Strategic design of Fe and N co-doped hierarchically porous carbon as superior ORR catalyst: from the perspective of nanoarchitectonics.

In this study, we present microporous carbon (MPC), hollow microporous carbon (HMC) and hierarchically porous carbon (HPC) to demonstrate the importance of strategical designing of nanoarchitectures in achieving advanced catalyst (or electrode) materials, especially in the context of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Based on the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and ORR studies, we identify a marked structural effect depending on the porosity. Specifically, mesopores are found to have the most profound influence by significantly improving electrochemical wettability and accessibility.

Selective desaturation of amides: a direct approach to enamides.

C(sp)-H bond desaturation has been an attractive strategy in organic synthesis. Enamides are important structural fragments in pharmaceuticals and versatile synthons in organic synthesis. However, the dehydrogenation of amides usually occurs on the acyl side benefitting from enolate chemistry like the desaturation of ketones and esters.

Nanoparticles and single atoms of cobalt synergistically enabled low-temperature reductive amination of carbonyl compounds.

Low-temperature and selective reductive amination of carbonyl compounds is a highly promising approach to access primary amines. However, it remains a great challenge to conduct this attractive route efficiently over earth-abundant metal-based catalysts. Herein, we designed several Co-based catalysts (denoted as Co@C-N(), where represents the pyrolysis temperature) by the pyrolysis of the metal-organic framework ZIF-67 at different temperatures.

Enhancing CO electroreduction to CH over Cu nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon.

The electroreduction of CO to CH has attracted extensive attention. However, it is still a challenge to achieve high current density and faradaic efficiency (FE) for producing CH because the reaction involves eight electrons and four protons. In this work, we designed Cu nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon (Cu-np/NC).

Preparation of trimetallic electrocatalysts by one-step co-electrodeposition and efficient CO reduction to ethylene.

Use of multi-metallic catalysts to enhance reactions is an interesting research area, which has attracted much attention. In this work, we carried out the first work to prepare trimetallic electrocatalysts by a one-step co-electrodeposition process. A series of Cu-X-Y (X and Y denote different metals) catalysts were fabricated using this method.

Understanding of chiral site-dependent enantioselective identification on a plasmon-free semiconductor based SERS substrate.

Chiral differentiation is an important topic in diverse fields ranging from pharmaceutics to chiral synthesis. The improvement of sensitivity and the elucidation of the mechanism of chiral recognition are still the two main challenges. Herein, a plasmon-free semiconductive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate with sensitive chiral recognition ability is proposed for the discrimination of enantiomers.

Selective photocatalytic aerobic oxidation of methane into carbon monoxide over Ag/AgCl@SiO.

Design of active catalysts for chemical utilization of methane under mild conditions is of great importance, but remains a challenging task. Here, we prepared a Ag/AgCl with SiO coating (Ag/AgCl@SiO) photocatalyst for methane oxidation to carbon monoxide. High carbon monoxide production (2.

The construction of a two-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid double perovskite ferroelastic with a high and narrow band gap.

Two-dimensional (2D) hybrid double perovskites have attracted extensive research interest for their fascinating physical properties, such as ferroelectricity, X-ray detection, light response and so on. In addition, ferroelastics, as an important branch of ferroic materials, exhibits wide prospects in mechanical switches, shape memory and templating electronic nanostructures. Here, we designed a 2D phase-transition double perovskite ferroelastic through a structurally progressive strategy.

Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon supported CuSb for electroreduction of CO.

The construction of an efficient catalyst for electrocatalytic reduction of CO to high value-added fuels has received extensive attention. Herein, nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (NMC) was used to support CuSb to prepare a series of materials for electrocatalytic reduction of CO to CH. The catalytic activity of the composites was significantly improved compared with that of Cu/NMC.

Electrocatalytic carboxylation of halogenated compounds with mesoporous silver electrode materials.

Mesoporous silver materials are used as electrocatalysts for halogenated compounds. The mesoporous silver materials have uniform mesoporous size (8 nm), large specific surface area (12 m g), high pore volume (0.07 cm g), and a good 3D network structure of the metallic silver skeleton.

Me(CH[double bond, length as m-dash]CH)SiCN: a bifunctional ethylene equivalent for Diels-Alder reaction based controllable tandem synthesis.

A bifunctional silyl reagent Me(CH[double bond, length as m-dash]CH)SiCN has been developed as a novel ethylene equivalent for the Diels-Alder (DA) reaction. The use of this reagent enables the controllable synthesis of value-added cyclohexenyl ketones or 2-acyl cyclohexancarbonitrile derivatives through a five- or six-step tandem sequence based on a Wittig/cyanosilylation/DA reaction/-cyanosilylation/isomerization sequence that involves a temporary silicon-tethered intramolecular DA reaction.

Three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide decorated with cobalt metaphosphate as high cost-efficiency electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction.

The development of cost-effective non-noble metal electrocatalysts is critical for the research of renewable energy. Transition metal cobalt metaphosphate-based materials have the potential to replace the noble metal Pt. Hence, in this work, we synthesize three-dimensional graphene-supported cobalt metaphosphate (Co(PO)-3D RGO) for the first time through the one-step hydrothermal synthesis method at low temperature with the aid of PH phosphating.

Tuning luminescence of the fluorescent molecule 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1-benzimidazole zeolitic imidazolate framework-8.

Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) is one of the most promising metal-organic frameworks because of its excellent high porosity, stability and geometrically well-defined structure. However, the application of ZIF-8 in the field of fluorescent molecular sensing has not been intensively explored. Our work demonstrates the versatility of ZIF-8 as a carrier material, which can be used for small molecule [2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1-benzimidazole (HPBI)] capture and fluorescence enhancement.

