Recent progress in advanced core-shell metal-based catalysts for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction（CO₂RR） plays an important role in solving the problem of high concentration of CO₂in the atmosphere and realizing carbon cycle. Core-shell structure has many unique features including tandem catalysis, lattice strain effect, defect engineering, which exhibit great potential in electrocatalysis. In this review, we focus on the advanced core-shell metal-based catalysts（CMCs） for electrochemical CO₂RR. The recent progress of ...     

The behavior of capillary suspensions at diverse length scales: From single capillary bridges to bulk

Liquid-liquid-solid systems are becoming increasingly common in everyday life with many possible applications. Here, we focus on a special case of such liquid-liquid-solid systems, namely, capillary suspensions. These capillary suspensions originate from particles that form a network based on capillary forces and are typically composed of solids in a bulk liquid with an added secondary liquid. The structure of particle networks based on capillary bridges possesses unique properties compared with networks formed via other attractive interactions where these differences are inherently related to the properties of the capillary bridges, such as bridge breaking and coalescence between adjacent bridges. Thus, to tailor the mechanical properties of capillary suspensions to specific requirements, it is important to understand the influences on different length scales ranging from the dynamics of the bridges with varying external stimuli to the often heterogeneous network structure.     

Recent advances in persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes for organic wastewater treatment

In recent years, with the emergence of new pollutants, the effective treatment of wastewater has become very important. Persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes have been successfully applied to the treatment of wastewater, such as wastewater containing antibiotics, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, dyes, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, chlorinated organic pollutants, and phenolics, for the degradation of refractory organic contaminants. This paper summarizes the production of sulfate radicals, which can be generated by the activation of persulfate via conventional and emerging approaches. The existing problems of persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes were analyzed in detail, including residual sulfates, coexisting factors (coexisting inorganic anions and natural organic matter), and energy consumption. This paper proposes corresponding possible solutions to the problems mentioned above, and this paper could provide a reference for the application of persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes in actual wastewater treatment.     

CCSD(T) study on the structures and chemical bonds of AnO molecules (An = Bk–Lr)

The molecular geometries and dissociation energies of AnO (An = Bk–Lr) molecules were first obtained at thecoupled-cluster single-, double-, and perturbative triple-excitations [CCSD(T)] level of theory. Four hybrid functionals,B3LYP, M06-2X, TPSSh, and PBE0, were also employed in the calculations for the sake of comparison. In comparison ofthe CCSD(T) results, B3LYP, TPSSh, and PBE0 functionals can obtain more appropriate results than M06-2X and MP2.The analyses on molecular orbitals show that the 7s, 6d, and 5f atomic orbitals of actinide (An) atoms participate in thebonding of An–O bonds. The partial covalent nature between An and O atoms is revealed by QTAIM analyses.     

Direct catalytic nitrogen oxide removal using thermal,electrical or solar energy

Considering the significant importance in both ecological and environmental fields, converting nitrogen oxide(NOx, especially NO) into value-added NH3or harmless N2lies in the core of research over the past decades. Exploring catalyst for related gas molecular activation and highly efficient reaction systems operated under low temperature or even mild conditions are the key issues. Enormous efforts have been devoted to NO removal by utilizing various driving forces, such as thermal, electrical o...     

Self-supported metal sulphide nanocrystals-assembled nanosheets on carbon paper as efficient counter electrodes for quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells

Developing efficient counter electrodes (CEs) and quantum dots made of earth-abundant and non-toxic elements is essential but still challenging for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). Here, we report a facile strategy to prepare self-supported and robust CoS₂ and NiS nanocrystals-assembled nanosheets directly grown on carbon paper (MSx NS@CP) as efficient counter electrodes for QDSSCs. Such CEs integrate the merits of fast electron transfer from interconnected conductive scaffold, efficient mass transfer from hierarchically vertical nanosheet on 3D open substrate, as well as abundant highly active catalytic sites from metal sulphide nanocrystal units. As a result, QDDSCs based on such CoS₂ NS@CP and NiS NS@CP CEs achieve a PCE of 8.88% and 7.53%, respectively. The detailed analyses suggest that CoS₂ NS@CP has the highest catalytic activity and shows the lowest charger transfer resistance, leading to the highest PCE. These findings may inspire the design and exploration of other self-supported efficient CEs by integrating highly active catalysts onto 3D conductive networks for efficient QDSSCs.     

Advantageous Interfacial Effects of AgPd/g-C3N4 for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution: Electronic Structure and H2O Dissociation

Bimetallic AgPd nanoparticles have been synthesized before, but the interfacial electronic effects of AgPd on the photocatalytic performance have been investigated less. In this work, the results of hydrogen evolution suggest that the bimetallic AgPd/g-C₃N₄ sample has superior activity to Ag/g-C₃N₄ and Pd/g-C₃N₄ photocatalysts. The UV/Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, CO adsorption diffuse reflectance FTIR spectroscopy, and FTIR results demonstrate that in the AgPd/g-C₃N₄, the surface electronic structures of Pd and Ag are changed, which is beneficial for faster photogenerated electron transfer and greater H₂O molecule adsorption. In situ ESR spectra suggest that, under visible light irradiation, there is more H₂O dissociation to radical species on the AgPd/g-C₃N₄ photocatalyst. Furthermore, DFT calculations confirm the interfacial electronic effects of AgPd/g-C₃N₄, that is, Pd^δ−⋅⋅⋅Ag^δ+, and the activation energy of H₂O molecule dissociation on AgPd/g-C₃N₄ is the lowest, which is the main contributor to the enhanced photocatalytic H₂ evolution.     

Ground states of two-component attractive Bose–Einstein condensates I: Existence and uniqueness

We study ground states of two-component Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC) with trapping potentials in ${\mathbb{R}}^2$, where the intraspecies interaction $(?a_1,?a_2)$ and the interspecies interaction ?β are both attractive, $i.e$, $a_1$, $a_2$ and β are all positive. The existence and non-existence of ground states are classified completely by investigating equivalently the associated $L^2$-critical constraint variational problem. The uniqueness and symmetry-breaking of ground states are also analyzed under different types of trapping potentials as $\beta \nearrow {\beta }^{?}=a^{?}+\sqrt{(a^{?}?a_1)(a^{?}?a_2)}$, where $0<a_i<a^{?}:={6w6}_2^2$ ($i=1,2$) is fixed and w is the unique positive solution of $\mathrm{\Delta }w?w+w^3=0$ in ${\mathbb{R}}^2$. The semi-trivial limit behavior of ground states is tackled in the companion paper [12].