Dimethyl Carbonate Synthesis from CO2 over CeO2 with Electron-Enriched Lattice Oxygen Species.

Direct synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from CO2 plays an important role in carbon neutrality, but its efficiency is still far from the practical application, due to the limited understanding of the reaction mechanism and rational design of efficient catalyst. Herein, abundant electron-enriched lattice oxygen species were introduced into CeO2 catalyst by constructing the point defects and crystal-terminated phases in the crystal reconstruction process. Benefitting from the acid-base properties modulated by the electron-enriched lattice oxygen, the optimized CeO2 catalyst exhibited a much higher DMC yield of 22.2 mmol g-1 than the reported metal-oxide-based catalysts at the similar conditions. Mechanistic investigations illustrated that the electron-enriched lattice oxygen can provide abundant sites for CO2 adsorption and activation, and was advantageous of the formation of the weakly adsorbed active methoxy species. These were facilitating to the coupling of methoxy and CO2 for the key *CH3OCOO intermediate formation. More importantly, the weakened adsorption of *CH3OCOO on the electron-enriched lattice oxygen can switch the rate-determining-step (RDS) of DMC synthesis from *CH3OCOO formation to *CH3OCOO dissociation, and lower the corresponding activation barriers, thus giving rise to a high performance. This work provides insights into the underlying reaction mechanism for DMC synthesis from CO2 and methanol and the design of highly efficient catalysts.

Expanding Olefin-Linked Covalent Organic Frameworks toward Selective Photocatalytic Oxidation of Organic Sulfides.

Olefin-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have exhibited great potential in visible-light photocatalysis. In principle, expanding fully conjugated COFs can facilitate light absorption and charge transfer, leading to improved photocatalysis. Herein, three olefin-linked COFs with the same topology are synthesized by combining 2,4,6-trimethyl-1,3,5-triazine (TMT) with 1,3,5-triformylbenzene (TFB), 1,3,5-tris(4-formylphenyl)benzene (TFPB), and 1,3,5-tris(4-formylphenylethynyl)benzene (TFPEB), namely, TMT-TFB-COF, TMT-TFPB-COF, and TMT-TFPEB-COF, respectively. From TMT-TFB-COF to TMT-TFPB-COF, expanding phenyl rings provides only limited expansion for π-conjugation due to the steric effect of structural twisting. However, from TMT-TFPB-COF to TMT-TFPEB-COF, the insertion of acetylenes eliminates the steric effect and provides more delocalized π-electrons. As such, TMT-TFPEB-COF exhibits the best optoelectronic properties among these three olefin-linked COFs. Consequently, the photocatalytic performance of TMT-TFPEB-COF is much better than those of TMT-TFB-COF and TMT-TFPB-COF on the oxidation of organic sulfides into sulfoxides with oxygen. The desirable reusability and substrate compatibility of the TMT-TFPEB-COF photocatalyst are further confirmed. The selective formation of organic sulfoxides over TMT-TFPEB-COF under blue light irradiation proceeds via both electron- and energy-transfer pathways. This work highlights a rational design of expanding the π-conjugation of fully conjugated COFs toward selective visible-light photocatalysis.

Spin polarized Fe1-Ti pairs for highly efficient electroreduction nitrate to ammonia.

Electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia offers an attractive solution to environmental sustainability and clean energy production but suffers from the sluggish *NO hydrogenation with the spin-state transitions. Herein, we report that the manipulation of oxygen vacancies can contrive spin-polarized Fe1-Ti pairs on monolithic titanium electrode that exhibits an attractive NH3 yield rate of 272,000 µg h-1 mgFe-1 and a high NH3 Faradic efficiency of 95.2% at -0.4 V vs. RHE, far superior to the counterpart with spin-depressed Fe1-Ti pairs (51000 µg h-1 mgFe-1) and the mostly reported electrocatalysts. The unpaired spin electrons of Fe and Ti atoms can effectively interact with the key intermediates, facilitating the *NO hydrogenation. Coupling a flow-through electrolyzer with a membrane-based NH3 recovery unit, the simultaneous nitrate reduction and NH3 recovery was realized. This work offers a pioneering strategy for manipulating spin polarization of electrocatalysts within pair sites for nitrate wastewater treatment.

