Oleylamine-catalyzed Tandem Knoevenagel/Michael Addition of 1,3-Cyclohexanediones with Aromatic Aldehydes

A convenient and efficient method was developed for the synthesis of 2,2＇-（arylmethylene）bis（3-hydrox- ycyclohex-2-enone） derivatives via the oleylamine-catalyzed tandem Knoevenagel/Michael addition reactions of aromatic aldehydes and cyclohexane-1,3-diones. This transformation proceeded without any metal catalyst in non-toxic solvent at room temperature with high isolated yields. A plausible mechanism for this process was pro- posed.

Formation of hierarchical Fe7Se8 nanorod bundles with enhanced sodium storage properties

Ordered hierarchical architectures are attractive candidates for electrochemical energy storage applications.Herein,a facile self-template strategy is applied to prepare Fe7Se8 architectures with a monolithic structure via a self-synthesized single precursor and subsequent calcination at high temperature.With the support of oleylamine,the precursor is structurally targeted to engineer the Fe7Se8 microstructure,featuring nanorod bundles arranged along the longitudinal direction.Because of their ordered hierarchical structure,the Fe7Se8 nanorod bundles deliver a high reversible capacity of 300 m Ah g^-1 at 0.5 A g^-1,along with exceptional rate capability up to 20 A g^-1 and long-term cycle life over 8000 cycles,which represents the highest stability of Fe7Se8 anodes for sodium-ion batteries reported to date.The feasibility of the present strategy to prepare metal selenide structures highlights its promising potential for the rational and effective engineering of electrode materials responsible for the electrochemical performance of energy storage systems.

Wet-Chemical Synthesis and Optical Property of ZnSe Nanowires by Ag₂Se-Catalyzed Growth Mechanism

High-quality II-VI semiconductor ZnSe nanowires were facilely prepared in the oleic acid and oleylamine mixed solution at low temperatures of 130°C-200°C through an Ag2Se-catalyzed growth mechanism. Oleylamine served as an effective reducing agent and a surfactant in the synthesis. Many of the resultant nanowires were terminated by an Ag2Se catalyst particle at one of their ends, confirming that the nanowire growth followed a catalytic mechanism. The crystal structure of Ag2Se catalyst was examined, which exhibited a metastable tetragonal phase, not the common orthorhombic phase. Meanwhile, the optical properties of as-synthesized ZnSe nanowire solid powder were evaluated by the UV-Visible diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence spectroscopy and a significant blue shift was observed compared to the bulk ZnSe with a band gap of 2.7 eV. This work would provide an alternative and effective catalytic route for the preparation of one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures of ZnSe and other metal selenides.

Modulating the alloying mode in the doping-induced synthesis of Au-Pd nanowires

Heterogeneous doping is one effective strategy for synthesizing metal alloy nanowires.Herein,the heterogeneous doping processes of Pd on the ultrathin Au nanowires were systematically modulated and investigated.Au-Pd alloy nanowires with various morphologies and lattice structures can be obtained by adjusting the morphology of the precursor Au nanowires and the kinetics of the heterogeneous doping processes.The effects of the rate of Pd reduction and the concentration of the ligand oleylamine(OAm)on the Pd deposition and alloying mode were articulated.Generally,as the Pd deposition rate decreases,the Pd deposition and alloying mode switches from the island-forming Stransky–Krastanov(SK)mode to the epitaxial Frank-van der Merwe(FM)mode,and eventually to an unconventional twisting alloying mode,where the interdiffusion of Pd and Au causes drastic rearrangement of the lattice structure and formation of helical structures.The kinetics-related variation of alloying mode could also be observed in the Au-Ag nanowires,demonstrating a general design principle for the synthesis of alloy nanostructures.In addition,the electrocatalytic performance of various Au-Pd nanowires was evaluated,and the alloy nanowire formed via the SK mode was found to be an excellent electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and ethanol oxidation.

High-yield production of carbon nanotubes from waste polyethylene and fabrication of graphene-carbon nanotube aerogels with excellent adsorption capacity

Waste plastics recycling and oil/organics remediation are environmental issues of global concern.In this work,a protectant was introduced,for the first time,to make highly efficient catalysts for pyrolysis of waste plastics into carbon nanotubes(CNTs)with high yield.By using waste polyethylene,Co(NO_(3))_(2) and oleylamine respectively as carbon source,catalyst precursor and protectant,a yield as high as 59.0%was achieved.The CNTs exhibited a high adsorption capacity for methylene blue(up to 107.1 mg/g).Furthermore,by combining the CNTs with graphene oxide,a graphene-CNT aerogel with a low density of8.2 mg/cm^(3)and high porosity of 96.0%was successfully prepared.It showed excellent hydrophobicity and mechanical stability,as well as high adsorption capacity of 289-410 g/g oil/organic solvent,which was much higher than most of these achieved by carbon-based three-dimensional materials reported previously,making the as-prepared aerogel a very promising adsorbent for oil/water separation.

Preparation and characterization of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 film by drop-coating of Cu2ZnSnS4 nanoink

In this work,a simple and facile one-pot oleylamine solvothermal synthetic method was developed to synthesize Cu2ZnSnS4（CZTS） nanocrystals.And the Cu2ZnSn（S,Se）4（CZTSSe） thin films were prepared by selenizing CZTS nanocrystals.The obtained CZTS nanocrystals and CZTSSe films were studied using X-ray diffraction（XRD）,transmission electron microscopy（TEM）,scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy（EDX）,and ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer（UV–Vis）.TEM results show that the sphere–like CZTS nanoparticles with diameter between 12 and 35 nm are polydispersed.XRD studies indicate that the prepared CZTS nanocrystals form kesterite crystal structure,and the CZTSSe films with kesterite crystal structure are also obtained at the annealing temperatures of 500 and550 °C.In particular after annealing at 500 °C for 20 min,the CZTSSe film exhibits a smooth,uniform,crack-free,and large-grained topography and possesses Cu-poor and Sn-rich composition.Moreover,it shows strong optical absorption from visible to near-infrared（IR） region,and its optical band gap（Eg） is found to be about 1.44 e V.