To overcome the hydrogen storage kinetic limitations of magnesium hydride (MgH2), highly effective NiCu bimetallic MOFs with different Ni/Cu ratios were successfully synthesized and introduced into MgH2. The Ni3Cu1 MOF, featuring a distinctive flower-like structure assembled from thin nanosheets, demonstrates the most remarkable catalytic activity in enhancing the hydrogen storage properties of MgH2. The MgH2-8 wt % Ni3Cu1 MOF composite can initiate hydrogen desorption at 198.50 °C and exhibits a significantly reduced dehydrogenation peak temperature of 285.92 °C, in comparison with that of the ball-milled MgH2 (385.5 °C). This composite can rapidly release 6.18 wt % H2 at 300 °C and absorb 5.32 wt % H2 at 150 °C, both within 500 s. The activation energies for dehydrogenation and hydrogenation are reduced to 66.91 and 33.81 kJ/mol H2, respectively. Furthermore, the MgH2-8 wt % Ni3Cu1 MOF presents a capacity retention rate of 93% after 50 cycles, indicating excellent cycle stability. The enhancement in the hydrogen storage performance is mainly attributed to the following two aspects. The distinctive flower-like Ni3Cu1 MOF possesses a relatively large specific surface area, which provides more uniformly dispersed metal active sites and a larger contact area with MgH2. Moreover, the Mg2Ni(Cu)/Mg2Ni(Cu)H4 phases formed in situ during the initial hydrogen de/absorption cycle act as an enhanced "hydrogen pump" to facilitate the de/hydrogenation process of MgH2/Mg. The enhanced effect can be confirmed by theoretical calculations, which reveal a pronounced interfacial electron transfer (0.54 e-) and a marked elongation of the Mg-H bond (2.85 Å) at the MgH2-Mg2Ni(Cu) interface compared to that of the MgH2-Mg2Ni interface. These findings offer a strategy for the design and preparation of bimetallic MOF catalysts to improve the hydrogen storage properties of Mg-based materials.

Methanol aqueous reforming reaction (APRM) provides a green and clean route towards hydrogen production, in which the structure design and preparation of efficient catalysts remains a challenge. Herein, we report a platinum catalyst supported on the porous hydroxyl lanthanum oxide, which is prepared via glycine combustion method followed by a reduction process. The optimized 0.8%Pt/La catalyst, which is featured by Pt single-atom dispersed on a La2(OH)2 xO3-2 x support, exhibits an extraordinary catalytic performance towards APRM. A H2 production rate of 7672 µmolH2 gcat -1 min-1 and an average turnover frequency (ATOF) of 11973 h‒1 are obtained, which is preponderant to the state-of-the-art catalysts. An in-depth investigation based on kinetic isotope analysis, in situ spectroscopy characterizations and theoretical calculations substantiates that Pt single atom coordinated with adjacent lattice hydroxyl (OHL) with electron transfer from Pt to support serves as the intrinsic active site, in which the Ptδ + site promotes the dehydrogenation of methoxyl whilst lattice hydroxyl directly participates in the oxidative coupling process (CH2O* + OHL → CH2OOH*). Furthermore, the Ptδ +-(OHL)x-La interface sites can remarkably reduce the energy barrier of CH2OOH* dehydrogenation (rate-determining step), and the resulting hydroxyl vacancies can boost H2O dissociation to recover consumed OHL, accounting for the exceptional catalytic performance.

Dual MOF-derived porous carbon composites: Preparation of efficient bifunctional catalysts by pyrolytic protection strategy

Fused deposition modelling 3D printing incorporates BiOCl morphology regulation as a strategy for developing bespoke photocatalytic reactor.

A novel and effective palladium catalyst loaded on polymer microspheres modified with magnesium oxide for the telomerization of 1,3-butadiene with CO2 (carbon dioxide) was prepared by using the Shirasu Porous Glass (SPG) membrane emulsification technique. A series of characterizations were carried out on the catalyst, such as CO2-TPD (Carbon Dioxide Temperature-Programmed Desorption), SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy), XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), etc., to verify that the introduction of magnesium oxide enhances the catalyst's ability to adsorb and activate carbon dioxide. The electron transfer between magnesium oxide and palladium stabilizes the palladium active species, and the surface-formed magnesium oxide can improve the mechanical strength of the catalyst and reduce its breakage. Only 0.025 mol % of catalysts were needed to obtain δ-lactones [(E)-3-ethylidene-6-vinyltetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-one] with 57% yield and 95% selectivity under 60 °C conditions using acetonitrile as the solvent. With simple filtration and drying, the catalyst can be reused five times and still has a good catalytic effect.

