MXene‐based material has attracted wide attention due to its tunable band gap, high conductivity and impressive optical and plasmonic properties. Herein, a hetero‐nanostructured water splitting system was developed based on N‐doped Ti3C2 (N10TC) MXene and NiFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets. The oxygen evolution reaction performance of the NiFe‐LDH significantly enhanced to approximately 8.8‐fold after incorporation of N10TC. Meanwhile, the Tafel slope was only 58.1 mV dec−1 with light irradiation, which is lower than pure NiFe‐LDH nanosheets (76.9 mV dec−1). All results manifested the vital role of the N10TC MXene induced plasmonic hot carriers via electrophoto‐excitation in enhancing the full water splitting performance of the as‐prepared system. This work is expected to provide a platform for designing various plasmonic MXenes‐based heterogeneous structures for highly efficient catalytic applications.

A polar flow channel with embedded gas recognition pockets was made in a 10-connected hexanuclear yttrium-based metal−organic frameworks (MOF) NTUniv-57 (NTUniv = Nantong University) by lowering the symmetry of the ligand, which showed high chemical stability and obviously enhanced gas adsorption selectivities.

Ultraviolet C (UVC) sterilization has the advantages of high efficiency, broad spectrum, and no secondary pollution. However, the emission wavelength of UVC phosphors still suffers from a large deviation from the golden sterilization wavelength of 265 nm and a low luminescence intensity. Herein, we report UVC emission near the golden sterilization wavelength as well as a long afterglow through crystal field engineering, which can lead to 100% sterilization efficiency. Combined with theoretical calculation and experimental studies, substitution of Ca 2+ with large-sized Sr 2+ could obtain slight expansion and distortion of cationic sites, resulting in a decrease in crystal field intensity and blue shift of Ca 1.5 Sr 0.5 Al 2 SiO 7 :1%Pr 3+ , and produce near golden UVC emission. Ca 1.5 Sr 0.5 Al 2 SiO 7 :1%Pr 3+ phosphor can effectively inactivate Staphylococcus aureus within 10 min, showing more efficiency than the traditional mercury lamp. This work provides an effective solution for the design and preparation of UVC phosphors using crystal field engineering toward near golden UVC emission.

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Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) is a traditional scintillator, widely used in high-energy physics and nuclear medicine. However, it not only suffers from low scintillation intensity but also tends to be damaged by high-energy rays. Herein, we prepare pure-phase BGO materials enriched with Bi vacancies by rationally reduced Bi content, showing significantly enhanced luminescence intensity and irradiation resistance ability. The optimized Bi3.6Ge3O12 shows 178% of luminescence intensity compared to BGO. After 50 h of ultraviolet irradiation, Bi3.6Ge3O12 possesses ∼80% of original luminescence intensity, much superior to the 60% for BGO. The existence of the Bi vacancy is identified by advanced experimental and theoretical studies. The mechanism studies show the Bi vacancies could cause the symmetry destruction of the local field around the Bi3+ ion. It enhances scintillation luminescence by increasing the probability of radiative transition while resisting nonradiative relaxation caused by irradiation damage. This study initiates vacancy-induced performance enhancement for inorganic scintillators.