Chemical Research in Chinese Universities

Themed Issue on Graphdiyne

Yurui Xue, Zicheng Zuo

2021, 37(6): 1-3. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-6000-8

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Graphdiyne Based Atomic Catalyst: an Emerging Star for Energy Conversion

ZHANG Chao, LI Yuliang

2021, 37(6): 1149-1157. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1349-2

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Atomic catalysts(ACs) consisting of zero-valent metal atoms anchored on supporting materials have shown promising potentials in catalysis and energy conversion due to their higher atomic utilization, higher selectivity, activity and durability toward target reactions. However, traditional single-atom catalysts are mainly composed of clusters of metal atoms, which cannot effectively solve the problems of easy migration and aggregation of metal atoms. Besides, the traditional synthesis methods still lack breakthroughs in improving the stability and accurately controlling the chemical structure and charge distribution of metal atoms, which seriously limits the understanding of structure-activity relationship and catalytic mechanism in the catalytic reaction process at the atomic level. Graphdiyne(GDY) based ACs are stabilized by incomplete charge transfer between metal atoms and supporting materials, resolving the easy migration and aggregation of traditional single atomic catalysts, which have been regarded as the next generation of catalysts. This review will start with the overview of the synthesis methods for precisely anchoring of different zero-valent transition metal atoms(e.g., Ni, Fe, Mo and Cu) and noble metal atoms(e.g., Pd and Ru), followed by focusing on the recent advances in the researches of the ACs toward a series of important reactions for energy conversion technologies, including the electrochemical water splitting(EWS), nitrogen reduction reaction(NRR), oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) and others. Finally, the review concludes with a perspective highlighting the promises and challenges in the further development of ACs.

Fabrication and Application of Graphdiyne-based Heterogeneous Compositions: from the View of Interaction

QI Qi, XU Lekai, DU Jiang, YANG Nailiang, WANG Dan

2021, 37(6): 1158-1175. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1362-5

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Graphdiyne(GDY) has the unique feature in the topological ordered arranged sp- and sp²-hybridized carbon atoms, thus deriving a series of 2D allotropes. Due to inhomogeneous π-bonding and carbon orbital overlap between different hybrid carbon atoms, GDY possesses a natural band gap with a Dirac cones structure. And GDY exhibits semiconductor property with a conductivity of 2.516×10^-4 S/m at room temperature. The topological distribution of alkyne and benzene bonds of GDY makes its surface charge distribution extremely uneven, which produces high intrinsic activity for further modification. Its unique molecular structure endows the specific interaction with various species, such as ions, atoms, molecules and nanoparticles, showing excellent charge transport capability and unique advantages in mass transfer and energy conversion. From the view of the interaction principle between GDY and different compositions, we summarized the application of GDY-based materials in the fields of catalysis, energy conversion and storage, biological detection and so on.

Graphdiyne: from Preparation to Biomedical Applications

LI Xiaodan, GUO Mengyu, CHEN Chunying

2021, 37(6): 1176-1194. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1343-8

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Graphdiyne(GDY) is a kind of two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial with specific configurations of sp and sp² carbon atoms. The key progress in the preparation and application of GDY is bringing carbon materials to a brand-new level. Here, the various properties and structures of GDY are introduced, including the existing strategies for the preparation and modification of GDY. In particular, GDY has gradually emerged in the field of life sciences with its unique properties and performance, therefore, the development of biomedical applications of GDY is further summarized. Finally, the challenges of GDY toward future biomedical applications are discussed.

Application of Graphdiyne and Its Analogues in Photocatalysis and Photoelectrochemistry

HU Guilin, HE Jingyi, LI Yongjun

2021, 37(6): 1195-1212. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1337-6

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Graphdiyne(GDY), a new carbon allotrope composed of sp-sp² carbon atoms, has attracted increased attention in recent years. It has a direct band gap of 0.46-1.22 eV, high charge carrier mobility and lower work function compared to most of the typical semiconductors, which ensure successful hybridization with other semiconductors(e.g., TiO₂, g-C₃N₄). This review aims at discussing recent achievements of GDY and its analogues applied in photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical(PEC) reactions. Meanwhile, some challenges and new perspectives of opportunities in developing catalysts and electrodes based on GDY and its analogues are also discussed.

