Facile Synthesis Research Articles

A facile synthesis of 2D bimetallic solid solution nitrides for robust stability in lithium-ion battery

Nanostructured transition metal nitrides (TMNs) demonstrate immense promise for lithium-ion battery applications owing to their outstanding conductivity and high theoretical capacity. However, challenges such as the expansion of volume, aggregation concerns, and rapid capacity decay still need to be effectively addressed. Herein, a facile synthesis of 2D nitrides, including TiVN, NbVN and TiNbN, is achieved through nitriding their corresponding MXenes. The distinct 2D layered structure enables them fast lithium-ion transport and inhibits volume variation, thereby improving rate performance and stability. Moreover, the incorporation of bimetallic elements in solid solution induces lattice distortion, creating lattice vacancies and increasing lithium storage capacity. Atomic-level interactions within solid solutions, confirming by the shifts of binding energy, contribute to improved structural stability and accelerated charge transfer. The theoretical calculation further proves that the bimetallic solid solution structure elevates the d-band center and increases the Li+ adsorption energy. Consequently, the synthesized TiVN, NbVN and TiNbN demonstrate remarkable lithium storage performance. Especially, NbVN with a porous morphology stands out by achieving a specific capacity of 216.6 mAh/g after 1,400 cycles at 1 A/g, significantly outperforming Nb4N5 and VN. This work may provide valuable insights for the efficient synthesis and electrochemical applications of two-dimensional solid-solution nitrides.

Heteroatom Promoted Polyhexagonal Saddle-Shaped Molecular Structure and Its Supramolecular Coassembly with C60.

Molecules with curved architecture can exhibit unique opto-electronic properties due to the concave-convex π-surface. However, synthesizing negatively curved saddle-shaped aromatic systems has been challenging due to the internal structural strain. Herein, we report the facile synthesis of two polyhexagonal molecular systems, 1 and 2, with saddle shape geometry by judiciously varying the aromatic moiety, avoiding the harsh synthetic methods as that of heptagonal aromatic saddle systems. The unique geometry preferences of B, N, and S furnish suitable curvature to the molecules, featuring saddle shape. The saddle geometry also enables them to interact with fullerene C60, and the supramolecular interactions of fullerene C60with 1 and 2 modify their optoelectronic properties. Crystal structure analysis reveals that 1, with a small π-surface, forms a double columnar array of fullerenes in the solid state. In contrast, 2 with a large π-surface produces a supramolecular capsule entrapping discrete fullerene dimer. The intermolecular interactions between B, N, S, and the aryl-π surface of the host and C60 guest are the stabilizing factors for creating these supramolecular structures. Comprehensive computational, optical, electrochemical, and Raman spectroscopic studies establish the charge transfer interactions between B-N doped heterocycle host and fullerene C60 guest.

Chemoenzymatic tandem cyclization for the facile synthesis of bicyclic peptides

Bicyclic peptides exhibit improved metabolic stabilities and target specificities when compared to their linear or mono-cyclic counterparts; however, efficient and straightforward synthesis remains challenging due to their intricate architectures. Here, we present a highly selective and operationally simple one-pot chemoenzymatic tandem cyclization approach to synthesize bicyclic peptides with small to medium ring sizes. Penicillin-binding protein-type thioesterases (PBP-type TEs) efficiently cyclized azide/alkyne-containing peptides in a head-to-tail manner. Successive copper (I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition generated bicyclic peptides in one-pot, thus omitting the purification of monocyclic intermediates. This chemoenzymatic strategy enabled the facile synthesis of bicyclic peptides bearing hexa-, octa-, and undecapeptidyl head-to-tail cyclic scaffolds.