Semiconductor photocatalytic reduction of CO2 is one of the possible ways to utilize CO2 resources in the future. In order to further improve the yield and selectivity of the reduction products, it is essential to regulate the active sites and the local energy of the catalyst. In this work, Pb-doped CuMoO4 nanocrystal was prepared for the highly selective photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO. The CO yield is increased by 6.45 times, reaching 4.65 μmol g–1 h–1, and the CO selectivity is as high as 95%. The incorporation of Pb endows the catalyst with superior electron transfer properties and an optimized band structure. DFT calculations further reveal that the bimetallic sites formed by Pb and Cu significantly promote the adsorption and activation of CO2 on the catalyst surface. This work offers a reliable scheme for the preparation of high-performance catalysts and valuable insights into the mechanism of CO2 photocatalytic reduction.

Driven by the growing global energy demand and the pursuit of carbon utilization goals, dry reforming of methane (DRM) has attracted considerable attention for its ability to convert CO2 and CH4 into syngas. Biogas, an eco-friendly product of processes such as anaerobic digestion, is primarily composed of CO2 and CH4 and ideally meets the feedstock requirements for DRM. In practice, biogas is generated via anaerobic digestion of livestock manure and other organic waste, providing a stable and sustainable source for the DRM reaction and thus enabling waste valorization. Supported Ni0 catalysts have become a research focus in this field due to their high catalytic activity and moderate cost. Conventional particulate Ni0 catalysts, however, are prone to carbon coking in fixed-bed applications and are difficult to effectively recover and regenerate after the reaction; thus, they are often being discarded, leading to resource waste and environmental burden. To address these issues, this study has designed a novel metal-sintered fleece catalyst support and developed a corresponding reactor. The effects of the catalyst preparation method, activation conditions, and the support structure on DRM performance have been systematically investigated. The spent Ni-based catalyst could be regenerated via calcination to restore catalytic activity and enable multiple cycles of use, significantly extending the catalyst’s lifespan and offering both economic and environmental benefits. Experimental results have demonstrated that the reactor achieved a conversion rate exceeding 80% with near-complete product selectivity.

Platinum (Pt) supported on sulfated zirconia (SZ) and HY-zeolite as a solid acid catalyst was synthesized successfully for isomerization reaction using precipitation and impregnation method. The physicochemical properties of the catalyst were characterized using various techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), BET Surface area and pore volume, and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The prepared composite catalyst Pt/SZ-HY consisted of high Bronsted acidic sites and Lewis acidic sites. The addition of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to SZ increased the surface area and pore volume, resulting in smaller crystal sizes and a narrower particle size distribution. However, sulfated zirconia without MWCNTs proved more suitable for the isomerization reaction due to its high functional group density. The Pt/SZ-HY composite catalyst exhibited high Bronsted and Lewis acidic sites, with a 1:1 weight ratio of mesoporous SZ and HY zeolite. The catalytic performance of the Pt/SZ-HY composite was evaluated in the isomerization of light Iraqi naphtha, yielding a maximum conversion of 70.76 mol% at 160°C, 15 bar, and 1 hr-1 LHSV.

