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Direct formate fuel cells (DFFCs) as promising energy technologies have been applied for portable and wearable devices. However, for the formate oxidation reaction (FOR), the deficiency of catalysts has prevented DFFCs from practical applications. Herein, we prepared a Pd-loaded CeO2 catalyst through a simple steam treatment at 400 °C to enhance the catalytic FOR performance. In comparison with the counterpart of Pd/CeO2 without stream treatment, the as-prepared Pd/CeO2-ST catalyst has a lower onset potential of 381 mV and a lower peak potential of 0.64 V with a higher peak current of 10.62 mA cm-2. The experimental results show that the enhanced FOR properties of Pd/CeO2-ST are ascribed to the introduction of surface reactive oxygen species to the CeO2 substrate, which substantially promotes the desorption of adsorbed hydrogen (H*) intermediates. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that on the surface of CeO2, the abundant oxygen vacancies boost the OH* adsorption ability and accelerate the kinetics of the potential-limiting step. This work not only proposes a new strategy for enhancing the activity of FOR catalysts but also highlights the understanding of the FOR mechanism in alkaline media for DFFC applications.

An NHC-catalyzed α-carbon amination of chloroaldehydes was developed. Cyclohexadiene-1,2-diimines are used as amination reagents and four-atom synthons. Our reaction affords optically enriched dihydroquinoxalines that are core structures in natural products and synthetic bioactive molecules. NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore) ASTAR (Agency for Sci., Tech. and Research, S’pore) MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Accepted version

Controlled syntheses of PtNi metal nanocrystals with unique structures for catalyzing oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs) have attracted great interest. Here, we report the one-step synthesis of single-crystal PtNi octahedra with in situ-developed highly concave features and self-confined composition that are optimal for ORR. Detailed studies revealed that the Pt-rich seeding, subsequent Pt/Ni co-reduction, and Pt–Ni interfusion resulted in uniform single-crystal PtNi octahedra, and that the combination of Ni facet segregation and oxygen etching of a Ni-rich surface led to the concavity and confined Ni content. The concave PtNi nanocrystals exhibited much higher ORR performance than the commercially available Pt/C catalyst in terms of both specific activity (29.1 times higher) and mass activity (12.9 times higher) at 0.9 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)). The performance was also higher than that of PtNi octahedra without concavity, confirming that the higher activity was closely related to its morphology. Moreover, the concave octahedra also exhibited remarkable stability in ORR (93% mass activity remained after 10,000 cycles between 0.6 and 1.1 V vs. RHE) owing to the passivation of the unstable sites.

A carbene-catalyzed enantioselective addition of benzylic carbon to α,β-unsaturated acyl azolium intermediate generated via N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis is disclosed. This addition is followed by a stereoselective Mannich reaction and a chemo-selective lactam formation cascade to afford pyrrolo[3,2-c]quinolones as the products with excellent yields and optical purities. This work constitutes an effective asymmetric benzyl sp3-carbon functionalization and single-step rapid access to multicyclic heterocycles bearing four contiguous chiral centers. NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore) ASTAR (Agency for Sci., Tech. and Research, S’pore) MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Accepted version

A Cu2O nanoparticle catalyzed borylation of activated and unactivated alkyl bromides is developed, using bis(pinacolato)diboron as a boron source. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of a heterogeneous Cu2O nanocatalyst applied in the direct synthesis of primary and secondary alkylboronic esters. Our catalytic system features mild reaction conditions, high yield (nearly 100%) and the absence of ligands which otherwise are essential in homogenous catalysis.

Reinventing the wheel: Bimetallic AuPd nanowheels, a freestanding form of 2D AuPd nanostructures, were synthesized in a one-pot process. The well-defined and tunable surface plasmon resonance displayed by these nanowheels was exploited in a unique catalytic process in which light energy was used to drive catalytic reactions, such as the Suzuki coupling, with much higher efficiency than that of the conventional heating process.

A facile strategy to Pt3Ni nanocrystals with highly porous features is developed. The integration of a high surface area and rich step/edge atoms endows the nanocrystals with an impressive oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) specific activity and mass activity. These nanocrystals are more stable in ORR and show a small activity change after 6000 potential sweeps. This is a promising material for practical electrocatalytic applications.

Channeling a good catalyst: Highly porous palladium nanostructures (pPdNs) with perpendicular pore channels were prepared under mild conditions. The combination of high surface area and rich edge/corner atoms gives pPdNs better catalytic performance than known Pd catalysts for the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene and styrene and the Suzuki coupling reaction.

