Architecture Engineering and Phase Engineering of Rhodium Metallene Co-Boost Nitrite-to-Ammonia Electroconversion.

Electrocatalytic nitrite reduction reaction (NORR) offers an effective strategy for sustainable ammonia (NH) synthesis and N-pollutants wastewater degradation. Herein, we propose a dual-engineering strategy by combining architecture engineering and phase engineering on nanosheet-like rhodium metallene (Rh-NS) coupled with twisted nanoribbon-like rhodium metallene (Rh-NR) nanoarchitectonics (Rh-NS/Rh-NR) to boost NO -to-NH electroconversion. Rh-NS/Rh-NR, characterized by a high density of unsaturated coordination sites and a large specific surface area, greatly enhances the adsorption capacity of NO and crucial intermediates and lowers the energy barrier for the rate-determining step of *NOH formation from *NO.

Unraveling lattice oxygen-mediated oxygen evolution in an amorphous NiFe layered double hydroxide.

An amorphous NiFe layered double hydroxide was developed and shown to facilitate water oxidation a lattice oxygen-mediated oxygen evolution mechanism. Theoretical calculations confirmed that Fe incorporation shifts the O 2p band centre of NiFeOOH closer to the Fermi level, thereby promoting the release of lattice oxygen.

Insight into Ni active site coordination in nickel-manganese spinels for methanol electrooxidation catalysis.

As non-precious catalysts, Ni-based catalysts play a significant role in methanol oxidation for energy conversion technologies. At the same time, the effect of the complicated chemical environment on catalytic efficiency remains unclear. Here, the coordination environment of Ni active sites in spinel nickel-manganese (NiMnO and MnNiO) is investigated as a platform to elucidate the correlation with catalytic performance in methanol electro-oxidation.

MoSe promoted PtRu catalysis for efficient methanol electrooxidation.

Strong coupling of PtRu with MoSe induced the Pt surface to become sufficiently electron rich for achieving an enhanced anti-CO poisoning ability and methanol oxidation performance.

Cerium partial fluoridation efficiently promotes Pd nanoparticle catalysis of formic acid oxidation.

Partial fluoridation of cerium provides more oxygen vacancies and surface-adsorbed active OH species, effectively promoting Pd nanoparticle for the formic acid electrooxidation reaction. As a result, Pd-CeF/CeO showed high activity for formic acid oxidation due to the strong interaction arising from its Pd-O-Ce linkage and its high anti-poisoning ability.

Ruthenium-nickel oxide derived from Ru-coupled Ni metal-organic framework for effective oxygen evolution reaction.

Developing Ru-based catalysts with both high activity and stability for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is very significant in the water electrolysis technique. Here, a bimetallic metal oxide catalyst (RuO-NiO) derived from Ru-coupled Ni metal-organic framework (Ni-MOF) by using terephthalic acid as the ligand was successfully synthesized through a facile ultrasonic treatment and subsequent thermal annealing approach; and the effective role of the coupled effect between RuO and NiO in stabilizing Ru was found significant in OER catalysis. A relatively small d-band center due to the electronic structure regulation and synergistic effect of the heterostructure was found to cause weakened adsorption of surface oxygen species.

Coordination Tuning of FeNi-HMT Frameworks Derived Effective Hybrid Catalysts for Water Oxidation.

FeNi-based hybrid materials are promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts for water electrolysis in hydrogen generation. In this work, the coordination tuning of FeNi-HMT frameworks was achieved by simply changing the Fe/Ni ratios using hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) as an organic ligand, and the derived hybrid FeNi catalysts with varied compositions were probed for OER. Incorporating varying amounts of Fe by adjusting the Ni/Fe ratio results in different metal-organic framework (MOF) structures, and higher Fe feed leads to the formation of amorphous structures due to the coordination structure destruction from the weaker coordination capacity of Fe compared to Ni combining with the tertiary amine ligand.

Deciphering Doping Effects in a V-Doped Ni Catalyst for Hydrogen Electrooxidation.

The improved performance of soluble metal-doped Ni catalysts is perplexed by the evolvable surface structures in the alkaline electrolytes for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR). Herein, V-doped Ni nanoparticles, as a proof of concept, were carefully evaluated to explore the intrinsic function of the enthetic V-species in assisting the HOR kinetic improvement. As expected, it exhibits a mass-normalized kinetic current density of 50.

Deciphering promotion of MoP over MoC in Pt catalysts for methanol-assisted water splitting reaction.

Molybdenum-based compounds show promising promotion effects on Pt catalysts for energy-relevant catalysis reactions. Herein, a more effective promotion effect of MoP than MoC was found in assisting Pt nanoparticles for methanol-assisted hydrogen generation in light of the strong metal-support interaction and synergistic effect between Pt and MoP/C nanospheres. Electrochemical analyses and theoretical calculations demonstrated that Pt-MoP/C facilitated the oxidation and removal of CO intermediates more effectively than Pt-MoC/C.

CoF coupled MXene with facile active phase reconstruction for oxygen evolution reaction.

The combined CoF/MXene system was effective in the facile cobalt active species formation induced by surface reconstruction and charge redistribution to promote oxygen evolution reaction.

Se self-doped Ni(OH) for an efficient urea oxidation reaction.

