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CuO/CeO2 catalysts were widely studied as an alternative to precious metal catalysts, and the Cu–Ce synergy was essential to improve the catalytic performance. In this paper, the effects of CuO loading on Cu–Ce synergy in CuO/CeO2 nanorod catalysts and their performance in toluene combustion were systematically investigated. It was found that non-equilibrium plasma facilitated the dispersion of CuO active species on the CeO2 surface. With the increase of the CuO loading from 1 wt% to 4 wt%, the Cu–Ce synergistic effect was gradually improved, which generated Cu+/Cu2+ and Ce3+/Ce4+ redox electron pairs. The highest oxygen vacancy concentration and Cu+ content of CuCe-4 (4 wt%) resulting from strong Cu–Ce synergy accelerated the activation of chemisorbed oxygen and consequently improved the efficiency of toluene catalytic combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a dual-functional catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), Ru clusters have great potential, but there are certain difficulties regarding their stability on the substrate and the tunability of their electronic environment. Here, the S doped graphited biochar aerogel electrocatalyst was designed and synthesized using terrestrial lignin and algal polysaccharide as a carbon substrate. The Ru clusters were anchored on the S-doped carbon aerogel (P-Ru/SC) by carefully designing the Ru-S bond via a novel plasma assisted high temperature carbonization treatment. The optimized P-Ru/SC-2 catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance for the HER and OER, achieving ultra-small overpotentials of 119.6 mV and 193.4 mV at 10 mA cm-2. The dual-electrode requires only 1.47 V to reach 10 mA cm-2. It is worth noting that a large number of S sites on graphited carbon can strongly interact with the Ru clusters, significantly improving the catalytic activity and stability for the HER and OER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]