Insights into the Assembly of Peptides Catalyzed by Polysaccharides.

Nucleation is a critical step that determines the assembly pathway and the structure and functions of the peptide assemblies. However, the dynamic evolution of interactions between nucleating agents and peptides, as well as between peptides themselves during the nucleation process, remains elusive. Herein, we show that the heterogeneous nucleating agent carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) can promote the nucleation of Aβ (KF) peptide.

Pyrazole-Mediated On-Surface Synthesis of Nickel/Nickel Oxide Hybrids for Efficient Urea-Assisted Hydrogen Production.

Creating densely functionalized supported materials without aggregation has been one of the ultimate goals for heterogeneous catalysts. Direct conversion of readily available bulk materials into highly dispersed supported materials could be highly beneficial for real applications. In this work, we invented an on-surface synthetic strategy for generating highly loaded and well-dispersed nickel nanoparticles on nickel oxide supports (Ni/NiO).

Two-Dimensional Catalysts: From Model to Reality.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been utilized broadly in kinds of catalytic reactions due to their fully exposed active sites and special electronic structure. Compared with real catalysts, which are usually bulk or particle, 2D materials have more well-defined structures. With easily identified structure-modulated engineering, 2D materials become ideal models to figure out the catalytic structure-function relations, which is helpful for the precise design of catalysts.

Depth-of-Discharge Dependent Capacity Decay Induced by the Accumulation of Oxidized Lattice Oxygen in Li-Rich Layered Oxide Cathode.

More and more basic practical application scenarios have been gradually ignored/disregarded, in fundamental research on rechargeable batteries, e.g. assessing cycle life under various depths-of-discharge (DODs).

Unlocking Topological Effects in Covalent Organic Frameworks for High-Performance Photosynthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) offer a compelling platform for the efficient photosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide (HO). Constructed with diverse topologies from various molecular building units, COFs can exhibit unique photocatalytic properties. In this study, three π-conjugated 2D sp carbon-linked COFs with distinctly different topologies (hcb, sql, and hxl) are designed to investigate the topological effect on the overall photosynthesis of HO from water and oxygen.

Water-Driven Stacking Structure Transformation of Ultrathin Ru Nanosheets for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Ultrathin crystalline materials are a class of popular materials that can potentially exhibit fascinating physical and chemical properties dictated by their unique stacking freedom. However, it is challenging to achieve the controllable synthesis over their stacking structure for ultrathin crystalline materials. Herein, water is employed as a key regulatory factor to realize phase engineering in ultrathin nanosheets (NSs), thereby altering stacking faults to achieve distinct stacking arrangements.

Ambient-condition acetylene hydrogenation to ethylene over WS-confined atomic Pd sites.

Ambient-condition acetylene hydrogenation to ethylene (AC-AHE) is a promising process for ethylene production with minimal additional energy input, yet remains a great challenge due to the difficulty in the coactivation of acetylene and H at room temperature. Herein, we report a highly efficient AC-AHE process over robust sulfur-confined atomic Pd species on tungsten sulfide surface. The catalyst exhibits over 99% acetylene conversion with a high ethylene selectivity of 70% at 25 C, and a record space-time yield of ethylene of 1123 mol mol h under ambient conditions, which is nearly four times that of the typical PdAg/AlO catalyst, and exhibiting superior stability of over 500 h.

Transition Metal/Lanthanide-Nitrogen Double Bonds Co-stabilized in a Carbon Cage.

Metal-nitrogen double bonds have been commonly reported for conventional metal complexes, but the coexistence of both transition metal-nitrogen and lanthanide-nitrogen double bonds bridged by nitrogen within one compound has never been reported. Herein, by encapsulating a ternary transition metal-lanthanide heteronuclear dimetallic nitride into a C fullerene cage, transition metal-nitrogen and lanthanide-nitrogen double bonds are costabilized simultaneously within the as-formed clusterfullerene TiCeN@C(12)-C, which is a representative heteronuclear dimetallic nitride clusterfullerene. Its molecular structure was unambiguously determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, revealing a slightly bent μ-bridged nitride cluster with short Ti-N (1.

Enhancing electrical conductivity in zirconium-doped SiC ceramics through synergistic effects of crystal structure and free carbon control.

Polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) have risen to prominence for applications in electrochemical energy storage, electromagnetic absorbing, and sensing materials, among others. However, a multitude of critical properties in PDCs are still limited by their intrinsic poor electrical conductivity. Herein, novel vinyl and zirconium-modified polycarbosilane precursors with improved electrical conductivity were synthesized through a Grignard coupling reaction of vinyl magnesium chloride and zirconocene dichloride, followed by the insertion polymerization with dichlorodimethylsilane and sodium.

Entropy in catalyst dynamics under confinement.

