High recycling Fe₃O₄-CdTe nanocomposites for the detection of organophosphorothioate pesticide chlorpyrifos

Yanxue Guo, Hui Liu, Dong Chen, Jianglan Qu*, Jun Yang*

A strategy based on electrostatic interaction was developed to assemble magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and luminescent CdTe quantum dots into a composite nanosystem, which simultaneously possesses magnetic and luminescent properties, for the detection of chlorpyrifos, one of the typical organophosphorothioate pesticides.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.001

Hierarchical Cu₃P-based nanoarrays on nickel foam as efficient electrocatalysts for overall water splitting

Zhuojun Yang¹, Yongxiao Tuo*¹, Qing Lu, Chen Chen, Mengshan Liu, Bingyan Liu, Xuezhi Duan, Yan Zhou, Jun Zhang*

Hierarchical nanostructured Cu₃P nanoarrays were grown on nickel foam using a template-directed synthesis strategy and applied as efficient bifunctional electrodes for both OER and HER, which needs a small overpotential of ～331 mV at 50 mA cm^-2 for OER, and an overpotential of ～115 mV at −10 mA cm^-2 for HER.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.002

Constructing Ti3C2 MXene/ZnIn2S4 heterostructure as a Schottky catalyst for photocatalytic environmental remediation

Sijian Li, Luhua Shao, Zhenfei Yang, Shu Cheng, Cong Yang, Yutang Liu, Xinnian Xia*

An interfacial contact Ti₃C₂ MXene/ZnIn₂S₄ nanosheets Schottky heterostructure for enhancing photocatalytic environment remediation, in which ZnIn₂S₄ nanosheets was in-situ grown on the surface of Ti₃C₂ MXene, was constructed by simple low temperature hydrothermal method.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.005

A mini-review on ZnIn₂S₄-Based photocatalysts for energy and environmental application

Shuolin Zhou¹, Jinhua Lai¹, Xianxiang Liu*, Geng Huang, Gaolin You, Qiong Xu, Dulin Yin*

Sulfonic acid functionalized titanate nanotubes were prepared by the sulphonation reaction of hydrothermally synthesized TiO₂ nanotubes. The as-prepared catalysts exhibited the high activities in selective conversion of furfuryl alcohol into n-butyl levulinate.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.009

Lithium-conductive LiNbO₃ coated high-voltage LiNi_0.5Co_0.2Mn_0.3O₂ cathode with enhanced rate and cyclability

Haifeng Yu¹, Shouliang Wang¹, Yanjie Hu, Guanjie He, Le Quoc Bao, Ivan P. Parkin, Hao Jiang*

We develop a citrate-assisted deposition concept to achieve a uniform lithium-conductive LiNbO₃ coating layer on the NCM523 surface. Therefore, the capacity retention at 10 C have been improved from 45% to 63% relative to 0.2 C.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.011

Efficient hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol by magnetically recoverable RuCo bimetallic catalyst

Yongxing Wang, Tianyu Gao, Yaowei Lu, Yinghao Wang, Qiue Cao, Wenhao Fang*

Simple hydrolysis and H₂-reduction of Ru and Co precursors allows constructing the magnetic RuCo alloy active sites with strong metal interaction for efficient catalytic hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol under H₂ atmosphere.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.014

High-gravity-assisted engineering of Ni2P/g-C3N4 nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic performance

Zhijian Zhao, Dan Wang*, Yuan Pu, Jiexin Wang, Liangliang Zhang*, Jianfeng Chen

The Ni₂P loaded g-C₃N₄ photocatalyst was synthesized by liquid exfoliation coupled with high-gravity-driven process intensification technology, the intact interfacial structure and optimized band gap endowed the catalyst with boost hydrogen evolution efficiency under visible light.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.006

Covalent organic framework shows high isobutene adsorption selectivity from C₄ hydrocarbons: Mechanism of interpenetration isomerism and pedal motion

