By a facile solid‐state reaction method with urea as a nitrogen source, HNb3O8 could be successfully doped with nitrogen without destroying its layered structure. It was found that the intercalation of urea not only helps to stabilize the layered structure of HNb3O8 during the heating process, but also facilitates an easier doping of nitrogen into the solid acid. The nitrogen‐doped HNb3O8 photocatalyst so‐obtained shows fairly good activity under visible light irradiation.

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The production of bulk chemicals and fuels from renewable bio-based feedstocks is of significant importance for the sustainability of human society. Adipic acid, as one of the most-demanded drop-in chemicals from a bioresource, is used primarily for the large-volume production of nylon-6,6 polyamide. It is highly desirable to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly processes for the production of adipic acid from renewable feedstocks. However, currently there is no suitable bio-adipic acid synthesis process. Demonstrated herein is the highly efficient synthetic protocol for the conversion of mucic acid into adipic acid through the oxorhenium-complex-catalyzed deoxydehydration (DODH) reaction and subsequent Pt/C-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation. Quantitative yields (99 %) were achieved for the conversion of mucic acid into muconic acid and adipic acid either in separate sequences or in a one-step process.

A simple and effective water extraction method is presented for the purification 5-hydroxylmethylfurfural (HMF) obtained from a biomass dehydration system. Up to 99% of the HMF can be recovered and the HMF in aqueous solution is directly converted to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) as the sole product. This purification technique allows an integrated process to produce FDCA from fructose via HMF prepared in an isopropanol monophasic system, with an overall FDCA yield of 83% obtained. From Jerusalem raw artichoke biomass to FDCA via HMF prepared in a water/MIBK (methyl isobutyl ketone) biphasic system, an overall FDCA yield of 55% is obtained.

Maleic acid is produced from biomass-derived furfural or 5-hydroxymethylfurfural under metal catalyst-free conditions employing H2O2 as an oxidant in formic acid.

Novel Pb3Nb4O13/fumed SiO2 composite photocatalysts were prepared by a deposition−precipitation method for rhodamine B (RhB) photodegradation under visible light irradiation. Techniques such as XRD, UV−vis reflectance spectroscopy, and SEM were adopted to explore the characteristics of samples. Compared to the unsupported Pb3Nb4O13 sample, the composite photocatalysts showed notably improved photocatalytic activities for RhB degradation as the result of significantly strengthened interaction between the dye molecules and the Pb3Nb4O13 active component. The kinetic analysis demonstrated that rhodamine (the completely de-ethylated product of RhB) can be more easily degraded than RhB, and thus, the N-de-ethylation process is the rate-limited step of RhB photodegradation over Pb3Nb4O13/fumed SiO2 composites. It was proposed that there could be three different reaction routes for RhB photodegradation over the Pb3Nb4O13/fumed SiO2 composite materials, including the direct degradative oxidation of RhB in solution bulk (and/or on samples surface), and two routes initiated by surface N-de-ethylation reactions.

ZnO nanopillars coated on various surfaces are able to kill adhered bacteria and fungi due to their physical structure through a rupturing mechanism. Remarkably, zinc foil and galvanized steel surfaces with ZnO nanopillar coatings demonstrate an excellent remote bacteria-killing property. Their bacterial killing efficacy is several orders higher than ZnO nanopillars coated on other surfaces as well as ZnO nanoparticles themselves. Mechanistic study shows that the nanostructure surface kills adhered microbial cells by rupturing the cell wall, while superoxide ( O ) released from the ZnO coating with electrons donated from zinc via the Zn/ZnO interface rather than photoirritation is responsible for the superior remote killing. The results of this study represent a novel mechanism of surface disinfection and its application in water disinfection is also demonstrated.

NaNbO 3 nanowires and cubes were synthesized by means of a facile surfactant-assisted hydrothermal process. The NaNbO 3 nanowires were single-crystalline and showed uniform size with a diameter of about 100 nanometers in width and length of up to several tens of micrometers in length. The NaNbO 3 cubes displayed edges of several hundred nanometers. Meanwhile, the possible growth mechanism of NaNbO 3 nanowires was proposed. In addition, the photocatalytic activities of the NaNbO 3 samples were evaluated for the H 2 evolution from CH 3 OH/ H 2 O solution under UV light irradiation. Compared with the cubes-NaNbO 3 and a NaNbO 3 sample prepared by solid state reaction method, NaNbO 3 nanowires showed a much higher photocatalytic activity.