Search

The sluggish hydrogen oxidation reaction hinders the development of anion exchange membrane fuel cells. Here, the authors develop high-curvature RuIr CNCs that induce an O-down water orientation, thereby strengthening hydrogen-bond networks and reducing proton transfer barriers.

The electrooxidation of ethylene to ethylene glycol (EG) offers a sustainable pathway for chemical manufacturing, but demands selective non-precious-metal electrocatalysts. Here, the authors report a class of (111)-rich Mn₂O₃ nanoarray electrode, which achieves a high selectivity of 52.6% for for ethylene-to-EG conversion in aqueous electrolytes.

Copper-based catalysts are preferred for electrochemical CO₂ reduction to hydrocarbons, which however easily undergo structural reconstruction. Here, the authors report a class of reconstruction-resistant copper sites with tunable electronic structures through σ-π dative bonding interaction.

Breaking the symmetry of high-entropy alloy surfaces for delicate strain tuning is highly appealing for electrocatalysis. Herein, high-entropy alloy nanorings with stress-release-driven compressive strain at stepped defects are reported for efficient oxygen reduction reaction.

Solar-driven production of H₂O₂ and chemicals from O₂ and biomass is promising but hindered by inefficient photocatalysts. Here, the authors report composite photocatalysts of atomically dispersed Ta sites for broad-spectrum light absorption and selective biomass conversion in a three-phase system.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ over copper can be made highly selective by ‘tuning’ the copper surface with adsorbed organic molecules to stabilize intermediates for carbon-based fuels such as ethylene

Dual-atom catalysts have the potential to accelerate the reaction kinetics of polysulfide conversion. Here, authors design a Ga-Cd diatomic catalyst that efficiently facilitates the conversion of solid-phase potassium polysulfides via strong orbital electron coupling of p-block Ga and d-block Cd, enabling high-performance K-S batteries.

Photocatalytic disinfection is a known pollution-free water treatment strategy. However, its efficiency is limited due to the spin-forbidden feature of O₂, which hinders photocatalytic ·O₂⁻ formation and limits its disinfection efficiency. Here the authors produce a strained Mo_4/3B_2-xT_z MBene that can increase ·O₂⁻ photocatalytic production, which results in high levels of photocatalytic disinfection.

Atomically thin alloys are promising electrocatalysts but suffer from poor homogeneity. Here a multi-element metallene system is synthesized using an auto-catalytic method. The hexagonal close-packed intermetallic structure and isolated surface Ru–O₃ sites provide optimal adsorption of intermediates, contributing to high hydrogen oxidation activity and stability.

Water dissociation has proven power in tuning the behaviors of electrochemical CO₂ reduction. Here, the authors report the spontaneous water dissociation capability of the intermetallic electride LaCu_0.67Si_1.33 material that enables high rate electrosynthesis of methane from CO₂.

Building an efficient proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzer with low Ir loading remains important but challenging. Here, the authors report an Ir/MnO_x catalyst with rich Ir-O-Mn bonds that serve as charge-transfer channels to generate and stabilize active Ir³⁺ species, enhancing both activity and stability.

Developing robust catalysts for proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzers is essential for industrial applications. Here, the authors report a Pb-RuO₂ catalyst that uses large-sized Pb to reduce the reactivity of lattice oxygen, enhancing stability and allowing it to operate for over 1100 h.

Turing-structured topology electrocatalysts are reported to control the reorientation of interfacial water through the tuning of surface oxophilicity. The optimal Turing catalyst achieves a formate Faradaic efficiency of 92.0% at 1,000 mA cm⁻².

Producing ethanol from carbon dioxide, water, and renewable electricity offers a route to sustainable energy. Here, the authors enhance electrocatalytic activity for carbon dioxide reduction by tuning adsorbed hydrogen in a class of copper catalysts with oxide- and hydroxide-modified surfaces.

Lack of stability in RuO₂-based catalysts at industrial currents impedes their use in green hydrogen production. Here, the authors show that incorporating lanthanide elements into RuO_x shields against external factors, enabling fine-tuned Ru-O covalency for durable oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysis.

The understanding of electrochemical interfaces between polymer electrolytes and metal electrodes, which is critical to many practical devices, remains limited. Now, the interaction between Nafion’s sulfonate groups and platinum and its impact on the oxygen reduction reaction is studied in detail, and a distinct coupled cation–electron transfer mechanism is identified.

This study reports oxygen functional group-coordinated p-block metal catalysts that optimize the adsorption strength of key H₂O₂ intermediates for the oxygen reduction reaction. An electrolyser based on electron-deficient Sn active sites achieves an energy efficiency of 43% for the electrosynthesis of H₂O₂ and is stable for over 200 h.

Deconvoluting and quantitating ligand effect from the typical strain-ligand effects in a real catalytic structure remains challenging. Here, the authors report a core/shell catalyst model to quantitate how much ligand effect solely contributes to electrocatalytic performance through experimental design.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells face challenges like low efficiency and degradation from Nafion ionomers. Here, the authors report a core/shell nanoparticle design with a Pt₃Fe core and an atomically-thin, porous N-doped carbon shell that reduces ionomer poisoning and improves fuel cells performance.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are promising photocatalysts for the direct photosynthesis of H₂O₂, but their symmetric structure can lead to weak O₂ adsorption. Now thiophene sulfur atoms are introduced into COFs to induce local asymmetric electron distributions, which enhance the O₂ adsorption capacity and interaction of the COFs, promoting direct photosynthesis of H₂O₂.