Microspheres with well-defined morphologies have been demonstrated as a promising catalytic carrier to modulate catalytic performance. However, the strategy for controlling the production of such microspheres with noble bimetallic nanoparticles immobilized is limited by complicated procedures and is time-consuming. Here, a facile and robust strategy is developed to prepare polystyrene (PS) microspheres with well-tailored morphology by readily altering the volume ratio of ethanol or toluene to water. Ag monometallic nanoparticles, Ag-Pt, and Ag-Au bimetallic nanoparticles were loaded on the PS matrix via a one-step continuous approach in a spiral microchannel. The hollow and open-hole structure was conducive to loading high content nanoparticles owing to its remarkable surface area, with Ag and Pt loading content are 7% and 10%, respectively. The swell-buckling theory and adsorption-reduction-infiltration mechanism were proposed to explain the PS microsphere’s morphology evolution behavior and anchor noble metallic nanoparticles on PS microspheres in a spiral microchannel, respectively. The Ag-Pt@PS and Ag-Au@PS microspheres served as efficient catalysts for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol into 4-aminophenol. The effects of the support morphologies, catalyst amount, and types of noble metal nanoparticles on the catalytic performance were investigated experimentally. The results demonstrated that Ag-Pt@PS and Ag-Au@PS microspheres exhibited much superior catalytic performance than Ag@PS microspheres. More importantly, open-hole PS microspheres loaded with Ag-Pt nanoparticles exhibited the best catalytic performance, with reaction rate constant and activity parameters were 1.73 × 10-2 s-1 and 692 s-1·g-1, whereas without sacrificing catalytic activity even after five cycle reusability. The results not only provide an efficient continuous strategy for bimetallic catalysts preparation but also offer an effective strategy to regulate the noble metal nanoparticles via the support structure modulation for confined synergistic catalysis.

Photodynamic therapy using an appropriate photocatalyst results in the production of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species for tumor ablation. However, the inherent O2 dependence of conventional photodynamic therapy limits its clinical translation. To overcome this challenge, here we developed a selenium-substituted Nile blue derivative (ENBSe) as a versatile O2-independent photocatalyst. Under near-infrared light irradiation, ENBSe can drive the biological oxidation of NADH to NAD+ while simultaneously triggering the cascade reduction of cytochrome c (Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺), even in the absence of O2. To improve tumor specificity and targeting, we further developed a conditionally activatable photoredox catalysis (ConAPC) system. ENBSe is covalently attached to 4-nitrobenzyl chloride via a carbonic anhydride bond, wherein the nitro group can be specifically cleaved by nitroreductase (NTR), an enzyme overexpressed in hypoxic tissues. Such ConAPC design prevents reaction with NADH and quenches the fluorescences of ENBSe, which means that the drug molecule, ENBSe-NTR, is catalytically inactive. ENBSe-NTR is, to our knowledge, the first tumor microenvironment-responsive ConAPC molecule that enables O2-free, tumor-specific catalytic therapy. By replacing the 4-nitrobenzyl chloride group, it might be possible to target cells with different microenvironmental conditions. This protocol presents a standardized workflow encompassing the synthesis of ENBSe and its application for photocatalytic modulation of cellular electron flow in the mitochondrial electron transport chain via an O2-independent mechanism of action. The outlined protocol specifies a synthesis period of ~4 d for ENBSe, ~4 h for photoredox spectroscopic characterization and 4-5 weeks for photodiagnostic assessment in cancer cell and mice models.

Using pseudoboehmite and cerium nitrate as raw materials, a cerium dioxide-doped alumina support was prepared by the hot oil column method. Subsequently, with platinum nitrate and palladium nitrate solutions as precursor salts, the active components were loaded onto the supports via the incipient wetness impregnation, followed by an activation treatment, thus obtaining platinum-palladium bimetallic catalysts for hydrocarbon elimination in zero-air generators. The catalyst was characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, TEM, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the as-prepared supports possess a large specific surface area, and the noble metals Pt and Pd are uniformly distributed on the support surface. After activation treatment, the structural stability and catalytic reaction activity of the catalysts are significantly enhanced. Performance tests simulating the actual operating conditions of zero-air generators show that the catalysts exhibit excellent hydrocarbon elimination capability: when the inlet methane concentration is 50 ppm, the outlet methane content can be reduced to below 10 ppb. Moreover, no obvious attenuation of catalyst activity is observed after a 1000-h long-term stability test, which meets the practical application requirements of zero-air generators.

