Visible-Light-Driven Oxidation of Benzene to Phenol with O over Photoinduced Oxygen-Vacancy-Rich WO.

Direct photocatalytic conversion of benzene to phenol with molecular oxygen (O) is a green alternative to the traditional synthesis. The key is to find an effective photocatalyst to do the trick. Defect engineering of semiconductors with oxygen vacancies (OVs) is an emerging strategy for catalyst fabrication.

Enriching surface-ordered defects on WO for photocatalytic CO-to-CH conversion by water.

Defect engineering has been widely applied in semiconductors to improve photocatalytic properties by altering the surface structures. This study is about the transformation of inactive WO nanosheets to a highly effective CO-to-CH conversion photocatalyst by introducing surface-ordered defects in abundance. The nonstoichiometric WO samples were examined by using aberration-corrected electron microscopy.

Superstructure-Assisted Single-Atom Catalysis on Tungsten Carbides for Bifunctional Oxygen Reactions.

Single-atom catalysis (SAC) attracts wide interest for zinc-air batteries that require high-performance bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen reactions. However, catalyst design is still highly challenging because of the insufficient driving force for promoting multiple-electron transfer kinetics. Herein, we report a superstructure-assisted SAC on tungsten carbides for oxygen evolution and reduction reactions.

Establishing Multiple-Order Built-In Electric Fields Within Heterojunctions to Achieve Photocarrier Spatial Separation.

Hybridizing two heterocomponents to construct a built-in electric field (BIEF) at the interface represents a significant strategy for facilitating charge separation in carbon dioxide (CO)-photoreduction. However, the unidirectional nature of BIEFs formed by various low-dimensional materials poses challenges in adequately segregating the photogenerated carriers produced in bulk. In this study, leveraging zinc oxide (ZnO) nanodisks, a sulfurization reaction is employed to fabricate Z-scheme ZnO/zinc sulfide (ZnS) heterojunctions featuring a multiple-order BIEF.

The Directional Crystallization Process of Poly (triazine imide) Single Crystals in Molten Salts.

Poly (triazine imide) photocatalysts prepared via molten salt methods emerge as promising polymer semiconductors with one-step excitation capacity of overall water splitting. Unveiling the molecular conjugation, nucleation, and crystallization processes of PTI crystals is crucial for their controllable structure design. Herein, microscopy characterization was conducted at the PTI crystallization front from meso to nano scales.

Unveiling the charge transfer dynamics steered by built-in electric fields in BiOBr photocatalysts.

Construction of internal electric fields (IEFs) is crucial to realize efficient charge separation for charge-induced redox reactions, such as water splitting and CO reduction. However, a quantitative understanding of the charge transfer dynamics modulated by IEFs remains elusive. Here, electron microscopy study unveils that the non-equilibrium photo-excited electrons are collectively steered by two contiguous IEFs within binary (001)/(200) facet junctions of BiOBr platelets, and they exhibit characteristic Gaussian distribution profiles on reduction facets by using metal co-catalysts as probes.

Atomistic Observation of Temperature-Dependent Defect Evolution within Sub-stoichiometric WO Catalysts.

Tunable crystalline defects endow WO catalysts with extended functionalities for a broad range of photo- and electric-related applications. However, direct visualization of the defect structures and their evolution mechanism is lacking. Herein, aberration-corrected and transmission electron microscopy was complemented by theoretical calculations to investigate the effect of temperature on the defect evolution behavior during hydrogenation treatment.

Electrochemical Behaviors of Sulfurized-Polyacrylonitrile with Synthesized Polyacrylonitrile Precursors Based on the Radical Polymerization Through Monomer Acrylonitrile.

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursors have been polymerized at different radical polymerization temperatures for preparing sulfurized-polyacrylonitrile (S-PAN) composite cathodes in rechargeable lithium sulfur battery. The physical properties of these composites have been investigated using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, Brunner-Emmet-Teller measurement and Gel permeation chromatography analysis. The electrochemical performance of the S-PAN composite cathodes made from the PAN precursor was investigated.