Jian Wu

Bifunctional β-Fe₂O₃@PDDA nanoclusters applied for the efficient photoelectrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction and magnetic field enhanced photocatalytic degradation of pollutants.

Transition metal phosphides are regarded as promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts for water splitting. An efficient mass-transfer mechanism can be promoted through constructing microporous structures. In addition, introducing carbon materials as carriers to form interface interactions is beneficial for increasing electronic conductivity so as to promote the catalytic activity further. In this work, a nitrogen-doped graphene (NGO)-supported microporous nickel phosphide-nickel phosphite (Ni ₂ P-Ni ₁₁ (HPO ₃ ) ₈ (OH) ₆ @NGO, Ni ₂ P-MPH@NGO), where Ni ₂ P nanoparticles uniformly fill the micropores of Ni ₁₁ (HPO ₃ ) ₈ (OH) ₆ and then are supported on two-dimensional NGO via a simple two-step method, has been studied as a novel efficient electrocatalyst for HER. Compared with carbon nanotubes and graphene as carbon-based carriers, the optimized Ni ₂ P-MPH@NGO catalyst shows excellent HER performance with a smaller overpotential, lower Tafel slope and long-term catalytic durability under acid conditions. The results demonstrate that NGO can enhance the catalytic activity of Ni ₂ P-MPH@NGO efficiently. The results show that the synergistic effect of the microporous structure of Ni ₁₁ (HPO ₃ ) ₈ (OH) ₆ and NGO effectively improves the catalytic activity of the Ni ₂ P-MPH@NGO composite catalyst, which provides a promising strategy for the design of a new low-cost and high-efficiency HER electrocatalysts.

In this study, we design a novel thermo- and photo-responsive nanocomposite film prepared by depositing indium tin oxide nanocrystals via the coating of amphiphilic copolymer on polycaprolactone substrates (INCP). The INCP film shows reversible surface morphology change properties by changing temperature as well as turning ON/OFF NIR laser. Especially, as the temperature changes from 25 to 75 °C, the film could regulate light transmittance from 75 to 90% across the visible and near-infrared region (500–1,750 nm). In addition, the film also exhibits excellent recycle and thermal stability at different temperature. Our results reveal that reversible surface morphology change properties are caused by curvature adjustment of film, which is owing to the coupling effect between copolymer and PCL with different thermal expansion strains. Our results suggest a possible strategy for the preparation of smart responsive materials in the future, which provides a reference for the development of new energy-saving materials.

In this article, we report the preparation of lignin-derived carbon nanosheet (L-CNS) by direct thermal treatment of lignin without activation operation and the functions of the L-CNS as an adsorbent for rhodamine dye. The L-CNSs are fabricated by freeze-drying (FD) methods of lignin followed by high-temperature carbonization. It is found that lower frozen temperature in FD or lower concentration of lignin aqueous solution renders L-CNSs’ more porous morphology and higher specific surface area (SSA), allowing a promising application of the L-CNSs as an efficient adsorbent for organic pollutants. In particular, the alkaline hydroxide catalyst helps to increase the SSA of carbon products, leading to a further improved adsorption capacity. On the other hand, p-toluenesulfonic acid (TsOH) catalyzed pyrolysis, which dramatically increased the L-CNS product yield, and provided a high-yield approach for the production of pollutant absorbent.

Nickel–cobalt phosphite (CoNiPO) including local structural motifs with face-sharing octahedra shows excellent OER activity. The derivatized electrocatalyst (NiP ₂ @CoNiPO) exhibits high HER activity. DFT calculations indicated the super-exchange effect in CoNiPO can adjust local electronic structure and improve their catalytic activity.