Yu Zhang , Mengmeng Du , Yingxin Ma , Jian Shang , Bocheng Qiu
{"title":"Valence engineering via double exchange interaction in spinel oxides for enhanced oxygen evolution catalysis","authors":"Yu Zhang , Mengmeng Du , Yingxin Ma , Jian Shang , Bocheng Qiu","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The design of spinel-oxide-based catalysts with high activity and long-term durability for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) confronts grand challenges that may be well tackled by maneuvering the electronic structure of surface catalytic sites within spinel oxides. Herein, we harness a double exchange interaction (DEI) triggered by the synergistic effects of Schottky junction and oxygen vacancies (V<sub>O</sub>) to generate high proportions of octahedrally coordinated Ni<sup>3+</sup> and Co<sup>2+</sup> (highly active sites) in the edge-sharing [Ni<sub>x</sub>Co<sub>1−X</sub>O<sub>6</sub>] octahedra. Specifically, Schottky junction is formed between metallic Cu nanowires and semiconducting NiCo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> via a core-shell structure, and abundant V<sub>O</sub> sites are created in NiCo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> via H<sub>2</sub> thermal treatment. As expected, the Cu@V<sub>O</sub>-NiCo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> electrocatalyst allows a significantly boosted OER performance, with a low overpotential of 214 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> and a small Tafel slope of 64.9 mV dec<sup>-1</sup>, which outperforms the state-of-the-art RuO<sub>2</sub> catalyst and most of reported Ni-Co based OER catalysts. Our work provides some inspirations for designing high-performance spinel-oxide-based electrocatalysts towards OER via DEI engineering.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"3 ","pages":"Article 100027"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49750688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xiaoyun Qin , Meiyan Yang , Peijun Yin , Xiangdong Shi , Fenghua Chen , Yanghai Gui , Jianbo Zhao , Liying Jiang , Dan Luo
{"title":"Design of hollow copper nanospheres/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites for high performance catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol","authors":"Xiaoyun Qin , Meiyan Yang , Peijun Yin , Xiangdong Shi , Fenghua Chen , Yanghai Gui , Jianbo Zhao , Liying Jiang , Dan Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100026","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The development of functional materials for catalysis applications is a continuing issue, particularly in aqueous-phase catalysis. The creation of inexpensive catalysts with improved catalytic activity is still difficult. In this study, the hollow structured Cu nanospheres decorated on the reduced graphene oxide sheets (h-CuNS/rGO) nanocomposites were successfully prepared and applied in the catalytic reduction of <em>p</em>-nitrophenol (<em>p</em>-NP) in water using sodium borohydride as the reducing agent to obtain industrially useful <em>p</em>-aminophenol (<em>p</em>-AP) within a short time. The structure and morphology of h-CuNS/rGO were studied in order to get a full knowledge of the mechanism underlying the creation of its distinctive hollow structure. In the reduction of <em>p</em>-NP, the h-CuNS/rGO demonstrated significant catalytic activity and reusability. The catalytic hydrogenation mechanism on the surface of h-CuNS/rGO was shown to exhibit a synergistic effect between the catalytic h-CuNS and the supporting rGO. The hollow structure, abundant oxygen vacancies as well as the supported rGO worked together to enhance the catalytic activity during <em>p</em>-NP reduction. Therefore, this work proposes a strategy for the simple synthesis of nanocatalyst with high catalytic performance, which endows the potential applications including catalysis.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"3 ","pages":"Article 100026"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49751346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"MXene-supported single-atom and nano catalysts for effective gas-phase hydrogenation reactions","authors":"Yilong Yan , Djibril Sall , Lola Loupias , Stéphane Célérier , Mimoun Aouine , Pascal Bargiela , Mathieu Prévot , Franck Morfin , Laurent Piccolo","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Transition metal carbides are known as efficient catalysts or catalyst supports and two-dimensional carbides (MXenes) offer renewed possibilities to anchor metal atoms and promote catalytic performances. This paper first presents an in-depth study of the elaboration of Pt or Pd-loaded Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<sub>x</sub> MXenes and their unstacking for gas-phase catalysis investigations, along with step-by-step characterization by XRD, XPS, SEM and STEM. In particular, the influence of the MXene preparation