Insights into the Diffusion Behaviors of Water over Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic Catalysts During the Conversion of Syngas to High-Quality Gasoline.

Although considerable efforts towards directly converting syngas to liquid fuels through Fischer-Tropsch synthesis have been made, developing catalysts with low CO2 selectivity for the synthesis of high-quality gasoline remains a big challenge. Herein, we designed a bifunctional catalyst composed of hydrophobic FeNa@Si-c and HZSM-5 zeolite, which exhibited a low CO2 selectivity of 14.3 % at 49.8 % CO conversion, with a high selectivity of 62.5 % for gasoline in total products. Molecular dynamic simulations and model experiments revealed that the diffusion of water molecules through hydrophilic catalyst was bidirectional, while the diffusion through hydrophobic catalyst was unidirectional, which were crucial to tune the water-gas shift reaction and control CO2 formation. This work provides a new fundamental understanding about the function of hydrophobic modification of catalysts in syngas conversion.

Finding Key Factors for Efficient Water and Methanol Activation at Metals, Oxides, MXenes, and Metal/Oxide Interfaces.

Activating water and methanol is crucial in numerous catalytic, electrocatalytic, and photocatalytic reactions. Despite extensive research, the optimal active sites for water/methanol activation are yet to be unequivocally elucidated. Here, we combine transition-state searches and electronic charge analyses on various structurally different materials to identify two features of favorable O-H bond cleavage in H2O, CH3OH, and hydroxyl: (1) low barriers appear when the charge of H moieties remains approximately constant during the dissociation process, as observed on metal oxides, MXenes, and metal/oxide interfaces. Such favorable kinetics is closely related to adsorbate/substrate hydrogen bonding and is enhanced by nearly linear O-H-O angles and short O-H distances. (2) Fast dissociation is observed when the rotation of O-H bonds is facile, which is favored by weak adsorbate binding and effective orbital overlap. Interestingly, we find that the two features are energetically proportional. Finally, we find conspicuous differences between H2O/CH3OH and OH activation, which hints toward the use of carefully engineered interfaces.

Fine cubic Cu2O nanocrystals as highly selective catalyst for propylene epoxidation with molecular oxygen.

Propylene epoxidation with O2 to propylene oxide is a very valuable reaction but remains as a long-standing challenge due to unavailable efficient catalysts with high selectivity. Herein, we successfully explore 27 nm-sized cubic Cu2O nanocrystals enclosed with {100} faces and {110} edges as a highly selective catalyst for propylene epoxidation with O2, which acquires propylene oxide selectivity of more than 80% at 90-110 °C. Propylene epoxidation with weakly-adsorbed O2 species at the {110} edge sites exhibits a low barrier and is the dominant reaction occurring at low reaction temperatures, leading to the high propylene oxide selectivity. Such a weakly-adsorbed O2 species is not stable at high reaction temperatures, and the surface lattice oxygen species becomes the active oxygen species to participate in propylene epoxidation to propylene oxide and propylene partial oxidation to acrolein at the {110} edge sites and propylene combustion to CO2 at the {100} face sites, which all exhibit high barriers and result in decreased propylene oxide selectivity.

Engineering the Electronic Structure of Submonolayer Pt on Intermetallic Pd3Pb via Charge Transfer Boosts the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

The efficient electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) plays a key role in accelerating sustainable H2 production from water electrolysis, but its large-scale applications are hindered by the high cost of the state-of-the-art Pt catalyst. In this work, submonolayer Pt was controllably deposited on an intermetallic Pd3Pb nanoplate (AL-Pt/Pd3Pb). The atomic efficiency and electronic structure of the active surface Pt layer were largely optimized, greatly enhancing the acidic HER. AL-Pt/Pd3Pb exhibits an outstanding HER activity with an overpotential of only 13.8 mV at 10 mA/cm2 and a high mass activity of 7834 A/gPd+Pt at -0.05 V, both largely surpassing those of commercial Pt/C (30 mV, 1486 A/gPt). In addition, AL-Pt/Pd3Pb shows excellent stability and robustness. Theoretical calculations show that the improved activity is mainly derived from the charge transfer from Pd3Pb to Pt, resulting in a strong electrostatic interaction that can stabilize the transition state and lower the barrier.

