Design and synthesis of effective electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline environments is critical to reduce energy losses in alkaline water electrolysis. Here we report a hybrid nanomaterial comprising of one-dimensional ultrathin platinum nanowires grown on two-dimensional single-layered nickel hydroxide. Judicious surface chemistry to generate the fully exfoliated nickel hydroxide single layers is explored to be the key for controllable growth of ultrathin platinum nanowires with diameters of about 1.8 nm. Impressively, this hybrid nanomaterial exhibits superior electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline solution, which outperforms currently reported catalysts, and the obviously improved catalytic stability. We believe that this work may lead towards the development of singlelayered metal hydroxide-based hybrid materials for applications in catalysis and energy conversion.

Non-Pt noble metal clusters like Au clusters are believed to be promising high performance catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode of fuel cells, but they still suffer big problems during the catalysis reactions, such as a large amount of the capping agents being on the surface and easy occurrence of dissolution and aggregation. To overcome these obstacles, here, we present a novel and general strategy to grow ultrafine Au clusters and other metal (Pt, Pd) clusters on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets without any additional protecting molecule or reductant. Compared with the currently generally adopted nanocatalysts, including commercial Pt/C, rGO sheets, Au nanoparticle/rGO hybrids, and thiol-capped Au clusters of the same sizes, the as-synthesized Au cluster/rGO hybrids display an impressive eletrocatalytic performance toward ORR, for instance, high onset potential, superior methanol tolerance, and excellent stability.

A heterogeneous catalyst made of well-defined Co3 O4 hexagonal platelets with varied exposed facets is coupled with [Ru(bpy)3 ]Cl2 photosensitizers to effectively and efficiently reduce CO2 under visible-light irradiation. Systematic investigation based on both experiment and theory discloses that the exposed {112} facets are crucial for activating CO2 molecules, giving rise to significant enhancement of photocatalytic CO2 reduction efficiency.

Reversible plasmonic circular dichroism (CD) responses are realized for the first time based on temperature-dependent assembly and disassembly of Au nanorod (Au NR) and DNA hybrids. Compared with the conventional UV-vis absorption spectra, the changes in both intensity and line shape of plasmonic CD signals are much more pronounced, leading to a preliminary detection limit of DNA as low as 75 nM. The mechanism and influence factors of reversible plasmonic CD responses are explored.

A novel and general method is proposed to construct three-dimensional graphene/metal oxide nanoparticle hybrids. For the first time, it is demonstrated that this graphene-based composite with open pore structures can be used as the high-performance capacitive deionization (CDI) electrode materials, which outperform currently reported materials. This work will offer a promising way to develop highly effective CDI electrode materials.

The manipulation of the chirality and corresponding optical activity in the visible-near-infrared (NIR) light region is significant to realize applications in the fields of chemical sensing, enantioselective separation, chiral nanocatalysis, and optical devices. We studied the plasmon-induced circular dichroism (CD) response by one-dimensional (1D) assembly of cysteine (CYS) and gold nanorods (GNRs). Typically, GNRs can form end-to-end assembly through the electrostatic attraction of CYS molecules preferentially attached on the ends of different GNRs. CD responses are observed at both the UV and visible-NIR light region in the 1D assembly, which are assigned to the CYS molecules and the GNRs, respectively. In addition, the wavelength of the CD responses can be manipulated from 550 nm to more than 900 nm through altering the aspect ratios of GNRs in 1D assembly. Anisotropic enhancement of optical activity is discovered, suggesting that the enhancement of the longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of GNRs in the CD response is much more apparent than that of the transverse LSPR. The CD responses of individual CYS-attached GNRs and CYS-assembled gold nanoparticles (GNPs) substantiate that the form of assembly and the shape of building blocks are significant not only for the intensity but for the line shape of the CD signals.

No abstract

The design and fabrication of chiral nanostructures is a promising approach to realize enantiomeric recognition and separation. In our work, gold nanorod@chiral mesoporous silica core-shell nanoparticles (GNR@CMS NPs) have been successfully synthesized. This novel material exhibits strong and tunable circular dichroism signals in the visible and near-infrared regions due to the optical coupling between the CMS shells and the GNR cores. When chiral cysteine molecules are loaded in the porous shells, the corresponding surface enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy demonstrates a distinct chiral recognition effect, which can be used to semiquantitatively measure the composition of chiral enantiomers. A detailed sensing mechanism has been disclosed by density functional theory calculations.