Engineering the biomimetic cofactors of NMNH for cytochrome P450 BM3 based on binding conformation refinement.

Cytochrome P450 BM3 (BM3) is an important oxidoreductase that is widely used in drug synthesis, chemical synthesis, and other industries. However, as BM3 unquestionably increases costs by consuming a natural cofactor that unstably provides electrons, an alternative biomimetic cofactor with simpler structures represented by nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMNH) has been utilized. Currently, few reports exist on artificially modified BM3 enzymes using NMNH, especially regarding theoretical simulation and calculation.

The study of surface species and structures of oxide-derived copper catalysts for electrochemical CO reduction.

Oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) has been discovered to be an effective catalyst for the electroreduction of CO to C2+ products. The structure of OD-Cu and its surface species during the reaction process are interesting topics, which have not yet been clearly discussed. Herein, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and O isotope labeling experiments were employed to investigate the surface species and structures of OD-Cu catalysts during CO electroreduction.

Highly effective and chemoselective hydrodeoxygenation of aromatic alcohols.

Effective hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of aromatic alcohols is very attractive in both conventional organic synthesis and upgrading of biomass-derived molecules, but the selectivity of this reaction is usually low because of the competitive hydrogenation of the unsaturated aromatic ring and the hydroxyl group. The high activity of noble metal-based catalysts often leads to undesired side reactions (, saturation of the aromatic ring) and excessive hydrogen consumption. Non-noble metal-based catalysts suffer from unsatisfied activity and selectivity and often require harsh reaction conditions.

Quasi-square-shaped cadmium hydroxide nanocatalysts for electrochemical CO reduction with high efficiency.

Powered by a renewable electricity source, electrochemical CO reduction reaction is a promising solution to facilitate the carbon balance. However, it is still a challenge to achieve a desired product with commercial current density and high efficiency. Herein we designed quasi-square-shaped cadmium hydroxide nanocatalysts for CO electroreduction to CO.

Effects of turn-structure on folding and entanglement in artificial molecular overhand knots.

The length and constitution of spacers linking three 2,6-pyridinedicarboxamide units in a molecular strand influence the tightness of the resulting overhand (open-trefoil) knot that the strand folds into in the presence of lanthanide(iii) ions. The use of β-hairpin forming motifs as linkers enables a metal-coordinated pseudopeptide with a knotted tertiary structure to be generated. The resulting pseudopeptide knot has one of the highest backbone-to-crossing ratios (BCR)-a measure of knot tightness (a high value corresponding to looseness)-for a synthetic molecular knot to date.

Low temperature methanation of CO over an amorphous cobalt-based catalyst.

CO methanation is an important reaction in CO valorization. Because of the high kinetic barriers, the reaction usually needs to proceed at higher temperature (>300 °C). High-efficiency CO methanation at low temperature (<200 °C) is an interesting topic, and only several noble metal catalysts were reported to achieve this goal.

Highly ordered macroporous dual-element-doped carbon from metal-organic frameworks for catalyzing oxygen reduction.

Multiple heteroatom-doped carbons with 3D ordered macro/meso-microporous structures have not been realized by simple carbonization of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Herein, ordered macroporous phosphorus- and nitrogen-doped carbon (M-PNC) is prepared successfully by carbonization of double-solvent-induced MOF/polystyrene sphere (PS) precursors accompanied with spontaneous removal of the PS template, followed by post-doping. M-PNC shows a high specific surface area of 837 m g, nitrogen doping of 3.

Catalytic enantioselective construction of vicinal quaternary carbon stereocenters.

This review summarizes the advances in the catalytic enantioselective construction of vicinal quaternary carbon stereocenters, introduces major synthetic strategies and discusses their advantages and limitations, highlights the application of known protocols in the total synthesis of natural products, and outlines the synthetic opportunities.

Multifunctional peptide-assembled micelles for simultaneously reducing amyloid-β and reactive oxygen species.

The excessive production and deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) is one of the most important etiologies of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The interaction between Aβ and metal ions produces aberrant reactive oxygen species (ROS), which induce oxidative stress and accelerate the progression of AD. To reduce Aβ plaques and ROS to maintain their homeostasis is an emerging and ingenious strategy for effective treatment of AD.

Efficient electroreduction of CO to C products on CeO modified CuO.

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO into multicarbon (C) products powered by renewable electricity offers one promising method for CO utilization and promotes the storage of renewable energy under an ambient environment. However, there is still a dilemma in the manufacture of valuable C products between balancing selectivity and activity. In this work, cerium oxides were combined with CuO (CeO/CuO) and showed an outstanding catalytic performance for C products.

Binding of RNA m6A by IGF2BP3 triggers chemoresistance of HCT8 cells via upregulation of ABCB1.

The overexpression of ATP-binding cassette transporters subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1) is known to be the primary trigger of multidrug resistance (MDR) in colorectal cancer (CRC), leading to chemotherapy failure. However, factors that regulate chemoresistance in CRC cells are largely unknown. To identify proteins involved in MDR in CRC, we used proteomics and transcriptomics approaches to analyze HCT8/T cells and parental HCT8 cells.

Recent Progress in Organic Photodetectors and their Applications.

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) have attracted continuous attention due to their outstanding advantages, such as tunability of detecting wavelength, low-cost manufacturing, compatibility with lightweight and flexible devices, as well as ease of processing. Enormous efforts on performance improvement and application of OPDs have been devoted in the past decades. In this Review, recent advances in device architectures and operation mechanisms of phototransistor, photoconductor, and photodiode based OPDs are reviewed with a focus on the strategies aiming at performance improvement.