Improving the Hydrogenation Performance of Nano-Catalysts by Constructing a Cavity-Constrained Fluidized System.

Nano-catalysts demonstrate exceptional performance in heterogeneous reactions, yet their potential is often underutilized due to a lack of attention to engineering design. In this study, an innovative encapsulated structure is presented for nano-catalysts and a corresponding catalytic system. Using an oil-in-water droplet strategy, millimeter-sized hollow spherical alumina (AlO-HS) is fabricated with an average diameter of ≈3 mm and a hollow void size of ≈1 mm.

Selective Electrooxidation of Crude Glycerol to Lactic Acid Coupled With Hydrogen Production at Industrially-Relevant Current Density.

Transforming glycerol (GLY, biodiesel by-product) into lactic acid (LA, biodegradable polymer monomer) through sustainable electrocatalysis presents an effective strategy to reduce biodiesel production costs and consequently enhance its applications. However, current research faces a trade-off between achieving industrially-relevant current density (>300 mA cm) and high LA selectivity (>80%), limiting technological advancement. Herein, a AuAg alloy electrocatalyst is developed that demonstrates exceptional LA selectivity (85%) under high current density (>400 mA cm).

Evaluation of Active Oxygen Species Derived from Water Splitting for Electrocatalytic Organic Oxidation.

Active oxygen species (OH*/O*) derived from water electrolysis are essential for the electrooxidation of organic compounds into high-value chemicals, which can determine activity and selectivity, whereas the relationship between them remains unclear. Herein, using glycerol (GLY) electrooxidation as a model reaction, we systematically investigated the relationship between GLY oxidation activity and the formation energy of OH* (ΔG). We first identified that OH* on Au demonstrates the highest activity for GLY electrooxidation among various pure metals, based on experiments and density functional theory, and revealed that ΔG on Au-based alloys is influenced by the metallic composition of OH* coordination sites.

Thermal Effect Management via Entropy Variation Strategy to Improve the Catalyst Stability in Acetylene Hydrogenation.

The dynamic structure evolution of heterogeneous catalysts during reaction has gained great attention recently. However, controllably manipulating dynamic process and then feeding back catalyst design to extend the lifetime remains challenging. Herein, we proposed an entropy variation strategy to develop a dynamic CuZn-Co/HEOs catalyst, in which the non-active Co nano-islands play a crucial role in controlling thermal effect via timely capturing and utilizing reaction heat generated on the adjacent active CuZn alloys, thus solving the deactivation problem of Cu-based catalysts.

Boosting electrochemical oxygen reduction to hydrogen peroxide coupled with organic oxidation.

The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to produce hydrogen peroxide (HO) is appealing due to its sustainability. However, its efficiency is compromised by the competing 4e ORR pathway. In this work, we report a hierarchical carbon nanosheet array electrode with a single-atom Ni catalyst synthesized using organic molecule-intercalated layered double hydroxides as precursors.

Regulating Degradation Pathways of Polymers by Radical-Triggered Luminescence.

Understanding the radical behaviours during polymer degradation is beneficial to unveil and regulate the degradation pathways of polymers to achieve a sustainable polymer development. However, it is a long-standing challenge to study radical behaviours owing to the ultra-short lifetime of the transient radicals generated during the polymer degradation. In this contribution, we have proposed the radical-triggered luminescence to monitor the radical behaviours during polymer degradation without/with the addition of inorganic additives.

A strong bimetal-support interaction in ethanol steam reforming.

The metal-support interaction (MSI) in heterogeneous catalysts plays a crucial role in reforming reaction to produce renewable hydrogen, but conventional objects are limited to single metal and support. Herein, we report a type of RhNi/TiO catalysts with tunable RhNi-TiO strong bimetal-support interaction (SBMSI) derived from structure topological transformation of RhNiTi-layered double hydroxides (RhNiTi-LDHs) precursors. The resulting 0.

Characterization Techniques of Polymer Aging: From Beginning to End.