Heteroatom Doped Graphdiyne and Analogues: Synthesis, Structures and Applications

MAN Yixiao, ZHAO Jinyu, LIU Shipeng, PAN Qingyan, ZHAO Yingjie

2021, 37(6): 1213-1223. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1332-y

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As a new carbon allotrope, graphdiyne(GDY) has shown intensive practical application prospects in the energy field, catalysis, gas separation, etc., due to its unique 2D π-conjugated structure, rich sp-hybridized carbon atoms and semiconductor characteristics. Considerable efforts have been made to the development of well-defined GDY materials in recent years. The doping heteroatoms can further tune the structures, semiconductor properties of GDY, and expand the promising applications. This review summarized a comprehensive development of heteroatom doped GDYs, including their synthesis, structures, properties, applications in nanotechnology, as well as the forecast in the future.

Graphdiyne: A Versatile Material in Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage

SONG Congying, LI Guoxing

2021, 37(6): 1224-1241. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1338-5

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Graphdiyne(GDY), which is composed of sp²-/sp-hybridized carbon atoms, has attracted increasing attention. In the structure of GDY, the existence of large triangular-like pores, well dispersed electron-rich cavities as well as a large π-conjugated structure endows GDY with a natural bandgap, fast electron/ion transport, and tunable electronic properties. These unique features make GDY competitive in areas of gas separation and capture, electronics, detectors, catalysts, biomedicine and therapy, and energy-related fields. Benefiting from the facile synthesis method, various GDY structures and GDY-based composites have been successfully prepared and show great potential in the practical application of energy storage and catalysis areas. Here, this review aims at providing a timely and comprehensive update on the preparation and application of GDY materials. The current development of GDY materials in various electrochemical fields especially in energy conversion, energy storage, and catalysis is mainly summarized. Moreover, the potential development prospects are also discussed.

Synergistic Effect of Graphdiyne-based Electrocatalysts

WONG Hon Ho, SUN Mingzi, HUANG Bolong

2021, 37(6): 1242-1256. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1346-5

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The synergistic effect can help improve the electrocatalyst performances by combining the advantages of individual components. In particular, such an effect has been more important in the atomic catalysts. In this review, we have summarized the synergistic effect of N, X co-doping graphdiyne[X=B, S, F or transition metal(TM)] electrocatalysts and graphdiyne-based dual-atom catalyst(GDY-DAC). In general, the synergistic cooperation between two different dopants in co-doped GDY and adjacent active sites in GDY-DAC not only promotes their catalytic activity but also greatly enhances the thermodynamic stability of the catalysts. For the N, X co-doping GDY electrocatalysts, doping the heteroatoms like boron, sulphur, phosphorus, and fluorine with nitrogen can further tune the charge density distribution and electronic structure. Meanwhile, the electron exchange between two doping atoms and GDY substrate has been discussed, where the TM-based GDY-DAC is a very promising catalyst for electrocatalysis. More importantly, electronic interactions between different elements on GDY have been carefully discussed. In the end, we have also supplied perspectives to the future developments of the GDY-based electrocatalysts.

Study of Graphdiyne-based Magnetic Materials

LI Ru, ZHANG Mingjia, LI Xiaodong, MA Xiaodi, HUANG Changshui

2021, 37(6): 1257-1267. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1350-9

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Carbon-based magnetic semiconductors are easy to be modified with low cost and low power consumption. While they can demonstrate robust long-range magnetic ordering and show great potential for application after introducing magnetic moments. Graphdiyne(GDY), as an allotrope of carbon, exhibits intrinsic semiconductor properties and paramagnetic properties due to its unique structure and the presence of sp carbon. To improve the magnetic properties of GDY and prepare excellent magnetic semiconductor materials, scientists have done a lot of related research work. The most direct and effective method to introduce magnetism is heteroatom doping. In this review, we have entirely described the latest GDY magnetism introduction methods, effects, and theoretical calculations, etc. Doping methods include post-doping and molecular design doping. The doping elements have covered non-metallic elements(N, H, F, Cl, S), metallic elements(Fe), and functional groups. The magnetic properties of the modified GDY materials were studied by experimental analysis and theoretical calculations. This review provides a sufficient basis and direction for related researches.

