An excellent electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction in zinc–air batteries: N-, P- and Fe-tridoped nanoporous carbon catalyst, derived from highly available and recyclable corn silk, was prepared. The catalyst exhibited superior electrochemical activity to state-of-the-art 20% Pt/C catalyst for the zinc–air battery application.

Electrochemical reduction (ECR) of CO2 reduces world’s carbon footprint by converting CO2 to useful products such as CH3OH and CO. This review summarizes recent progress in the ECR of CO2 to CO on nano-electrocatalysts.

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This study reports a simple one-step electroless reduction synthesis of amorphous phosphorus-doped graphene (RGO-P). In just 1 min, RGO-P was synthesized under ambient conditions via a one-step simultaneous reduction and doping of graphene oxide (GO). RGO-P was found to be amorphous with P being essential for the formation of the amorphous structure. RGO-P exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic performance for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The amorphous RGO-P demonstrated superior specific activity and durability compared to crystalline reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Annealing results showed that the amorphous nature of RGO-P was the key factor in its high catalytic activity.

This study proposed and demonstrated an application for nanoscale thermosensitive liposomes: encapsulating chemicals (reducing agents or metal ions) to physically separate reducing agents from metal ions and temporarily prevent spontaneous reduction of the metal ion (i.e., deposition of the metal or electroless deposition). With such an electrochemical system encapsulated by nanoscale liposomes, we can trigger electroless deposition at areas of interest by heating on demand, which enables metallization at selected surface areas. We used 1,2dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) as the lipid to synthesize thermosensitive liposomes (gel-to-liquid-crystalline phase transition temperature at 40 °C) encapsulating hypophosphite (the reducing agent),and mixed it with a PdCl 2 solution. The liposomes stably held the reducing agent for 160 days as long as it was stored in a fridge at 3 °C. When the temperature exceeded the phase transition temperature, the reducing agent was released from the liposomes and induced Pd deposition. This electroless deposition system encapsulated by thermosensitive liposomes was applied to metalize selected spots of the internal surface of a glass capillary tube: the mixture was injected into the tube and several spots were heated externally, and Pd metal was deposited at the spots. Furthermore, we succeeded in microscopically visualizing a single liposome thermally releasing the reducing agent and inducing metal deposition locally. Overall, on-demand triggering of electroless deposition can be accomplished by applying thermosensitive liposomes was demonstrated to be feasible. This new electrochemical system using nanoscale liposomes can be used to achieve metal coatings on various surfaces of interest.