Polymers have been widely applied in various fields in the daily routines and the manufacturing. Despite the awareness of the aggressive and inevitable aging for the polymers, it still remains a challenge to choose an appropriate characterization strategy for evaluating the aging behaviors. The difficulties lie in the fact that the polymer features from the different aging stages require different characterization methods.

Super-stable mineralization of Cu, Cd, Zn and Pb by CaAl-layered double hydroxide: Performance, mechanism, and large-scale application in agriculture soil remediation.

The synthesized CaAl-layered double hydroxide (CaAl-LDH) shows excellent performance in potentially toxic metals (PTMs) removal, and the removal capacity of CaAl-LDH toward Cu, Zn and Pb in aqueous solution is 502.4, 315.2 and 600.

A Carbon-Negative Hydrogen Production Strategy: CO Selective Capture with H Production.

We reported a strategy of carbon-negative H production in which CO capture was coupled with H evolution at ambient temperature and pressure. For this purpose, carbonate-type Cu Mg Fe layered double hydroxide (LDH) was preciously constructed, and then a photocatalysis reaction of interlayer CO reduction with glycerol oxidation was performed as driving force to induce the electron storage on LDH layers. With the participation of pre-stored electrons, CO was captured to recover interlayer CO in presence of H O, accompanied with equivalent H production.

Resistance of Acta2 mice to aortic disease is associated with defective release of mutant smooth muscle α-actin from the chaperonin-containing TCP1 folding complex.

Pathogenic variants of the gene for smooth muscle α-actin (ACTA2), which encodes smooth muscle (SM) α-actin, predispose to heritable thoracic aortic disease. The ACTA2 variant p.Arg149Cys (R149C) is the most common alteration; however, only 60% of carriers have a dissection or undergo repair of an aneurysm by 70 years of age.

Three-Dimensional Fluorescent Imaging to Identify Multi-Paths in Polymer Aging.

It is of great significance to disclose the diverse aging pathways for polymers under multiple factors, so as to predict and control the potential aging evolution. However, the current methods fail to distinguish multiple pathways (multi-paths) of polymer aging due to the lack of spatiotemporal resolution. In this work, using polyimide as a model polymer, the hydroxyl, carboxyl, and amino groups from the polyimide aging process were labeled using specific fluorescent probes through boron-oxygen, imine, and thiourea linkages, respectively.

Layered double hydroxide-based electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction: identification and tailoring of active sites, and superaerophobic nanoarray electrode assembly.

The electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a critical half-cell reaction for hydrogen production via water electrolysis. However, the practical OER suffers from sluggish kinetics and thus requires efficient electrocatalysts. Transition metal-based layered double hydroxides (LDHs) represent one of the most active classes of OER catalysts.

Three-Dimensional Visualization for Early-Stage Evolution of Polymer Aging.

Monitoring the evolution of polymer aging, especially early-stage aging, over both time and dimensionality can provide in-depth insight into aging-induced material invalidation and even disastrous accidents. However, it remains a great challenge because currently available methods for polymer aging only provide statistic results at a macroscopic scale. Herein, we report the first three-dimensional early-stage visualization (ESV) technique of polymer aging by using the fluorophore-bonded boronic acid to specifically target aging-induced hydroxyl groups through the B-O click reaction.

Active-Oxygen-Enhanced Homogeneous Nucleation of Lithium Metal on Ultrathin Layered Double Hydroxide.

The development of safe lithium-metal anodes is crucial for the next-generation rechargeable batteries. To stabilize Li metal anodes, pre-planting Li nucleation seeds on lithiophilic substrates is an efficient strategy to regulate initial nucleation process of Li metal. Now, activated ultrathin layered double hydroxide (U-LDHs) are reported as a promising lithiophilic 2D material to realize the uniform deposition of Li metal.

A bottom-up synthesis of rare-earth-hydrotalcite monolayer nanosheets toward multimode imaging and synergetic therapy.

