Despite the fact that many strategies have been developed to improve the efficiency of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the precise modulation of the surface electronic properties of catalysts to improve their catalytic activity is still challenging. Herein, we demonstrate that the surface active electron density of Co3O4 can be effectively regulated by an argon‐ion irradiation method. X‐ray photoelectron and synchrotron x‐ray absorption spectroscopy, UV photoelectron spectrometry, and DFT calculations show that the surface active electron density band center of Co3O4 has been upshifted, leading to a significantly enhanced absorption capability of the oxo group. The optimized Co3O4‐based catalysts exhibit an excellent overpotential of 260 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and Tafel slope of 54 mV dec−1, superior to the capability of the benchmark RuO2, representing one of the best Co‐based OER catalysts. This approach could guide the future rational design and discovery of ideal electrocatalysts.

Closing the anthropogenic carbon cycle by converting CO 2 into reusable chemicals is an attractive solution to mitigate rising concentrations of CO 2 in the atmosphere. Herein, we prepared Ni metal catalysts ranging in sizef rom single atoms to over 100 nm and distributed them across Ndoped carbon substrates whichw ere obtained from converted zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF). The results show variance in CO 2 reduction performance with variance in Ni metal size.N is ingle atoms demonstrate as uperior Faradaic efficiency (FE) for CO selectivity (ca. 97 %a tÀ0.8 Vv s. RHE), while results for 4.1 nm Ni nanoparticles are slightly lower (ca. 93 %). Further increase the Ni particle sizet o 37.2 nm allows the H 2 evolution reaction (HER) to compete with the CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR). The FE towards CO production decreases to under 30 %a nd HER efficiency increase to over 70 %. These results showasize-dependent CO 2 reduction for various sizes of Ni metal catalysts.

Titanium dioxide is a promising photoanode material for water oxidation, but it is substantially limited by its poor efficiency in the visible light range. Herein, an innovative carbon/nitrogen coimplantation method is utilized to realize the “Midas touch” transformation of TiO2 nanowire (NW) arrays for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting in visible light. These modified golden–yellow rutile TiO2 NW arrays (C/N‐TiO2) exhibit remarkably enhanced absorption in visible light regions and more efficient charge separation and transfer. As a result, the photocurrent density of carbon/nitrogen co‐implanted TiO2 under visible light (>420 nm) can reach 0.76 mA cm−2, which far exceeds the value of 3 µA cm−2 seen for pristine TiO2 nanowire arrays at 0.8 V versus Ag/AgCl. An incident photon to electron conversion efficiency of ≈14.8% is achieved at 450 nm on C/N‐TiO2 without any other cocatalysts. The ion implantation doping approach, combined with codoping strategies, is proved to be an effective strategy for enhancing the photoelectrochemical conversion and can enable further improvement of the PEC water‐splitting performance of many other semiconductor photoelectrodes.

Unraveling the essence of hydrogen adsorption and desorption behaviors can fundamentally guide catalyst design and promote catalytic performance. Herein, the regulation of hydrogen adsorption is systematically investigated by d–d orbital interaction of metallic tungsten dioxide (WO2). Theoretical simulations show that the incorporation of post‐transition metal atoms including Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu can gradually reduce the bond order of W—M sites, consequently weakening the hydrogen adsorption and accelerating the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) process. Under that theoretical guidance, various 3d metal doped WO2 electrocatalysts are systematically screened for HER catalysis. Among them, the Ni‐WO2/nickel foam exhibits an overpotential of 41 mV (−10 mA cm−2) and Tafel slope down to 47 mV dec−1 representing the best tungsten‐based HER catalysts so far. This work demonstrates that optimizing hydrogen adsorption via d–d orbital modulation is an effective approach to developing efficient and robust catalysts.

Despite the tremendous efforts devoted to enhancing the activity of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts, there is still a huge challenge to deeply understand the electronic structure characteristics of transition metal oxide to guide the design of more active catalysts. Herein, Fe3O4 with oxygen vacancies (Fe3O4‐Vac) was synthesized via Ar ion irradiation method and its OER activity was greatly improved by properly modulating the electron density around Fe atoms. The electron density of Fe3O4‐Vac around Fe atoms increased compared to that of Fe3O4 according to the characterization of synchrotron‐based X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure (XANES), extended X‐ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra, and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Moreover, the DFT results indicate the enhancement of the desorption of HOO* groups which significantly reduced the OER reaction barrier. Fe3O4‐Vac catalyst shows an overpotential of 353 mV, lower than that of FeOOH (853 mV) and Fe3O4 (415 mV) at 10 mA cm−2, and a low Tafel slope of 50 mV dec−1 in 1 M KOH, which was even better than commercial RuO2 at high potential. This modulation approach provides us with valuable insights for exploring efficient and robust water‐splitting electrocatalysts.

The results indicate that (i) EtOH-induced activation of caspase-12 could be one of the underlying mechanisms of hepatocyte apoptosis; (ii) EtOH-induced cell apoptosis was alleviated via ResV (10 μM) by inhibiting ER stress and caspase-12 activation in a SIRT1-dependent manner; and (iii) SIRT1 activated indirectly by ResV (10 μM) attenuates EtOH-induced hepatocyte apoptosis partly through inhibiting PDE activity.

Nitrate and nitrite (NO x –) are widespread contaminants in industrial wastewater and groundwater. Sustainable ammonia (NH3) production via NO x – electroreduction provides a prospective alternative to the energy-intensive industrialized Haber–Bosch process. However, selectively regulating the reaction pathway, which involves complicated electron/proton transfer, toward NH3 generation relies on the robust catalyst. A specific consideration in designing selective NO x –-to-NH3 catalysts should meet the criteria to suppress competing hydrogen evolution and avoid the presence of neighboring active sites that are in favor of adverse N–N coupling. Nevertheless, efforts in this regard are still inadequate. Herein, we demonstrate that isolated ruthenium sites can selectively reduce NO x – into NH3, with maximal Faradaic efficiencies of 97.8% (NO2 – reduction) and 72.8% (NO3 – reduction) at −0.6 and −0.4 V, respectively. Density functional theory calculations simulated the reaction mechanisms and identified the *NO → *NOH as the potential rate-limiting step for NO x –-to-NH3 conversion on single-atom Ru sites.

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