Nickel(hydro) oxide/graphdiyne Catalysts for Efficient Oxygen Production Reaction

LUAN Xiaoyu, XUE Yurui

2021, 37(6): 1268-1274. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1336-7

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The transition metal-based materials have been regarded as promising electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, achieving higher efficiency is largely limited by the valence states of metal species. Herein, different graphdiyne (GDY)-nickel composites were designed and synthesized[Ni(OH)₂/GDY, NiOOH/GDY, and NiO_x/GDY] as the electrocatalysts for OER. The NiO_x/GDY possessing the mixed valence states can drive the OER more efficiently than Ni(OH)₂/GDY and NiOOH/GDY. NiO_x/GDY gives the smallest overpotential of 310 mV at 10 mA/cm² for OER, which is even superior to commercial RuO₂ electrocatalyst. Experimental results reveal that not only the fast charge transfer induced by GDY but also the prominent roles of mixed Ni²⁺/Ni³⁺ valence states boost the OER electrocatalytic performances. The presence of the mixed valence state was demonstrated to be helpful for the charge transfer, resulting in the enhancement of the catalytic activity. This work may provide a new direction to design and fabricate high-performance materials for OER and beyond.

Nitrogen-rich Graphdiyne Film for Efficiently Suppressing the Methanol Crossover in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

LI Liang, ZUO Zicheng, HE Feng, JIANG Zhongqing, LI Yuliang

2021, 37(6): 1275-1282. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1345-6

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The inhibition of the methanol crossover is one of the intractable challenges in the direct methanol fuel cell. The graphdiyne(GDY) with atomic-level pores shows great potential in realizing the zero-permeation of methanol molecules. In this paper, an ultrathin layer of nitrogen-rich GDY film with a high nitrogen content is largely prepared and readily used for retarding the methanol permeation in the state-of-the-art commercial Nafion membrane. The high N-content in this porous GDY nanofilm remarkably increases the selective suppression in methanol transfer, and single-layer GDY film can efficiently prevent 43% methanol crossover and the value of the double-layer GDY film can be high up to 69%. The power performance and the long-term stability of the cell are obviously improved due to the reduced methanol crossover.

N,P-co-Doped Graphdiyne as Efficient Metal-free Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

LI Meiping, WANG Kaihang, LV Qing

2021, 37(6): 1283-1288. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1256-6

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The carbon-based metal-free catalyst is one of the ideal alternatives to Pt as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction, which can reduce the cost of fuel cells and zinc-air batteries. Here, graphdiyne(GDY), a carbon material with uneven charge distribution, was used as substrate. By doping nitrogen and phosphorus, a N-P-GDY catalyst was prepared, which further regulated the electron structure of GDY. The sheet-like morphology of GDY was preserved in N-P-GDY. The N and P were distributed uniformly in the catalyst, whereas defects and active sites were created by doping N and P, as demonstrated by the element mapping images and Raman spectra. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicated N and P existed in many forms in N-P-GDY. The N-P-GDY exhibited higher activity for ORR than only N or P doped GDY, due to the synergistic effect of N and P in N-P-GDY. Moreover, the activity of N-P-GDY changed little after a long time cyclic voltammetry test or injecting methanol in the electrolyte. Besides, the four electrons transfer reaction to produce water was the main process for ORR on N-P-GDY catalysts.

Diffusion Kinetics Study of Lithium Ion in the Graphdiyne Based Electrode

ZHANG Luwei, LIU Jingyi, BAI Ling, WANG Ning

2021, 37(6): 1289-1295. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1316-y

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Herein, we report a comparative investigation of the electrochemical lithium diffusion within graphidyne(GDY) based electrodes. The transfer kinetic behaviors of lithium ions during the insertion/extraction process are analyzed through different methods including the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique(GITT) and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). GDY with the morphology of nanosheets(GDY NS) shows lithium diffusion coefficients in the orders range of 10⁻¹²-10⁻¹³ cm²/s through the GITT method. Meanwhile, EIS indicates quite a lower value of lithium diffusion coefficients between 10⁻¹³ and 10⁻¹⁵ cm²/s, which indicates that the analysis technique has an influence on the evaluation of GDY-based electrodes. In addition, under the same measurement condition of GITT, GDY nanoparticles(GDY NP) exhibit a lower value of Li⁺ diffusion coefficient(10^-14-10^-16 cm²/s) during the charge-discharge process compared to those of GDY NS, which can be ascribed to the wide distributing range of particle size in GDY NP based electrodes. The analysis results in this work reveal that the aggregating forms of GDY electrode material have an important effect on the diffusion process of lithium ions, which provides a pathway to optimize the performance of GDY-based energy storage devices.

