Graphene is a distinct two-dimensional material that offers a wide range of opportunities for membrane applications because of ultimate thinness, flexibility, chemical stability, and mechanical strength. We demonstrate that few- and several-layered graphene and graphene oxide (GO) sheets can be engineered to exhibit the desired gas separation characteristics. Selective gas diffusion can be achieved by controlling gas flow channels and pores via different stacking methods. For layered (3- to 10-nanometer) GO membranes, tunable gas transport behavior was strongly dependent on the degree of interlocking within the GO stacking structure. High carbon dioxide/nitrogen selectivity was achieved by well-interlocked GO membranes in high relative humidity, which is most suitable for postcombustion carbon dioxide capture processes, including a humidified feed stream.

Electrochemical oxygen reduction has garnered attention as an emerging alternative to the traditional anthraquinone oxidation process to enable the distributed production of hydrogen peroxide. Here, we demonstrate a selective and efficient nonprecious electrocatalyst, prepared through an easily scalable mild thermal reduction of graphene oxide, to form hydrogen peroxide from oxygen. During oxygen reduction, certain variants of the mildly reduced graphene oxide electrocatalyst exhibit highly selective and stable peroxide formation activity at low overpotentials (< 10 mV) under basic conditions, exceeding the performance of current state-of-the-art alkaline catalysts. Spectroscopic structural characterization and in situ Raman spectroelectrochemistry provide strong evidence that sp 2-hybridized carbon near-ring ether defects along sheet edges are the most active sites for peroxide production, providing new insight into the electrocatalytic design of carbon-based materials for effective peroxide production.

We propose to utilize azobenzene as a nanomolecular switch which can be triggered by transmitting electrons above threshold biases. The effect is explained by an electron impact trans-cis conformational change of the isolated azobenzene molecules. The molecular electronic states of both isomers have been measured with spatially resolved scanning tunneling microscopy or spectroscopy, leading to suggested transition pathways of the electron-induced isomerization.

Material surface engineering has attracted great interest in important applications, including electronics, biomedicine, and membranes. More recently, dopamine has been widely exploited in solution-based chemistry to direct facile surface modification. However, unsolved questions remain about the chemical identity of the final products, their deposition kinetics and their binding mechanism. In particular, the dopamine oxidation reaction kinetics is a key to improving surface modification efficiency. Here, we demonstrate that high O(2) concentrations in the dopamine solution lead to highly homogeneous, thin layer deposition on any material surfaces via accelerated reaction kinetics, elucidated by Le Chatelier's principle toward dopamine oxidation steps in a Michael-addition reaction. As a result, highly uniform, ultra-smooth modified surfaces are achieved in much shorter deposition times. This finding provides new insights into the effect of reaction kinetics and molecular geometry on the uniformity of modifications for surface engineering techniques.