Facile Synthesis of Benzene Tricarboxylate-Modified Cerium, Cobalt and Zinc Nanoparticles: Structural and Electrochemical Characterization

Facile Synthesis of Benzene Tricarboxylate-Modified Cerium, Cobalt and Zinc Nanoparticles: Structural and Electrochemical Characterization

Facile and High-Yield Synthesis of Monodisperse and Heat-Resistant Polymaleimide Microspheres by Self-Stabilized Precipitation Polymerization

Facile and High-Yield Synthesis of Monodisperse and Heat-Resistant Polymaleimide Microspheres by Self-Stabilized Precipitation Polymerization

Facile and Rapid Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles on Unconventional Imine‐ Decorated Silica

AbstractWe demonstrate the reduction of gold (Au) on silica monoliths by surface decoration of amine and imine (formed by reaction of amine present in 3‐amino propyl triethoxy silane (APTES) and acetone) functionalities on the surface of silica. The reduction of Au3+ to Au0 was confirmed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), UV‐Diffuse reflectance and X‐ray Photo electron spectroscopic techniques. Without employing the conventional strategies with reducing agents like sodium borohydride and sodium citrate, here, the surface functionalized amine and imine was found to reduce the metal ions, additionally, the surface silanols was found to anchor and serve as the adsorption sites to hold the metal ions prior to reduction. The control experiment was performed with silica monoliths without the surface functionalities displayed no evident reduction of Au3+ to their respective metallic form. Interestingly, the reduction of Au was found to be more facile on imine modified silica, due to the strong electrostatic interaction of highly polarized imine with Au3+ ions.

Facile synthesis of natural stearic acid modified carbon adsorbent for toluene adsorption under high humidity conditions

The diminished adsorption efficiency of porous carbon for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in high-humidity conditions poses a critical challenge that limits its widespread application. This study presents a facile method for enhancing the adsorption capacity of coffee grounds activated carbon in high-humidity environments through stearic acid modification. The incorporation of 20 % stearic acid (20 % ST-AC) significantly amplifies the saturated adsorption capacity and penetration duration of porous carbon for toluene under high-humidity conditions. Specifically, the toluene adsorption capacity improves from 230 mg/g to 498 mg/g in an 80 % relative humidity condition. However, increasing the stearic acid doping ratio beyond 20 % has a limited impact on moisture resistance while leading to micropore blockage, resulting in a significant reduction in toluene adsorption capacity. Additionally, 20 % ST-AC demonstrates excellent adsorption recycling performance over five cycles, maintaining 97 % of its original adsorption capacity. This study provides a novel perspective on the preparation of hydrophobic activated carbon, which helps to address the challenge of VOC adsorption in high-humidity flue gas environments.

Molecular Bottlebrushes as Emerging Nanocarriers: Material Design and Biomedical Application.

As a unique unimolecular nanoobject, molecular bottlebrushes (MBBs) have attracted great interest from researchers in nanocarriers attributed to their defined structure, size, and shape. MBBs with various architectures have been proposed and constructed with well-defined domains for loading "cargos", including core, shell, and periphery functional groups. Compared with nanomaterials based on self-assembly, MBBs have lots of advantages, including facile synthesis, flexible compositions, favorable stability, and tunable size and shape, that make them a promising nanoplatform for various applications. This paper summarizes the recent progress during the past decade, with a focus on developments within the last five years in the synthesis of MBBs with different architectures, and uses them as nanocarriers in drug delivery, biological imaging, and other emerging applications.

Hollow Porous Cu2S Nano-Spheres as High-Rate Magnesium Battery Cathode

The magnesium ion batteries are gaining huge attention in the field of battery energy due to high energy density, low cost potential and high safety performance. So far, the research of magnesium ion batteries has been slow. The surface and structural properties of cathode electrode materials greatly limiting the discharge performance of magnesium ion battery. Herein, a facile synthesis of Cu2S nano-hollow spheres for high performance magnesium ion battery cathode electrode materials was reported. This nano-hollow spheres have a large specific surface area (12.84 m2 g−1) which can reduce the volume expansion caused by magnesium ions during embedding and detachment, and facilitate ion diffusion during the discharge-charging process. Consequently, the nano-hollow porous Cu2S deliver a 152 mAh g−1 after 850 cycles at 560 mA g−1 hold a long-term cycling stability as cathode materials for magnesium ion battery. This work not only demonstrates the great potential of NHP-Cu2S materials, for application in magnesium ion batteries, but also sheds a new light on the application of metal sulfides in magnesium ion batteries.

