Production of Benzene from Lignin through Current Enhanced Catalytic Conversion

The directional production of benzene is achieved by the current-enhanced catalytic conversion of lignin. The synergistic effect between catalyst and current promotes the depolymerization of lignin and the selective recombinant of the functional groups in the aromatic monomers. A high benzene yield of 175 gbenzene/kglignin was obtained with an excellent selectivity of 92.9 C-mol%. The process potentially provides a promising route for the production of basic petrochemical materials or high value-added chemicals using renewable biomass.

Strategies and Mechanism for Enhancing Intrinsic Activity of Metal–Nitrogen–Carbon Catalysts in Electrocatalytic Reactions

Atomically dispersed metal-nitrogen-carbon catalysts(M-N-C)have been widely used in the field of energy conversion,which has high commercial application value in future directions.However,the commercialization of M-N-C catalysts necessitates further requirements for their catalytic activity,especially their intrinsic catalytic activity.Fortunately,current research has provided many modification strategies,which are of great significance for the development of M-N-C catalysts.In this review,the catalytic mechanism of different electrocatalytic reactions is briefly introduced.In addition,intrinsic catalytic activity enhancement strategies are systematically summarized,including the coordination structure,carrier effect,and interaction of active centers.Furthermore,we focus on clarifying the relationship between microelectronic structure and macro-catalytic activity of M-N-C catalysts in different electrochemical energy conversion reactions.The future research directions are also pointed out based on our discussion.This review provides good guidance to systematically study the intrinsic catalytic activity enhancement strategies of M-N-C catalysts and reasonably design highly catalytic M-N-C catalysts.

Formation of hierarchically 3D cactus-like architecture as efficient Mott-Schottky electrocatalyst for long-life Li-S batteries

Searching for new promising electrocatalysts with favorable architectures allowing abundant active sites and remarkable structure stability is an urgent task for the practical application of lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries.Herein,inspired by the structure of natural cactus,a new efficient and robust electrocatalyst with three-dimensional(3D)hierarchical cactus-like architecture constructed by functional zero-dimensional(0D),one-dimensional(1D),and two-dimensional(2D)components is developed.The cactus-inspired catalyst(denoted as Co@NCNT/NCNS)consists of N-doped carbon nanosheets(NCNS)and standing Ndoped carbon nanotubes(NCNT)forest with embedded Co nanoparticles on the top of NCNT,which was achieved by an in situ catalytic growth technique.The unique structure design integrates the advantages of 0D Co accelerating catalytic redox reactions,1D NCNT providing a fast electron pathway,and 2D NCNS assuring strong structure stability.Especially,the rich Mott-Schottky heterointerfaces between metallic Co and semiconductive NCNT can further facilitate the electron transfer,thus improving the electrocatalyst activity.Consequently,a Li-S battery with the Co@NCNT/NCNS modified separator achieves ultralong cycle life over 4000 cycles at 2 C with ultralow capacity decay of 0.016%per cycle,much superior over that of recently reported batteries.This work provides a new strategy for developing ultra-stable catalysts towards long-life Li-S batteries.