Unlocking the Transition of Electrochemical Water Oxidation Mechanism Induced by Heteroatom Doping

Heteroatom doping has emerged as a highly effective strategy to enhance the activity of metal-based electrocatalysts toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). It is widely accepted that the doping does not switch the OER mechanism from the adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM) to the lattice-oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM), and the enhanced activity is attributed to the optimized binding energies toward oxygen intermediates. However, this seems inconsistent with the fact that the overpotential of doped OER electrocatalysts (<300 mV) is considerably smaller than the limit of AEM (>370 mV). To determine the origin of this inconsistency, we select phosphorus (P)-doped nickel-iron mixed oxides as the model electrocatalysts and observe that the doping enhances the covalency of the metal-oxygen bonds to drive the OER pathway transition from the AEM to the LOM, thereby breaking the adsorption linear relation between *OH and *OOH in the AEM. Consequently, the obtained P-doped oxides display a small overpotential of 237 mV at 10 mA cm⁻². Beyond P, the similar pathway transition is also observed on the sulfur doping. These findings offer new insights into the substantially enhanced OER activity originating from heteroatom doping.     

Supported Metal Sulfate Catalysts FexZny/SiO2 for Selective Dimerization of Isobutene in Mixed C4 to Isooctenes

Isobutene dimerization is an important route to properly utilize mixed C₄ and further produce isooctane with a high-octane number to replace MTBE in gasoline. A highly selective catalyst, which is effective for isobutene dimerization but ineffective for other olefins in the C₄ mixture, is necessary for industrial implementation. In this work, a series of supported metal sulfate catalysts Fe_xZn_y/SiO₂ were prepared and characterized by XRD, SEM, N₂ physical adsorption-desorption, NH₃-TPD, Py-FTIR, and XPS. Fe_0.2Zn_1.8/SiO₂ can achieve isobutene conversion up to 89 % with 0 % conversion of n-butene, and the selectivity of isooctenes (C₈⁼) product is 57 % (10 h on stream). Furthermore, isobutene conversion can sustain above 80 % after 50 h. It is found that these supported catalysts contain Zn²⁺, Zn⁺, Fe³⁺, and Fe²⁺ species, and there is a synergetic effect between Zn²⁺ and Fe²⁺. Zn²⁺ is beneficial to improve the conversion of isobutene, and Fe²⁺ facilitates the formation of C₈⁼, resulting in a high C₈⁼ yield.     

A novel method for preparation of exfoliated UV-curable polymer/clay nanocomposites

The half adduct of isophorone diisocyanate and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (IPDI-HEA), as a reactive organic modifier, was used to functionalize Na-montmorillonite (Na-MMT) clay. Unlike the electronic interaction in the conventional cation-exchange method, the driving force for the organic modification came from the chemical reaction between IPDI-HEA and framework hydroxyl groups on the surface of clay. With high degree of organic modification (48%), the d-spacing of clay layer was greatly enlarged to 3.32 nm, and the clay became more organophilic. After in situ photopolymerization among the IPDI-HEA grafted MMT clay, monomers and oligomers, the exfoliated polymer/clay nanocomposites were obtained. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to detect the structure and morphology of the clay dispersed in the polymer matrix. Compared with the pure polymer materials, the exfoliated polymer/clay nanocomposites exhibited enhancements in mechanical and thermal properties.     

Magnetic structure and orbital ordering in tetragonal and monoclinic KCrF(3) from first-principles calculations

KCrF(3) has been systematically investigated by using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital method within the generalized gradient approximation and the local spin density approximation plus the on-site Coulomb repulsion approach. The total energies for ferromagnetic and three different antiferromagnetic configurations are calculated in the high-temperature tetragonal and low-temperature monoclinic phases, respectively. It reveals that the ground state is the A-type antiferromagnetic in both phases. Furthermore, the ground states of the two phases are found to be Mott-Hubbard insulators with the G-type orbital ordering pattern. In addition, our calculations show the staggered orbital ordering of the 3d(x(2) ) and 3d(y(2) ) orbitals for the tetragonal phase and the 3d(z(2) ) and 3d(x(2) ) orbitals for the monoclinic phase, which is in agreement with the available data. More importantly, the relationship between magnetic structure and orbital ordering as well as the origin of the orbital ordering are analyzed in detail.     

Robust estimation for varying index coefficient models

Varying index coefficient models (VICMs) proposed by Ma and Song (J Am Stat Assoc, 2014. doi: 10.1080/01621459.2014.903185) are a new class of semiparametric models, which encompass most of the existing semiparametric models. So far, only the profile least squares method and local linear fitting were developed for the VICM, which are very sensitive to the outliers and will lose efficiency for the heavy tailed error distributions. In this paper, we propose an efficient and robust estimation procedure for the VICM based on modal regression which depends on a bandwidth. We establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of proposed estimators for index coefficients by utilizing profile spline modal regression method. The oracle property of estimators for the nonparametric functions is also established by utilizing a two-step spline backfitted local linear modal regression approach. In addition, we discuss the bandwidth selection for achieving better robustness and efficiency and propose a modified expectation–maximization-type algorithm for the proposed estimation procedure. Finally, simulation studies and a real data analysis are carried out to assess the finite sample performance of the proposed method.     

