Facet dependence of electrocatalytic furfural hydrogenation on palladium nanocrystals

Electrocatalytic hydrogenation(ECH)offers a sustainable route for the conversion of biomass-derived feedstocks under ambient conditions;however,an atomic-level understanding of the catalytic mechanism based on heterogeneous electrodes is lacking.To gain insights into the relation between electrocatalysis and the catalyst surface configuration,herein,the facet dependence of the ECH of furfural(FAL)is investigated on models of nanostructured Pd cubes,rhombic dodecahedrons,and octahedrons,which are predominantly enclosed by{100},{110},and{111}facets,respectively.The facet-dependent specific activity to afford furfuryl alcohol(FOL)follows the order of{111}>{100}>{110}.Experimental and theoretical kinetic analyses confirmed the occurrence of a competitive adsorption Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism on Pd,in which the ECH activity can be correlated with the difference between the binding energies of chemisorbed H(^(*)H)and FAL(^(*)FAL)based on density functional theoretical(DFT)calculations.Among the three facets,Pd{111}exhibiting the strongest^(*)H but the weakest^(*)FAL showed the copresence of the^(*)H and^(*)FAL intermediates on the Pd surface for subsequent hydrogenation,experimentally confirming its high ECH activity and Faradaic efficiency.The free energies determined using DFT calculations indicated that^(*)H addition to the carbonyl of FAL on Pd{111}was thermodynamically preferred over desorption to gaseous H2,contributing to efficient ECH to afford FOL at the expense of H2 evolution.The obtained insights into the facet-dependent ECH underline that surface bindings assist ECH or H2 evolution considering their competitiveness.These findings are expected to deepen the fundamental understanding of electrochemical refinery and broaden the scope of electrocatalyst exploration.

Transmission electron microscopy of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites:myths and truths

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites(OIHPs)have attracted extensive research interest as a promising candidate for efficient and inexpensive solar cells.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)characterizations that can benefit the fundamental understanding and the degradation mechanism are widely used for these materials.However,their sensitivity to the electron beam illumination and hence structural instabilities usually prevent us from obtaining the intrinsic information or even lead to significant artifacts.Here,we systematically investigate the structural degradation behaviors under different experimental factors to reveal the optimized conditions for TEM characterizations of OIHPs by using low-dose electron diffraction and imaging techniques.We find that a low temperature(-180°C)does not slow down the beam damage but instead induces a rapid amorphization for OIHPs.Moreover,a less severe damage is observed at a higher accelerating voltage.The beam-sensitivity is found to be facetdependent that a(100)exposed CH3NH3PbI3(MAPbI3)surface is more stable than a(001)surface.With these guidance,we successfully acquire the atomic structure of pristine MAPbI3 and identify the characterization window that is very narrow.These findings are helpful to guide future electron microscopy characterizations of these beam-sensitive materials,which are also useful for finding strategies to improve the stability and performance of the perovskite solar cells.