Selective reduction of ketone/aldehydes to alcohols is of great importance in green chemistry and chemical engineering. Highly efficient catalysts are still demanded to work under mild conditions, especially at room temperature. Here we present a synergistic function of singleatom palladium (Pd 1 ) and nanoparticles (Pd NPs ) on TiO 2 for highly efficient ketone/aldehydes hydrogenation to alcohols at room temperature. Compared to simple but inferior Pd 1 /TiO 2 and Pd NPs /TiO 2 catalysts, more than twice activity enhancement is achieved with the Pd 1+NPs /TiO 2 catalyst that integrates both Pd 1 and Pd NPs on mesoporous TiO 2 supports, obtained by a simple but large-scaled spray pyrolysis route. The synergistic function of Pd 1 and Pd NPs is assigned so that the partial Pd 1 dispersion contributes enough sites for the activation of C=O group while Pd NPs site boosts the dissociation of H 2 molecules to H atoms. This work not only contributes a superior catalyst for ketone/aldehydes hydrogenation, but also deepens the knowledge on their hydrogenation mechanism and guides people to engineer the catalytic behaviors as needed.

In this paper, we successfully fabricate a stable and highly efficient direct sunlight plasmonic photocatalyst Ag-AgBr through a facile hydrothermal and subsequently sunlight-induced route. The diffuse reflectance spectra of Ag-AgBr indicate strong absorption in both UV and visible light region. The obtained photocatalyst shows excellent sunlight-driven photocatalytic performance. It can decompose organic dye within several minutes under direct sunlight irradiation and maintain a high level even though used five times. In addition, both the scanning electron microscopy images and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy dates reveal the as-prepared photocatalyst to be very stable. Moreover, the mechanism suggests that the high photocatalytic activity and excellent stability result from the super sensitivity of AgBr to light, the surface plasmon resonance of Ag nanoparticles in the region of visible light, and the complexation between Ag(+) and nitrogen atom. Thus, the facile preparation and super performance of Ag-AgBr will make it available to utilize sunlight efficiently to remove organic pollutants, destroy bacteria, and so forth.

An aerosol-spray-assisted approach (ASAA) is proposed and confirmed as a precisely controllable and continuous method to fabricate amorphous mixed metal oxides for electrochemical water splitting. The proportion of metal elements can be accurately controlled to within (5±5) %. The products can be sustainably obtained, which is highly suitable for industrial applications. ASAA was used to show that Fe6Ni10O(x) is the best catalyst among the investigated Fe-Ni-O(x) series with an overpotential of as low as 0.286 V (10 mA cm(-2)) and a Tafel slope of 48 mV/decade for the electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction. Therefore, this work contributes a versatile, continuous, and reliable way to produce and optimize amorphous metal oxide catalysts.

A mesoporous MnCo O electrode material is made for bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysis. The MnCo O exhibits both Co O -like activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and Mn O -like performance for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The potential difference between the ORR and OER of MnCo O is as low as 0.83 V. By XANES and XPS investigation, the notable activity results from the preferred Mn - and Co -rich surface. The electrode material can be obtained on large-scale with the precise chemical control of the components at relatively low temperature. The surface state engineering may open a new avenue to optimize the electrocatalysis performance of electrode materials. The prominent bifunctional activity shows that MnCo O could be used in metal-air batteries and/or other energy devices.