Regulating Lewis Acidic Sites of 1T-2H MoS2 Catalysts for Solar-Driven Photothermal Catalytic H2 Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass.

Solar-driven photothermal catalytic H2 production from lignocellulosic biomass was achieved by using 1T-2H MoS2 with tunable Lewis acidic sites as catalysts in an alkaline aqueous solution, in which the number of Lewis acidic sites derived from the exposed Mo edges of MoS2 was successfully regulated by both the formation of an edge-terminated 1T-2H phase structure and tunable layer number. Owing to the abundant Lewis acidic sites for the oxygenolysis of lignocellulosic biomass, the 1T-2H MoS2 catalyst shows high photothermal catalytic lignocellulosic biomass-to-H2 transformation performance in polar wood chips, bamboo, rice straw corncobs, and rice hull aqueous solutions, and the highest H2 generation rate and solar-to-H2 (STH) efficiency respectively achieves 3661 µmol·h-1·g-1 and 0.18% in the polar wood chip system under 300 W Xe lamp illumination. This study provides a sustainable and cost-effective method for the direct transformation of renewable lignocellulosic biomass to H2 fuel driven by solar energy.

Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation Coupled with the Generation of Value-Added Chemicals from N2 and Cellulose over MoO3 Nanosheets.

Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation from N2 provides an alternative strategy for ammonia (NH3) production, but it was limited by the consumption of a sacrificial electron donor for the currently reported half-reaction system. Here, we use naturally abundant and renewable cellulose as the sacrificial reagent for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation over oxygen-vacancy-modified MoO3 nanosheets as the photocatalyst. In this smartly designed photocatalytic system, the photooxidation of cellulose not only generates value-added chemicals but also provides electrons for the N2 reduction reaction and results in the production of NH3 with a maximum rate of 68 µmol·h-1·g-1. Also, the oxygen vacancies provide efficient active sites for both cellulose oxygenolysis and nitrogen fixation reactions. This work represents useful inspiration for realizing nitrogen fixation coupled with the generation of value-added chemicals from N2 and cellulose through a photocatalysis strategy.

Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Cellulose-to-H2 Conversion by MoS2 /ZnIn2 S4 Photocatalyst with Cellulase Assistance.

Visible-light-driven photocatalytic cellulose-to-H2 conversion system was successfully designed by using MoS2 /ZnIn2 S4 as the photocatalyst and cellulase as the enzyme catalyst. At first, the cellulose was converted to glucose by cellulase. The generated glucose acted as an efficient hole trapper and electron donor, which was further converted into H2 through photocatalytic reaction over MoS2 /ZnIn2 S4 under visible light irradiation. The optimum H2 generation rate achieved under visible light irradiation (λ>420 nm) was 12.2 µmol ⋅ h-1 ⋅ g-1 in the presence of 100 mg of 3 % MoS2 /ZnIn2 S4 , 100 mg cellulase and 2 g poplar wood chip. These results open up a new possibility for the development of efficient visible-light-responding photocatalytic cellulose to H2 conversion system that combine photocatalysis and enzyme technology.

MoS2@N-doped graphitic carbon/TiO2 photocatalysts for photocatalytic H2 production from lignocellulosic biomass.

TiO2 nanoparticles grown on MoS2/N-doped graphitic carbon were demonstrated to be efficient noble-metal-free photocatalysts for H2 production from lignocellulosic biomass, and the H2 generation rate from wheat straw, corncob, polar wood chip, bamboo, rice hull, corn straw and rice straw aqueous solution respectively reaches 4.9, 6.7, 11.7, 14.5, 8.4, 7.3 and 6.2 µmol g-1 h-1.

Solar-Driven Photothermal Catalytic Lignocellulosic Biomass-to-H2 Conversion.

