Direct conversion of CO to a jet fuel over CoFe alloy catalysts.

The direct conversion of carbon dioxide (CO) using green hydrogen is a sustainable approach to jet fuel production. However, achieving a high level of performance remains a formidable challenge due to the inertness of CO and its low activity for subsequent C-C bond formation. In this study, we prepared a Na-modified CoFe alloy catalyst using layered double-hydroxide precursors that directly transforms CO to a jet fuel composed of C-C jet-fuel-range hydrocarbons with very high selectivity.

Stability and donor-acceptor bond in dinuclear organometallics CpM-MCl (M, M = B, Al, Ga, In; Cp = η -CH).

The geometries and stabilities of the dinuclear organometallics CpM-MCl (M, M = B, Al, Ga, In; Cp = η -CH) have been investigated by density functional theory (DFT) at M06 L/6-311G(d, p) levels. The nature of the donor-acceptor M → M bond was also studied based on the atoms in molecules (AIM) theory, energy decomposition analysis (EDA) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. The results show that the electronegativity of the M atom determines the stability and covalent character of the dinuclear organometallics CpM-MCl.

Unexpectedly Enhanced Solubility of Aromatic Amino Acids and Peptides in an Aqueous Solution of Divalent Transition-Metal Cations.

We experimentally observed considerable solubility of tryptophan (Trp) in a CuCl_{2} aqueous solution, which could reach 2-5 times the solubility of Trp in pure water. Theoretical studies show that the strong cation-π interaction between Cu^{2+} and the aromatic ring in Trp modifies the electronic distribution of the aromatic ring to enhance significantly the water affinity of Trp. Similar solubility enhancement has also been observed for other divalent transition-metal cations (e.