In this study, we garnered three important factors simultaneously, namely, wormhole mesoporosity of TiO 2 with welldesigned interfaces for effective charge transfers, precise loading of MoS 2 for plasmon induction, and increased surface area with exposed surface atoms and active sites. The controlled loading of MoS 2 on porous TiO 2 (MPT) forms a heterojunction that effectively modulates the interface engineering and thereby greatly enhances hydrogen evolution. The synthesis of a photocatalyst is based on a simple hydrothermal process that is well characterized. The resulting composite materials were tested for hydrogen evolution reactions. At optimum loading, MPT 10 induced a maximum hydrogen evolution rate of 1376 μmol h −1 g −1 with 2.28% apparent quantum yield (AQY), which was 10-fold higher compared to the MCT 10 (MoS 2 -commercial TiO 2 ) H 2 evolution rate of 138 μmol h −1 g −1 with 0.23% AQY under similar reaction conditions. The shorter decay component, lower emission intensity, and higher estimated lifetime of MPT 10 suggest its superiority over other materials. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have further revealed the active sites of MPT and hierarchical porous TiO 2 (HPT) to support the experimental hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This study suggests an avenue to design an efficient noble-metal-free photocatalyst for solar fuel productions.

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Ambient particulate matter air pollution has become a serious environmental issue and poses grave threats to public health globally. The indoor and outdoor air protection could be achieved by filtering devices and facial masks. The development of air filter to eliminate particulate matter pollution from the air is necessary for human safety. To realize this, here a class of nanofiber air filter is reported with high efficiency and very low pressure drop. By controlling the surface chemistry through cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, it is achieved a >99.9% removal efficiency under extreme hazardous air-quality conditions for PM2.5 with quality factor of 0.469 Pa–1 and low ∼11 Pa pressure drop. The dipole moment and intermolecular interaction between the nanofibers and PM2.5 are investigated by density functional theory calculations. A long-term 15 day filtration test has proven that the nanofiber air filter maintains an excellent efficiency of 99%. This work pushes forward a significant step toward the design and development of high efficiency and a very low pressure drop air filter for various applications.

Utilization of bifunctional high-efficiency non-precious electrocatalysts for stable and effective water splitting is crucial to the growth of the clean energy industry. Topologically, the predetermined ordered structures of Metal-organic frameworks...

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