A general and effective approach was proposed to fabricate a new family of Co-based bimetallic phosphide ultrathin nanosheets for highly-efficient oxygen evolution.

In this work, lignin-decorated ZnO composite was prepared via an in situ synthesis method using industrial alkali lignin (AL). First, the AL was modified by quaternization to prepare quaternized alkali lignin (QAL). The microstructure and optical properties of the QAL/ZnO composite were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV–vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. These results showed that the prepared QAL/ZnO composite possessed a flowerlike structure and showed excellent synergistic UV-absorbent properties. Interestingly, the anti-UV performance and mechanical properties of polyurethane (PU) were significantly improved when it was blended with the resulting QAL/ZnO. In comparison with pure PU film, the UV transmittance of the PU film was rapidly reduced. Furthermore, the tensile strength and elongation at break of PU film blended with QAL/ZnO were significantly improved, which was due to good compatibility between QAL/ZnO and PU matrix. Results of this work provide a significant and practical approach for the high value-added utilization of lignin as a functional material.

No abstract

No abstract

Endowing materials with chirality and exploring the responses of the material under circularly polarized light (CPL) can enable further insight into the physical and chemical properties of the semiconductors to be gained, thus expanding on optoelectronic applications. Herein a bioinspired mesoporous chiral nematic graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) for efficient hydrogen evolution with polarized light modulation based on chiral nematic cellulose nanocrystal films prepared through silica templating is described. The mesoporous nematic chiral g‐C3N4 exhibits an ultrahigh hydrogen evolution rate of 219.9 μmol h−1 (for 20 mg catalyst), corresponding to a high enhancement factor of 55 when compared to the bulk g‐C3N4 under λ>420 nm irradiation. Furthermore, the chiral g‐C3N4 material exhibits unique photocatalytic activity modulated by CPL within the absorption region. This CPL‐assisted photocatalytic regulation strategy holds great promise for a wide range of applications including optical devices, asymmetric photocatalysis, and chiral recognition/separation.