The activity of exposed crystal facets directly determines its physicochemical properties. Thus, acquiring a high percentage of reactive facets by crystal facet engineering is highly desirable for improving the catalytic reactivity. Herein, single-crystalline α-MnO 2 nanowires with major exposed highindex {310} facets were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal route with the assistance of a capping agent of oxalate ions. Comparing with two other low-index facets ({100} and {110}), the resulting α-MnO 2 nanowires with exposed {310} facets exhibited much better activity and stability for carcinogenic formaldehyde (HCHO) oxidation, making 100% of 100 ppm of HCHO mineralize into CO 2 at 60 °C, even better than some Ag supported catalysts. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to investigate the difference in the catalytic activity of α-MnO 2 with exposed {100}, {110}, and {310} facets. The experimental characterization and theoretical calculations all confirm that the {310} facets with high surface energy can not only facilitate adsorption/activation of O 2 and H 2 O but also be beneficial to the generation of oxygen vacancies, which result in significantly enhanced activity for HCHO oxidation. This is a valuable report on engineering surface facets in the preparation of α-MnO 2 as highly efficient oxidation catalysts. This study deepens the understanding of facetdependent activity of α-MnO 2 and points out a strategy to improve their catalytic activity by crystal facet engineering.

Gas exchange, chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence, and contents of photosynthetic pigments, soluble proteins (ribulose-1,5bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, RuBPCO), and antioxidant enzymes were characterized in the fully expanded 6 th leaves in rice seedlings grown on either complete (CK) or on nitrogen-deficient nutrient (N-deficiency) solutions during a 20-chase period. Compared with the control plants, the lower photosynthetic capacity at saturation irradiance (P max ) was accompanied by an increase in intercellular CO 2 concentration (C i ), indicating that in N-deficient plants the decline in P max was not due to stomatal limitation but due to the reduced carboxylation efficiency. The fluorescence parameters Φ PS2 , F v ′/F m ′, electron transport rate (ETR), and q P showed the same tendency as P max in N-deficient plants. Correspondingly, a higher q N paralleled the rise of the ratio of carotenoid (Car) to Chl contents. However, F v /F m was still diminished, suggesting that photoinhibition did occur in the photosystem 2 (PS2) reaction centres. In addition, the activities of antioxidant enzymes on a fresh mass basis were gradually lowered, leading to the aggravation of membrane lipid peroxidation with the proceeding N-deficiency. The accumulation of malonyldialdehyde resulted in the lessening of Chl and soluble protein content. Analyses of regression showed PS2 excitation pressure (1 -q P ) was linearly correlated with the content of Chl and inversely with soluble protein (particularly RuBPCO) content. There was a lag phase in the increase of PS2 excitation pressure compared to the decrease of RuBPCO content. Therefore, the increased excitation pressure under N-deficiency is probably the result of saturation of the electron transport chain due to the limitation of the use of reductants by the Calvin cycle. Rice plants responded to N-deficiency and high irradiance by decreasing light-harvesting capacity and by increasing thermal dissipation of absorbed energy.

Ammonia (NH3) is a commonly used industrial gas, but its corrosiveness and toxicity are hazardous to human health. Although many adsorbents have been investigated for NH3 sorption, limited ammonia uptake remains an urgent issue yet to be solved. In this article, a series of multivariate covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are explored which are densely functionalized with various active groups, such as —N—H, —C=O, and carboxyl group. Then, a metal ion (Ca2+, Mn2+, and Sr2+) is integrated into the carboxylated structure achieving the first case of an open metal site in COF architecture. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals conclusive evidence for the multiple binding interactions with ammonia in the modified COF materials. Infrared spectroscopy indicates a general trend of binding capability from weak to strong along with —N—H, —C=O, carboxyl group, and metal ion. Through the synergistic multivariate and open metal site, the COF materials show excellent adsorption capacities (14.3 and 19.8 mmol g–1 at 298 and 283 K, respectively) and isosteric heat (Qst) of 91.2 kJ mol–1 for ammonia molecules. This novel approach enables the development of tailor-made porous materials with tunable pore-engineered surface for ammonia uptake.

Selective extraction of uranium from water has attracted worldwide attention because the largest source of uranium is seawater with various interference ions (Na , K , Mg , Ca , etc.). However, traditional adsorbents encapsulate most of their functional sites in their dense structure, leading to problems with low selectivity and adsorption capacities. In this work, the tailor-made binding sites are first decorated into porous skeletons, and a series of molecularly imprinted porous aromatic frameworks are prepared for uranium extraction. Because the porous architecture provides numerous accessible sites, the resultant material has a fourfold increased ion capacity compared with traditional molecularly imprinted polymers and presents the highest selectivity among all reported uranium adsorbents. Moreover, the porous framework can be dispersed into commercial polymers to form composite components for the practical extraction of uranium ions from simulated seawater.