多金属氧酸盐材料在二氧化碳电催化还原领域中的研究进展

随着工业发展和全球人口的持续增长,人类对化石燃料的消耗日益增加,从而导致大气中二氧化碳含量的显著增加以及与之相伴的一系列环境问题.电化学还原二氧化碳制备高附加值的燃料和化学品具有稳定的效率和较高的经济可行性等特点,目前已成为一种有前景的策略来缓解当前全球面临的能源短缺和气候变暖问题.然而,电催化二氧化碳还原过程存在反应能垒高和复杂的多电子/质子耦合过程等不足,因此,合理有效的电催化剂设计成为该领域的关键问题.近年,理解和明确电化学二氧化碳还原反应过程的活性起源、选择性调控机制和催化反应机理已成为高效电催化剂设计过程中的重要指导原则.作为一类独特的纳米尺度的金属氧簇,多金属氧酸盐(多酸)已成为二氧化碳还原领域的热点材料.尤其是,多酸明确的结构、优越的电子/质子存储转移能力和二氧化碳吸附活化能力有助于探究二氧化碳还原反应过程中的活性起源和构效机制.因此,利用多酸阐明电化学二氧化碳还原反应中的这些关键问题对于开发高效、可实用化的电催化剂意义重大.本文综述了近年多酸在电催化二氧化碳还原反应中取得的进展,重点介绍了多酸阴离子均相分子催化剂、多酸基无机-有机杂化材料催化剂、多酸电解质溶液、多酸-纳米复合材料在电催化二氧化碳还原反应中的应用.利用密度泛函理论结合原位实验证据推测了可能的反应机理,探讨了多酸对电催化活性和产物选择性的影响,揭示了电子/质子存储-转移过程和多酸表面修饰工程在电催化二氧化碳还原过程中的重要作用.最后,本文还分析了多酸基材料存在的问题与面临的挑战,并对多酸基材料在二氧化碳还原领域的未来发展进行了展望,这对理解电催化二氧化碳还原反应中的关键步骤和开发新型高效的电催化二氧化碳还原电催化剂具有启发意义.     

钼酸根阴离子在增强聚苯胺包覆的镍钴层状氢氧化物的电容和析氧行为中的关键作用

理论容量大且过电位低的层状氢氧化物(LDHs)是极有前景的超级电容电池和析氧反应的电极材料;然而,体相LDHs的低电导率和活性位点不足增加了电极的内阻,降低了电极容量和产氧效率.本文采用两步法制备了聚苯胺包覆的MoO42?插层的镍钴层状双金属氢氧化物复合电极(M-LDH@PANI).随着LDH中MoO42?含量的增加,针状的LDH微球逐渐演化为具有较高比表面积的片状M-LDH微球,这为整个电极提供了更多的电化学位点.此外,非晶态的聚苯胺包覆提高了复合电极的电导率.在引入适量MoO42?插层离子时,M-LDH@PANI表现出显著强化的储能和催化性能.所获得的M-LDH@PANI-0.5在析氧反应中表现出优越的电催化活性(10 mA cm?2时的过电位为266 mV),作为超级电容电池电极则具有864.8 C g?1的高容量.采用M-LDH@PANI-0.5作为正极及以活性炭作为负极组装的超级电容电池在功率密度为8,300.0 W kg?1时能量密度为44.6 Wh kg?1,且具有优异的循环稳定性(10000次循环后保留83.9％的初始容量).本文为LDH基材料的阴离子插层改性增强材料性能的机理提供了一个非传统的解释.在上述研究基础上,采用射线衍射(XRD)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、高分辨透射电镜(HRTEM)和比表面积测试(BET)等手段对样品进行了深入表征.XRD结果表明,MoO42?插层的LDH材料的层间晶面(003)的峰随着MoO42?含量的增加而逐渐消失,这是由于晶面间距越大越容易受到晶粒细化的影响,间距大的晶格更容易受到破坏,导致晶格的展宽和弱化,从而间接证明MoO42?的成功插层.SEM、HRTEM和BET测试结果表明,MoO42?的含量对材料的形貌和比表面积具有重大影响.利用XPS对样品的价态进行了研究,发现随着MoO42?含量的增加,Co和Ni的价态没有明显变化.电化学测试结果表明,电极的储能和催化性能随MoO42?含量的增加而先增加后减小.利用理论计算分析了MoO42?在LDH中的插层行为,发现少量的MoO42?有利于扩大LDH的层间间距,而过量的MoO42?则会与LDH的H原子结合,从而与电解液中的OH?竞争,导致复合电极的电化学性能下降.此外,MoO42?插层的片状微球能有效调节材料的去质子化能,大大加速电极表面的氧化还原反应.因此,MoO42?插层能够显著强化LDH基材料的超级电容电池电极和OER催化剂电化学性能.     

