Treasure-bowl style bifunctional site in cerium-tungsten hetero-clusters for superior solar-driven hydrogen production.

Electrochemical water splitting powered by renewable energy sources hold potential for clean hydrogen production. However, there is still persistent challenges such as low solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency and sluggish oxygen evolution reactions. Here, we address the poor kinetics by studying and strengthening the coupling between Ce and W, and concurrently establishing Ce-W bi-atomic clusters on P,N-doped carbon (WN/WC-CeO2-x@PNC) with a "treasure-bowl" style. The bifunctional active sites are established using a novel and effective self-sacrificial strategy involving in situ induced defect formation. In addition, by altering the coupling of the W(d)-N(p) and W(d)-Ce(f) orbitals in the WN/WC-CeO2-x supramolecular clusters, we are able to disrupt the linear relationship between the binding energies of reaction intermediates, a key to obtain high catalytic performance for transition metals. Through the confinement of the WN/WC-CeO2-x composite hetero-clusters within the sub-nanometre spaces of hollow nano-bowl-shaped carbon reactors, a stable and efficient hydrogen production via water electrolysis could be achieved. When assembled together with a solar GaAs triple junction solar cell, a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 18.92% in alkaline media could be realized. We show that the key to establish noble metal free catalysts with high efficiency lies in the fine-tuning of the metal-metal interface, forming regions with near optimal adsorption energies for the reaction intermediates participating in water electrolysis.

Constructing Amorphous-Crystalline Interfacial Bifunctional Site Island-Sea Synergy by Morphology Engineering Boosts Alkaline Seawater Hydrogen Evolution.

The development of efficient and durable non-precious hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts for scaling up alkaline water/seawater electrolysis is highly desirable but challenging. Amorphous-crystalline (A-C) heterostructures have garnered attention due to their unusual atomic arrangements at hetero-interfaces, highly exposed active sites, and excellent stability. Here, a heterogeneous synthesis strategy for constructing A-C non-homogeneous interfacial centers of electrocatalysts on nanocages is presented. Isolated PdCo clusters on nanoscale islands in conjunction with Co3 S4 A-C, functioning as a bifunctional site "island-sea" synergy, enable the dynamic confinement design of metal active atoms, resulting in excellent HER catalytic activity and durability. The hierarchical structure of hollow porous nanocages and nanoclusters, along with their large surface area and multi-dimensional A-C boundaries and defects, provides the catalyst with abundant active centers. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the combination of PdCo and Co3 S4 regulates the redistribution of interface electrons effectively, promoting the sluggish water-dissociation kinetics at the cluster Co sites. Additionally, PdCo-Co3 S4  heterostructure nanocages exhibit outstanding HER activity in alkaline seawater and long-term stability for 100 h, which can be powered by commercial silicon solar cells. This finding significantly advances the development of alkaline seawater electrolysis for large-scale hydrogen production.

Dense Crystalline/Amorphous Phosphides/Oxides Interfacial Sites for Enhanced Industrial-Level Large Current Density Seawater Oxidation.

Designing high-efficiency and low-cost catalysts with high current densities for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical for commercial seawater electrolysis. Here, we present a heterophase synthetic strategy for constructing an electrocatalyst with dense heterogeneous interfacial sites among crystalline Ni2P, Fe2P, CeO2, and amorphous NiFeCe oxides on nickel foam (NF). The synergistic effect of high-density crystalline and amorphous heterogeneous interfaces effectively promotes the redistribution of the charge density and optimizes the adsorbed oxygen intermediates, lowering the energy barrier and promoting the O2 desorption, thus enhancing the OER performance. The obtained NiFeO-CeO2/NF catalyst exhibited outstanding OER catalytic activity, with low overpotentials of 338 and 408 mV required to attain high current densities of 500 and 1000 mA cm-2, respectively, in alkaline natural seawater electrolytes. The solar-driven seawater electrolysis system presents a record-setting and stable solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 20.10%. This work provides directives for developing highly effective and stable catalysts for large-scale clean energy production.

Oleic acid-induced steatosis model establishment in LMH cells and its effect on lipid metabolism.

Hepatic steatosis is a highly prevalent liver disease, yet research on it is hampered by the lack of tractable cellular models in poultry. To examine the possibility of using organoids to model steatosis and detect it efficiently in leghorn male hepatocellular (LMH) cells, we first established steatosis using different concentrations of oleic acid (OA) (0.05-0.75 mmol/L) for 12 or 24 h. The subsequent detections found that the treatment of LMH cells with OA resulted in a dramatic increase in intracellular triglyceride (TG) concentrations, which was positively associated with the concentration of the inducing OA (R2 > 0.9). Then, the modeled steatosis was detected by flow cytometry after NileRed staining and it was found that the intensity of NileRed-A was positively correlated with the TG concentration (R2 > 0.93), which demonstrates that the flow cytometry is suitable for the detection of steatosis in LMH cells. According to the detection results of the different steatosis models, we confirmed that the optimal induction condition for the establishment of the steatosis model in LMH cells is OA (0.375 mmol/L) incubation for 12 h. Finally, the transcription and protein content of fat metabolism-related genes in steatosis model cells were detected. It was found that OA-induced steatosis could significantly decrease the expression of nuclear receptor PPAR-γ and the synthesis of fatty acids (SREBP-1C, ACC1, FASN), increasing the oxidative decomposition of triglycerides (CPT1A) and the assembly of low-density lipoproteins (MTTP, ApoB). Sterol metabolism in model cells was also significantly enhanced (HMGR, ABCA1, L-BABP). This study established, detected, and analyzed an OA-induced steatosis model in LMH cells, which provides a stable model and detection method for the study of poultry steatosis-related diseases.

Application of Organic Amine Modified Natural Zeolite in Filling Natural Rubber.

In this paper, the method of filling natural rubber with zeolite as filler was mainly studied in the following two aspects: firstly, experiments selected organic amine surface modifier to modify natural zeolite and used infrared spectroscopy to analyze the interaction between the modifier and zeolite, and secondly, studying the application of modified zeolite in natural rubber and using scanning electron microscopy to analyze the mechanism of action between zeolite and natural rubber. The test results show that octadecylamine in the modifier had the relatively best effect. Under the best conditions, the activation index of the modified product could reach 95% and above, and the contact angle could reach about 100°. When the filling amount was 30 phr, the octadecylamine modification had the most obvious effect on the performance of zeolite/natural rubber and the composite rubber had better mechanical properties. The corresponding tensile strength, tear strength, elongation at break and Shore hardness were 22.59 MPa, 28.52 MPa, 782.1% and 41, respectively, which were 45.74%, 19.28%, 7.95% and 7.89% higher than those of unmodified zeolite/natural rubber. As the first study of organic amine modified zeolite as a filler for filling natural rubber, this work provides a new way to improve the added value of natural zeolite.