A new sealed lithium-peroxide battery with a co-doped Li2O cathode in a superconcentrated lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide electrolyte.

We propose a new sealed battery operating on a redox reaction between an oxide (O(2-)) and a peroxide (O2(2-)) with its theoretical specific energy of 2570 Wh kg(-1) (897 mAh g(-1), 2.87 V) and demonstrate that a Co-doped Li2O cathode exhibits a reversible capacity over 190 mAh g(-1), a high rate capability, and a good cyclability with a superconcentrated lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide electrolyte in acetonitrile. The reversible capacity is largely dominated by the O(2-)/O2(2-) redox reaction between oxide and peroxide with some contribution of the Co(2+)/Co(3+) redox reaction.

Palladium-catalyzed aerobic intermolecular cyclization of acrylic acid with 1-octene to afford α-methylene-γ-butyrolactones: the remarkable effect of continuous water removal from the reaction mixture and analysis of the reaction by kinetic, ESI-MS, and XAFS measurements.

Further study of our aerobic intermolecular cyclization of acrylic acid with 1-octene to afford α-methylene-γ-butyrolactones, catalyzed by the Pd(OCOCF(3))(2)/Cu(OAc)(2)⋅H(2)O system, has clarified that the accumulation of water generated from oxygen during the reaction causes deactivation of the Cu cocatalyst. This prevents regeneration of the active Pd catalyst and, thus, has a harmful influence on the progress of the cyclization. As a result, both the substrate conversion and product yield are efficiently improved by continuous removal of water from the reaction mixture.

Investigation of the formation process of photodeposited Rh nanoparticles on TiO2 by in situ time-resolved energy-dispersive XAFS analysis.

The photodeposition process of Rh metal nanoparticles on a TiO(2) photocatalyst from RhCl(3) aqueous solution in the presence of methanol as a sacrificial oxidant, which consists of the direct reduction of Rh(3+) ions to Rh metal and the formation of Rh nanoparticles, was uncovered by in situ time-resolved energy-dispersive X-ray absorption fine structure (DXAFS) analysis in a liquid-solid suspension state. The fractions of Rh metal particles and Rh(3+) precursor were estimated by the least-squares fitting of each X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectrum by a linear combination of authentic spectra corresponding to Rh(0) and Rh(3+). The fraction of Rh metal linearly increased with photoirradiation time and saturated after 90 min of photoirradiation.