Regulating Atomically-Precise Pt Sites for Boosting Light-Driven Dry Reforming of Methane.

Light-driven dry reforming of methane is a promising and mild route to convert two greenhouse gas into valuable syngas. However, developing facile strategy to atomically-precise regulate the active sites and realize balanced and stable syngas production is still challenging. Herein, we developed a spatial confinement approach to precisely control over platinum species on TiO surfaces, from single atoms to nanoclusters.

Engineering Spatially Adjacent Redox Sites with Synergistic Spin Polarization Effect to Boost Photocatalytic CO Methanation.

The integration of oxidation and reduction half-reactions to amplify their synergy presents a considerable challenge in CO photoconversion. Addressing this challenge requires the construction of spatially adjacent redox sites while suppressing charge recombination at these sites. This study introduces an innovative approach that utilizes spatial synergy to enable synergistic redox reactions within atomic proximity and employs spin polarization to inhibit charge recombination.

Single-Atom Alloys Materials for CO and CH Catalytic Conversion.

The catalytic conversion of greenhouse gases CH and CO constitutes an effective approach for alleviating the greenhouse effect and generating valuable chemical products. However, the intricate molecular characteristics characterized by high symmetry and bond energies, coupled with the complexity of associated reactions, pose challenges for conventional catalysts to attain high activity, product selectivity, and enduring stability. Single-atom alloys (SAAs) materials, distinguished by their tunable composition and unique electronic structures, confer versatile physicochemical properties and modulable functionalities.

High-density frustrated Lewis pairs based on Lamellar NbO for photocatalytic non-oxidative methane coupling.

Photocatalytic methane conversion requires a strong polarization environment composed of abundant activation sites with the robust stretching ability for C-H scissoring. High-density frustrated Lewis pairs consisting of low-valence Lewis acid Nb and Lewis base Nb-OH are fabricated on lamellar NbO through a thermal-reduction promoted phase-transition process. Benefitting from the planar atomic arrangement of lamellar NbO, the frustrated Lewis pairs sites are highly exposed and accessible to reactants, which results in a superior methane conversion rate of 1456 μmol g h for photocatalytic non-oxidative methane coupling without the assistance of noble metals.

Selective Photocatalytic CO Reduction to CH on Tri--triazine-Based Carbon Nitride via Defects and Crystal Regulation: Synergistic Effect of Thermodynamics and Kinetics.

Realizing the high selectivity of CH from the photocatalytic CO reduction reaction (CO RR) remains a great challenge owing to the lower efficiency of multi-electron transfer and the similar thermodynamic properties of CH and CO. Herein, nitrogen-deficient carbon nitride two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets were prepared via the high-temperature crystalline phase transformation process. Optimizing crystallinity enhances the in-plane polarization along the -axis.

Transthoracic minimally invasive closure for the treatment of ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysm: immediate and mid-term follow-up results.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the immediate and mid-term outcomes of transthoracic minimally invasive closure (TMIC) of ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysm (RSVA), which is a rare and mostly congenital heart disease.

Methods: From January 2014 to November 2020, 19 patients (16 males, 3 females) with RSVA were selected for TMIC and were followed up at our centre. Data were analysed from our prospectively collected database and clinical mid-term follow-up was obtained.

Non-oxidative Coupling of Methane: N-type Doping of Niobium Single Atoms in TiO -SiO Induces Electron Localization.

Photodriven nonoxidative coupling of CH (NOCM) is an attractive potential way to use abundant methane resources. Herein, an n-type doped photocatalyst for NOCM is created by doping single-atom Nb into hierarchical porous TiO -SiO (TS) microarray, which exhibits a high conversion rate of 3.57 μmol g  h with good recyclability.

Chemisorption-Induced and Plasmon-Promoted Photofixation of Nitrogen on Gold-Loaded Carbon Nitride Nanosheets.

Photocatalytic fixation of nitrogen is a promising method for green conversion of solar light, but has been substantially limited by inefficient activation of the nonpolar N≡N bond and the poor utilization of visible light. In this study, carbon nitride nanosheet composites with abundant nitrogen vacancies and strong plasmonic resonance absorption of visible light have been fabricated through the combination of hydrogen treatment and loading of Au nanoparticles. Ammonia yields of 184 μmol g and 93 μmol g are obtained without any sacrificial agent under full-light and visible-light irradiation, respectively.

Ga-Doped and Pt-Loaded Porous TiO-SiO for Photocatalytic Nonoxidative Coupling of Methane.

Photodriven nonoxidative coupling of CH (NOCM) is a potential alternative approach to clean hydrogen and hydrocarbon production. Herein, a Mott-Schottky photocatalyst for NOCM is fabricated by loading Pt nanoclusters on a Ga-doped hierarchical porous TiO-SiO microarray with an anatase framework, which exhibits a CH conversion rate of 3.48 μmol g h with 90% selectivity toward CH.

Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous Carbon-Encapsulated MoO Nanobelts as a High-Capacity and Stable Host for Lithium-Ion Storage.

N-doped mesoporous carbon-capped MoO nanobelts (designated as MoO @NC) were synthesized and applied to lithium-ion storage. Owing to the stable core-shell structural framework and conductive mesoporous carbon matrix, the as-prepared MoO @NC shows a high specific capacity of around 700 mA h g at a current of 0.5 A g , excellent cycling stability up to 100 cycles, and superior rate performance.

Noble-Metal-Free Materials for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Detection.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an attractive tool for the sensing of molecules in the fields of chemical and biochemical analysis as it enables the sensitive detection of molecular fingerprint information even at the single-molecule level. In addition to traditional coinage metals in SERS analysis, recent research on noble-metal-free materials has also yielded highly sensitive SERS activity. This Minireview presents the recent development of noble-metal-free materials as SERS substrates and their potential applications, especially semiconductors and emerging graphene-based nanostructures.