Facile green synthesis of novel tantalum doped tungsten trioxide for photocatalytic degradation: Correlation with COMSOL simulation

The facilegreen synthesis techniqueis becoming more and more important, and it has been proposed as a potential substitute for chemical techniques. The current study describes a low-cost, environmentally friendly method for producing tungsten trioxide (WO3) and tantalum (Ta) doped WO3nanoparticles that uses 15 % (w/v) Azadirachta indica (Neem) leaf extract and different concentrations of Ta dopant (1 to 5 %) due to its well-matched ionic radius with WO3. Various techniques FESEM, TEM, EDX, BET, UV–Vis and PL, XRD, and FTIR were used to illustrate the morphological, elemental, optical, structural, and vibrational analysis of the synthesized nanoparticles respectively. Interestingly, the band gap was significantly reduced to 1.88 eV by the addition of a dopant element. For 3 % Ta/WO3, the average particle size was also reduced to 31.6 nm. The synthesized WO3nanoparticles employed in the current study have been used for photocatalytic activitypurposes. Methylene blue (MB), one of the principal water pollutants, was degraded more quickly by the synthesized Ta/WO3nanoparticles when exposed to UV radiation. Among them, 3 % Ta/WO3 gives significantly higher photodegradation 89 % attributed to the Burstein-Moss effect. The significant output of optimized nano-photocatalyst has been observed from the trapping experiment and reusability test. Furthermore, Zeta potential and TOC analysis have been taken to check the stability and mineralization performance. Additionally, the results of the simulation that was carried out using the finite element analysis approach in the RF module of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a are quite similar to the experimental findings. This simulation method made it easier for readers to understand the numerous aspects of the photocatalytic process that has been discussed here.

A facile and simple synthesis of a cytotoxic tocotrienol-based nanoemulsion against MCF-7 and A549 cancer cell lines

A facile and simple synthesis of a cytotoxic tocotrienol-based nanoemulsion against MCF-7 and A549 cancer cell lines

Dehydrogenative N‐N Coupling and Facile Synthesis of Cobalt Complexes Supported by Tetrazene Based Ligand: Synthesis of Quinolines and Quinazolinones via Activation of Alcohols

Herein we first report the unprecedented synthesis of tetrazene‐based cobalt complexes using unusual coupling of amines via dehydrogenation. These cobalt complexes were employed for dehydrogenative coupling reactions to synthesize N‐heterocycles (quinoline, and quinazolinone). Based on control experiments and IR identification of intermediates, we proposed a plausible reaction mechanism. Synthesis protocols were utilized for preparative scale synthesis and biologically active molecule (±)‐galipinine synthesis.

Rapid and Facile Synthesis of Nanosized Silicalite-1 Zeolites from Solid Silica in a Semisolid-like System via a Two-Step Crystallization Method

Rapid and Facile Synthesis of Nanosized Silicalite-1 Zeolites from Solid Silica in a Semisolid-like System via a Two-Step Crystallization Method

Facile synthesis and magneto-alignment effect on the microwave absorption property of NiCo2O4/NiO/Co3O4 composites

A simple method of high-temperature ignition to metalorganics was successfully used to synthesise composites of NiCo2O4, NiO and Co3O4. A detailed investigation of the composite’s microwave absorption properties revealed the magneto-alignment effect. By closely arranging NiCo2O4, NiO and Co3O4 nano-particles in epoxy resin, the magnetic exchange is strengthened under the influence of a magnetic field. The sample without magnetic alignment, S0, exhibited poor absorption efficiency with reflection loss (RL) values hardly reaching − 10 dB across a frequency range of fixed and different thicknesses (2–18 GHz). In comparison, the oriented composite exhibited higher permittivity and permeability, particularly in the high-frequency range. Considering the improved impedance matching and reasonable adjustment of dielectric and magnetic losses, the microwave absorbing performance of the oriented composite substantially improved in the 10–14 GHz range. The minimum RL is reduced to − 45.11 dB with an effective bandwidth of 4 GHz. Herein, we present a straightforward method to increase the microwave absorption performance of NiCo2O4 by modifying the macroscopic order and degree.