Disentangling the size-dependent geometric and electronic effects of palladium nanocatalysts beyond selectivity.

The prominent size effect of metal nanoparticles shapes decisively nanocatalysis, but entanglement of the corresponding geometric and electronic effects prevents exploiting their distinct functionalities. In this work, we demonstrate that in palladium (Pd)-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol, the geometric and electronic effects interplay and compete so intensively that both activity and selectivity showed in volcano trends on the Pd particle size unprecedentedly. By developing a strategy of site-selective blocking via atomic layer deposition along with first principles calculations, we disentangle these two effects and unveil that the geometric effect dominates the right side of the volcano with larger-size Pd particles, whereas the electronic effect directs the left of the volcano with smaller-size Pd particles substantially. Selective blocking of the low-coordination sites prevents formation of the undesired by-product beyond the volcano relationship, achieving a remarkable benzaldehyde selectivity and activity at the same time for 4-nm Pd. Disentangling the geometric and electronic effects of metal nanoparticles opens a new dimension for rational design of catalysts.

Efficient Oxygen Electrocatalysis by Nanostructured Mixed-Metal Oxides.

Oxygen electrocatalysis plays a critical role in the efficiency of important energy conversion and storage systems. While many efforts have focused on designing efficient electrocatalysts for these processes, optimal catalysts that are inexpensive, active, selective, and stable are still being searched. Nonstoichiometric, mixed-metal oxides present a promising group of electrocatalysts for these processes due to the versatility of the surface composition and fast oxygen conducting properties. Herein, we demonstrate, using a combination of theoretical and experimental studies, the ability to develop design principles that can be used to engineer oxygen electrocatalysis activity of layered, mixed ionic-electronic conducting Ruddlesden-Popper (R-P) oxides. We show that a density function theory (DFT) derived descriptor, O2 binding energy on a surface oxygen vacancy, can be effective in identifying efficient R-P oxide structures for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Using a controlled synthesis method, well-defined nanostructures of R-P oxides are obtained, which along with thermochemical and electrochemical activity studies are used to validate the design principles. This has led to the identification of a highly active ORR electrocatalyst, nanostructured Co-doped lanthanum nickelate oxide, which when incorporated in solid oxide fuel cell cathodes significantly enhances the performance at intermediate temperatures (∼550 °C), while maintaining long-term stability. The reported findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed design principles to engineer mixed ionic-electronic conducting oxides for efficient oxygen electrocatalysis, and the potential of nanostructured Co-doped lanthanum nickelate oxides as promising catalysts for oxygen electrocatalysis.

Trimethylaluminum and Oxygen Atomic Layer Deposition on Hydroxyl-Free Cu(111).

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of alumina using trimethylaluminum (TMA) has technological importance in microelectronics. This process has demonstrated a high potential in applications of protective coatings on Cu surfaces for control of diffusion of Cu in Cu2S films in photovoltaic devices and sintering of Cu-based nanoparticles in liquid phase hydrogenation reactions. With this motivation in mind, the reaction between TMA and oxygen was investigated on Cu(111) and Cu2O/Cu(111) surfaces. TMA did not adsorb on the Cu(111) surface, a result consistent with density functional theory (DFT) calculations predicting that TMA adsorption and decomposition are thermodynamically unfavorable on pure Cu(111). On the other hand, TMA readily adsorbed on the Cu2O/Cu(111) surface at 473 K resulting in the reduction of some surface Cu(1+) to metallic copper (Cu(0)) and the formation of a copper aluminate, most likely CuAlO2. The reaction is limited by the amount of surface oxygen. After the first TMA half-cycle on Cu2O/Cu(111), two-dimensional (2D) islands of the aluminate were observed on the surface by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). According to DFT calculations, TMA decomposed completely on Cu2O/Cu(111). High-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) was used to distinguish between tetrahedrally (Altet) and octahedrally (Aloct) coordinated Al(3+) in surface adlayers. TMA dosing produced an aluminum oxide film, which contained more octahedrally coordinated Al(3+) (Altet/Aloct HREELS peak area ratio ≈ 0.3) than did dosing O2 (Altet/Aloct HREELS peak area ratio ≈ 0.5). After the first ALD cycle, TMA reacted with both Cu2O and aluminum oxide surfaces in the absence of hydroxyl groups until film closure by the fourth ALD cycle. Then, TMA continued to react with surface Al-O, forming stoichiometric Al2O3. O2 half-cycles at 623 K were more effective for carbon removal than O2 half-cycles at 473 K or water half-cycles at 623 K. The growth rate was approximately 3-4 Å/cycle for TMA+O2 ALD (O2 half-cycles at 623 K). No preferential growth of Al2O3 on the steps of Cu(111) was observed. According to STM, Al2O3 grows homogeneously on Cu(111) terraces.

