Key Role of Lanthanum Oxychloride: Promotional Effects of Lanthanum in NiLaO_y/NaCl for Hydrogen Production from Ethyl Acetate and Water

Abstract

The hydrogen economy is accelerating technological evolutions toward highly efficient hydrogen production. In this work, the catalytic performance of NiO/NaCl for hydrogen production via autothermal reforming of ethyl acetate and water is further improved through lanthanum modification, and the resulted 3%-NiLaO /NaCl catalyst achieves as high as 93% H selectivity and long-term stability at 600 °C. The promoting effect is caused by the strong interactions between lanthanum and NiO/NaCl, by which LaNiO and a novel LaOCl phase are formed. The key role of LaOCl in promoting low-temperature hydrogen production is highlighted, while effects of LaNiO are well known. The LaOCl (010) facet possesses high adsorption capacity toward co-chemisorbing ethyl acetate and water. LaOCl strongly interacts with ethyl acetate and H O in the form of hydrogen bonding and coordination effect. The interactions induce tensions inside ethyl acetate and H O, activate the molecules, and hence decrease the energy barrier for reaction. In situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) reveals that LaOCl along with NaCl enhances the adsorption ability of NiO/NaCl. Moreover, LaOCl improves the dispersion of Ni species in NiO-LaNiO -LaOCl nanosheets, which possess abundant active sites. The effects together promote hydrogen evolution. Furthermore, the NiLaO /NaCl catalyst can be easily reborn after deactivation due to the water solubility of NaCl.

17.1% Efficient Single‐Junction Organic Solar Cells Enabled by n‐Type Doping of the Bulk‐Heterojunction

“…In the field of OPVs, intentional p‐type doping of the charge transporting interlayers has been studied and shown to be a viable strategy to enhance the cell's PCE by improving the efficiency of carrier extraction from the photoactive layer 12–16. The introduction of molecular dopants directly into the active layer of OPVs, on the other hand, has received significantly less attention, often leading to different conclusions, whilst being limited to p‐type dopants,17–21 with only one study reporting the use of n‐type dopants for improving the performance of all‐polymer solar cells 22.…”

Glycolated Thiophene‐Tetrafluorophenylene Copolymers for Bioelectronic Applications: Synthesis by Direct Heteroarylation Polymerisation

“…Semiconducting materials are an essential ingredient for the research and development of new, more efficient organic electronic devices such as organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic photovoltaic cells (OPV), organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs), and also for the quickly evolving field of organic bioelectronics . Several successes have been achieved in the bioelectronics field, such as measuring neural activity, direct metabolite detection, controlling epileptiform activity or electrophoretic drug delivery .…”

Ni/CeO2 Structured Catalysts for Solar Reforming of Spent Solvents

“…The interpretation of the effect of the operating conditions is not trivial. Previous studies were carried out on ethanol [5][6][7]9,12,26,27,29,33,35,[44][45][46], ethyl acetate [12,43,[47][48][49][50][51], and acetic acid [12,24,27,[34][35][36]44], but not on mixtures of all three. In the following, a simplified scheme of the possible reactions involving the main components of the AZ mixture is reported (Equations (1)-(30)) [43].…”