Magnetic field induced high-density SERS active assembly of FeO@Au nanostars in a glass capillary for food colorant detection.

The FeO@Au nanostars, whose anisotropic shape couples the plasmons focused on the magnetic core with the branches of the gold shell, hold promise for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications. Assembly of monodisperse FeO@Au nanostars induced by a magnetic field could lead to highly ordered superstructures, providing distinctive SERS activity. In this study, a simplified fabrication technique was developed to assemble FeO@Au nanostars on the inner walls of a glass capillary into a highly sensitive, reproducible and recyclable SERS active glass capillary under controlled magnetic alignment.

Nitrogen-doped graphene supported Ni as an efficient and stable catalyst for levulinic acid hydrogenation.

Transforming levulinic acid (LA) to-valerolactone (GVL) is a significant route for converting biomass into valuable chemicals. The development of an efficient and robust heterogeneous catalyst for this reaction has aroused great interest. In this work, nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) supported nickel (Ni) based heterogeneous catalyst with excellent activities was successfully synthesized.

In situ-generated NiCo@NiS nanoparticle anchored s-doped carbon nanotubes as dual electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction.

Developing low cost and highly robust electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is of great importance for the efficient conversion of sustainable energy sources. Herein, we report a facile pyrolysis strategy for the controllable synthesis of NiCo@NiS/S-CNTs with NiCo@NiS nanoparticles anchored on sulfur-doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The obtained NiCo@NiS/S-CNT electrocatalyst exhibits excellent dual-functional catalytic activities under an alkaline condition, an ORR performance with an onset potential of -30 mV, and a half-wave potential of -150 mV (versus Ag/AgCl) while the overpotential for the HER is -1.