selectivity toward C products on a copper-chloride (CuCl)-derived catalyst is reported here.

Copper-on-nitride enhances the stable electrosynthesis of multi-carbon products from CO.

Copper-based materials are promising electrocatalysts for CO reduction. Prior studies show that the mixture of copper (I) and copper (0) at the catalyst surface enhances multi-carbon products from CO reduction; however, the stable presence of copper (I) remains the subject of debate. Here we report a copper on copper (I) composite that stabilizes copper (I) during CO reduction through the use of copper nitride as an underlying copper (I) species.

Metal-Organic Framework Thin Films on High-Curvature Nanostructures Toward Tandem Electrocatalysis.

In tandem catalysis, two distinct catalytic materials are interfaced to feed the product of one reaction into the next one. This approach, analogous to enzyme cascades, can potentially be used to upgrade small molecules such as CO to more valuable hydrocarbons. Here, we investigate the materials chemistry of metal-organic framework (MOF) thin films grown on gold nanostructured microelectrodes (AuNMEs), focusing on the key materials chemistry challenges necessary to enable the applications of these MOF/AuNME composites in tandem catalysis.

2D Metal Oxyhalide-Derived Catalysts for Efficient CO Electroreduction.

Electrochemical reduction of CO is a compelling route to store renewable electricity in the form of carbon-based fuels. Efficient electrochemical reduction of CO requires catalysts that combine high activity, high selectivity, and low overpotential. Extensive surface reconstruction of metal catalysts under high productivity operating conditions (high current densities, reducing potentials, and variable pH) renders the realization of tailored catalysts that maximize the exposure of the most favorable facets, the number of active sites, and the oxidation state all the more challenging.

Dopant-induced electron localization drives CO reduction to C hydrocarbons.

The electrochemical reduction of CO to multi-carbon products has attracted much attention because it provides an avenue to the synthesis of value-added carbon-based fuels and feedstocks using renewable electricity. Unfortunately, the efficiency of CO conversion to C products remains below that necessary for its implementation at scale. Modifying the local electronic structure of copper with positive valence sites has been predicted to boost conversion to C products.

CO electroreduction to ethylene via hydroxide-mediated copper catalysis at an abrupt interface.

Carbon dioxide (CO) electroreduction could provide a useful source of ethylene, but low conversion efficiency, low production rates, and low catalyst stability limit current systems. Here we report that a copper electrocatalyst at an abrupt reaction interface in an alkaline electrolyte reduces CO to ethylene with 70% faradaic efficiency at a potential of -0.55 volts versus a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE).

Chemical-to-Electricity Carbon: Water Device.

The ability to release, as electrical energy, potential energy stored at the water:carbon interface is attractive, since water is abundant and available. However, many previous reports of such energy converters rely on either flowing water or specially designed ionic aqueous solutions. These requirements restrict practical application, particularly in environments with quiescent water.

Theory-driven design of high-valence metal sites for water oxidation confirmed using in situ soft X-ray absorption.

The efficiency with which renewable fuels and feedstocks are synthesized from electrical sources is limited at present by the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in pH-neutral media. We took the view that generating transition-metal sites with high valence at low applied bias should improve the activity of neutral OER catalysts. Here, using density functional theory, we find that the formation energy of desired Ni sites is systematically modulated by incorporating judicious combinations of Co, Fe and non-metal P.

Biofunctionalized conductive polymers enable efficient CO electroreduction.

Selective electrocatalysts are urgently needed for carbon dioxide (CO) reduction to replace fossil fuels with renewable fuels, thereby closing the carbon cycle. To date, noble metals have achieved the best performance in energy yield and faradaic efficiency and have recently reached impressive electrical-to-chemical power conversion efficiencies. However, the scarcity of precious metals makes the search for scalable, metal-free, CO reduction reaction (CORR) catalysts all the more important.

Tunable Cu Enrichment Enables Designer Syngas Electrosynthesis from CO.

Using renewable energy to recycle CO provides an opportunity to both reduce net CO emissions and synthesize fuels and chemical feedstocks. It is of central importance to design electrocatalysts that both are efficient and can access a tunable spectrum of products. Syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H), is an important chemical precursor that can be converted downstream into small molecules or larger hydrocarbons by fermentation or thermochemistry.

Structural influence of proteins upon adsorption to MoS nanomaterials: comparison of MoS force field parameters.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS) has recently emerged as a promising nanomaterial in a wide range of applications due to its unique and impressive properties. For example, MoS has gained attention in the biomedical field because of its ability to act as an antibacterial and anticancer agent. However, the potential influence of this exciting nanomaterial on biomolecules is yet to be extensively studied.