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Electrolysis of seawater makes full use of this natural resource and continuously turns it into a clean fuel, hydrogen. Electrocatalysts for seawater electrolysis must maintain a steady-state operation without suffering from chloride corrosion. In this study, we report a three-dimensional structure metal phosphide electrocatalyst by depositing cobalt-doped Fe2P (Co-Fe2P) on Ni foam. Density functional theory calculations showed that Co-Fe2P was beneficial for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) because of its suitable H* adsorption. Thus, the as-prepared Co-Fe2P acted as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst, exhibiting enhanced electrocatalytic properties for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and HER. Moreover, the simulated alkaline seawater was used to determine the optimum potential (1.69 V at 100 mA cm−2) required for seawater splitting using the as-synthesized electrocatalyst. This study proposes a novel material for electrocatalytic application.

Photoreduction of soluble U(VI) into insoluble U(IV) servers as a novel and efficient approach for U(VI) enrichment, where semiconductors are generally applied as the photocatalysts. Unfortunately, only a part of sunlight is utilized during the photoreduction process, significantly limiting the treatment performance for U(VI). Herein, we successfully constructed highly active and stable photocatalysts for the photo-assisted treatment of U(VI) by depositing Cu80Co5Ni5Cd5In5 nanocrystals on porous ZnO (CCNCI/ZnO) to efficiently expand the response region of sunlight. Impressively, the U(VI) enrichment capacity of CCNCI/ZnO was up to 2405.3 mg/g within 60 min. Moreover, CCNCI/ZnO exhibited excellent stability during photocatalysis due to the enhanced entropy of Cu80Co5Ni5Cd5In5 nanocrystals. Further mechanistic studies indicated that Cu80Co5Ni5Cd5In5 nanocrystals in CCNCI/ZnO generated hot electrons under visible light, followed by the transformation of hot electrons to porous ZnO via the Schottky barrier. Hot carriers efficiently reduced U(VI) over CCNCI/ZnO, contributing to the remarkable performance during U(VI) enrichment.

The electronic configuration plays a crucial role in the activity of catalyst toward OER according to Shao-Horn’s principle. Herein, we demonstrated a facile strategy to modulate the electrons of doubly degenerated (eg) orbital for Co ions in Co4Nx (0

Utilization of infrared (IR)/near-infrared (NIR) light paves an opportunity to improve the efficiency of N2 photofixation under full-spectrum irradiation, but remains as a grand challenge. Herein, a highly active photocatalyst toward NIR light-driven N2 photofixation was successfully developed by construction of plasmonic Ti3C2Tx MXene and TiO2 hybrid structures (Ti3C2Tx/TiO2-400). Impressively, Ti3C2Tx/TiO2-400 exhibited remarkable activity in N2 photofixation under full-spectrum irradiation of Xenon lamp, attaining an NH3 production rate of 422 μmol gcat.–1 h–1 without any sacrificial agents. More importantly, superior activity under NIR light was even achieved for Ti3C2Tx/TiO2-400 with the NH3 production rate up to 82 μmol gcat.–1 h–1 by applying 740-nm monochromatic light. Further mechanistic studies revealed that plasmonic Ti3C2Tx Mxene phase in Ti3C2Tx/TiO2-400 enabled the harvesting of NIR light. Moreover, oxygen vacancies in TiO2 phase of Ti3C2Tx/TiO2-400 served as the active centers to efficiently adsorb and activate N2.