Developing highly efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts is crucial for AEMWEs. Here, the authors employ electron-deficient and oxophilic Ga single atoms as an electronic bridge to stabilize Ru clusters in an N-doped carbon-supported catalyst.

Atomically precise modification of high-entropy alloys is highly appealing for electrocatalysis. Here, the authors design single-atom Mo-tailored high-entropy alloy nanosheets with dilute Pt-Pt ensembles and intrinsic tensile strain for promoting methanol electro-oxidation towards formate.

Water electrolysis can produce clean hydrogen, but it is limited by the slow anodic oxygen evolution reaction. Now, a local electronic manipulation strategy for stabilizing high-valence Ru single site catalysts has been developed. The catalyst demonstrates efficient bifunctional activity for water electrolysis.

Although structurally ordered intermetallic nanocrystals are promising electrocatalysts for fuel cells, their high-temperature large-scale preparation has proved challenging. A low-melting-point-metal-induced bond strength weakening strategy to promote alloy catalyst ordering is now proposed.

Stress release at stepped platinum surfaces is shown to influence the strain experienced by atoms near the steps, resulting in effects on the catalytic activity of the whole surface.

The deployment of fuel cells demands more efficient electrode–electrolyte interfaces to catalyse the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). A kinetic ORR descriptor is put forward, which is related to the rate of the *O ↔ *OH transition and includes electrolyte effects via the role of non-specifically adsorbed anions.

Copper is unique among CO₂ electrocatalysts owing to its ability to produce multicarbon products at high rates; however, achieving selectivity for specific products remains challenging. Here, Cu surfaces decorated with alkaline earth metal oxides are found to strongly favour alcohols over hydrocarbons.

CO₂-to-ethylene conversion using renewable electricity provides a sustainable route to produce valuable chemicals. Here, the authors report high ethylene activity of 215 mA cm⁻² and selectivity of 65% made possible by silica clusters in copper.

Converting CO2 and H2O into value-added chemical feedstocks and fuels offers a carbon neutral approach to tackling global energy and climate concerns. Here the authors report a metal supported single-atom catalytic site enabling the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methane.

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to multicarbon products is useful for producing high-value chemicals and fuels. Here the authors present a strategy that is based on the in situ electrodeposition of copper under CO₂ reduction conditions that preferentially expose and maintain Cu(100) facets, which favour the formation of C₂₊ products.

While single-atom catalysis offers an efficient materials usage, the ambiguous interactions with supports poses a difficulty in understanding catalytic performances. Here, authors show an ensemble effect via synergy of Co adatoms and the S of MoS₂ supports to boost hydrogen evolution activities.

Electrochemical conversion of CO₂ into liquid fuels, powered by renewable electricity, offers one means to address the need for the storage of intermittent renewable energy. Now, Sargent and co-workers present a cooperative catalyst design of molecule–metal interfaces to improve the electrosynthesis of ethanol from CO₂ by producing a reaction-intermediate-rich local environment.

Ethylene glycol is a commodity chemical with an annual consumption of 20 million tonnes. Its production generates 1.6 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of ethylene glycol. To reduce these CO₂ emissions, the authors report a one-step electrochemical route to selectively convert ethylene to ethylene glycol at ambient temperature and pressure in aqueous media.

The electrocatalytic upgrading of CO to higher-value fuels provides a promising route to multi-carbon alcohol products. Here, the authors show that high alcohol selectivity and activity can be achieved by incorporating palladium in copper.

Electrochemical conversion of CO₂ into high-value products is attractive for lowering net carbon emissions. Lee et al. present the valorization of chemisorbed CO₂ to CO in an aqueous monoethanolamine electrolyte via tailoring of the electrochemical double layer, with 72% Faradaic efficiency at 50 mA cm^–2.

Dual-atom catalysts show potential for complex reactions, but their controllable preparation is challenging. A method to transform a Ni nanoparticle into a Ni₂N₆ dual-atom structure on a carbon support yields a catalyst with precisely controlled atomic site distances, giving excellent performance for CO₂ electroreduction.

The authors present a planar photonic chip, which operate as a multiple-order analog spatial differentiator. It provides a route for designing fast, power-efficient, compact and low-cost devices used in edge detection and optical image processing, thus expanding the functions of standard microscopes.

The electroreduction of CO₂ to ethanol could enable the clean production of fuels using renewable power. This study shows how confinement effects from nitrogen-doped carbon layers on copper catalysts enable selective ethanol production from CO₂ with a Faradaic efficiency of up to 52%.

Tuning the surface strain in multimetallic nanomaterials represents an effective strategy to improve their electrocatalytic properties. In this Review, using the oxygen reduction reaction as a model, the underlying relationship between surface strain and catalytic activity is discussed, along with the introduction, tuning and quantification of strain in nanocatalysts.

A direct search for effective electromagnetic interactions between dark matter and xenon nuclei that produce a recoil of the latter is carried out and the first constraint on charge radius of dark matter is derived.

PdMo bimetallene, a highly curved and sub-nanometre-thick nanosheet of a palladium–molybdenum alloy, is an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions under alkaline conditions.

Metal single-atom cocatalysts with a well-defined and tunable electronic structure maximize the interaction between photocatalyst and cocatalyst, facilitating the enhanced separation/transfer of photogenerated charge carriers and high-efficiency surface catalytic reactions.