Three-dimensional Pyrenyl Graphdiyne Supported Pd Nanoparticle as an Efficient and Easily Recyclable Catalyst for Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol

RONG Xin, LU Xiuli, LU Tongbu

2021, 37(6): 1296-1300. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1323-z

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The fabrication of highly active and easily recyclable Pd-based catalyst is meaningful for their practical application. Herein, a Pd-based dip-catalyst(Pd@Pyr-GDY) is fabricated on graphdiyne(Pyr-GDY) grown on copper foam, and applied in the reduction of nitroarenes. Specially, the as-formed Pd@Pyr-GDY shows good catalytic performance toward the reduction of 4-nitrophenol(4-NP) to 4-aminophenol(4-AP) by NaBH₄ with a rate constant k value of 3.84 min^-1, which is 12-fold higher than that of the commercial Pd/C. More importantly, Pd@Pyr-GDY could be easily and rapidly recovery from the reaction medium and no distinct inactivation was found after six cycles of the reaction. This work presents an easy way to design an efficient and easily recyclable Pd-based catalyst for practical use.

Graphdiyne Hybrid Nanowall Arrays for High-capacity Aqueous Rechargeable Zinc Ion Battery

LI Jiaofu, CHEN Yanhuan, WANG Fuhui, GUO Jie, HE Feng, LIU Huibiao

2021, 37(6): 1301-1308. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1333-x

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Development of aqueous rechargeable zinc ion battery is an important direction towards grid energy storage sought in various applications. At present, the efficient utilization of aqueous rechargeable zinc ion batteries has been seriously affected due to the defects nature of the cathode materials, such as poor capacity, limited rate performance, and limited cycle stability. Therefore, the search for high-performance cathode materials is a main challenge in this field. Herein, we in-situ prepared graphdiyne-wrapped K_0.25·MnO₂(K_0.25·MnO₂@GDY) hybrid nanowall arrays as the cathode of aqueous rechargeable zinc ion battery. The hybridnanowall arrays have obviously alleviated the pulverization and sluggish kinetic process of MnO₂ cathode materials and shown high specific capacity(520 mA·h/g at a current density of 55 mA/g), which is near-full two-electron capacity. The high specific capacity was resulted from more than one Zn²⁺ (de)intercalation process occurring per formula unit, in which we observed a structural evolution that partially stemmed from ion exchange between the intercalated K⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions during the discharge process. The present investigation not only provides a new material for the aqueous rechargeable Zn ion batteries, also contributes a novel route for the development of next generation aqueous rechargeable Zn ion batteries with high capacity.

Graphdiyne Oxide Modified NiO_x for Enhanced Charge Extraction in Inverted Planar MAPbI₃ Perovskite Solar Cells

TANG Jin, ZHAO Min, CAI Xu, LIU Le, LI Xiaofang, JIU Tonggang

2021, 37(6): 1309-1316. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1340-y

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The interface defects and nickel vacancies of the NiO_x lead to interface charge recombination, which limits its application in perovskite solar cells. Here, graphdiyne oxide(GDYO) was added to NiO_x as an inorganic hole transporting material. It is found that the average carrier lifetime declined from 29.2 ns to 5.4 ns and the recombination resistance increased significantly after the GDYO adding determined by the time-resolved photoluminescence and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis. We further demonstrated that the GDYO adding to NiO_x effectively improved the charge extraction, accelerated the charge transportation and suppressed the charge recombination. Consequently, the optimized NiO_x(GDYO)-based cell showed superior performance with a higher fill factor(81.99%) and improved stability with respect to the reference device. This method provides a new method for property regulation of NiO_x in inverted planar MAPbI₃ perovskite solar cells.

