Niobate nanosheet membranes with enhanced stability for nanofiltration.

Niobate nanosheets are assembled into thin membranes by a vacuum filtration. The nanosheet membranes have a dense and stable structure in water via chemical cross-linking and show higher permeance and salt rejection compared with graphene oxide membranes. A water pathway model based on the void structure is presented to explain the membrane performances.

Dual doping effects (site blockage and electronic promotion) imposed by adatoms on Pd nanocrystals for catalytic hydrogen production.

Three distinctive doping effects to modify the electronic and geometric properties of Pd nanocrystals for HCOOH decomposition to H2/CO2 are presented: Bi atoms take preferable residence on higher index sites, which leads to a reduction in HCOOH dehydration; Te atoms dwell favourably on terrace sites, which reduces the rate of dehydrogenation; Ag atoms, without site specificity, induce strong electronic effects to promote the activity on the dwindling number of surface Pd sites at high coverage.