Cu Tailoring Pt Enables Branched-Structured Electrocatalysts with High Concave Surface Curvature Toward Efficient Methanol Oxidation.

Surface engineering offers opportunities for the design and synthesis of Pt-based alloyed electrocatalysts with high mass activity and resistance to CO poisoning, which is of great significance for methanol electrooxidation. Surface curvature regulation may endow electrocatalysts with enhanced atomic utilization and abundance of unsaturated atoms; however, a reliable synthetic route for controlled construction of tailorable curved surface is still lacking. Here, a colloidal-chemical method to synthesize two types of PtCu branched-structured electrocatalysts, where the concave curvature can be customized is reported.

Accelerating Pd Electrocatalysis for CO-to-Formate Conversion across a Wide Potential Window by Optimized Incorporation of Cu.

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO) to formate is a viable way to reduce CO emissions and realize a carbon-neutral energy cycle. Although Pd can convert CO to formate with a high Faradaic efficiency at minimal overpotentials, it suffers from a limited and narrow potential window. Alloying is an important strategy for the catalyst design and tuning the electronic structures.

Peapod-like architectures with CuO microspheres encapsulated within MXene as a conversion electrode for lithium-ion batteries.

Conversion electrode materials allow lithium-ion batteries to achieve high reversible capacities but have the problem of sluggish kinetics derived from their insulating decomposition products, thus hindering their future application. Nanostructures that shorten diffusion distances do not solve the problem as the conversion reaction is always associated with the collapse of the original structure. Here, we demonstrate that MXene would be a good conductive additive for conversion electrode materials and utilize an electrode of CuO incorporated into a MXene scaffold as a model case which demonstrates highly improved cyclability with a capacity of 670 mA h g at 5C after 1000 cycles.

A large and unusually thick-shelled turtle egg with embryonic remains from the Upper Cretaceous of China.

Turtle eggs containing embryos are exceedingly rare in the fossil record. Here, we provide the first description and taxonomic identification, to our knowledge, of a fossilized embryonic turtle preserved in an egg, a fossil recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Xiaguan Formation of Henan Province, China. The specimen is attributed to the Nanhsiungchelyidae (Pan-Trionychia), an extinct group of large terrestrial turtles (possibly the species ).

An oviraptorid preserved atop an embryo-bearing egg clutch sheds light on the reproductive biology of non-avialan theropod dinosaurs.

Recent studies demonstrate that many avialan features evolved incrementally prior to the origin of the group, but the presence of some of these features, such as bird-like brooding behaviours, remains contentious in non-avialan dinosaurs. Here we report the first non-avialan dinosaur fossil known to preserve an adult skeleton atop an egg clutch that contains embryonic remains. The preserved positional relationship of the adult to the clutch, coupled with the advanced growth stages of the embryos and their high estimated incubation temperatures, provides strong support for the brooding hypothesis.

An Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves) preserving an unlaid egg and probable medullary bone.

Understanding non-crown dinosaur reproduction is hindered by a paucity of directly associated adults with reproductive traces. Here we describe a new enantiornithine, Avimaia schweitzerae gen. et sp.

Elongatoolithid eggs containing oviraptorid (Theropoda, Oviraptorosauria) embryos from the Upper Cretaceous of Southern China.

Background: Oviraptorids, like many other dinosaurs, clearly had a complex pattern of skeletal growth involving numerous morphological changes. However, many ontogenetic skeletal changes in oviraptorids were previously unclear due to the lack of well preserved specimens that represent very young developmental stages.

Results: Here we report three elongatoolithid dinosaur eggs from the Upper Cretaceous Nanxiong Formation of Nankang District, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, China that contain in ovo embryonic skeletons.