Yu Xing

Methane and its oxidation product (i. e., CO₂) are both greenhouse gases. In the product chain of CO hydrogenation to hydrocarbon reaction, methane is also an unwanted product due to its poor added value. Herein we investigated the effect of structure‐directing agent urotropine on cobalt‐based catalyst supported on Al−O−Zn type carrier and achieved an initial and pioneering exploration of methane‐free CO hydrogenation to hydrocarbon reaction at mild CO conversion range. The catalyst modified by urotropine has a nanoflower micromorphology and can significantly change the reaction performance, almost completely eliminating the ability of the catalyst to inhibit C−C coupling within a mild CO conversion range, that is, it can produce no or less C₁−C₄ gaseous hydrocarbons, while rich in condensed hydrocarbons (i. e., C₅₊ hydrocarbon selectivity can reach as high as 92.8 %–100.0 %).

Indium-doped manganese oxide semiconducting substrates were synthesized under hydrothermal conditions of 250–270 °C for 4–10 days to generate nanowires or nanorods. Next, a facile resuspension/freeze-drying route was utilized to fabricate free-standing manganese oxide molecular sieve sponges through the auto-knitting of substrate materials. Compared with undoped manganese oxide substrates, indium doped manganese oxide substrates may generate two new FT-IR bands at 1090–1092 cm⁻¹ and 1026–1028 cm⁻¹, weaken most Raman bands (i.e., 183, 329, 390, 476, 519, and 580 cm⁻¹) except the band at around 640 cm⁻¹, boost the activity of electrocatalytic oxygen reduction over the carbon electrode surface, and enhance electrical conductivity by 3–23 times under synthetic conditions for indium doping. Moreover, the mechanical property of a sponge is positively correlated with the length of the substrate nanowires.

The front cover artwork for Issue 14/2019 is provided by researchers from Yu Xing, Zhenxin Liu and co‐workers at the Zhengzhou University of Light Industry (P. R. China) and the University of Connecticut (USA). The image shows that light olefins (ethylene, propylene and butylene) may be selectively generated through conversion of syngas over an iron catalyst with a partially passivated Al–O–Zn support. See the Full Paper itself at https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201900023.