Full-Spectrum Light-Harvesting Solar Thermal Electrocatalyst Boosts Oxygen Evolution.

Enabling high-efficiency solar thermal conversion (STC) at catalytic active site is critical but challenging for harnessing solar energy to boost catalytic reactions. Herein, we report the direct integration of full-spectrum STC and high electrocatalytic oxygen evolution activity by fabricating a hierarchical nanocage architecture composed of graphene-encapsulated CoNi nanoparticle. This catalyst exhibits a near-complete 98 % absorptivity of solar spectrum and a high STC efficiency of 97 %, which is superior than previous solar thermal catalytic materials.

Adsorption and activation of molecular oxygen over atomic copper(I/II) site on ceria.

Supported atomic metal sites have discrete molecular orbitals. Precise control over the energies of these sites is key to achieving novel reaction pathways with superior selectivity. Here, we achieve selective oxygen (O) activation by utilising a framework of cerium (Ce) cations to reduce the energy of 3d orbitals of isolated copper (Cu) sites.

Advanced Li S/Si Full Battery Enabled by TiN Polysulfide Immobilizer.

Lithium sulfide (Li S) is a promising cathode material with high capacity, which can be paired with nonlithium metal anodes such as silicon or tin so that the safety issues caused by the Li anode can be effectively avoided. However, the Li S full cell suffers from rapid capacity degradation due to the dissolution of intermediate polysulfides. Herein, a Li S/Si full cell is designed with a Li S cathode incorporated by titanium nitride (TiN) polysulfide immobilizer within parallel hollow carbon (PHC).

Oxygen-Defective Ultrathin BiVO Nanosheets for Enhanced Gas Sensing.

BiVO nanomaterials are potentially applicable in gas sensing, but the sensing performance is limited by the less active sites on the BiVO surface. In this work, we propose a strategy to improve the gas-sensing performance of BiVO by forming ultrathin nanosheets and introducing oxygen vacancies, which increase the surface active sites. Two-dimensional (2D) BiVO nanosheets with oxygen vacancies are prepared through a colloidal method with the assistance of nitric acid.

Rational Design and Functionalization of a Zinc Metal-Organic Framework for Highly Selective Detection of 2,4,6-Trinitrophenol.

To develop potential metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) detection, an amino-functionalized Zn-MOF, [NH(CH)][ZnO(bpt)(bdc-NH)]·5DMF (where Hbpt = biphenyl-3,4',5-tricarboxylate, Hbdc-NH = 2-aminoterephthalic acid, and DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide), has been designed theoretically and synthesized experimentally. Its structure is composed of ZnO(CO) secondary building units linked by mixed ligands, exhibiting a three-dimensional framework. Fluorescence exploration revealed that the amino-functionalized Zn-MOF shows high selectivity and sensitivity for TNP, which agrees well with the predictions of theoretical simulations.

The Uncommon Channel-Based Ln-MOFs for Highly Selective Fe Detection and Superior Rhodamine B Adsorption.

Two new isostructural 3D lanthanide-organic frameworks [H N(Me) ] [Ln (OH)(bpt) (H O) ] (DMF) ⋅(H O) (1-Ln; Ln=Sm and Eu) with a 1D channel (25 Å) have been successfully assembled from the rare trinuclear [Ln (OH)(COO) ] clusters and biphenyl-3,4',5-tricarboxylic acid (H bpt) and exhibit high stability towards water in the pH range 3-10. MOF 1-Eu is a promising luminescent probe for sensing Fe in aqueous solution and is also selective towards rhodamine B (RhB) with a superior adsorption capacity of 735 mg g , which is the highest among the reported Ln-MOFs for RhB removal so far. Periodic DFT calculations further confirmed the selective adsorption of rhodamine B over other dyes.

Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Coated by Layer-by-Layer Self-assembly Using Cucurbit[7]uril for in Vitro and in Vivo Anticancer Drug Release.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are promising solid supports for controlled anticancer drug delivery. Herein, we report biocompatible layer-by-layer (LbL) coated MSNs (LbL-MSNs) that are designed and crafted to release encapsulated anticancer drugs, e.g.