Sonochemical conversion of CO2 into hydrocarbons: The Sabatier reaction at ambient conditions

In this study, we investigated an alternative method for the chemical CO₂ reduction reaction in which power ultrasound (488 kHz ultrasonic plate transducer) was applied to CO₂-saturated (up to 3%) pure water, NaCl and synthetic seawater solutions. Under ultrasonic conditions, the converted CO₂ products were found to be mainly CH₄, C₂H₄ and C₂H₆ including large amount of CO which was subsequently converted into CH₄. We have found that introducing molecular H₂ plays a crucial role in the CO₂ conversion process and that increasing hydrogen concentration increased the yields of hydrocarbons. However, it was observed that at higher hydrogen concentrations, the overall conversion decreased since hydrogen, a diatomic gas, is known to decrease cavitational activity in liquids. It was also found that 1.0 M NaCl solutions saturated with 2% CO₂ + 98% H₂ led to maximum hydrocarbon yields (close to 5%) and increasing the salt concentrations further decreased the yield of hydrocarbons due to the combined physical and chemical effects of ultrasound. It was shown that CO₂ present in a synthetic industrial flue gas (86.74% N₂, 13% CO₂, 0.2% O₂ and 600 ppm of CO) could be converted into hydrocarbons through this method by diluting the flue gas with hydrogen. Moreover, it was observed that in addition to pure water, synthetic seawater can also be used as an ultrasonicating media for the sonochemical process where the presence of NaCl improves the yields of hydrocarbons by ca. 40%. We have also shown that by using low frequency high-power ultrasound in the absence of catalysts, it is possible to carry out the conversion process at ambient conditions i.e., at room temperature and pressure. We are postulating that each cavitation bubble formed during ultrasonication act as a “micro-reactor” where the so-called Sabatier reaction -$C{O}_2+4H_2\stackrel{\mathit{Ultrasonication}}{\to }C{H}_4+2H_{2}O$ - takes place upon collapse of the bubble. We are naming this novel approach as the “Islam-Pollet-Hihn process”.     

Design of Functional Carbon Composite Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage

The carbon composite materials have been a research hotspot in the fields of catalysis, energy conversion and so on, because of their features of large structure and morphology variety, good chemical and electrochemical stability, and high electronic conductivity, large specific surface area and rich active sites. This paper summarizes some research progress of carbon composite materials, including assembly methodologies, their structure regulation, properties, and related applications. Moreover, the current challenges and the prospects of these materials are also discussed.     

Large Enhancement of the Single-Molecular Conductance of a Molecular Wire through a Radical Substituent

The single-molecular conductance between two π-conjugated wires with and without a radical substituent has been compared. Specifically, methyl- and iminonitroxide-substituted 4-(biphenyl-4-yl)pyridine wires bound onto a porphyrin template were subjected to scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) apparent-height measurement at the interface between highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and octan-1-oic acid. Statistical analysis of the STM images revealed that the radical-substituted wire has 3.2±1.7-fold higher conductance than the methyl-substituted reference. Although density functional theory (DFT) calculation suggests that only 17 % of the SOMO is distributed on the wire moiety, the effect was significant. This study presents the potential of radical substituents to achieve high conductivity in molecular wires.     

有机张力半导体及其光电特性

分子张力作为空间设计的重要组成部分正成为调控有机半导体的重要手段。由于分子内产生的拉伸张力、扭曲/弯曲张力以及空间张力而导致p轨道排布重组和构型构象结构发生变化,最近各种几何与拓扑结构的高张力有机半导体材料相继被报道,这使得高张力有机半导体材料成为有机电子领域研究的焦点。为了进一步梳理分子张力在有机半导体材料中扮演的角色与价值,该综述从分子张力的类型、实验与理论量化以及可视化出发,总结了高张力共轭芳烃的分子设计策略、与其光电性能分子张力之间的关系,以及这类新兴材料在光电领域的应用。最后,对高张力共轭芳烃的研究前景进行了展望,阐述了该类材料所面临的机遇与挑战。     

Electro-assisted Molecular Assembly Giving Atomic-Scale Catalytic Active-Site Detection

The artificially accurate design of nonmetal electrocatalysts’ active site has been a huge challenge because no pure active species with the specific structure could be strictly controlled by traditional synthetic methods. Species with a multiconfiguration in the catalyst hinder identification of the active site and the subsequent comprehension of the reaction mechanism. We have developed a novel electro-assisted molecular assembly strategy to obtain a pure pentagon ring on perfect graphene avoiding other reconstructed structures. More importantly, the active atom was confirmed by the subtle passivation process as the topmost carbon atom. Recognition of the carbon-defect electrocatalysis reaction mechanism was first downsized to the single-atom scale from the experimental perspective. It is expected that this innovative electro-assisted molecular assembly strategy could be extensively applied in the active structure-controlled synthesis of nonmetal electrocatalysts and verification of the exact active atom.     

