Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The development of superior and cost-effective catalysts for the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions is pivotal for the future hydrogen economy. Now a series of Ru-modified Li2MnO3 catalysts have been designed to optimize the electronic structure and achieve a high performance in both oxygen reduction and evolution reactions, as demonstrated in practical anion exchange membrane fuel cell and water electrolyser tests.
Photoelectrocatalysis offers the potential to reduce energy demand and provide different selectivity profiles compared with electrocatalytic analogues, but current systems have shown limited rates. Here, recent advances in light concentration and gas diffusion electrodes are integrated into a photoelectrochemical system for coupled glycerol oxidation and CO2/H2O reduction with photocurrent densities above 100 mA cm−2.
Oxide-derived copper is well-known as a CO2 reduction electrocatalyst, yet the mechanism of its formation and the structure of the active phase remain unclear. Here the reduction of oxide-derived copper is modelled using large-scale molecular dynamics with a neural network potential, providing important insights into the removal of trapped oxygen under operating conditions.
Photoelectrocatalytic nitrate reduction offers an opportunity for a lower carbon route to ammonia production but has not been realized due to poor efficiency. Here an efficient modified lead halide perovskite photocathode is coupled to glycerol oxidation anode resulting in a bias-free photocurrent density greater than 20 mA cm−2.
Polar and steric effects usually dictate the regioselectivity in homolytic aromatic substitution. Now a method for direct ortho-selective C–H amination of aromatics with diverse side chains as directing groups is disclosed, by which the iron catalyst coordinates both the substrate and the aminyl radical.
The semihydrogenation of acetylene is an important industrial reaction generally targeted with alloy catalysts and more recently with single-atom catalysts. Here, the authors report a MOF-supported Pd1–Au1 dimeric system that, by merging such approaches, results in high performance levels under simulated front-end industrial conditions.
The development of bimetallic catalysts is often hindered by the heavy workload of the classical trial-and-error method. Now, a distinct mechanism demonstrates that breaking down the net thermochemical reaction into the corresponding electrochemical half-reactions offers a facile approach to design bimetallic catalysts by analysing each putative half-reaction.
While skeletal editing stands as a powerful approach for simplifying synthetic procedures and obtaining complex molecules, viable methodologies remain limited. Now, a smart photoredox protocol, involving the insertion of carbon atoms into the indene core, gives access to a wide library of functionalized naphthalenes.
The lack of stability of critical raw material-free electrocatalysts during the oxygen evolution reaction in acidic electrolytes lies beneath the use of Ir-based electrocatalysts in polymeric water electrolysis. Here, a strategy to enhance γ-MnO2 stability in acid is proposed. Theoretical and spectroscopic approaches reveal that increasing the fraction of O atoms in the appropriate position, namely Opla, prevents Mn dissolution during water electrolysis.
Ethylene oxide is a key platform chemical that is produced industrially from the epoxidation of ethylene on silver catalysts, but the precise mechanism remains elusive. Now, in a joint computational–experimental effort, a phase of the silver catalyst grown on (100) facets that contains square-pyramidal subsurface oxygens and is stabilized by strongly adsorbed ethylene is identified as the active phase, and the mechanism is revealed.
Nanoparticles are often stabilized by capping ligands but the specific role of such ligands during catalytic processes is often ignored. Now, in situ techniques including spatially resolved infrared nanospectroscopy reveal the ligand-assisted formation of a catalytic microenvironment on the surface of silver nanoparticles with nanoscale precision during CO2 electroreduction.
Unstrained aryl–aryl bonds are among the most inert bonds in organic chemistry. Now the development of a split cross-coupling strategy enables the direct functionalization of such bonds through Rh-catalysed C–C cleavage and cross-coupling with aryl halides, providing a method for biaryl synthesis.
The synthesis of well-defined heterostructure interfaces can be leveraged to design advanced catalysts. Now a catalyst consisting of carbon-supported Janus particles with crystalline Ru and amorphous CrOx sides is shown to achieve high performance for both alkaline hydrogen oxidation and evolution reactions due to the synergy between both sides.
The electrochemical synthesis of ammonia via the lithium-mediated reduction of N2 holds great promise to replace the carbon- and energy-intensive Haber–Bosch process. This Review discusses this approach and examines the critical role of the catalytic solid–electrolyte interphase formed on the electrode.