The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to chemical fuel can achieve the sustainable use of lignocellulosic biomass, but it was limited by the lack of an effective conversion strategy. Here, we reported a unique approach of photothermal catalysis by using MoS2-reduced graphene oxide (MoS2/RGO) as the catalyst to convert lignocellulosic biomass into H2 fuel in alkaline solution. The RGO acting as a support for the growth of MoS2 results in the high exposed Mo edges, which act as efficient Lewis acidic sites for the oxygenolysis of lignocellulosic biomass dissolved in alkaline solution. The broad light absorption capacity and abundant Lewis acidic sites make MoS2/RGO to be efficient catalysts for photothermal catalytic H2 production from lignocellulosic biomass, and the H2 generation rate with respect to catalyst under 300 W Xe lamp irradiation in cellulose, rice straw, wheat straw, polar wood chip, bamboo, rice hull, and corncob aqueous solution achieve 223, 168, 230, 564, 390, 234, and 55 µmol·h-1·g-1, respectively. It is believed that this photothermal catalysis is a simple and "green" approach for the lignocellulosic biomass-to-H2 conversion, which would have great potential as a promising approach for solar energy-driven H2 production from lignocellulosic biomass.

SiP Nanosheets: A Metal-Free Two-Dimensional Photocatalyst for Visible-Light Photocatalytic H2 Production and Nitrogen Fixation.

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors for photocatalysis are more advantageous than the other photocatalytic materials since the 2D semiconductors generally have large specific surface area and abundant active sites. Phosphorus silicon (SiP), with an indirect bandgap in bulk and a direct bandgap in the monolayer, has recently emerged as an attractive 2D material because of its anisotropic layered structure, tunable bandgap, and high charge carrier mobility. However, the utilization of SiP as a photocatalyst for photocatalysis has been scarcely studied experimentally. Herein, we reported the synthesis of SiP nanosheets (SiP NSs) prepared from bulk SiP by an ultrasound-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation approach which can act as a metal-free, efficient, and visible-light-responsive photocatalyst for photocatalytic H2 production and nitrogen fixation. In a half-reaction system, the maximal H2 and NH3 generation rate under visible light irradiation achieves 528 and 35 µmol·h-1·g-1, respectively. Additionally, the apparent quantum yield for H2 production at 420 nm reaches 3.56%. Furthermore, a Z-scheme photocatalytic overall water-splitting system was successfully constructed by using Pt-loaded SiP NSs as the H2-evolving photocatalyst, Co3O4/BiVO4 as the O2-evolving photocatalyst, and Co(bpy)33+/2+ as an electron mediator. Notably, the highest H2 and O2 generation rate with respect to Pt/SiP NSs achieves 71 and 31 µmol·h-1·g-1, respectively. This study explores the potential application of 2D SiP as a metal-free visible-light-responsive photocatalyst for photocatalysis.

Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Phytophthora infestans: new haplotypes are identified and re-defined by PCR.

Polymorphisms of mitochondrial DNA (mt-DNA) are particularly useful for monitoring specific pathogen populations like Phytophthora infestans. Basically type I and II of P. infestans mt-DNA were categorized by means of polymorphism lengths caused by an ~2 kb insertion, which can be detected via restriction enzyme digestion. In addition genome sequencing of haplotype Ib has been used as a simple Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method to indirectly identify type I and II alterations through EcoR I restriction enzyme DNA fragment patterns of the genomic P4 area. However, with the common method, wrong mt-DNA typing occurs due to an EcoR I recognition site mutation in the P4 genomic area. Genome sequencing of the four haplotypes (Ia, Ib, IIa, and IIb) allowed us to thoroughly examine mt-DNA polymorphisms and we indentified two hypervariable regions (HVRs) named HVRi and HVRii. The HVRi length polymorphism caused by a 2 kb insertion/deletion was utilized to identify mt-DNA types I and II, while another length polymorphism in the HVRii region is caused by a variable number of tandem repeats (n = 1, 2, or 3) of a 36 bp sized DNA stretch and was further used to determine mt-DNA sub-types, which were described as R(n = 1, 2, or 3). Finally, the P. infestans mt-DNA haplotypes were re-defined as IR(1) or IIR(2) according to PCR derived HVRi and HVRii length polymorphisms. Twenty-three isolates were chosen to verify the feasibility of our new approach for identifying mt-DNA haplotypes and a total of five haplotypes (IR(1), IR(2), IR(3), IIR(2) and IIR(3)) were identified. Additionally, we found that six isolates determined as type I by our method were mistakenly identified as type II by the PCR-RFLP technique. In conclusion, we propose a simple and rapid PCR method for identification of mt-DNA haplotypes based on sequence analyses of the mitochondrial P. infestans genome.