Promoting CO Electroreduction to C Oxygenates by Distribution of Water Dissociation Sites.

The electrocatalytic CO or CO reduction reaction is a complex proton-coupled electron transfer reaction, in which protons in the electrolyte have a critical effect on the surface adsorbed H species and the multi-carbon oxygenate products such as ethanol. However, the coupling of H and carbon-containing intermediates into C oxygenates can be severely hampered by the inappropriate distributions of those species in the catalytic interfaces. In this work, the controlled distribution of highly dispersed CeO nanoclusters is demonstrated on Cu nanosheets as an efficient CO electroreduction catalyst, with Faradaic efficiencies of ethanol and total oxygenates of 35% and 58%, respectively.

Adsorption of phosphorus by using magnetic Mg-Al-, Zn-Al- and Mg-Fe-layered double hydroxides: comparison studies and adsorption mechanism.

Mg-Al, Zn-Al and Mg-Fe magnetic layered double hydroxide (LDH) adsorbents were synthesized. The adsorption effect and influencing factors of these adsorbents were explored, and the adsorption mechanism of phosphorus was studied with advanced instruments. The results showed that the best adsorption performance was observed when the molar ratio of metals was 3 for the magnetic LDH adsorbents, and the maximum adsorption amount for phosphorus was 74.

Evaluating the ability to form single crystal.

Design of crystal materials requires predicting the ability of bulk materials to form single crystals, challenging current theories of material design. By introducing a concept of condensing potential (CP), it is shown via vast simulations of crystal growth for fcc (Ni, Cu, Al, Ar) and hcp (Mg), that materials with larger CP can grow into perfect single crystal more easily. Due to the simplicity of the calculation of CP, this method might prove a convenient way to evaluate the ability of materials to form single crystal.