Se-doped Ni(OH) showed greatly improved catalytic performance for urea oxidation due to the enhanced urea molecules' adsorption ability on the Se-Ni(OH) electrode and weakened poisoning effect by effectively reducing the energy barrier for CO adsorption.

Built-in electrophilic/nucleophilic domain of nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber-confined NiP/NiN nanoparticles for efficient urea-containing water-splitting reactions.

Transferring urea-containing waste water to clean hydrogen energy has received increasing attention, while challenges are still faced in the sluggish catalytic kinetics of urea oxidation. Herein, a novel hybrid catalyst of NiP/NiN embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber (NiP/NiN/NCNF) is developed for energy-relevant urea-containing water-splitting reactions. The built-in electrophilic/nucleophilic domain resulting from the electron transfer from NiP to NiN accelerates the formation of high-valent active Ni species and promotes favourable urea molecule adsorption.

FeCu bimetallic clusters for efficient urea production via coupling reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrate.

Urea electrosynthesis has appeared to meet the nitrogen cycle and carbon neutrality with energy-saving features. Copper can co-electrocatalyze among CO and nitrogen species to generate urea, however developing effective electrocatalysts is still an obstacle. Here, we developed a nitrogen-doped porous carbon loaded with FeCu clusters that convert CO and NO into urea, with the highest Faradaic efficiency of 39.

BiTe nanosheets promoted Pd for ethylene glycol electrooxidation both in the dark and under visible light irradiation.

Ethylene glycol electrooxidation catalyzed by Pd nanoparticles was found to be largely improved by BiTe nanosheets both in the dark and under visible light irradiation.

Enhanced formic acid electrolysis of Pd sites by improved OH adsorption assisted by MoP.

MoP nanofiber-coupled Pd nanoparticles were demonstrated as efficient catalysts for formic acid-assisted water splitting in hydrogen generation. The theoretical calculations indicated that the OH on the surface of MoP through d-p bonding promoted the oxidation of CO at the Pd sites, and improved the ability to resist CO poisoning. As a result, enhanced catalytic performance was indicated.

Alleviating the competitive adsorption of hydrogen and hydroxyl intermediates on Ru by d-p orbital hybridization for hydrogen electrooxidation.

Strengthening the hydroxyl binding energy (OHBE) on Ru surfaces for efficient hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) in alkaline electrolytes at the expense of narrowing the effective potential window (EPW) increases the risk of passivation under transient conditions for the alkaline exchange membrane fuel cell technique. Herein, an effective Ru/NiSe catalyst was reported which exhibits a gradually enhanced intrinsic activity and slightly enlarged EPW with the increased degree of coupling between Ru and NiSe. This promotion could be attributed to the optimized electron distribution and d-band structures of Ru surfaces weakening the hydrogen binding energy and especially the OHBE through the strong d-p orbital hybridization between Ru and NiSe.

An active Ni(OH)/MnCO catalyst with efficient synergism for alkaline methanol oxidation.

A novel Ni(OH)/MnCO hybrid catalyst was developed for high-performing alkaline methanol electro-oxidation, which could well overcome the shortages of inactive MnCO and low intrinsic Ni(OH) due to the good synergistic catalysis effect from the Jahn-Teller distortion effect.

NbAlC MAX Nanosheets Supported Ru Nanocrystals as Efficient Catalysts for Boosting pH-Universal Hydrogen Production.

MAX phase combines both ceramic and metallic properties, which exhibits widespread application prospects. 2D MAX nanosheets have more abundant surface-active sites, being anticipated to improve the performance of surface-related applications. Herein, for the first time, 2D NbAlC nanosheets (NSs) as novel supports anchored with Ru catalysts for overall water splitting are developed.

Improving Alkaline Hydrogen Oxidation through Dynamic Lattice Hydrogen Migration in Pd@Pt Core-Shell Electrocatalysts.

Tracking the trajectory of hydrogen intermediates during hydrogen electro-catalysis is beneficial for designing synergetic multi-component catalysts with division of chemical labor. Herein, we demonstrate a novel dynamic lattice hydrogen (LH) migration mechanism that leads to two orders of magnitude increase in the alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) activity on Pd@Pt over pure Pd, even ≈31.8 times mass activity enhancement than commercial Pt.

Electrocatalytic nitrate-to-ammonia conversion on CoO/CuO nanoarrays using Zn-nitrate batteries.

Zn-NO batteries can generate electricity while producing NH in an environmentally friendly manner, making them a very promising device. However, the conversion of NO to NH involves a proton-assisted 8-electron (8e) transfer process with a high kinetic barrier, requiring high-performance catalysts to realize the potential applications of this technology. Herein, we propose a heterostructured CoO/CuO nanoarray electrocatalyst prepared on a copper foam (CoO/CuO-NA/CF) that can electrocatalytically and efficiently convert NO to NH at low potential and achieves a maximum NH yield of 296.

Efficient and Stable pH-Universal Water Electrolysis Catalyzed by N-Doped Hollow Carbon Confined RuIrO Nanocrystals.

A facile strategy is developed to fabricate 3 nm RuIrO nanocrystals anchored onto N-doped hollow carbon for highly efficient and pH-universal overall water splitting and alkaline seawater electrolysis. The designed catalyst exhibits much lower overpotential and superior stability than most previously reported Ru- and Ir-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen/oxygen evolution reactions. It also manifests excellent overall water splitting activities and maintains ≈100% Faradic efficiency with a cell voltage of 1.