Solar Urea: Towards a Sustainable Fertilizer Industry.

Urea, an agricultural fertilizer, nourishes humanity. The century-old Bosch-Meiser process provides the world's urea. It is multi-step, consumes enormous amounts of non-renewable energy, and has a large CO footprint.

Shining light on CO: from materials discovery to photocatalyst, photoreactor and process engineering.

Heterogeneous catalysis, a process in which the reaction of gaseous or liquid chemical reagents is facilitated at the surface of a solid material, is responsible for the majority of industrial-scale chemical and fuel production reactions. The energy required to drive these reactions has historically been derived from the combustion of non-renewable fossil fuels and carries an unavoidably large carbon footprint. More recently, the development of environmentally responsible and sustainable chemical industries is increasingly motivated by greenhouse gas-induced climate change, thus creating demand for eco-friendly heterogeneous catalytic processes.

Hybrid Photo- and Thermal Catalyst System for Continuous CO Reduction.

Heterogeneous thermal catalytic processes are vital for industrial production of fuels, fertilizers, and other chemicals necessary for sustaining human life. However, these processes are highly energy-intensive, requiring a vast consumption of fossil fuels. An emerging class of heterogeneous catalysts that are thermally driven but also exhibit a photochemically enhanced rate can potentially reduce process energy intensity by partially substituting conventional heat (where fossil fuels are needed) with solar energy.

Cu Atoms on Nanowire Pd/HWO Bronzes Enhance the Solar Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction.

Nanowire hydrogen bronzes of WO nanowires decorated with Pd (Pd/HWO) were previously demonstrated to effectively capture broadband radiation across the ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelength range and catalyze the reverse water gas shift reaction (RWGS). Herein, we report a synthetic strategy to enhance the performance of this class of photocatalysts by conformally coating Cu atoms onto the surface of Pd/HWO by anchoring Cu(I)OBu to the Brønsted acidic protons of the bronze. The resulting materials are characterized by a suite of analytical methods, including electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Fundamentals and applications of photocatalytic CO methanation.

The extraction and combustion of fossil natural gas, consisting primarily of methane, generates vast amounts of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. However, as a result of recent research efforts, "solar methane" can now be produced through the photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide and water to methane and oxygen. This approach could play an integral role in realizing a sustainable energy economy by closing the carbon cycle and enabling the efficient storage and transportation of intermittent solar energy within the chemical bonds of methane molecules.

Towards Solar Methanol: Past, Present, and Future.

This work aims to provide an overview of producing value-added products affordably and sustainably from greenhouse gases (GHGs). Methanol (MeOH) is one such product, and is one of the most widely used chemicals, employed as a feedstock for ≈30% of industrial chemicals. The starting materials are analogous to those feeding natural processes: water, CO, and light.

Pd@H WO Nanowires Efficiently Catalyze the CO Heterogeneous Reduction Reaction with a Pronounced Light Effect.

The design of photocatalysts able to reduce CO to value-added chemicals and fuels could enable a closed carbon circular economy. A common theme running through the design of photocatalysts for CO reduction is the utilization of semiconductor materials with high-energy conduction bands able to generate highly reducing electrons. Far less explored in this respect are low-energy conduction band materials such as WO.

Performance Improvement of V-Fe-Cr-Ti Solid State Hydrogen Storage Materials in Impure Hydrogen Gas.

Two approaches of engineering surface structures of V-Ti-based solid solution hydrogen storage alloys are presented, which enable improved tolerance toward gaseous oxygen (O) impurities in hydrogen (H) gas. Surface modification is achieved through engineering lanthanum (La)- or nickel (Ni)-rich surface layers with enhanced cyclic stability in an H/O mixture. The formation of a Ni-rich surface layer does not improve the cycling stability in H/O mixtures.

Thermochemical Energy Storage through De/Hydrogenation of Organic Liquids: Reactions of Organic Liquids on Metal Hydrides.

A study of the reactions of liquid acetone and toluene on transition metal hydrides, which can be used in thermal energy or hydrogen storage applications, is presented. Hydrogen is confined in TiFe, Ti0.95Zr0.

Aging-related loss of the chromatin protein HMGB2 in articular cartilage is linked to reduced cellularity and osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease and typically begins with an aging-related disruption of the articular cartilage surface. Mechanisms leading to the aging-related cartilage surface degeneration remain to be determined. Here, we demonstrate that nonhistone chromatin protein high-mobility group box (HMGB) protein 2 is uniquely expressed in the superficial zone (SZ) of human articular cartilage.