Graphdiyne: a Highly Sensitive Material for ppb-Level NO₂ Gas Sensing at Room Temperature

LI Peipei, YU Jia, CAO Changyan, SONG Weiguo

2021, 37(6): 1317-1322. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1341-x

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Detection of a trace amount of NO₂ at room temperature has very important applications in air quality monitoring, protection of human health and medical diagnose. However, the existing NO₂ sensors often suffer from low sensitivity when the concentration at the ppb-level. Here, we report a new kind of materials based on graphdiyne(GDY) for highly sensitive detection of ppb-level(ppb:part per billion) NO₂ at room temperature. After thermal treatment of the as-prepared GDY at 600℃ under argon atmosphere for 2 h(the obtained sample denoted as GDY-600), the prepared sensor with GDY-600 displays excellent sensitivity with a response value of 6.2% towards 250 ppb NO₂ at room temperature, which is better than most of reported sensing materials. In addition, the sensor exhibits significantly high selectivity to NO₂ against typical interfering gases including CO, CO₂, NH₃, H₂, H₂S and toluene. Moreover, the sensor shows remarkable stability after repetitive measurements. The superior sensing performance of GDY-600 can be ascribed to the highly π-conjugated structure with special acetylenic bonds and abundant oxygen-containing functional groups, which are all beneficial for the gas adsorption and redox reaction on the surface.

Architecting Pyrenyl-graphdiyne Nanowalls for High Capacity and Long-life Lithium Storage

AN Qingqing, JIANG Yanglin, HE Huan, GAO Juan, WANG Peng, JIA Zhiyu

2021, 37(6): 1323-1327. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1342-9

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Graphdiyne, as the novel carbon allotrope, which is composed of sp²- and sp-hybridized carbon, has exhibited excellent catalytic activity and conductivity. It has been applied in series of fields, such as Li-battery, catalyst and energy conversion. Expanding well-defined structures and useful applications of graphdiyne is still full of challenges in material chemistry. Herein, we optimized the synthesis condition of pyrenyl-graphdiyne to obtain the nanowall structure. Compared with the typical nanosheet structure, the pyrenyl-graphdiyne nanowalls (Pyr-GDY-NWs) have more area for lithium insertion. Lithium-ion battery featuring Pyr-GDY-NWs-based electrode exhibits a high reversible specific capacity up to 1464 mA‧h/g, which is triple than that of the commercial graphite. We also used the theoretical calculation to investigate the mechanism of Li storage in Pyr-GDY-NWs. The experiment and theoretical data showed that Pyr-GDY-NWs had the potential application in lithium batteries. Therefore, Pyr-GDY with a defined structure would be applied in energy storage and energy conversion.

Stabilization of Cu/Ni Alloy Nanoparticles with Graphdiyne Enabling Efficient CO₂ Reduction

FU Xinliang, ZHU Aonan, CHEN Xiaojie, ZHANG Shifu, WANG Mei, YUAN Mingjian

2021, 37(6): 1328-1333. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1344-7

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Electrocatalysis has become an attractive strategy for the artificial reduction of CO₂ to high-value chemicals. However, the design and development of highly selective and stable non-noble metal electrocatalysts that convert CO₂ to CO are still a challenge. As a new type of two-dimensional carbon material, graphdiyne(GDY), is rarely used to explore the application in carbon dioxide reduction reaction(CO₂RR). Therefore, we tried to use GDY as a substrate to stabilize the copper-nickel alloy nanoparticles(NPs) to synthesize Cu/Ni@GDY. Cu/Ni@GDY requires an overpotential (-0.61 V) to 10 mA/cm² for the formation of CO, and it shows better activity than Au and Ag, achieving a higher Faraday efficiency of about 95.2% and high stability of about 26 h at an overpotential (-0.70 V). The electronic interaction between GDY substrate and Cu/Ni alloy NPs and the large specific surface area of GDY is responsible for the high performance.

Activity Origins of Graphdiyne Based Bifunctional Atom Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution and Water Oxidation

WU Han, HE Feng

2021, 37(6): 1334-1340. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1347-4

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Graphdiyne(GDY) based atom catalysts(ACs) show extraordinary electrocatalytic activities towards hydrogen evolution reaction(HER) and water oxidation reaction(OER), which have attracted wide attention of scientists. However, a precise understanding on the activities trends and origins of ACs is still under exploration. We investigate the electrocatalytic performance of a series of ACs in this work. Density functional theory(DFT) calculations reveal that the half reactions of OER and HER are site-dependent on ACs, which are preferentially proceeded on the metal site and the nearby bonded carbon site, respectively. Besides, the d-band center of metal atoms is the most important descriptor, which can perfectly correlate the high activities of ACs towards the two half reactions. Especially for HER, the deeper d-band position of metal atoms corresponds to much stronger d-p_x(p_y) orbital coupling in ACs, which activate more obvious charge transfer between the metal site and the nearby bonded carbon site, resulting in the HER activity enhancement of ACs. These results are of great significance in guiding the precise synthesis of highly efficient bifunctional metal atom catalysts supported by GDY in future.

