Search

The cations in the solution spontaneously exchange with the constituent atoms in metal nanoparticles, forming single-atom alloys (SAAs) catalysts. The prepared PdRu SAA catalyst exhibited superior activity than commercial Pt for methanol oxidation reaction.

Heterojunction architectures on Ni–Sb–SnO2 (NSS) electrocatalysts tuned electrochemical ozone generation efficiency, described by the potential of zero charge in Sabatier's volcano trends with NSS/SiOx at the apex.

Water electrolysis is a promising solution to convert renewable energy sources to hydrogen as a high-energy-density energy carrier. Although alkaline conditions extend the scope of electrocatalysts beyond precious metal-based materials to earth-abundant materials, the sluggish kinetics of cathodic and anodic reactions (hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions, respectively) impede the development of practical electrocatalysts that do not use precious metals. This review discusses the rational design of efficient electrocatalysts by exploiting the understanding of alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction mechanisms and of the electron structure-activity relationship, as achieved by combining experimental and computational approaches. The enhancement of water splitting not only deals with intrinsic catalytic activity but also includes the aspect of electrical conductivity and stability. Future perspectives to increase the synergy between theory and experiment are also proposed.

CO2 hydrogenation to formic acid/formate is regarded as a promising strategy for achieving a sustainable circular-carbon economy. Herein, we report the catalytic behavior of nitrogen-doped carbon (NC)-immobilized ruthenium (RuCl3) catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to formate. The NC supports were prepared at various temperatures by a facile one-step ionothermal carbonization process. The total N content and pyrrolic-N structures decreased with increasing carbonization temperature, whereas the graphitic-N structures increased. The optimized 2Ru/NC750 catalyst showed excellent turnover numbers of 4468 in a 2 h and 18,212 in a 12 h reaction at 120 °C and 8.0 MPa, and good stability, maintaining its original characteristics when recycled. The HRSTEM and XPS analyses revealed that ruthenium existed as highly dispersed atomic-scale Ru3+ species on the NC supports. Deactivation of the catalysts was attributed to (1) loss of Ru3+, (2) migration of Ru3+, and (3) reduction of Ru3+ to Ru0. It is induced that the origin of deactivation can be closely related to the binding of Ru on NC supports. DFT simulations showed that the pyrrolic-N structure was the most stable RuCl3 binding site, corresponding to experimental results. Thus, the superior performance of the 2Ru/NC750 catalyst was attributed to the strong binding of Ru to pyrrolic-N.