Conformational change-modulated spin transport at single-molecule level in carbon systems

Controlling the spin transport at the single-molecule level, especially without the use of ferromagnetic contacts, becomes a focus of research in spintronics. Inspired by the progress on atomic-level molecular synthesis, through first-principles calculations, we investigate the spin-dependent electronic transport of graphene nanoflakes with side-bonded functional groups, contacted by atomic carbon chain electrodes. It is found that, by rotating the functional group, the spin polarization of the transmission at the Fermi level could be switched between completely polarized and unpolarized states. Moreover, the transition between spin-up and spin-down polarized states can also be achieved, operating as a dual-spin filter. Further analysis shows that, it is the spin-dependent shift of density of states, caused by the rotation, that triggers the shift of transmission peaks, and then results in the variation of spin polarization. Such a feature is found to be robust to the length of the nanoflake and the electrode material, showing great application potential. Those findings may throw light on the development of spintronic devices.     

Solid-state luminescence of Au(I) complexes with external stimuli-responsive properties

In the last decade, the field of stimuli-responsive luminescent materials have been intensely emerged because of the high potential application to functional sensors or photoelectronic devices. In particular, luminescent molecular crystals constructed from Au(I) complexes have produced a wide range of examples of luminescent alterations when some external stimulations, such as heat, mechanical stress, vapor (or solvents), were applied to the solid samples. In this review, we describe the recent progress through a summary of the reported Au(I) complexes based on their utilized stimuli-responsive mechanisms, which are categorized in crystal phase transitions (“crystal-to-amorphous”, “crystal-to-crystal” and “single-crystal-to-single-crystal” transitions) and molecular rotation in crystalline media, respectively.     

In situ confinement of iron-based active sites within high porosity carbon frameworks with enhanced activity for rechargeable Zn–air battery

Non-noble bifunctional electrocatalysts with robust activity and stability toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are greatly significant but challenging for Zn-air batteries. Here, in situ confinement of FeN_x active sites in high porosity carbon framework (FeN_x/CMCC) derived from chelate of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and iron ions were synthesized. Particularly, construction of FeN_x within porous carbon framework accelerates the electron transfer and the sufficient utilization of active centers, and then expedites the reaction kinetics of ORR and OER. As expected, the optimized FeN_x/CMCC exhibits superior ORR activity with a larger half-wave potential of 0.869 V. The rechargeable Zn-air battery delivers a higher power density of 99.6 mW/cm² and a special capacity of 781.9 mA h/g_Zn at 10 mA/cm², together with excellent durability of over 335 h. Remarkably, the as-assembled solid-state battery exhibits a higher open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.5 V, a special capacity of 709.7 mA h/g_Zn, as well as prolonged cycling stability (90 h). Moreover, the flexible solid-state battery displays negligible loss of electrochemical performance under various bending angles, illustrating its potential application in flexible electronic devices.     

Mechanical property and deformation mechanism of gold nanowire with non-uniform distribution of twinned boundaries:A molecular dynamics simulation study

The mechanical property and deformation mechanism of twinned gold nanowire with non-uniform distribution of twinned boundaries(TBs) are studied by the molecular dynamics(MD) method. It is found that the twin boundary spacing(TBS) has a great effect on the strength and plasticity of the nanowires with uniform distribution of TBs. And the strength enhances with the decrease of TBS, while its plasticity declines. For the nanowires with non-uniform distribution of TBs, the differences in distribution among different TBSs have little effect on the Young's modulus or strength, and the compromise in strength appears. But the differences have a remarkable effect on the plasticity of twinned gold nanowire. The twinned gold nanowire with higher local symmetry ratio has better plasticity. The initial dislocations always form in the largest TBS and the fracture always appears at or near the twin boundaries adjacent to the smallest TBS. Some simulation results are consistent with the experimental results.     

A Molecular Cable Car for Transmembrane Ion Transport

The controlled transport of molecular and ionic substrates across bilayer membranes is a fundamental task for the operation of living organisms. It is also a highly fascinating and demanding challenge for artificial molecular machines. The recent report of a synthetic transmembrane molecular shuttle that can transport potassium ions selectively down a gradient in a liposomal system makes a small but significant step towards this goal.