Fabrication and Excellent Antibacterial Activity of Well-defined CuO/Graphdiyne Nanostructure

PAN Chuanqi, LIU Xiaoxuan, ZHANG Xiang, MAO Feihong, XU Peiyan, ZHU Yuhua, DENG Hongtao, LUO Zhu, SUN Hongwei, ZHANG Lizhi, GUO Yanbing

2021, 37(6): 1341-1347. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1348-3

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Copper oxide(CuO), due to its low cost, good chemical and physical stability, has recently been given special attention as a potential candidate for antibacterial agents. However, developing novel CuO nanocomposites with improved antibacterial property and unraveling the interface promotion mechanism has been a fundamental challenge for decades. Herein, well-defined CuO/graphdiyne(CuO/GDY) nanostructures with uniformly anchored CuO nanoparticles(ca. 4.5 nm) have been fabricated. The CuO/GDY nanostructure exhibited superior E. coli inactivation efficiency, which is nearly 19 times and 7.9 times higher than the bare GDY and commercial CuO, respectively. The improved E. coli inactivation performance was mainly due to the increased reactive ^·O₂^- species generated by the activation of molecular O₂ over CuO/GDY surface. These findings demonstrate the efficient antibacterial activity of well-defined CuO/GDY nanostructures and provide insights on the development of efficient GDY-based antibacterial materials.

Room Temperature Exciton-Polariton Bose-Einstein Condensation in Organic Single-crystal Microribbon Cavities

WU Jinqi, SU Rui, XIONG Qihua

2021, 37(6): 1348-1349. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1304-2

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Thanks to the large binding energy and excellent optical properties of Frenkel excitons, organic semiconductors emerge as ideal platforms for the realization of room-temperature exciton polariton(EP) Bose-Einstein condensates(BEC), which is of great importance for developing on-chip coherent light sources and optical logic elements. Previous demonstrations usually demand complex fabrications with external microcavities, which largely hinders the practical applications in on-chip integration. Recently, Tang et al. have reported a room-temperature EP BEC in organic single-crystal microribbons by employing their intrinsic Fabry-Pérot microcavities, being exempted from the complex fabrication of external microcavities. The high exciton densities in organic microribbons lead to large exciton-photon coupling strength, which facilitates the realization of EP BEC, and the further manipulation of polariton condensates for controllable coherent light output. This work has been published online in Nature Communications on June 1, 2021.

Layered Double Hydroxide Derived Triple-phase Interfaces for Efficient Acetylene Electroreduction

LIU Bin

2021, 37(6): 1350-1351. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1432-8

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Prof. ZHANG Tierui and Prof. WANG Haotian recently demonstrated a room temperature electrochemical acetylene reduction strategy at the copper-based triple-phase interfaces[Nat. Catal., 2021, 4(7), 565-574]. The conversion rate of acetylene reached 99.9% with over 90% ethylene selectivity, outperforming most of thermal hydrogenation investigations. Using water as the clean proton source and discharging oxygen on the counter electrode as the only by-product, the concentration of acetylene was successfully reduced from 5000 ppm(parts per million) to less than 1 ppm in ethylene abundant gas flow. The findings make electrocatalysis a possible alternative to thermal hydrogenation in industrial applications and demonstrate triple-phase electrochemistry as a robust method for the conversion of trace gas impurities. This research highlight aims to clear the creative ideas of reaction system design, with special attention on the catalyst modulation and characterization methods.

Ester Bond Containing Protein: Mechanically Stable Yet Dynamic

ZHANG Wenke

2021, 37(6): 1352-1353. doi:10.1007/s40242-021-1439-1

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Gram-positive pathogens can colonize on mucosal tissues stably withstanding large mechanical disturbance from coughing and sneezing by secreting special surface adhesion proteins. However, how these proteins resist mechanical unfolding remains unknown. In a recent work, using single molecule force spectroscopy, Cao et al. discovered that an ester bond containing surface adhesion protein from Gram-positive bacteria, Clostridium perfringenes, remains folded even under stretching forces of >2 nN, more stable than most proteins investigated to date. Such an outstanding mechanical stability is due to the coupling between ester bond and protein topologic structure and can be dynamically regulated by surrounding conditions. This work has been published in Nature Communications and can be reached at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25425-6.

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