ABSTRACT To develop sustainable catalysts for C─N bond‐forming reactions, a series of Pd‐Co bimetallic alloy nanocatalysts supported on reduced graphene oxide (Pd‐Co@rGO) were synthesized. The synthesis utilized a clean chemical reduction method employing the environmentally friendly reagent ascorbic acid. Varying the starting material ratios allowed the preparation of catalysts with different metal weight percentages (wt% Pd and Co), facilitating the optimization of catalytic performance. Characterization (XRD, SEM, HR‐TEM, and AFM) confirmed the material's architecture. The Pd‐Co@rGO catalyst achieves high efficiency due to the synergistic electronic and geometric enhancement from the Co‐Pd alloying and the rGO support, which ensures uniform dispersion and optimal surface area. This robust and highly efficient platform successfully promoted the Buchwald–Hartwig amination of N ‐protected‐5‐bromoindole derivatives with a variety of primary (including heteroaryl) and secondary amines, affording the corresponding N ‐protected‐5‐amino‐1 H‐ indoles in good to excellent yields. The photophysical properties of the title compounds ( 5a–p ) were investigated in a chloroform solution at a concentration of 1 × 10 − 5 mol L −1 . Among all synthesized compounds, the N ‐benzyl, biphenylbenzyl, naphthyl, and nitro‐substituted indole derivatives ( 5c , 5e , and 5j ) exhibited the most intense absorption and emission maxima.

Hierarchically assembled Bi4O5I2@Bi2O2Se/SnWO4 nanosheet heterostructure for enhanced photocatalytic removal of Levofloxacin and Ibuprofen from water.

Preparation and performance of the porous carbon-supported ZnMn2O4 catalyst as advanced sulfur hosts for Li S batteries

Decoration of Cu2O-T with controllable crystal planes on nitrogen vacancies-engineered graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets: Coupling in situ generation and activation of H2O2 in a photo-Fenton-like system.

The emerging role of ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) in the synthesis of cobalt-based catalysts for water splitting is reviewed. ILs and DESs can serve as solvents and templates due to their unique physicochemical properties. They can efficiently dissolve raw materials and provide a special nucleation and growth environment, obtaining catalysts with novel structures. The designability of ILs and DESs allows for the controlled preparation of catalysts, where they can participate in the reaction as reactants, providing elements such as P, S, N, simplifying the preparation system of cobalt phosphide, sulfide, and nitride. ILs and DESs in catalyst synthesis achieve structural and compositional design, impacting surface adsorption and intermediate stability, allowing precise control over reaction paths and product selectivity. This leads to improved catalytic performance and stability. The review aims to succinctly summarize recent progress and guide researchers in selecting superior solvents for catalyst preparation.

Catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide over copper-Cerium mixed oxide catalysts: Effect of catalyst preparation method

Abstract This study examines the impact of increasing the dolomite catalyst preparation’s physicochemical characteristics and catalytic effectiveness in converting used cooking oil into green diesel from laboratory scale (100 g) to 1 kg. Catalysts were synthesised using calcination under uniform temperature, duration, and heating rate parameters. A comprehensive catalyst characterisation was performed via BET surface area, SEM, and XRD analysis, while the composition of green diesel was assessed through GC-MS. The lab-scale catalyst (CMD LS ) displayed a greater surface area, larger macropores (63.07 nm), and higher crystallinity as compared to the upscaled catalyst (CMD US ). Catalyst characterization demonstrated that CMD LS achieved superior deoxygenation efficiency (52.75 % elimination of oxygenates), enhanced hydrocarbon compound (53.68 %), and reduced coke formation. These findings highlight the necessity for meticulous optimisation of pore structure and crystallinity during scaling up to maintain catalytic efficiency.

Microwave assisted metal-free catalysts preparation from waste plastics for efficient pollutants degradation: Interesting relationship between plastic types and nonradical/radical pathways

Ester-substituted cyclopentene epoxides were synthesized via ring-closing metathesis and epoxidation, providing selective access to monomers suited for highly controlled ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP). The new epoxide enables fully alternating phthalic thioanhydride (PTA)/epoxide ROCOP without scrambling side reactions, yielding well-defined poly(ester-alt-thioester)s with molecular weights up to ∼38 kg/mol after optimization of purity and catalyst preparation. Its performance extends to phthalic anhydride (PA) ROCOP and selective terpolymerizations. Substituent variation confirms the robustness of the cyclopentene scaffold. Comparative degradation studies reveal clear chemical differences between oxygen- and sulfur-containing analogues. These results establish metathesis-derived cyclopentene epoxides as versatile, accessible monomers for degradable polyesters and polythioesters.