method (HF <em>vs</em>. LiF-HCl etchants) on surface structure/composition and metal dispersion/oxidation state is disclosed. Second, the catalytic hydrogenation performances of these materials are reported, and reveal the interest of low-loaded Pt/MXene single-atom catalysts in terms of activity, selectivity and resistance to sintering. They present an unusually high selectivity to 2-butene – without butane formation – in butadiene hydrogenation, a model reaction of applied interest for the petrochemical industry. Moreover, in CO<sub>2</sub> reduction to CO (reverse water-gas shift reaction, relevant to greenhouse-gas valorization), these catalysts exhibit up to 99 % selectivity and a superior Pt-molar activity with respect to oxide-supported references. This work may stimulate the elaboration and investigation of other MXene-based systems for thermal heterogeneous catalysis, which remains rarely addressed on these materials.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"2 ","pages":"Article 100010"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49751443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhishan Liang , Carmen Lee , Jiawei Liu , Yue Hu , Dongxue Han , Li Niu , Qingyu Yan
{"title":"Booming electrocatalysts for urea synthesis via nitrogen-integrated carbon dioxide reduction reaction","authors":"Zhishan Liang , Carmen Lee , Jiawei Liu , Yue Hu , Dongxue Han , Li Niu , Qingyu Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The traditional method of urea production is a carbon-emitting, energy-intensive technology that contradicts the concept of carbon neutrality. Fortunately, the use of renewable energy in electrochemical synthesis has shown great potential for producing high-value nitrogen products, making electrocatalytic urea production a promising and sustainable approach. However, the low yield and Faraday efficiency, as well as the unclear mechanism of C-N bond formation, limit its large-scale industrial development. Researchers are seeking higher-performance electrocatalysts. This article discusses in detail the latest progress in the electrochemical synthesis of urea using carbon dioxide and various nitrogen sources, including catalyst design and preparation, as well as the mechanism of C-N coupling reactions. It also provides comprehensive analysis on the challenges and prospects facing urea electro-synthesis. The development of targeted and efficient new catalysts for urea synthesis is anticipated to bring about more sustainable and cost-effective production methods.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"2 ","pages":"Article 100011"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49727257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wei Zhang , Yu Yang , Yunxin Li , Fengwang Li , Mingchuan Luo
{"title":"Recent progress on integrated CO2 capture and electrochemical upgrading","authors":"Wei Zhang , Yu Yang , Yunxin Li , Fengwang Li , Mingchuan Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Technologies for CO<sub>2</sub> capture and utilization (CCU) are crucial for combating ever-increasing climate change. While the electrochemical conversion of captured CO<sub>2</sub> has flourished in the past few years, CO<sub>2</sub> capturing techniques are relatively mature. Typical capturing media include alkaline and amine solutions, as well as porous nanomaterials. Scaling CCU requires efficient integration of initial capture and subsequent conversion processes into one device, which is typically referred to as an integrated process. This approach has witnessed notable progress in recent years, which motivates this timely and comprehensive review. We first compare the economic aspects of separate and integrated CCU systems. Then, we discuss the separate CCU approaches that have traditionally been employed and expound on the motivations to develop an integrated system. We focus specifically on two integrated CCU approaches – direct electrolysis of capture solutions and the adoption of bifunctional porous electrodes. We also introduce the working mechanism of each approach and the latest developments, along with a comprehensive discussion on remaining challenges. To conclude, we provide an overall evaluation and outlook on advancing this integrated approach for CCU.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"2 ","pages":"Article 100006"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49751767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yaming Hao , Xueting Cao , Can Lei , Zhe Chen , Xuejing Yang , Ming Gong
