Effect of CeO_2 addition on Ni/Al_2O_3 catalysts for methanation of carbon dioxide with hydrogen

The Ni-CeO2/Al2O3 catalysts with a nickel content of 15 wt% prepared via impregnating boehmite were found to be highly active and stable for methanation of carbon dioxide with hydrogen at a H2/CO2 molar ratio of 4. The effects of CeO2 content and reaction temperature on the performance of the Ni-CeO2/Al2O3 catalysts were studied in detail. The results showed that the catalytic performance was strongly dependent on the CeO2 content in Ni-CeO2/Al2O3 catalysts and that the catalysts with 2 wt% CeO2 had the highest catalytic activity among the tested ones at 350 ℃. The XRD and H2-TPR characterizations revealed that the addition of CeO2 decreased the reduction temperature by altering the interaction between Ni and Al2O3, and improved the reducibility of the catalyst. Preliminary stability test of 120 h on stream over the Ni-2CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst at 350 ℃ revealed that the catalyst was much better than the unpromoted one.

Rambutan-like hierarchically heterostructured CeO2-CuO hollow microspheres： Facile hydrothermal synthesis and applications

Hierarchically heterostructured hollow spheres are of great interest for a wide range of applications owing to their unique structural features and properties. However, the fabrication of well-defined hollow spheres with highly specific morphology for mixed transition metal oxides on a large scale remains challenging. In this work, uniform rambutan-like heterostructured CeO2~CuO hollow microspheres with numerous copper-ceria interfacial sites and nanorods and nanoparticles as building blocks are prepared via a facile hydrothermal method followed by calcination. Importantly, this approach can be readily scaled up and is applicable to the synthesis of various CuO-based mixed metal oxide complex hollow spheres. The as-prepared CeO2-CuO hollow rambutans exhibit superior performance both as electrode materials for supercapacitors and as Cu-based catalysts for the Rochow reaction, mainly due to the small primary nanoparticle constituents, high surface area, and formation of numerous interior heterostructures.

Oxygen-doped carbon host with enhanced bonding and electron attraction abilities for efficient and stable SnO_2/carbon composite battery anode

The coupling between electrochemically active material and conductive matrix is vitally important for high efficiency lithium ion batteries （LIBs）. By introducing oxygen groups into the nanoporous carbon framework, we accom- plish sustainably enhanced electrochemical performance for a SnO2/carbon LIB. 2-5 nm SnO2 nanoparticles are hydro- thermally grown in different nanoporous carbon frameworks, which are pristine, nitrogen- or oxygen-doped carbons. Compared with pristine and nitrogen-doped carbon hosts, the SnO2/oxygen-doped activated carbon （OAC） composite ex- hibits a higher discharge capacity of 1,122mAhg^-1 at 500 mA g^-1 after 320 cycles operation and a larger lithium storage capacity up to 680 mAhg-I at a high rate of 2,000 mA g^-1. The exceptional electrochemical performance originated from the oxygen groups, which could act as Lewis acid sites to attract electrons effectively from Sn during the charge process, thus accelerating reversible conversion of Sn to SnO2. Meanwhile, SnO2 nanoparticles are effectively bonded with carbon through such oxygen groups, thus preventing the electrochemical sintering and maintaining the cycling stability of the SnO2/OAC composite anode. The high electrochemical performance, low biomass cost, and facile preparation renders the SnO2/OAC composites a promising candidate for anode materials.

A general bottom-up synthesis of CuO-based trimetallic oxide mesocrystal superstructures for efficient catalytic production of trichlorosilane

Mesocrystals, the non-classical crystals with highly ordered nanoparticle superstructures, have shown great potential in many applications because of their newly collective properties. However, there is still a lack of a facile and general synthesis strategy to organize and integrate distinct components into complex mesocrystals, and of reported application for them in industrial catalytic reactions. Herein we report a general bottom-up synthesis of CuO-based trimetallic oxide mesocrystals (denoted as CuO-M1Ox-M2Oy, where M1 and M2 = Zn, In, Fe, Ni, Mn, and Co) using a simple precipitation method followed by a hydrothermal treatment and a topotactic transformation via calcination. When these mesocrystals were used as the catalyst to produce trichlorosilane (TCS) via Si hydrochlorination reaction, they exhibited excellent catalytic performance with much increased Si conversion and TCS selectivity. In particular, the TCS yield was increased 19-fold than that of the catalyst-free process. The latter is the current industrial process. The efficiently catalytic property of these mesocrystals is attributed to the formation of well-defined nanoscale heterointerfaces that can effectively facilitate the charge transfer, and the generation of the compressive and tensile strain on CuO near the interfaces among different metal oxides. The synthetic approach developed here could be applicable to fabricate versatile complicated metal oxide mesocrystals as novel catalysts for various industrial chemical reactions.

Converting industrial waste contact masses into effective multicomponent copper-based catalysts for the Rochow process

In this work, we report a simple and inexpensive approach to synthesize effective multicomponent Cu-Cu2O-CuO catalysts for the Rochow process from industrial waste contact masses （WCMs）. WCMs from the organosilane industry were treated with acid followed by reduction with metallic iron powder. The obtained copper powder was then subjected to controlled oxidation in air at different temperatures, followed by ball milling. The orthogonal array approach was applied to optimize this process, and the stirring speed and pH were found to significantly affect the leaching ratio and copper yield, respectively. When used for the Rochow process, the optimized ternary Cu-Cu2O-CuO catalyst greatly enhanced the dimethyldichlorosilane selectivity and Si conversion compared with Cu-Cu2O-CuO catalysts prepared without ball milling, bare Cu catalysts, and Cu-Cu2O-CuO catalysts with different compositions. This could be attributed to their small particle size and the strong synergistic effect among the multiple components in the catalyst with the optimized composition.