In 2017, global CO 2 emissions from burning fossil fuels reached 33 gigatons, twice the natural rate at which CO 2 is absorbed back into land and ocean sinks. Harnessing solar radiation holds the answer to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. It is the most abundant energy resource and could meet humans' future energy needs. The efficient conversion of solar radiation into stable, energydense liquid energy carriers that can use existing or adapt global supply chains for storage, shipping, and distribution is the key to large-scale deployment of solar energy at gigaton levels. Liquid sunshine is the vision of combining the sun's energy with carbon dioxide and water to produce green liquid fuels. CO 2 released on using these fuels is recycled back into the environment, thus maintaining an ecologically balanced cycle. Multisource and multipurpose alcohols are optimal candidate fuels. Methanol and ethanol are actionable first targets with gigaton production potential.

Uniform gold hollow nanospheres with tunable interior-cavity sizes were fabricated by using Co nanoparticles as sacrificial templates and varying the stoichiometric ratio of starting material HAuCl4 over the reductants. The formation of these hollow nanostructures is attributed to two subsequent reduction reactions: the initial reduction of HAuCl4 by Co nanoparticles, followed by the reduction by NaBH4. In addition, a thick layer of silica was successfully coated onto the gold hollow nanospheres. These nanostructures are extensively characterized by TEM, XRD, HRTEM, SEM, electron diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. It is evident that the SPR peak locations corresponding to these hollow nanospheres are shifted over a region of more than 100 nm wavelength due to changes of shell thickness, which make these optically active nanostructures of great interest in both fundamental research and practical applications.

In this paper it is demonstrated that the stabilizing effect of linear alkanes can be utilized to achieve very high stability in the adsorption and assembly of planar organic molecules on inert surfaces under ambient conditions, by direct deposition from solutions. Using peripherally alkylated phthalocyanines and porphyrins as the examples, optimal resolutions can be achieved with complex molecular systems. Submolecular features of the molecular cores and the interdigitated alkyl parts are clearly visible. Distinctly different packing symmetries were also observed and could be attributed to the intermolecular and adsorbate−substrate interactions. Appreciable contrast variations were also recorded with changing bias voltages. This approach could be adapted to the studies of other molecules to observe submolecular features and could be helpful in obtaining two-dimensional assemblies of monodispersed molecules, especially planar molecules.