The role of graphene coating on cordierite-supported Pd monolithic catalysts for low-temperature combustion of toluene

In the present work,a Pd/graphene/cordierite(Pd/Gr/Cor)composite was prepared as a monolithic catalyst for low-temperature combustion of toluene.We mainly focused on understanding the role of graphene coating through investigation of catalytic performance and adsorption behavior of the composite.Compared with the traditional Pd/Cor catalyst without graphene coating,Pd/Gr/Cor catalyst delivered much higher activity and stability for toluene catalytic combustion in both dry and moist conditions.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)and hydrophobic characterizations indicated that graphene coating can considerably improve the dispersity of Pd nanoparticles and enhance the hydrophobicity of the cordierite support.The adsorption behavior of the above two catalysts,including adsorption isothermal,adsorption kinetics,and adsorption thermodynamics were carefully investigated.The simulation results indicated that a large amount of toluene was adsorbed on graphene surface through relatively weak interaction,whereas only a relatively small amount of toluene was adsorbed on Pd surface with strong affinity.The adsorption thermal calculation indicated that the adsorption of toluene on graphene was a process with reduced entropy,indicating highly-ordered assembly of toluene molecular on graphene.It is the significant concentration and affinity gap between graphene and Pd that ensures a simultaneously and rapid transfer of toluene during the reaction process.

Selectivity modulation in the consecutive hydrogenation of benzaldehyde via functionalization of carbon nanotubes

Hydrogenation of benzaldehyde is a typical consecutive reaction, since the intermediate benzyl alcohol is apt to be further hydrogenated. Here we demonstrate that the selectivity of benzyl alcohol can be tuned via functionalization of carbon nanotubes （CNTs）, which are used as the support of Pd. With the original CNTs, the selectivity of benzyl alcohol is 88% at a 100% conversion of benzaldehyde. With introduction of oxygen-containing groups onto CNTs, it drops to 27%. In contrast, doping CNTs with N atoms, the selectivity reaches 96% under the same reaction conditions. The kinetic study shows that hydrogenation of benzyl alcohol is significantly suppressed, which can be attributed to weakened adsorption of benzyl alcohol. This is most likely related to the modified electronic structure of Pd species via interaction with functionalized CNTs, as shown by XPS characterization.

Effect of SP600125 on proliferation of embryonic stem cell

SP600125 is an inhibitor of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK), which plays a fundamental role in regulating animal development. Using SP600125 to deal with the mouse embryonic stem cells, it is revealed that the number of the ESC colonies decreased and the size became smaller. With treatment by SP600125, the proliferation of mouse ES cells is seriously inhibited for the cycle arrested in the G2/M phase, and the effect of SP600125 on the ES cells displays correlation of dose and time. The obtained results indicate that JNK may be an important regulator in the progression of cell cycle at the G2/M cell phase for the ES cells.

Alkyl side chain engineering enables high performance as-cast organic solar cells of over 17%efficiency

Achieving high-performance as-cast OSCs is crucial for industrialization in the future,owing to the advantages of better stability,environmental-friendly,and decreasing production cost.In this regard,we synthesized an ADA′D-A type acceptor,Y6-eC6-BO,by shortening the straight alkyl side-chains on the thiophene position from C_(11) to C_(6) as well as lengthening the branched alkyl side-chains on the pyrrole position of Y6 to achieve a stronger crystallization and better miscibility than Y6.As a result,the corresponding chloroform-processed as-cast PM6:Y6-eC6-BO OSC showed a high PCE of 17.33%,which was one of the highest efficiencies of as-cast OSCs.And the as-cast PM6:Y6-eC6-BO OSCs processed from o-xylene displayed a PCE of 16.38%,as far as we know,this is among the highest efficiencies of non-halogenated-solvent processed as-cast OSCs.These results demonstrated tailoring the alkyl side-chain of NFAs is a feasible and simple approach to achieve high performance as-cast OSCs and provides guideline in molecular design in the future.