Carleson measures and balayage for Bergman spaces of strongly pseudoconvex domains

Given a bounded strongly pseudoconvex domain D in with smooth boundary, we characterize ‐Bergman Carleson measures for , , and . As an application, we show that the Bergman space version of the balayage of a Bergman Carleson measure on D belongs to BMO in the Kobayashi metric.     

Porous graphene oxide-based carbon artefact with high capacity for methylene blue adsorption

A three-dimensional porous graphene oxide (PGO) material prepared by hydrothermal method was selected to adsorb methylene blue (MB), which demonstrates a high MB adsorption capacity, up to 1100 mg g^?1 in alkaline solution at room temperature. The influences of different pore structures and different contents of oxygen-containing functional groups on MB adsorption behaviors were studied in detail, which indicated that the high MB adsorption capacity is mainly ascribed to the synergistic effect of the large number of oxygen-containing functional groups and the interconnected 3D porous network. Moreover, based on the investigation on the adsorption kinetics and the effect of pH value on MB adsorption, we propose a two-step adsorption kinetics for PGO, which involved in two interactions between MB molecular and porous graphene oxide-based carbon: electrostatic force and π-π stacking. Besides, the calculation of the activation energies indicates that chemisorption dominates the adsorption for PGO in comparison with physisorption for three-dimensional porous graphene materials which has low adsorption capacity because of the removal of functional groups. The results are of great significance for the design and environmental applications of PGO as a promising adsorbent material for water purification.     

Copper-catalyzed efficient dithiocyanation of styrenes: Synthesis of dithiocyanates

A novel Cu-catalyzed intermolecular chemoselectivity dithiocyanation of styrenes with ammonium thiocyanate has been developed under mild conditions. This reaction exhibits a wide range of functional-group tolerance in styrenes to afford various dithiocyanates. The reaction mechanism was primarily investigated and a radical process was proposed.     

Ultrasensitive photometric and visual determination of organophosphorus pesticides based on the inhibition of enzyme-triggered formation of core-shell gold-silver nanoparticles

The authors describe a colorimetric assay for the determination of organophosphorous pesticides (OPPs) based on enzyme-triggered deposition of silver nanoparticles on the surface of gold nanoparticles (AuNP). In this method, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) catalyzes the dephosphorylation of the substrate p-aminophenyl phosphate (p-APP) to form p-aminophenol (p-AP) which is capable of reducing Ag(I) ion to Ag metal which is spontaneously deposited on the surface of AuNP to form Au@Ag NPs. As a result, the color of the colloidal solution first changes from red to yellow, and then to gray with further increases in the thickness of the Ag shell. This can be detected visually or by spectrophotometry. OPPs act as inhibitors of ALP so that the dephosphorylation of p-APP is blocked and silver deposition on the AuNP is retarded or completely suppressed. As a result, the color change from red to yellow is less distinct. This finding forms the basis for the determination of OPPs. Under optimum conditions, the absorbance at 370 nm depends linearly on the logarithm of inhibitor concentration over the ranges from 0.05 to 500 μg?L^?1 and from 0.1 to  500 μg?L^?1, with detection limits of 0.025 μg?L^?1 for methamidophos and 0.036 μg?L^?1 for malathion (at an S/N ratio of 3). Both values are much lower than the maximum residue limits specified in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and European Union pesticide regulations. The validation and practicability of this method for the measurement of OPPs was demonstrated by analyzing (spiked) tap water and lake water.

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Graphical abstract The alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity is inhibited by organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs). As a result, the ALP-trigged formation of core-shell gold-silver nanoparticles depends on the amount of OPPs, which showed different absorbances and colors.

     

Rapid screening,identification, and purification of neuraminidase inhibitors from Lithospermum erythrorhizon Sieb.et Zucc. by ultrafiltration with HPLC–ESI‐TOF‐MS combined with semipreparative HPLC

We put forward an efficient strategy based on bioassay guidance for the rapid screening, identification, and purification of the neuraminidase inhibitors from traditional Chinese medicines, and apply to the discovery of anti‐influenza components from Lithospermiun erythrorhizon Sieb.et Zucc. Ultrafiltration with high‐performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry was employed for the rapid screening and preliminarily identification of anti‐influenza components from Zicao. Semipreparative high‐performance liquid chromatography was used for the rapid separation and purification of the target compounds. NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and UV spectroscopy were used for further structural identification, and the activity of the compounds was verified by in vitro assay. Five compounds were found to have neuraminidase inhibitory activity by this method. Subsequently, the five compounds were separated by semipreparative high‐performance liquid chromatography with the purity over 98% for all of them by high‐performance liquid chromatography test. Combined with the NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and UV spectroscopy data, they were identified as alkannin, acetylalkannin, isobutyrylalkannin, β,β‐dimethylacryloylalkannin and isovalerylalkannin. The in vitro assay showed that all five compounds had good neuraminidase inhibitory activities. These results suggested that the method is highly efficient, and it can provide platform and methodology supports for the rapid discovery of anti‐influenza active ingredients from complex Chinese herbal medicines.