The conversion of CO2 into fuels and feedstock chemicals via photothermal catalysis holds promise for efficient solar energy utilization to tackle the global energy shortage and climate change. Despite recent advances, it is of emerging interest to explore promising materials with excellent photothermal properties to boost the performance of photothermal CO2 catalysis. Here, we report the discovery of MXene materials as superior photothermal supports for metal nanoparticles. As a proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate that Nb2C and Ti3C2, two typical MXene materials, can enhance the photothermal effect and thus boost the photothermal catalytic activity of Ni nanoparticles. A record CO2 conversion rate of 8.50 mol·gNi –1·h–1 is achieved for Nb2C-nanosheet-supported Ni nanoparticles under intense illumination. Our study bridges the gap between photothermal MXene materials and photothermal CO2 catalysis toward more efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversions and stimulates the interest in MXene-supported metal nanoparticles for other heterogeneous catalytic reactions, particularly driven by sunlight.

CO2 hydrogenation has attracted great attention, yet the quest for highly-efficient catalysts is driven by the current disadvantages of poor activity, low selectivity, and ambiguous structure-performance relationship. We demonstrate here that C3N4-supported Cu single atom catalysts with tailored coordination structures, namely, Cu–N4 and Cu–N3, can serve as highly selective and active catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation at low temperature. The modulation of the coordination structure of Cu single atom is readily realized by simply altering the treatment parameters. Further investigations reveal that Cu–N4 favors CO2 hydrogenation to form CH3OH via the formate pathway, while Cu–N3 tends to catalyze CO2 hydrogenation to produce CO via the reverse water-gas-shift (RWGS) pathway. Significantly, the CH3OH productivity and selectivity reach 4.2 mmol g–1 h–1 and 95.5%, respectively, for Cu–N4 single atom catalyst. We anticipate this work will promote the fundamental researches on the structure-performance relationship of catalysts.

Plastics are indispensable, but their pollution is triggering a global environmental crisis. Although many end-of-life catalytic options have involved converting plastics into valuable products, a deep understanding of the relationship between polymer structure and recycling performance is significant and urgently needed. Here, we start with a primer of polymeric chain structures on chemical recycling and discuss the structure–performance relationship between the polymer, catalyst, and catalytic reaction. Specifically, the development and challenges of the chemical re/upcycling of waste PET and polyolefins are discussed in-depth. In addition, we also present some prospects for innovations in catalyst synthesis and reaction engineering on the basis of the structure–performance relationship. The discussion ends with a brief perspective on the future of plastic re/upcycling. Overall, intelligent catalysis design is necessary for incentivizing the chemical recycling of plastics and relieving the burden of waste plastics.

The mass production of disposable polyolefin products has led to serious plastic pollution and an imbalance between manufacturing and recycling. Given these challenges, the chemical upcycling of waste polyolefins has attracted extensive attention due to its high efficiency and economic benefits. Herein, we review the development of polyolefin chemical upcycling in heterogeneous catalysis. The status quo of polyolefin recycling is first discussed. We then introduce the advanced strategies for chemical upcycling in the view of different value‐added products and discuss their challenges and prospects. Our in‐depth analysis centers on the catalytic mechanism and the design principle of heterogeneous catalysts. Finally, we outlook the promising directions to facilitate the degradation process via polymer and catalyst design and optimized catalytic engineering. Innovative strategies are expected to promote the chemical upcycling of polyolefins, bringing great promise for the sustainable development of society.

Developing efficient Pt-based electrocatalysts for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is of pivotal importance for large-scale application of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), but Pt suffers from severe deactivation brought by the carbonaceous intermediates such as CO. Here, we demonstrate the formation of a bismuth oxyhydroxide (BiO x (OH) y )-Pt inverse interface via electrochemical reconstruction for enhanced methanol oxidation. By combining density functional theory calculations, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electrochemical characterizations, we reveal that the BiO x (OH) y -Pt inverse interface can induce the electron deficiency of neighboring Pt; this would result in weakened CO adsorption and strengthened OH adsorption, thereby facilitating the removal of the poisonous intermediates and ensuring the high activity and good stability of Pt2Bi sample. This work provides a comprehensive understanding of the inverse interface structure and deep insight into the active sites for MOR, offering great opportunities for rational fabrication of efficient electrocatalysts for DMFCs.

Single atom catalysts (SACs) have recently attracted great attention in heterogeneous catalysis and have been regarded as ideal models for investigating the strong interaction between metal and support. Despite the huge progress over the past decade, the deep understanding on the structure-performance correlation of SACs at a single atom level still remains to be a great challenge. In this study, we demonstrate that the variation in the coordination number of the Pt single atom can significantly promote the propylene selectivity during propyne semihydrogenation (PSH) for the first time. Specifically, the propylene selectivity greatly increases from 65.4% to 94.1% as the coordination number of Pt–O increases from ∼3.4 to ∼5, whereas the variation in the coordination number of Pt–O slightly influences the turnover frequency values of SACs. We anticipate that the present work may deepen the understanding on the structure-performance of SACs and also promote the fundamental research in single atom catalysis.

The development of highly selective catalysts has been remarkably relying on the understanding of catalytic active sites. Pd-catalyzed semihydrogenation of propyne has been a focus of research with industrial applications toward the production of polymer-grade propylene. In this work, combining density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experimental observations, we propose that, different from the existing debates where the formation of palladium carbide (Pd–C) species or specific facets of Pd nanoparticles are critical, the apexes of Pd (111) octahedrons are the active sites for highly selective propyne semihydrogenation. The propylene selectivity on Pd octahedrons can be ascribed to site-selective propyne adsorption on the apexes prior to reactions and subsequent difficult to access intermediate states toward overhydrogenation. To reveal the active sites of Pd, propyne semihydrogenation was performed on shaped-Pd nanoparticles with designed exposed facets: e.g., (111) and (100) facets. Of practical importance, the propyne conversion and propylene selectivity exceed ∼94% and ∼96% on Pd octahedrons, respectively, at low temperature (35 °C) and atmospheric pressure. In addition, more control experiments have been performed to verify the effects of apexes of Pd octahedrons on propylene selectivity. It is shown that the propylene selectivity decreases to ∼50% when the apexes of Pd octahedrons are gradually removed. The experimental observations have further confirmed that the apexes of Pd octahedrons can be used as the active sites for propyne semihydrogenation, which is in good agreement with the results from theoretical calculations. This work may not only reveal the active sites of Pd nanoparticles for selective semihydrogenation of propyne but also open an avenue for designing highly active and selective catalysts in the chemical industry.

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