Porous metal oxides in the role of electrochemical CO_(2) reduction reaction

The global energy-related CO_(2) emissions have rapidly increased as the world economy heavily relied on fossil fuels.This paper explores the pressing challenge of CO_(2) emissions and highlights the role of porous metal oxide materials in the electrocatalytic reduction of CO_(2)(CO_(2)RR).The focus is on the development of robust and selective catalysts,particularly metal and metal-oxide-based materials.Porous metal oxides offer high surface area,enhancing the accessibility to active sites and improving reaction kinetics.The tunability of these materials allows for tailored catalytic behavior,targeting optimized reaction mechanisms for CO_(2)RR.The work also discusses the various synthesis strategies and identifies key structural and compositional features,addressing challenges like high overpotential,poor selectivity,and low stability.Based on these insights,we suggest avenues for future research on porous metal oxide materials for electrochemical CO_(2) reduction.

Slippery quartz surfaces for anti‐fouling optical windows

The surface of camera‐based medical devices is easily smeared by blood and fog during the surgical procedure,causing visual field loss and bringing great distress to both doctors and patients.In this article,a slippery liquid‐infused porous surface(SLIPS)on a quartz window surface that can repel various liquids,especially blood droplets is reported.A femtosecond laser pulse train was used to create periodic microhole structures on the silica surface.The subsequent low surface energy treatment and lubricant infusion led to the successful preparation of a slippery surface.Such blood‐repellent windows exhibited high transparency,great antifogging,and antibacterial properties.In addition,the slippery ability of the as‐prepared surface exhibited outstanding stability since the surface could withstand harsh treatments/environments,such as repeated pipette scratches and immersion in different pH solutions.The as‐prepared millimeter‐sized quartz samples with SLIPS were attached to the endoscope lens as a protective coating and could maintain high visibility after repeated immersion in blood.We believe that the coating developed in this study will provide inspiration for the design of next‐generation endoscopes or other camera‐guided devices that will resist fouling,keep clear vision,and reduce operation time,thus offering great potential applications in lesion diagnosis and therapy.

Review on electrochemical carbon dioxide capture and transformation with bipolar membranes

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide(CO_(2))emission from the combustion of fossil fuels aggravates the global greenhouse effect.The implementation of CO_(2)capture and transformation technologies have recently received great attention for providing a pathway in dealing with global climate change.Among these technologies,electrochemical CO_(2)capture technology has attracted wide attention because of its environmental friendliness and flexible operating processes.Bipolar membranes(BPMs)are considered as one of the key components in electrochemical devices,especially for electrochemical CO_(2)reduction and electrodialysis devices.BPMs create an alkaline environment for CO_(2)capture and a stable pH environment for electrocatalysis on a single electrode.The key to CO_(2)capture in these devices is to understand the water dissociation mechanism occurring in BPMs,which could be used for optimizing the operating conditions for CO_(2)capture and transformation.In this paper,the references and technologies of electrochemical CO_(2)capture based on BPMs are reviewed in detail,thus the challenges and opportunities are also discussed for the development of more efficient,sustainable and practical CO_(2)capture and transformation based on BPMs.