The NH4+ generation rate over the as-prepared ternary metal sulfide catalysts is linearly related to the sulfur vacancy concentration, confirming that the photocatalytic reduction capacity of N2 over ternary metal sulfides is highly dependent on the amount of sulfur vacancies.

This paper introduces a new approach for catalyst design using the non-precious metal Cu as one of the catalytic active centers. This differs from previous studies that considered precious metals to be responsible for the catalytic reaction in precious alloys. Intermetallic AuCu3/C nanoparticles with a diameter of 3 nm were developed for the first time, with uniform dispersion and a narrow size distribution. The ca. 3 nm as-synthesised AuCu3/C showed superior catalytic performance for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) in alkaline solutions, with comparable half-wave potential and 1.5 times mass current density of commercial Pt/C at 0.80 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)). The advanced catalytic activities are mainly attributed to the synergetic effects of electro-active atomic Au and Cu on the particle surface, in which Cu helps to activate the O2 molecule and Au benefits OH(-) desorption. The excellent durability and methanol tolerance exhibited in alkaline solutions provide another advantage for AuCu3/C to be considered as a potential alternative cathode catalyst in alkaline fuel cells.

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Organic−inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells are potential alternatives to commercial silicon solar cells because of their attractive photon conversion efficiency and general material costs, except for the widely adopted organic hole-transporting polymers, which are currently expensive and have low conductivity. Inorganic hole-transporting layers (HTLs) have recently garnered attention due to their excellent stability and relatively effective cost. Nickel oxide (NiO x ) is a typical p-type oxide semiconductor with a deep valence band (VB) and is expected to be used as HTL. Unfortunately, the charge extraction efficiency has been hindered by its poor conductivity, resulting in lower efficiency when compared with organic HTL-based devices. Here, we report a new solutionprocessed doping strategy for NiO x with zinc dopant to improve its conductivity for perovskite solar cells. The NiO x :Zn HTL showed high transparency and significantly enhanced electrical conductivity in comparison with the pristine NiO x . Our best NiO x :Zn-based P-i-N planar device showed an efficiency of 19.6% with negligible hysteresis, which is comparable with the reported planar solar cell with an organic HTL. Moreover, the NiO x :Zn-based perovskite device displayed distinguished stability in ambient conditions. This paper demonstrated important progress toward high-efficiency planar perovskite devices with low-cost inorganic HTLs.

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Mesoporous SBA-15 silica is an excellent support for constructing fluorescent surface sensors. In this letter, we reported a two-step surface reaction involved strategy to construct efficient fluorescent surface sensors for metal ions by clicking fluoroionophores onto azide-functionalized SBA-15. Our experimental results indicate that such a strategy exhibits an obviously higher loading efficiency within commercial SBA-15 than a previously reported strategy. As a proof-of-concept, a newly designed alkyne-functionalized Hg(2+) fluoroionophore was grafted onto SBA-15 to form a fluorescent Hg(2+) surface sensor. It shows improved sensitivity and selectivity than the fluoroionophore itself working in the solution phase with a detection limit of 2.0 x 10(-8) M for Hg(2+).

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Carbon-supported CoN (CoN/C) nanoparticles have been synthesized by heating at reflux in the solution of o-xylene and subsequent thermal annealing under a NH 3 reducing atmosphere. The asprepared CoN/C composite exhibited high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and excellent stability as a new efficient non-precious metal electrocatalyst.