Effect of solvent-dependent morphology on charge storage mechanism of NiCo2O4 for aqueous supercapacitors

The physical and morphological properties of materials significantly affect the electrochemical performance of supercapacitor electrodes. Therefore, tremendous research efforts have been devoted to adjusting and fine-tuning the morphology of electrode materials. NiCo2O4 as a promising pseudocapacitive material has been commonly synthesized by a facile solvothermal method. While it is known that synthetic parameters such as reaction time, temperature, and solvent during the solvothermal processes influence the resulting materials, the full extent of their effects is not yet fully understood. This work aims to investigate the influence of solvent used during solvothermal process on the physical and electrochemical properties of NiCo2O4 using four solvents including water, isopropyl alcohol, ethanol, and methanol. The prepared NiCo2O4 electrode using water as a solvent (NCO-D) exhibits urchin-like morphologies with long nanowires covering its surface, offering a high surface area. NCO-D exhibits higher electrical conductivity due to its increased oxygen vacancies, consequently displaying the highest specific capacitance. Notably, it demonstrates remarkable rate capability, achieving 580 F/g at 1 A/g and 479 F/g at 15 A/g. All the NiCo2O4 samples showed excellent cycling stability over 1000 cycles. Thus, this work demonstrates a facile synthesis to obtain NiCo2O4 electrode material with high electrochemical performance and explores the effect of the solvent on the morphological change and charge storage mechanism of NiCo2O4. The finding here could benefit the future development of NiCo2O4, as well as other metal oxides for energy storage applications.

Facile Synthesis of Graphitic Carbon Nitride@Polypyrrole/Ta2O5 Nanocomposite as Supercapacitor with Improved Electrochemical Performance for Energy Storage Applications

Facile Synthesis of Graphitic Carbon Nitride@Polypyrrole/Ta2O5 Nanocomposite as Supercapacitor with Improved Electrochemical Performance for Energy Storage Applications

Copper-based nanodots as efficient biomimetic antibiotics for the treatment of oral bacterial infections

Oral infectious diseases caused by a variety of pathogenic bacteria seriously affect the quality of life. However, these diseases remain a clinical challenge because of the lack of simple, safe, and universal prophylactics. To address these limitations, we synthesize CuOx nanodots (CuOx NDs) with excellent Fenton-like reaction activity and utilize them in the treatment of oral bacterial infections. Different from other complicated approaches, CuOx NDs are rationally prepared using a facile one-pot aqueous synthesis. In the presence of H2O2, these well-developed CuOx NDs can efficiently catalyze the generation of hydroxyl radicals (·OH) around oral pathogens, leading to the death of various bacteria. Meanwhile, results of biosafety indicate the high biocompatibility and extremely low toxicity of these CuOx NDs. After understanding the admirable in vitro antibacterial effect of CuOx NDs in the presence of H2O2, we further explore their in vivo antibacterial performance on several classical animal models including oral mucosal wound model, intragingival bacteria-infected model, and the periodontal infection model. As expected, these CuOx NDs with wide-spectrum antibacterial activity can serve as high-performance antibacterial reagents for the treatment of various oral bacterial infections with the help of H2O2. In brief, current nanoplatform can act as efficient antibiotics against oral pathogens with broadening the biomedical applications of copper-based nanomaterials.

