Alcohothermal synthesis of sulfidated zero-valent iron for enhanced Cr(Ⅵ)removal

Sulfidation of zero-valent iron(ZVI)has attracted broad attention in recent years for improving the sequestration of contaminants from water.However,sulfidated ZVI(S-ZVI)is mostly synthesized in the aqueous phase,which usually causes the formation of a thick iron oxide layer on the ZVI surface and hinders the efficient electron transfer to the contaminants.In this study,an alcohothermal strategy was employed for S-ZVI synthesis by the one-step reaction of iron powder with elemental sulfur.It is found that ferrous sulfide(FeS)with high purity and fine crystallization was formed on the ZVI surface,which is extremely favorable for electron transfer.Cr(Ⅵ)removal experiments confirm that the rate constant of SZVI synthesized by the alcohothermal method was 267.1-and 5.4-fold higher than those of un-sulfidated ZVI and aqueous-phase synthesized S-ZVI,respectively.Systematic characterizations proved that Cr(Ⅵ)was reduced and co-precipitated on S-ZVI in the form of a Fe(Ⅲ)/Cr(Ⅲ)/Cr(Ⅵ)composite,suggesting its environmental benignancy.

Dehydrated layered double hydroxides： Alcohothermal synthesis and oxygen evolution activity

Layered double hydroxides （LDHs） are a materials with extensive applications and class of two-dimensional （2D） layered well-developed synthesizing methods in aqueous media. In this work, we introduce an alcohothermal synthesis method for fabricating NiFe-LDHs with dehydrated galleries. The proposed process involves incomplete hydrolysis of urea for the simultaneous precipitation of metal ions, with the resulting water-deficient ethanol environment leading to the formation of a dehydrated structure. The formation of a gallery-dehydrated layer structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, as well as by a subsequent rehydration process. The methodology introduced here is also applicable for fabricating Fe-based LDHs （NiFe-LDH and NiCoFe-LDH） nanoarrays, which cannot be produced under the same conditions in aqueous media because of the different precipitation processes involved. The LDH nanoarrays exhibit excellent electrocatalytic performance in the oxygen evolution reaction, as a result of their high intrinsic activity and unique structural features. In summary, this study not only introduces a new method for synthesizing LDH materials, but also provides a new route towards highly active and robust electrodes for electrocatalvsis.

Effect of Addition of Base on Ceria and Reactivity of CuO/CeO_2 Catalysts for Low-Temperature CO Oxidation

In this work, we have reported the influence of the addition of base （KOH） on the physicochemical property of ceria synthesized by alcohothermal process, and the alcohothermal mechanism was also put forward. Furthermore, the prepared CeO2 was used as the support to prepare CuO/CeO2 catalysts via the wet impregnation method. The samples were characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray powder diffraction （XRD）, high resolution transmission electron microscopy （HRTEM）, and temperatureprogrammed reduction by H2 （H2-TPR）. The catalytic properties of the CuO/CeO2 catalysts for lowtemperature CO oxidation were studied using a microreactor-GC system. The crystal size of CeO2-A was much smaller than that of CeO2-B, and the corresponding copper oxide catalysts exhibited higher catalytic activity than that of the CeO2-B-supported catalysts under the same reaction conditions. The alcohothermal mechanism indicated that KOH plays a key role in determining the physicochemical and catalytic properties of ceria-based materials.