{"title":"Chemical oxygen species on electrocatalytic materials during oxygen evolution reaction","authors":"Yaming Hao , Xueting Cao , Can Lei , Zhe Chen , Xuejing Yang , Ming Gong","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a crucial half-reaction in electrochemical water splitting, and efficient and durable electrocatalysts are required to improve the sluggish OER kinetics. However, the inevitable formation of chemical oxygen species (COSs) in the OER process heavily impacts the reaction pathway and kinetics. Precisely identifying the COSs generated during OER and acknowledging their chemo-reactivity is highly beneficial for understanding the OER mechanism and facilitating the rational design of advanced catalysts. One of the major challenges in probing the COSs is the detection of COSs under working conditions due to the transient nature and relative low coverage. This review summarizes various COSs detected on different OER electrocatalysts, including adsorbed hydroxyl (M-OH*), adsorbed oxygen (M-O*), adsorbed superoxide intermediates (M-OOH* and M-OO<sup>n-</sup>*). With these COSs probed, the possible OER mechanisms with the inter-conversion of these COSs are described. Additionally, the detailed in situ techniques for characterizing specific COSs are also introduced. Finally, we discuss remaining challenges in identifying the COSs and provide some perspectives for the design of next-generation OER electrocatalysts. By emphasizing the COSs during OER, we aim to provide vivid images of the OER transformations on the atomic scales and encourage more studies on correlating the atomic pictures of OER pathways with the active sites as well as catalyst structures.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"2 ","pages":"Article 100012"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49727267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recent advances of single-atom alloy catalyst: Properties, synthetic methods and electrocatalytic applications","authors":"Jiahao Zhuang, Dingsheng Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Developing high-performance and cost-effective electrocatalysts for clean and renewable energy conversion process has been proved a promising approach to deal with the global energy and environment issues. Single-atom alloy (SAA) catalyst, with foreign metal atoms atomically dispersed in the surface of a host metal, combines the merits of conventional metal alloys and single-atom catalysts. The maximum atomic utilization of active metal and unique structural and electrical properties of SAA offer great potential in boosting electrocatalytic activity and reducing the cost of manufacture. Meanwhile, the well-defined active sites raise an opportunity to shed the light on structure-activity relationship and further direct the synthesis of high-efficiency electrocatalysts. Herein, we focus on the recent developments of advanced SAA catalysts and discussed the general properties of SAAs. Then the design principle and synthetic methods were summarized. Next, we highlighted the practical applications of SAAs in electrocatalytic energy conversion and chemicals production, including hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, CO<sub>2</sub> reduction reaction, N<sub>2</sub> reduction reaction and other representative reactions. Finally, the challenges and future directions of SAAs are presented.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"2 ","pages":"Article 100009"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49751111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Short-to-medium-range order in amorphous nanocatalysts","authors":"Geng Wu, Xiao Han, Xun Hong","doi":"10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcata.2023.100025","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Amorphous nanocatalysts have attracted significant attention due to their outstanding catalytic performance. Recent research has indicated that the performance of amorphous nanocatalysts is closely related to the short-to-medium-range order. This perspective aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the latest advances in understanding the significance of short-to-medium-range order in amorphous nanocatalysts and its correlation with catalytic performance. This perspective commences by presenting advanced methods employed for characterizing the short-to-medium-range order of amorphous nanocatalysts, including nanobeam electron diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, atomic electron tomography, pair distribution function, and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Next, the effect of short-to-medium-range order in determining the properties of amorphous nanocatalysts is discussed. Current challenges faced in amorphous nanocatalysts are eventually summarized with several prospective research directions. By identifying the obstacles and potential avenues for further exploration, this perspective aims to contribute valuable insights that will propel the development of high-efficient amorphous nanocatalysts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100892,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Catalysis","volume":"3 ","pages":"Article 100025"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49751049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}