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Sustainable bioconversion of glycerol into 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) and 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) is often bottlenecked by the accumulation of a toxic metabolic intermediate, 3-hydroxypropana...

Starch, being one of the most abundant polysaccharides in nature, has been modified as starch-based thermoplastic materials for decades. In this work, we have demonstrated a green and facile method...

Lignin, as a byproduct from the paper industry and biorefineries, has been used as a renewable alternative to the conventional catalyst for future industrial application. However, due to the comple...

Hollow carbon spheres (hCSs) have recently been emerging as low-cost and promising cathode catalysts toward triiodide reduction for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). However, it is still challenging and questionable for hCSs-based counter electrodes (CEs) to compete with traditional Pt CEs in DSSCs. Herein, nitrogen-enriched hCSs with atomically dispersed Co–Nx–C moieties (Co–N–hCSs) are synthesized via a calcination of cobalt-ions-absorbed N-enriched hollow copolymer sphere precursor. As inferred from cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and Tafel polarization curves, the Co–N–hCSs display superior electrocatalytic activity and electrochemical stability. This excellent catalytic behavior can essentially be attributed to the high intrinsic electrocatalytic activity derived from the Co–Nx–C moieties, along with the robust N-enriched hollow sphere structure. As a result, the DSSCs with Co–N–hCSs as counter electrodes present an encouraging power conversion efficiency of 7.71%, which...

The synthesis of nickel cobalt sulfide is well-established because of its good electrical conductivity and great structural flexibility with low cost. It is extremely challenging to fabricate a unique structure with high tap density to improve its volumetric energy density and practical application. Here, we report a simple one-step hydrothermal method to synthesize micron-sized Ni–Co mixed sulfide solid spheres (1–2 μm in diameter). Because of the high tap density of more than 1.0 g cm–3 and the unique structure, the Ni–Co mixed sulfides demonstrate exceptional energy-storage performance. When acting as an electrode material for supercapacitors, these Ni–Co solid spheres can deliver a specific capacitance of 1492 F g–1 at a current density of 1.0 A g–1, and a retention of 76% at 10 A g–1 after 10 000 cycles. An asymmetric supercapacitor based on these solid spheres exhibits a high energy density of 48.4 W h kg–1 at a power density of 371.2 W kg–1 with excellent long-term cycling performance (91% retentio...

Owing to the scarcity of platinum resources and their visible flaw with poor durability and severe anode methanol crossover, Pt-based catalysts for catalyzing ORR have been experiencing some problems lately. Hence, nonprecious metal catalysts which are expected to replace platinum-based catalysts have become popular green sustainable development topics. We chose a facile pyrolysis method for the synthesis of this material, making the resulting coating material present a state of effectively encapsulating all cobalt nanoparticles into slim nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes after process optimization, and the cobalt content even reached 20.9 wt %. In the catalytic aspect, the optimized Co@NSCNTs show a half wave potential equivalent to Pt/C in alkaline medium. Then, better durability (after 60,000 s chronoamperometry, the current retention still remains 95%) and commendable resistance to methanol crossover performed than the literature confirmed. All these characteristics superior to Pt/C should be ascribed t...