Thiol Ligand-Modified Au for Highly Efficient Electroreduction of Nitrate to Ammonia.

Electroreduction of nitrate (NO ) to ammonia (NH) is an environmentally friendly route for NH production, serving as an appealing alternative to the Haber-Bosch process. Recently, various noble metal-based electrocatalysts have been reported for electroreduction of NO . However, the application of pure metal electrocatalysts is still limited by unsatisfactory performance, owing to the weak adsorption of nitrogen-containing intermediates on the surface of pure metal electrocatalysts.

Directional mass transfer of azo molecular glass microsphere induced by polarized light in aqueous immersion media.

Photoinduced mass transfer of azo polymer and azo molecular glass has been intensively investigated under various light irradiation conditions simply using air as the ambient environment. In this work, in order to understand the effects of the surrounding medium on the light-induced process, azo molecular glass microspheres adhered on a substrate were immersed in water and different aqueous solutions, and their mass transfer behavior was investigated by irradiation with linearly polarized light. The microspheres in the aqueous media showed significant deformation through directional mass transfer upon light irradiation and transformed into a series of shape-anisotropic particles as revealed by microscopic observations.

Asymmetric Morphology Transformation of Azo Molecular Glass Microspheres Induced by Polarized Light.

In this work, photoinduced asymmetric morphology transformation of a type of azo molecular glass microspheres was thoroughly investigated to understand the effects of controlling factors on the process, related mechanism and unique functions. The monodispersed microspheres with their sizes over ten microns were fabricated from an isosorbide-based azo compound (IAC-4) by microfluidics. Under irradiation with linearly polarized light, the ten-micron-scale microspheres were transformed into three-dimensional (3D) asymmetric particles through directional mass transfer.

Shaping monodispersed azo molecular glass microspheres using polarized light.

Azo molecular glass (IAC-4) microspheres with a monodispersed diameter over ten microns were fabricated by microfluidics and unique shape manipulation was achieved based on their fascinating photoinduced deformation behaviour. After irradiation with a polarized laser beam (λ = 488 nm), the IAC-4 microspheres were transformed into uniform mushroom-like particles, and their three-dimensional (3D) asymmetric shapes were precisely manipulated by adjusting the irradiation time and the polarization state of light. By observing the particle morphology in three orthogonal views (top view, front view and side view) by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the photoinduced deformation behaviour of the ten-micron-sized particles was comprehensively revealed in the 3D space for the first time.

An efficient chitosan-derived carbon/silica microspheres supported Pd catalyst with high stability for Heck reactions.

To maintain stability and activity in Heck-coupling reaction, a novel composite carrier with controllable uniform size, high complex ability and mechanical intensity was fabricated in microchannel using natural N-doped biomolecule chitosan and silica as ingredients. Post carbonization increased its thermal stability and supported Pd@C/silica catalysts can be acquired after Pd loading. Only 2mg supported Pd@C/silica catalysts (0.

Spatial co-localization of multi-enzymes by inorganic nanocrystal-protein complexes.

We report a simple precipitation method for the construction of spatially co-localized multi-enzyme systems based on inorganic nanocrystal-protein complexes. A spatially controlled multi-enzyme system exhibits enhanced overall catalytic performance, allowing for sensitive detection of glucose in solution.