Recently, ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have attracted considerable research interest in biomedical applications, owing to their intriguing quantum size and surface effects. In this work, a one-step "bottom-up" method is developed to prepare rare-earth (Gd and Yb) co-doped layered double hydroxide (LDH) monolayer nanosheets, with a precisely controlled composition and uniform morphology. Due to the successful introduction of Gd and Yb into the LDH host layer, the Gd&Yb-LDH monolayer nanosheets exhibit excellent magnetic resonance (MR)/X-ray computed tomography (CT) dual-mode imaging functionality.

Superwetting Electrodes for Gas-Involving Electrocatalysis.

Gas-involving electrochemical reactions, including gas evolution reactions and gas consumption reactions, are essential components of the energy conversion processes and gathering elevating attention from researchers. Besides the development of highly active catalysts, gas management during gas-involving electrochemical reactions is equally critical for industrial applications to achieve high reaction rates (hundreds of milliamperes per square centimeter) under practical operation voltages. Biomimetic surfaces, which generally show regular micro/nanostructures, offer new insights to address this issue because of their special wetting capabilities.

An ultrathin photosensitizer for simultaneous fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy.

An ultrathin photosensitizer was prepared by immobilization of chlorin e6 (Ce6) and carbon dots (CDs) onto layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets, which exhibited excellent fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy performance toward cancer theranostics.

Hydroxyl-triggered fluorescence for location of inorganic materials in polymer-matrix composites.

There is a long-standing challenge to realize visualization of incorporated inorganic materials in organic-inorganic composites in a post-labeling manner, owing to the lack of specific fluorescent organic dye molecules for targeting inorganic materials. Herein, we observe that the specific covalent B-O binding between the hydroxyl groups of inorganic materials and commercially available aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active boronic acid could lead to the formation of highly emissive solid-state fluorescent composite materials. The hydroxyl-triggered luminescent probe may serve as a practical method for location of incorporated inorganic materials in polymer-matrix composites by simply dipping the composite film in boronic acid-modified AIE solution.

Monolayer Nanosheets with an Extremely High Drug Loading toward Controlled Delivery and Cancer Theranostics.

2D nanomaterials have attracted considerable research interest in drug delivery systems, owing to their intriguing quantum size and surface effect. Herein, Gd -doped monolayered-double-hydroxide (MLDH) nanosheets are prepared via a facile bottom-up synthesis method, with a precisely controlled composition and uniform morphology. MLDH nanosheets as drug carrier are demonstrated in coloading of doxorubicin and indocyanine green (DOX&ICG), with an ultrahigh drug loading content (LC) of 797.

Hydrotalcite monolayer toward high performance synergistic dual-modal imaging and cancer therapy.

Recently, theranostic has drawn tremendous attention by virtue of the nanotechnology development and new material exploration. Herein, we reported a novel theranostic system by loading Au nanoclusters (AuNCs) and Chlorin e6 (photosensitizer, Ce6) onto the monolayer nanosheet surface of Gd-doped layered double hydroxide (Gd-LDH). The as-prepared Ce6&AuNCs/Gd-LDH exhibits a largely enhanced fluorescence quantum yield (QY) of 18.

Confined Synthesis of Carbon Nitride in a Layered Host Matrix with Unprecedented Solid-State Quantum Yield and Stability.

Fluorescent carbon nanomaterials have drawn tremendous attention for their intriguing optical performances, but their employment in solid-state luminescent devices is rather limited as a result of aggregation-induced photoluminescence quenching. Herein, ultrathin carbon nitride (CN) is synthesized within the 2D confined region of layered double hydroxide (LDH) via triggering the interlayer condensation reaction of citric acid and urea. The resulting CN/LDH phosphor emits strong cyan light under UV-light irradiation with an absolute solid-state quantum yield (SSQY) of 95.

Spontaneous polarization switching and piezoelectric enhancement of PVDF through strong hydrogen bonds induced by layered double hydroxides.

The spontaneous dipole alignment of PVDF has been achieved in the formation process of a film through strong hydrogen bonds between PVDF and layered double hydroxides (LDHs), and the as-prepared composite film exhibits excellent energy conversion and storage ability.