Entropy during the dynamic structural evolution of catalysts has a non-trivial influence on chemical reactions. Confinement significantly affects the catalyst dynamics and thus impacts the reactivity. However, a full understanding has not been clearly established.

High-resolution anionic velocity map imaging apparatus for dissociative electron attachment dynamics study.

Dissociative electron attachment (DEA) of a molecular target XY, e- + XY → XY- → X + Y-, is an important process in plasma, atmosphere, interstellar space, and ionizing radiation. DEA dynamics, i.e.

An Alternating-Electric-Field-Driven Assembly of DNA Nanoparticles into FCC Crystals.

Using an alternating electric field is a versatile way to control particle assembly. Programming DNA-AuNP assembly via an electric field remains a significant challenge despite the negative charge of DNA. In DNA-AuNP assembly, a critical percolation state is delicately constructed, where the DNA bond is loosely connected and sensitive to electric fields.

Flexible Soft X-Ray Image Sensors based on Metal Halide Perovskites With High Quantum Efficiency.

Soft X-ray imaging is a powerful tool to explore the structure of cells, probe material with nanometer resolution, and investigate the energetic phenomena in the universe. Conventional soft X-ray image sensors are by and large Si-based charge coupled devices that suffer from low frame rates, complex fabrication processes, mechanical inflexibility, and required cooling below -60 °C. Here, a soft X-ray photodiode is reported based on low-cost metal halide perovskite with comparable performance to commercial Si-based device.

Micro Reference Electrode with an Ultrathin Ionic Path.

Reference electrode (RE) plays the core role in accurate potential control in electrochemistry. However, nanoresolved electrochemical characterization techniques still suffer from unstable potential control of pseudo-REs, because the commercial RE is too large to be used in the tiny electrochemical cell, and thus only pseudo-RE can be used. Therefore, microsized RE with a stable potential is urgently required to push the nanoresolved electrochemical measurements to a new level of accuracy and precision, but it is quite challenging to reproducibly fabricate such a micro RE until now.

Electrolyte Solvation Engineering Stabilizing Anode-Free Sodium Metal Battery With 4.0 V-Class Layered Oxide Cathode.

Anode-free sodium metal batteries (AFSMBs) are regarded as the "ceiling" for current sodium-based batteries. However, their practical application is hindered by the unstable electrolyte and interfacial chemistry at the high-voltage cathode and anode-free side, especially under extreme temperature conditions. Here, an advanced electrolyte design strategy based on electrolyte solvation engineering is presented, which shapes a weakly solvating anion-stabilized (WSAS) electrolyte by balancing the interaction between the Na-solvent and Na-anion.

Interfacial Anion-Induced Dispersion of Active Species for Efficient Electrochemical Baeyer-Villiger Oxidation.

Degradable polymers are an effective solution for white plastic pollution. Polycaprolactone is a type of degradable plastic with desirable mechanical and biocompatible properties, and its monomer, ε-caprolactone (ε-CL), is often synthesized by Baeyer-Villiger (B-V) oxidation that demands peroxyacids with low safety and low atom-efficiency. Herein, we devised an electrochemical B-V oxidation system simply driven by HO for the efficient production of ε-CL.

Revealing Gliding-Induced Structural Distortion in High-Nickel Layered Oxide Cathodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

After charging to a high state-of-charge (SoC), layered oxide cathodes exhibit high capacities but suffer from gliding-induced structural distortions caused by deep Li depletion within alkali metal (AM) layers, especially for high-nickel candidates. In this study, we identify the essential structure of the detrimental H3 phase formed at high SoC to be an intergrowth structure characterized by random sequences of the O3 and O1 slabs, where the O3 slabs represent Li-rich layers and the O1 slabs denote Li-depleted (or empty) layers that glide from the O3 slabs. Moreover, we adopt two doping strategies targeting different doping sites to eliminate the formation of Li-vacant O1 slabs.

Structural transitions in liquid semiconductor alloys: A molecular dynamics study with a neural network potential.

Liquid-liquid phase transitions hold a unique and profound significance within condensed matter physics. These transitions, while conceptually intriguing, often pose formidable computational challenges. However, recent advances in neural network (NN) potentials offer a promising avenue to effectively address these challenges.

Precisely Tunable Instantaneous Carbon Rearrangement Enables Low-Working-Potential Hard Carbon Toward Sodium-Ion Batteries with Enhanced Energy Density.

As the preferred anode material for sodium-ion batteries, hard carbon (HC) confronts significant obstacles in providing a long and dominant low-voltage plateau to boost the output energy density of full batteries. The critical challenge lies in precisely enhancing the local graphitization degree to minimize Na ad-/chemisorption, while effectively controlling the growth of internal closed nanopores to maximize Na filling. Unfortunately, traditional high-temperature preparation methods struggle to achieve both objectives simultaneously.