How to achieve supported metal nanocatalysts with simultaneously enhanced activity and stability is of vital importance in heterogeneous catalysis and remains a challenging goal. In this work, a surface defect-promoted Ni nanocatalyst with a high dispersion and high particle density embedded on a hierarchical Al 2 O 3 matrix was fabricated via a facile method involving an in situ reduction process, which exhibits excellent activity and stability simultaneously for the reaction of CO 2 methanation. HRTEM, HAADF-STEM, EXAFS, and positron annihilation spectroscopy demonstrate the existence of abundant surface vacancy clusters that serve as active sites, accounting for the significantly enhanced lowtemperature activity of the supported Ni nanoparticles. In addition, the anchoring effect from the support gives rise to a high reaction stability, without sintering and/or aggregation of active species during long-term use.

We demonstrate that dopamine is able to self-polymerize and adhere firmly onto the substrate, which can create a hierarchical structure comprising an ultrathin active layer and a porous support layer. Such an approach opens a novel way to fabricating highly efficient and stable composite materials including composite membranes. More specifically, in this study the composite membranes are fabricated by simply dipping microporous substrate in aqueous dopamine solution under mild conditions. Nanoindentation measurement reveals the tight adhesion of dopamine onto microporous substrate, which is ascribed to numerous pi-pi and hydrogen-bonding interactions. The chemical composition of the active layer is analyzed by XPS, which demonstrates the self-polymerization of dopamine. The water contact angle of the dopamine coated membranes is reduced remarkably compared with that of the uncoated counterpart. Stylus profiler measurements display that the poly(dopamine) thickness increases as the coating time increases. FESEM images of the membranes' cross section show that an active layer (<100 nm) is deposited on the porous polysulfone (PS) substrate. Positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) is introduced to probe the fractional free volume properties throughout the cross section of the composite membranes and reveal that after dopamine double-coating the active layer becomes thicker and more compact. Moreover, pH and concentration of the dopamine solution exert notable influence on the fractional free volume of the composite membranes. The as-prepared membranes are tentatively employed for pervaporative desulfurization and exhibits satisfying separation performance as well as durability. This facile, versatile, and efficient approach enables a promising prospect for the wide applications of such novel kinds of ultrathin composite materials.

The effect of oxygen vacancies on the performance of CoO as a cathode catalyst for Li–O2 batteries has been investigated.

The goal of replenishing the cardiomyocyte (CM) population using regenerative therapies following myocardial infarction (MI) is hampered by the limited regeneration capacity of adult CMs, partially due to their withdrawal from the cell cycle. Here, we show that microRNA-128 (miR-128) is upregulated in CMs during the postnatal switch from proliferation to terminal differentiation. In neonatal mice, cardiac-specific overexpression of miR-128 impairs CM proliferation and cardiac function, while miR-128 deletion extends proliferation of postnatal CMs by enhancing expression of the chromatin modifier SUZ12, which suppresses p27 (cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor) expression and activates the positive cell cycle regulators Cyclin E and CDK2. Furthermore, deletion of miR-128 promotes cell cycle re-entry of adult CMs, thereby reducing the levels of fibrosis, and attenuating cardiac dysfunction in response to MI. These results suggest that miR-128 serves as a critical regulator of endogenous CM proliferation, and might be a novel therapeutic target for heart repair.

A family of photocatalysts for water splitting into hydrogen was prepared by distributing TiO(6) units in an MTi-layered double hydroxide matrix (M = Ni, Zn, Mg) that displays largely enhanced photocatalytic activity with an H(2)-production rate of 31.4 μmol  h(-1) as well as excellent recyclable performance. High-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) mapping and XPS measurement reveal that a high dispersion of TiO(6) octahedra in the layered doubled hydroxide (LDH) matrix was obtained by the formation of an M(2+)-O-Ti network, rather different from the aggregation state of TiO(6) in the inorganic layered material K(2)Ti(4)O(9). Both transient absorption and photoluminescence spectra demonstrate that the electron-hole recombination process was significantly depressed in the Ti-containing LDH materials relative to bulk Ti oxide, which is attributed to the abundant surface defects that serve as trapping sites for photogenerated electrons verified by positron annihilation and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) techniques. In addition, a theoretical study on the basis of DFT calculations demonstrates that the electronic structure of the TiO(6) units was modified by the adjacent MO(6) octahedron by means of covalent interactions, with a much decreased bandgap of 2.1 eV, which accounts for its superior water-splitting behavior. Therefore, the dispersion strategy for TiO(6) units within a 2D inorganic matrix can be extended to fabricate other oxide or hydroxide catalysts with greatly enhanced performance in photocatalysis and energy conversion.

An environmentally benign Cu-Ce-Ti oxide catalyst exhibited excellent NH3-SCR activity, high N2 selectivity and strong resistance against H2O and SO2 with a broad operation temperature window. The dual redox cycles (Cu(2+) + Ce(3+) ↔ Cu(+) + Ce(4+), Cu(2+) + Ti(3+) ↔ Cu(+) + Ti(4+)) play key roles for the superior catalytic deNOx performance.

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