Thiophene and naphthalene-based double helix: Synthesis,structures and chirality

Both racemate and enantiomer of a novel double helix,binaphthylcyclooctaterthiophene(BN-COTh),which is a DNA-like molecule constructed by two single helices intertwined with each other via covalent bonds,have been synthesized with two building blocks,cycloocta-tetrathiophene(COTh) and cyclooctadinaphthyldithiophene(CONT) fused together via Negishi coupling reaction.Another homologue,dinaphthylcyclooctaterthiophene(DN-COTh) has been employed together as a model compound.Besides the synthetic work,BN-COTh and DN-COTh have been investigated by studying their crystal structures,spectroscopic behaviors,chiral resolution and chiral characteristics,including circular dichroism(CD) spectra and optical rotations.In addition,the novel crystal of enantiomer of(R,R,R)-BN-COTh has been explored.The enantiomer molecules packing along b-axis to form a larger and extended assembly packing due to intermolecular interactions between the enantiomer molecules and chloroform molecules in crystal.     

Recent advances in the improvement of g-C3N4 based photocatalytic materials

g-C₃N₄ have been widely used in the fields of photocatalytic hydrogen production,photocatalytic degradation of dyes and oxidative degradation of toxic gases due to their excellent performance.It has attracted extensive attention in recent years due to its highly efficient photocatalytic capacity of hydrogen generation,water oxidation,carbon dioxide reduction and degradation of organic pollutants.Because of the abundant carbon and nitrogen composition of the earth,large-scale production and industrial applications of this material are possible.The modification of this material makes its performance more excellent so that this new material can obtain a steady stream of vitality.These outstanding works have become important materials and milestones on the road to mankind's photocatalytic hydrogen production.This review will begin with the basic idea of designing,synthesizing and improving g-C₃N₄ based photocatalytic materials,and introduce the latest development of g-C₃N₄ photocatalysts in hydrogen production from four aspects of controlling the carbon/nitrogen ratio,morphology,element doping and heterojunction structure of g-C₃N₄ materials.     

Contradictory effect of gold nanoparticle-decorated molybdenum sulfide nanocomposites on amyloid-β-40 aggregation

The effect of gold nanoparticle-decorated molybdenum sulfide (AuNP-MoS₂) nanocomposites on amyloid-β-40 (Aβ₄₀) aggregation was investigated. The interesting discovery was that the effect of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites on Aβ₄₀ aggregation was contradictory. Low concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites could enhance the nucleus formation of Aβ₄₀ peptides and accelerate Aβ₄₀ fibrils aggregation. However, although high concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites could enhance the nucleus formation of Aβ₄₀ peptides, it eventually inhibited Aβ₄₀ aggregation process. It might be attributed to the interaction between AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites and Aβ₄₀ peptides. For low concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites, it was acted as nuclei, resulting in the acceleration of the nucleation process. However, the structural flexibility of Aβ₄₀ peptides was limited as the concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites was increased, resulting in the inhibition of Aβ₄₀ aggregation. These findings suggested that AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites might have a great potential to design new multifunctional material for future treatment of amyloid-related diseases.     

