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A series of carbon black-supported bimetallic Ru-Co nanoparticles catalyst were synthesized via the chemical reduction of corresponding metal precursor in ethylene glycol, for H2 generation from NaBH4 methanolysis. The composition, morphology and structure of the novel nanomaterial were well characterized by XRD, XPS, HRTEM, EDX and SEM, showing the good dispersion of supported Ru-Co nanoparticles with an average diameter of 2.4 nm. Significantly, the highest H2 generation rate is observed in the case of Ru-Co/C catalyst with Ru/ Co ratio of 5, achieving 9.36 L min-1 g-1 at 25 °C, which is comparable to the reported pure Ru catalysts. Furthermore, the recycle test confirms our catalyst can be practically applied. Our work highlights the synergetic effect in bimetallic catalytic system for boosting H2 generation rates from NaBH4 methanolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first high-performance electroactive benzoxazine with an aniline dimer in its structure has been synthesized from 4-aminodiphenylamine (aniline dimer), paraformaldehyde, and phenol. FT-IR and 1H NMR are used to characterize the molecular structure of the electroactive benzoxazine monomer (PH-BA). The reversible one-electron transfer between the neutral form and the radical-cation form takes place in the redox reaction of PH-BA and its corresponding polymer (pPH-BA). The pPH-BA exhibits oxidation and reduction currents of 0.122 and 0.128 mA cm-2, respectively, which are higher than the published benzoxazine/ aniline oliogomer blend. The current value of the redox peaks of pPH-BA doubles when compared with PH-BA, which might be attributed to the formation of the electron-donating hydroxyl groups during the thermally induced ring-opening polymerization and the hydrogen bonding interactions between phenolic-OH groups and aniline units in pPH-BA network. The pPH-BA coating exhibits outstanding corrosion resistance properties with a corrosion rate of 0.0091 mm per year for carbon steel Q235, which is significantly lower than that of non-electroactive polybenzoxazines. pPH-BA can further facilitate the formation of a metal oxide layer composed of Fe2O3 on the steel surface and was characterized by SEM, Raman, and XPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pure and mixed lanthanum and cerium oxides were synthesized via a reverse microemulsion-templated route. This approach yields highly homogeneous and phase-stable mixed oxides with high surface areas across the entire range of La:Ce ratios from pure lanthana to pure ceria. Surprisingly, all mixed oxides show the fluorite crystal structure of ceria, even for lanthanum contents as high as 90%. Varying the La:Ce ratio not only allows tailoring of the oxide morphology (lattice parameter, pore structure, particle size, and surface area), but also results in a fine-tuning of the reducibility of the oxide which can be explained by the creation of oxygen vacancies in the ceria lattice upon La addition. Such finely controlled syntheses, which enable the formation of stable, homogeneous mixed oxides across the entire composition range, open the path towards functional tailoring of oxide materials, such as rational catalyst design via fine-tuning of redox activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]