Construction of dual active sites on the CuAg plasmonic aerogel for simultaneously efficient photocatalytic CO2 reduction and H2 production.

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction and H2 production are a competitive reaction, and existing active sites cannot take into account the simultaneous gas-solid and liquid-solid reaction processes. Hence, a metallic aerogel (CuAg2.5) with dual active sites was constructed via straightforward in-situ reduction process. CuAg2.5 aerosol has larger porosity and CO2 adsorption capacity, which enables H2O and CO2 to fully contact it. The CuAg2.5 can also construct the cooperative dual active sites, which can conduct CO2 reduction reaction on Ag surface and proton reduction reaction on Cu surface, respectively, thereby efficiently guiding the rapid migration of photogenerated carriers. The yields of CO (18533 µmol g-1) and H2 (20340 µmol g-1) for CuAg2.5 are much higher than those of single metals. The ratio of CO and H2 can also regulated via changing the ratio of Ag and Cu. This work gives new insights into the fabrication of unique high-efficiency plasmonic photocatalysts.

Molten salt synthesis of KCl-preintercalated C3N4 nanosheets with abundant pyridinic-N as a superior anode with 10 K cycles in lithium ion battery.

The graphitic carbon nitride is considered as the promising anode of lithium ion battery due to its high theoretical capacity (>1000 mAh g-1) and easy synthesis method. But the electrochemical inactivity and the structural collapse during cycles lead to its poor electrochemical performance in practice. Here, an interesting molten salt method is used to obtain the KCl-preintercalated carbon nitride nanosheets with abundant N vacancies and pyridinic-N. The KCl as a prop enhances the interlayer distance and the structural stability. And the N vacancy and the pyridinic-N increase the conductivity, the active sites and the reversibility of Li+ storage. Thus, the optimized electrode shows a higher specific discharge capacity (389 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1) and a longer cyclic life (66% capacity retention after 10 K cycles at 3.0 A g-1) compared to those of bulk g-C3N4.

Fast synthesis of porous iron doped CeO2 with oxygen vacancy for effective CO2 photoreduction.

The activity of photocatalytic CO2 conversion to carbon-containing products is determined by the adsorption and activation of CO2 molecules on the surface of catalyst. Here, iron doped porous CeO2 with oxygen vacancy (PFeCe) was prepared by one-step combustion method. The amount of CO2 adsorbed via using the porous structure has been significantly increased in the case of a relatively small specific surface area and CO2 molecules are more easily captured and undergo a reduction reaction with photoinduced carriers. In addition, oxygen vacancies are formed in the iron doped CeO2 lattice as the active sites for CO2 reduction, which can form strong interactions with CO2 molecules, thereby effectively activating CO2 molecules. The reduction products of CO2 over PFeCe composite are CO and CH4, which is approximately 9.0 and 7.7 folds than that of CeO2. This work offers insights for the construction of efficient ceria-based photocatalysts to further achieve robust solar CO2 conversion.