Monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) attracts significant attention due to the potential to be used as a complementary two-dimensional dielectric in fabrication of functional 2D heterostructures. Here we investigate the growth stages of the hBN single crystals and show that hBN crystals change their shape from triangular to truncated triangular and further to hexagonal depending on copper substrate distance from the precursor. We suggest that the observed hBN crystal shape variation is affected by the ratio of boron to nitrogen active species concentrations on the copper surface inside the CVD reactor. Strong temperature dependence reveals the activation energies for the hBN nucleation process of ∼5 eV and crystal growth of ∼3.5 eV. We also show that the resulting h-BN film morphology is strongly affected by the heating method of borazane precursor and the buffer gas. Elucidation of these details facilitated synthesis of high quality large area monolayer hexagonal boron nitride by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition on copper using borazane as a precursor.

Through cation exchange capacity assay, nitrogen adsorption−desorption surface area measurements, scanning electron microscopic imaging, infrared spectra and elemental analyses, we characterized biochar materials produced from cornstover under two different pyrolysis conditions, fast pyrolysis at 450 °C and gasification at 700 °C. Our experimental results showed that the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the fastpyrolytic char is about twice as high as that of the gasification char as well as that of a standard soil sample. The CEC values correlate well with the increase in the ratios of the oxygen atoms to the carbon atoms (O:C ratios) in the biochar materials. The higher O:C ratio was consistent with the presence of more hydroxyl, carboxylate, and carbonyl groups in the fast pyrolysis char. These results show how control of biomass pyrolysis conditions can improve biochar properties for soil amendment and carbon sequestration. Since the CEC of the fastpyrolytic cornstover char can be about double that of a standard soil sample, this type of biochar products would be suitable for improvement of soil properties such as CEC, and at the same time, can serve as a carbon sequestration agent. Through cation exchange capacity assay, nitrogen adsorption-desorption surface area measurements, scanning electron microscopic imaging, infrared spectra and elemental analyses, we characterized biochar materials produced from cornstover under two different pyrolysis conditions, fast pyrolysis at 450°C and gasification at 700°C. Our experimental results showed that the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the fastpyrolytic char is about twice as high as that of the gasification char as well as that of a standard soil sample. The CEC values correlate well with the increase in the ratios of the oxygen atoms to the carbon atoms (O:C ratios) in the biochar materials. The higher O:C ratio was consistent with the presence of more hydroxyl, carboxylate, and carbonyl groups in the fast pyrolysis char. These results show how control of biomass pyrolysis conditions can improve biochar properties for soil amendment and carbon sequestration. Since the CEC of the fastpyrolytic cornstover char can be about double that of a standard soil sample, this type of biochar products would be suitable for improvement of soil properties such as CEC, and at the same time, can serve as a carbon sequestration agent.

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Here we describe a lab-in-a-shell strategy for the preparation of multifunctional core-shell nanospheres consisting of a core of metal clusters and an outer microporous silica shell. Various metal clusters (e.g., Pd and Pt) were encapsulated and confined in the void space mediated by the entrapped polymer dots inside hollow silica nanospheres acting first as complexing agent for metal ions and additionally as encapsulator for clusters, limiting growth and suppressing the sintering. The Pd clusters encapsulated in hybrid core-shell structures exhibit exceptional size-selective catalysis in allylic oxidations of substrates with the same reactive site but different molecular size (cyclohexene ∼0.5 nm, cholesteryl acetate ∼1.91 nm). The solvent-free aerobic oxidation of diverse hydrocarbons and alcohols was further carried out to illustrate the benefits of such an architecture in catalysis. High activity, outstanding thermal stability and good recyclability were observed over the core-shell nanocatalyst.

CO 2 Capture via Crystalline Hydrogen-Bonded Bicarbonate DimersA crystallization-based CO 2 -separation method involving a simple aqueous guanidine sorbent offers the prospect of energy-efficient and cost-effective carbon-capture technologies that could help mitigate climate change.

Carbon capture and storage is an important strategy for stabilizing the increasing concentration of atmospheric CO and the global temperature. A possible approach toward reversing this trend and decreasing the atmospheric CO concentration is to remove the CO directly from air (direct air capture). Herein we report a simple aqueous guanidine sorbent that captures CO from ambient air and binds it as a crystalline carbonate salt by guanidinium hydrogen bonding. The resulting solid has very low aqueous solubility (K =1.0(4)×10 ), which facilitates its separation from solution by filtration. The bound CO can be released by relatively mild heating of the crystals at 80-120 °C, which regenerates the guanidine sorbent quantitatively. Thus, this crystallization-based approach to CO separation from air requires minimal energy and chemical input, and offers the prospect for low-cost direct air capture technologies.

Mesoporous silicas such as SBA-15 and MCM-41 are being actively investigated for potential applications in catalysis, separations, and synthesis of nanostructured materials. A new method for functionalizing these mesoporous silicas with aromatic phenols is described. The resulting novel hybrid materials possess silyl aryl ether linkages to the silica surface that are thermally stable to ca. 550 degrees C, but can be easily cleaved at room temperature with aqueous base for quantitative recovery of the organic moieties. The materials have been characterized by nitrogen physisorption, FTIR, NMR, and quantitative analysis of surface coverages. The maximum densities of 1,3-diphenylpropane (DPP) molecules that could be grafted to the surface were less than those measured on a nonporous, fumed silica (Cabosil) and were also found to decrease as a function of decreasing pore size (5.6-1.7 nm). This is a consequence of steric congestion in the pores that is magnified at the smaller pore sizes, consistent with parallel studies conducted using a conventional silylating reagent, 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisilazane. Pyrolysis of the silica-immobilized DPP revealed that pore confinement leads to enhanced rates and altered product selectivity for this free-radical reaction compared with the nonporous silica, and the rates and selectivities also depended on pore size. The influence of confinement is discussed in terms of enhanced encounter frequencies for bimolecular reaction steps and pore surface curvature that alters the accessibility and resultant selectivity for hydrogen transfer steps.

The dominant structural linkage in the abundant renewable energy resource, lignin, is the arylglycerol-βaryl ether commonly referred to as the β-O-4 linkage. The simplest representation of this linkage, unadorned by substituents, is phenethyl phenyl ether (PhCH 2 CH 2 OPh; PPE). Our prior detailed kinetic studies of the pyrolysis of PPE at 330-425 °C showed that a free-radical chain mechanism is involved that cycles through radicals formed at both the Rand β-carbons. The previously unrecognized competing path involving rearrangement of the β-carbon radical by an O,C-phenyl shift accounts for ca. 25% of the products. In this paper, we explore the effect of aromatic hydroxy and methoxy substituents on both the rate and product selectivity for the pyrolysis of these more complex lignin model compounds. The pyrolysis reactions are conducted in biphenyl solvent at 345 °C and low conversions to minimize secondary reactions. The pyrolysis rates were found to vary substantially as a function of the substitution pattern. The rearrangement path involving the β-carbon radical and O,C-phenyl shift was found to remain important in all the molecules investigated, and the selectivity for this path also showed a dependence on the substitution pattern.