Morphology controllable conjugated network polymers based on AIE-active building block for TNP detection

Luminescent conjugated network polymer is one of the most promising chemo-sensors owing to their good chemical/optical stability and multiple functionalization.Herein,three conjugated network polymers were prepared by using aggregation-induced emission active 1,1,2,2-tetrakis(4-formyl-(1,1'-biphenyl))-ethane(TFBE) unit as monomer and hydrazine as linker.Through regulating the synthetical condition,the polyme ric network can form either unifo rm two-dimensional azine-linked nanosheets(ANS),conjugated microporous polymers(A-CMP) or covalent organic frameworks(A-COF).All of these polymers exhibited good stability and high fluorescence quantum efficiency with the quantum yield of6.31% for A-NS,5.26% for A-CMP,and 5.80% for A-COF,as well as fast and selective fluorescence quenching response to 2,4,6-trinitrophenol(TNP).And the best TNP sensing performance with the Stern-Volmer constants(K_(sv)) values up to 8 × 10~5 L/mol and a detection limit of 0.09 μmol/L was obtained for A-NS.The study explores various strategies to construct conjugated polymers with different nanoarchitectures based on the same building block for sensitive detection of explosives.     

Selective adsorption behaviors of guest molecules COR in the hexamer host networks at liquid/solid interface

Here,the selective adsorption behaviors of guest molecule COR in two hexamer host grids were investigated by means of scanning tunnelling microscope(STM).The assembled structures of small functional organic molecules TTBTA and TATBA were thermodynamically stable.Interestingly,the introduction of the guest molecule COR destroyed the original hexamer structure of TTBTA and combined with it to form a new triangular host-guest system.Different from TTBTA,the introduction of the guest molecule COR did not affect the six-membered ring structure of TATBA.Furthermore,the co-assembly structure of TTBTA/TATBA/COR was established and the guest molecule COR showed preferential adsorption to the TATBA host grid.Density functional theory(DFT) calculations had been performed to disclose the mechanism of the involved assemblies.     

An interlocked coordination cage based on aromatic amide ligands

An interlocked M_4 L_8 coordination cage was synthesized by coordination-driven self-assembly of palladium(Ⅱ) ions with aromatic amide bidentate ligands.The reaction of the ligand and the metal at 2:1 ratio led to the monomeric M_2 L_4 cage as the kinetic product,while the thermodynamic product M_4 L_8 cage was obtained by prolongating the reaction.This conve rsion and the interlocked structure was clearly revealed by using ~1 H NMR,mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography.The driving force of interlocking was mainly attributed to the interactions(hydrogen bonding,aromatic stacking and electrostatic interaction) arising from the aptitude of flexibility of the amide ligand.     

Structure-based design,synthesis of novel probes for cytochrome P450 OleT

Cytochrome P450 OleT_SA, a new cytochrome P450 enzyme from Staphylococcus aureus, catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation and hydroxylation of fatty acids to generate terminal alkenes and fatty alcohols. The mechanism of this bifurcative chemistry remains largely unknown. Herein, a class of derivatized fatty acids were synthesized as probes to investigate the effects of substrate structure on the product type of P450 OleT_SA. The results demonstrate that the fine-tuned structure of substrates, even in a remote distance from the carboxyl group, significantly regulates OleT catalyzed decarboxylation/hydroxylation reactions. Molecular docking analysis indicated the potential interactions between the carboxylate groups of different probes and the enzyme active center which was attributed to the bifurcative chemistry.     

ZIF-derived mesoporous carbon materials prepared by activation via Na2SiO3 for supercapacitor

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) derived carbonaceous materials have a wide range of applications in the fields of energy storage, catalysis, adsorption and separation, etc. Especially, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) is an excellent candidate to synthesize porous carbon due to the large surface area and high nitrogen content. However, the dominated microporous structure of ZIF-8-derived carbon significantly hinders ionic mass transfer, limiting the improvement of performance. Herein, MOF-derived mesoporous carbon was prepared using ZIF-8 as carbon precursor and cheap sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃) as activator. The introduction of Na₂SiO₃ created rich mesoporous structure and increased specific surface area, as well as the effects of pyrolysis temperature and Na₂SiO₃ dosage on performance was also investigated. The obtained ZIF-derived porous carbon exhibits good electrochemical performance with specific capacitance of 263 F/g at 1 A/g and excellent cycle life (96.07% after 10,000 GCD cycles) in supercapacitor. The use of cheap Na₂SiO₃ activator provides a new orientation for the preparation of MOF-derived carbons with rich pores, high surface area, and facilitates the large-scale application of MOF-derived carbons.