Wei Chen, Mian Li, Wen-Li Peng, Ling Huang, Chao Zhao, Acharya Dinesh, Wentao Liu, Anmin Zheng*

The gas adsorption/separation of covalent organic framework (COF) can be controlled by topology characteristics. A series of COFs with the diamond topology were screened for the selective adsorption of isobutene from other C₄ hydrocarbons via interpenetration, pedal motion and group substitution.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.016

Selective adsorption of propene over propane on Li-decorated poly (triazine imide)

Yong Wang¹, Xiaoxia Jia¹, Libo Li*, Jiangfeng Yang, Jinping Li*

Coordinatively unsaturated metal sites (CUS) plays a dominating role in preferential adsorption of olefins over paraffins. Poly (triazine imide) (PTI) nanosheets can reach rapid gas adsorption equilibrium, due to its large surface-to-volume ratio. Combining the advantages of the CUS and the PTI nanosheets, we computationally demonstrate that the Li CUS–PTI complexes with slit pore architecture are potentially useful for C₃H₆/C₃H₈ adsorption separation.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.10.001

Controllable fabrication and structure evolution of hierarchical 1T-MoS₂ nanospheres for efficient hydrogen evolution

Huanran Li¹, Xiaobo Han¹, Suyu Jiang, Lili Zhang, Wei Ma*, Renzhi Ma, Zhen Zhou*

Hierarchical 1T-MoS₂ nanospheres fabricated via a phase evolution process accelerates the hydrogen generation resulting from the enhanced conductivity and expanded interlayer spacing with a comparable overpotential and a remarkably small Tafel slope.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.09.003

Pt-confinement catalyst with dendritic hierarchical pores on excellent sulfur-resistance for hydrodesulfurization of dibenzothiophene and 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene

Xilong Wang, Chengkun Xiao, Mohnnad H. Alabsi, Peng Zheng, Zhengkai Cao, Jinlin Mei, Yu Shi, Aijun Duan*, Daowei Gao*, Kuo-Wei Huang*, Chunming Xu*

The novel Pt confinement catalyst MoS₂/Pt@TD-6%Ti with dendritic hierarchical pore structures shows excellent sulfur-resistance performance, good stability and high HDS activity in catalytic hydrodesulfurization reactions of DBT and 4,6-DMDBT molecules.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.10.012

Thermoresponsive Al³⁺-crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/alginate composite for green recovery of lithium from Li-spiked seawater

Sung Ho Park, Sang Joon Lee*

Al³⁺-crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm)/alginate composite selectively adsorbs Li⁺ ions with a low adsorption affinity, while rejecting cations with a high adsorption affinity due to a strong repulsive force by crosslinked Al³⁺. In addition, thermoresponsive PNIPAAm enables green recovery of Li⁺ ions via hydrophobic interaction.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.10.006

Fabrication of Cu⁺ sites in confined spaces for adsorptive desulfurization by series connection double-solvent strategy

Shu Shi¹, Yu-Xia Li¹,, Shuai-shuai Li, Xiao-Qin Liu, Lin-Bing Sun*

A series connection double-solvent strategy offers a green and controllable way to fabricate Cu⁺ confined in MOFs. Due to abundant Cu⁺ and high porosity of MOF, the obtained materials exhibit excellent performance in adsorptive desulfurization.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.10.009

Conversion of Au(III)-polluted waste eggshell into functional CaO/Au nanocatalyst for biodiesel production

Jiadi Liu, Minghuan Liu, Shaoyun Chen, Bingqing Wang, Jin Chen, Da-Peng Yang*, Shangzhou Zhang*, Wenxiao Du*

Waste eggshells were used to adsorb Au(III) in water and convert the Au(III)-polluted eggshells into the functional nanocatalyst-CaO/Au for the transesterification reaction between soybean oil and methanol to the preparation of biodiesel.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2020.07.019