Lin Tian

The development of bifunctional electrocatalysts for urea oxidation and oxygen evolution is crucial for stable anodic reactions and efficient cathodic hydrogen production. Herein, a NiCo‐ (including the 1 μm‐scale SEM image in (f))LDH/CeO ₂ heterostructure catalyst is constructed on nickel foam via two‐step electrodeposition. The optimized catalyst exhibits remarkable bifunctional activity. At 100 mA cm ⁻² , the overpotentials are 329 mV for oxygen evolution and 139 mV for urea oxidation. The assembled water‐splitting device achieves 500 mA cm ⁻² at 1.83 V in 1 M KOH. This voltage decreases by 100 mV upon adding 0.33 M urea, with 200 h stability. Mechanistic studies reveal that energy band mismatch induces a built‐in electric field. This drives electron transfer from NiCo‐LDH to CeO ₂ and promotes surface reconstruction into highly active NiCoOOH species. CeO ₂ introduction also significantly increases oxygen vacancy content, facilitating water activation and enhancing reaction kinetics. This work provides a promising strategy for high‐performance LDH‐based bifunctional electrocatalysts.

The electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMFOR) offers a viable route for converting biomass derivatives into high-value chemicals. However, developing non-noble metal electrocatalysts that combine low onset potential, high current density, and long-term stability remains challenging. Herein, multiphase medium-entropy self-supported electrocatalysts NiCoWMoOx/NF, composed of NiO, Co3O4, WO3, and MoO3, was delicated designed and successfully constructed. The NiCoWMoOx/NF achieves an current density of 5 mA cm–2 at 1.23 V (vs RHE) and a maximum current density exceeding 800 mA cm–2. At 1.45 V vs RHE, NiCoWMoOx/NF delivers 98.8% HMF conversion, 97.67% FDCA selectivity, and 96.66% faradaic efficiency, while retaining over 90% of its initial activity after nine consecutive cycles. Combining ex-situ and in-situ characterization techniques, the synergistic roles of each component in the reaction were elucidated: NiO primarily contributes to optimizing the electronic state of Co; WO3 mainly improves the electrical conductivity; and the partial leaching of MoO3 during the electrocatalytic process facilitates the in-situ exposure of more Co active sites. The synergy of these three components enables the efficient conversion of low-valence Co into a highly active and stable CoOOH phase, thereby endowing NiCoWMoOx/NF with superior HMFOR performance. This work provides a referable material and mechanistic strategy for the rational design of high-performance biomass electrocatalysts.

Review summarizes PBA structure, properties, synthesis, modification, and biosensing in electrochemical, electrochemiluminescence, chemiluminescence, colorimetry and fluorescence, with challenges and prospects.

Tailoring polymeric carbon nitride (CN) to simultaneously broaden its light absorption range and improve charge carrier mobility remains a key challenge for photocatalytic H ₂ O ₂ production. The molecular junction strategy has been proven to be an effective approach to address the aforementioned challenges. In this work, we developed a molecular junction through controlled thermal ring‐opening isomerization of benzoguanamine, thereby creating a well‐defined C‐C‐bridged benzene‐heptazine molecular junction. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that: (1) Benzene functionalization extends the π‐conjugation, enabling n→π* transitions for broad‐spectrum absorption; (2) The donor‐acceptor structure enhances self‐polarization effects, strengthening the built‐in electric field for efficient charge separation; (3) The unique molecular architecture overcomes traditional kinetic limitations, enabling a dual‐channel H ₂ O ₂ synthesis mechanism. The optimized catalyst achieves remarkable production rates of 5222 µmol∙g ^{− 1} ∙h ^{− 1} in isopropanol/water and 1587 µmol∙g ⁻¹ ∙h ⁻¹ in pure water, representing 13.1‐fold and 32.4‐fold improvements over pristine CN, respectively. This work advances molecular‐scale design of photocatalysts and offers new strategies for artificial photosynthesis.

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction is an important approach for the resource utilization of greenhouse gases and the chemical conversion of renewable energy, and defect engineering has emerged as a well-established strategy to enhance photocatalytic efficiency. The introduction of defects into materials can precisely regulate their electronic structure and band structure, thereby optimizing their light absorption capacity, redox performance, charge transfer efficiency, and the number of active sites, which provides an effective solution to the problems encountered by traditional photocatalytic materials such as high carrier recombination rate and weak CO₂ adsorption and activation capacity. This paper presents a systematic review of the latest research progress of defect engineering in the field of photocatalytic CO₂ reduction, comprehensively sorting out the main types, and construction methods of defects in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction, and detailing the latest research achievements and application of various defects in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction. Meanwhile, the technical bottlenecks and scientific problems currently faced by defect engineering in the research of photocatalytic CO₂ reduction are deeply analyzed, and the future development directions of this field are prospected. This work provides references for the design of efficient and stable photocatalytic materials and also lays a foundation for promoting the development and application of defect engineering in the field of photocatalysis.

The graphical abstract visually summarizes the synthesis process, hollow nanobox architecture, synergistic electronic effects of Ru and B, and the superior OER performance, providing an immediate overview of the study's novelty and findings.

The rapid detection of sulfide compounds including glutathione (GSH) and S ₂ O ₈ ²⁻ is of great interest because they play essential roles in the process of food processing.