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A chiral metal-organic framework (CMOF) with open chiral channels and multiple recognition sites is constructed from camphoric acid and a dipyridyl ligand. It can act as an efficient chiral solid adsorbent, capable of separating a variety of racemic alcohols and epoxides with excellent enantioselectivities.

A biomimetic metal–organic framework with cuboid inner cavities and multiple recognition sites was constructed from a phenylalanine-derived ligand. It can enantioselectively separate various racemic alcohols, diols and epoxides with ee up to 99.5%.

Porous photoelectrodes show high efficiency in hydrogen production by water splitting. However, fabrication of porous nanorods is usually difficult. Here, we report a simple approach to fabricate a kind of novel porous rutile titanium dioxide nanorod array by an advanced ion implantation method using multiple-energy helium ion implantation and subsequent annealing. The porous nanostructure enhances the photoelectrochemical performance of the titanium dioxide nanorod array photoelectrodes under Uv-visible light illumination, where the highest photocurrent density was relatively about 10 times higher than that of the pristine titanium dioxide nanorod array. The formation of nanocavities mainly contributes to the enhancement of the photocurrent density by trapping holes inside to separate the charge carriers. The study demonstrates that ion implantation could be an effective approach to develop novel porous nanostructural photoelectrodes for the application of hydrogen production.

ZnFe2O4 modified α-Fe2O3 nanorod array films were successfully synthesized by aqueous solution growth followed by a spin coating process and studied for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting under solar light. Through the spin coating process, ZnFe2O4 was found mainly to exist at the top surface of the α-Fe2O3 nanorod arrays. After being modified by ZnFe2O4, the α-Fe2O3 nanorod film was identified as a suitable surface treatment, and showed an increased photocurrent density when used as the photoanode. It was demonstrated that ZnFe2O4 increased the charge carrier density and acted as the oxidation cocatalyst. These results suggested that surface treatment by ZnFe2O4 should be a practical strategy to improve the efficiency of α-Fe2O3 or other metal oxide photoanodes for PEC solar fuel conversion.