Facile synthesis of N-doped biomass derived porous carbon from Opuntia humifusa using simple solid state activation method for reversible capture of volatile iodine

The search for adsorbent materials capable of extracting and storing radioactive iodine derived from nuclear power plants has intensified owing to the growing nuclear waste concerns. Herein, we report a novel method, which is simple and effective, to synthesize biomass-derived porous carbon from an easily available biomass, Opuntia humifusa, via simple solid-state activation with zinc chloride. The resulting porous carbon exhibits a large specific surface area, with up to 1869 m2/g of micropores. The textural properties of activated carbons can be easily modified by adjusting the amount of zinc chloride and activation temperature. The optimal conditions were found to be a ZnCl2 to biomass ratio of 5 and a carbonization temperature of 500 °C. The obtained porous carbons can function as multifunctional solid sorbents for radioactive iodine because of their high porosity and advantageous hierarchical porous structure. Specifically, the obtained activated carbon exhibited high iodine affinity with an absorption of 408 wt%. Considering its global abundance and recyclability, Opuntia humifusa can be used as a new biomass source for the efficient production of highly effective porous carbon materials with potential applications in environmental restoration. Furthermore, the straightforward single-step synthesis method described in this study offers a technique for producing several unique activated mesoporous carbons from various biomasses.

Ligand and band engineering-induced covalent organic framework-embedded Ti32 Oxo-cluster gels-based Z-scheme heterojunction for boosting the photocatalytic degradation performance of tetracycline

Designing and synthesizing highly efficient photocatalysts with proper energy band structures, which can accelerate the degradation of antibiotics, is crucial and challenging. Herein, by introducing a simple ligand engineering strategy, we ingeniously developed a novel approach for facile synthesis of covalent organic framework (COF) embedded and oxygen vacancies (OV) in-situ doped Ti32 oxo-cluster gels-based Z-scheme heterojunction, COF@OV-Ti32-gels (CT-X). This strategy has led to a remarkable improvement in the photodegradation efficiency of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC), increasing from 15% (pure Ti32 crystals) to an impressive 93.7%. The heterojunctions, which possess modified bandgap structures due to the presence of oxygen defects, exhibit superior photo-induced charge separation efficiency compared to Ti32 without such defects. This enhanced utilization of sunlight results in highly efficient photocatalytic degradation of TC via a built-in electric field. Intriguingly, the CT-X photocatalysts, synthesized with a unique heterojunction structure, exhibit the ability to achieve full-time domain degradation of TC. Notably, CT-X can effectively degrade TC in the absence of light, and its degradation capability is significantly enhanced upon exposure to visible light. Furthermore, the superoxide radical (•O2¯) was evidenced to play a crucial role in the photocatalytic process, and the corresponding degradation mechanism was also depicted.

Facile hydrothermal synthesis and continuously improved sonophotocatalytic performance of PO4-doped Bi2WO6 nanoplates

The doping of ionic group composed of various atoms can play a great role in regulating electronic structure, optimizing light absorption capacity, and enhancing the catalytic performance of semiconductor catalysts. Herein, we took a urea-precipitate assisting hydrothermal route for preparing PO4-doped Bi2WO6 nanoplates and discussed the effect of the ionic group doping on the sonophotocatalytic performance toward the degradation of pollutant. The result of the X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) measurements revealed that abundant oxygen vacancies were formed in PO4-doped Bi2WO6 owing to the incorporation of the ionic group, which would contribute to the regulation of electronic structure and activated carriers’ migration rate. The sonophotocatalytic activity toward the removal of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) was investigated under visible-light coupling with ultrasonic irradiation. The results showed that PO4-doped Bi2WO6 nanoplates possessed higher sonophotocatalytic degradation rate than pure Bi2WO6. More interestingly, the TCH removal efficiency was continuously improved over PO4-doped Bi2WO6 nanoplates with the assistance of the sulfate radical-mediated technique. Based on the comprehensive discussion and analysis, a possible enhancement mechanism of the sonophotocatalytic behavior was proposed for PO4-doped Bi2WO6 nanoplates catalyst in the presence of peroxymonosulfate.