Molecular ligand modulation of Pd nanoparticle catalysts achieves exceptional activity and stability., Metallic nanoparticles are emerging as an exciting class of heterogeneous catalysts with the potential advantages of exceptional activity, stability, recyclability, and easier separation than homogeneous catalysts. The traditional colloid nanoparticle syntheses usually involve strong surface binding ligands that could passivate the surface active sites and result in poor catalytic activity. The subsequent removal of surface ligands could reactivate the surface but often leads to metal ion leaching and/or severe Ostwald ripening with diminished catalytic activity or poor stability. Molecular ligand engineering represents a powerful strategy for the design of homogeneous molecular catalysts but is insufficiently explored for nanoparticle catalysts to date. We report a systematic investigation on molecular ligand modulation of palladium (Pd) nanoparticle catalysts. Our studies show that β-functional groups of butyric acid ligand on Pd nanoparticles can significantly modulate the catalytic reaction process to modify the catalytic activity and stability for important aerobic reactions. With a β-hydroxybutyric acid ligand, the Pd nanoparticle catalysts exhibit exceptional catalytic activity and stability with an unsaturated turnover number (TON) >3000 for dehydrogenative oxidation of cyclohexenone to phenol, greatly exceeding that of homogeneous Pd(II) catalysts (TON, ~30). This study presents a systematic investigation of molecular ligand modulation of nanoparticle catalysts and could open up a new pathway toward the design and construction of highly efficient and robust heterogeneous catalysts through molecular ligand engineering.

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst supported by hybrid composite materials is prepared by well-mixing carbon black (CB) with Pt-loaded reduced graphene oxide (RGO). With the insertion of CB particles between RGO sheets, stacking of RGO can be effectively prevented, promoting diffusion of oxygen molecules through the RGO sheets and enhancing the ORR electrocatalytic activity. The accelerated durability test (ADT) demonstrates that the hybrid supporting material can dramatically enhance the durability of the catalyst and retain the electrochemical surface area (ECSA) of Pt: the final ECSA of the Pt nanocrystal on the hybrid support after 20 000 ADT cycles is retained at95%, much higher than the commercially available catalyst. We suggest that the unique 2D profile of the RGO functions as a barrier, preventing leaching of Pt into the electrolyte, and the CB in the vicinity acts as active sites to recapture/renucleate the dissolved Pt species. We furthermore demonstrate that the working mechanism can be applied to the commercial Pt/C product to greatly enhance its durability.

A Cu2O nanoparticle catalyzed borylation of activated and unactivated alkyl bromides is developed, using bis(pinacolato)diboron as a boron source. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of a heterogeneous Cu2O nanocatalyst applied in the direct synthesis of primary and secondary alkylboronic esters. Our catalytic system features mild reaction conditions, high yield (nearly 100%) and the absence of ligands which otherwise are essential in homogenous catalysis.

We report a highly efficient photocatalyst comprised of Cu7S4@Pd heteronanostructures with plasmonic absorption in the near-infrared (NIR)-range. Our results indicated that the strong NIR plasmonic absorption of Cu7S4@Pd facilitated hot carrier transfer from Cu7S4 to Pd, which subsequently promoted the catalytic reactions on Pd metallic surface. We confirmed such enhancement mechanism could effectively boost the sunlight utilization in a wide range of photocatalytic reactions, including the Suzuki coupling reaction, hydrogenation of nitrobenzene, and oxidation of benzyl alcohol. Even under irradiation at 1500 nm with low power density (0.45 W/cm(2)), these heteronanostructures demonstrated excellent catalytic activities. Under solar illumination with power density as low as 40 mW/cm(2), nearly 80-100% of conversion was achieved within 2 h for all three types of organic reactions. Furthermore, recycling experiments showed the Cu7S4@Pd were stable and could retain their structures and high activity after five cycles. The reported synthetic protocol can be easily extended to other Cu7S4@M (M = Pt, Ag, Au) catalysts, offering a new solution to design and fabricate highly effective photocatalysts with broad material choices for efficient conversion of solar energy to chemical energy in an environmentally friendly manner.

Titanium oxide (TiO2) represents one of most widely studied materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting but is severely limited by its poor efficiency in the visible light range. Here, we report a significant enhancement of visible light photoactivity in nitrogen-implanted TiO2 (N-TiO2) nanowire arrays. Our systematic studies show that a post-implantation thermal annealing treatment can selectively enrich the substitutional nitrogen dopants, which is essential for activating the nitrogen implanted TiO2 to achieve greatly enhanced visible light photoactivity. An incident photon to electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) of ∼10% is achieved at 450 nm in N-TiO2 without any other cocatalyst, far exceeding that in pristine TiO2 nanowires (∼0.2%). The integration of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) cocatalyst with N-TiO2 can further increase the IPCE at 450 nm to ∼17% and deliver an unprecedented overall photocurrent density of 1.9 mA/cm(2), by integrating the IPCE spectrum with standard AM 1.5G solar spectrum. Systematic photoelectrochemical and electrochemical studies demonstrated that the enhanced PEC performance can be attributed to the significantly improved visible light absorption and more efficient charge separation. Our studies demonstrate the implantation approach can be used to reliably dope TiO2 to achieve the best performed N-TiO2 photoelectrodes to date and may be extended to fundamentally modify other semiconductor materials for PEC water splitting.

We report a facile synthetic strategy to single-crystalline PtPd nanocrystals with controllable shapes and tunable compositions. In the developed synthesis, the molar ratio of the starting precursors determines the composition in the final PtPd nanocrystals, while the halides function as the shape-directing agent to induce the formation of PtPd nanocrystals with cubic or octahedral/tetrahedral morphology. These obtained PtPd nanocrystals exhibit high activity in the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene, and their performance is highly shape- and composition-dependent with Pt in ∼50% showing the optimum activity and the {100}-facet-enclosed PtPd nanocrystals demonstrating a higher activity than the {111}-facet-bounded PtPd nanocrystals.