Atomic layer deposition overcoating: tuning catalyst selectivity for biomass conversion.

The terraces, edges, and facets of nanoparticles are all active sites for heterogeneous catalysis. These different active sites may cause the formation of various products during the catalytic reaction. Here we report that the step sites of Pd nanoparticles (NPs) can be covered precisely by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method, whereas the terrace sites remain as active component for the hydrogenation of furfural. Increasing the thickness of the ALD-generated overcoats restricts the adsorption of furfural onto the step sites of Pd NPs and increases the selectivity to furan. Furan selectivities and furfural conversions are linearly correlated for samples with or without an overcoating, though the slopes differ. The ALD technique can tune the selectivity of furfural hydrogenation over Pd NPs and has improved our understanding of the reaction mechanism. The above conclusions are further supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Crystal-plane-controlled selectivity of Cu(2)O catalysts in propylene oxidation with molecular oxygen.

The selective oxidation of propylene with O2 to propylene oxide and acrolein is of great interest and importance. We report the crystal-plane-controlled selectivity of uniform capping-ligand-free Cu2 O octahedra, cubes, and rhombic dodecahedra in catalyzing propylene oxidation with O2 : Cu2 O octahedra exposing {111} crystal planes are most selective for acrolein; Cu2 O cubes exposing {100} crystal planes are most selective for CO2 ; Cu2 O rhombic dodecahedra exposing {110} crystal planes are most selective for propylene oxide. One-coordinated Cu on Cu2 O(111), three-coordinated O on Cu2 O(110), and two-coordinated O on Cu2 O(100) were identified as the catalytically active sites for the production of acrolein, propylene oxide, and CO2 , respectively. These results reveal that crystal-plane engineering of oxide catalysts could be a useful strategy for developing selective catalysts and for gaining fundamental understanding of complex heterogeneous catalytic reactions at the molecular level.

CO oxidation at the perimeters of an FeO/Pt(111) interface and how water promotes the activity: a first-principles study.

The catalytic role of the Pt--Fe cation ensemble presented at the perimeters of the FeO film supported on Pt(111) for low-temperature CO oxidation and the promotion of water on activity were studied by using DFT calculations. We found that the perimeter sites along the edge of the FeO islands on Pt provided a favorable ensemble that consisted of coordinatively unsaturated ferrous species and nearby Pt atoms for O(2) and H(2) O activation free from CO poison. A dissociative oxygen atom at the Pt--Fe cation ensemble reacts easily with CO adsorbed on nearby Pt. The OH group from water dissociation not only facilitates activation of the oxygen molecule, more importantly it opens a facile reaction channel for CO oxidation through the formation of the carboxyl intermediate. The presence of the OH group on the FeO film strengthens interfacial interactions between FeO and Pt(111), which would make the FeO film more resistant to further oxidation. The importance of the Pt--Fe cation ensemble and the role of water as a cocatalyst for low-temperature CO oxidation is highlighted.

Interface-confined ferrous centers for catalytic oxidation.

Coordinatively unsaturated ferrous (CUF) sites confined in nanosized matrices are active centers in a wide range of enzyme and homogeneous catalytic reactions. Preparation of the analogous active sites at supported catalysts is of great importance in heterogeneous catalysis but remains a challenge. On the basis of surface science measurements and density functional calculations, we show that the interface confinement effect can be used to stabilize the CUF sites by taking advantage of strong adhesion between ferrous oxides and metal substrates. The interface-confined CUF sites together with the metal supports are active for dioxygen activation, producing reactive dissociated oxygen atoms. We show that the structural ensemble was highly efficient for carbon monoxide oxidation at low temperature under typical operating conditions of a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell.