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Research Article Just accepted
Photocatalytic Uranium Extraction Boosted by Dual Effective Active Sites of Porphyrin Metal-Organic Frameworks
Nano Research
Available online: 25 March 2024
Downloads:11

Porphyrinoid MOFs with dual effective uranium uptake sites were synthesized through combined in-situ and post-synthetic method. The MOF10@5 demonstrate the uptake amount of uranium reaches 1476 mg/g under visible-light irradiation. The PN-MOF10@5 with dual uranyl uptake sites yields the amount of extracting uranyl of 1590 mg/g under visible-light irradiation. The DFT calculations reveals strong interaction between uranyl and dual uranyl effective active sites. These MOFs demonstrated a powerful synthesis strategy for uranium extraction materials with dual effective active sites.

Research Article Online first
An aqueous rechargeable Fe//LiMn2O4 hybrid battery with superior electrochemical performance beyond mainstream Fe-based batteries
Nano Research
Published: 25 January 2024
Downloads:35

Aqueous rechargeable batteries (ARBs) are generally safer than non-aqueous analogues, they are also less-expensive, and more friendly to the environment. However, the inherent disadvantage of the narrow electrochemical window of H2O seriously restricts the energy density and output voltage of ARBs, especially aqueous rechargeable Fe-based batteries. Herein, we introduce a new battery system: the anode contains C@Fe/Fe2O3 composite, which is interfaced with an alkaline electrolyte; the cathode contains LiMn2O4 in contact with a neutral electrolyte. A Li+-conducting membrane is carefully selected to decouple the electrode–electrolyte, which effectively widens the electrochemical window to above 2.65 V, thereby enables an aqueous rechargeable iron battery. Its average output voltage is 1.83 V and its energy density is 235.3 Wh/kg at 549 W/kg. In this work, we propose the energy storage mechanism with the aid of density functional theory (DFT). The calculated reduction potential of the anode agrees with the experimental value. Furthermore, this battery system demonstrates long cycle lifespan of approximately 2500 cycles at 2 A/g, corresponding to a capacity retention of 82.1%. These results are very far superior than those of mainstream aqueous rechargeable Fe-based batteries, which guarantee future investigation for storing electricity energy.

Research Article Issue
A 3D hierarchical electrocatalyst: Core–shell Cu@Cu(OH)2 nanorods/MOF octahedra supported on N-doped carbon for oxygen evolution reaction
Nano Research 2023, 16 (5): 8012-8017
Published: 10 January 2023
Downloads:54

Cu-based materials are seldom reported as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts due to their inherent electron orbital configuration, which makes them difficult to adsorb oxygen-intermediates during OER. Reasonably engineering the hierarchical architectures and the electronic structures can improve the performance of Cu-based OER catalysts, such as constructing multilevel morphology, inducing the porous materials, improving the Cu valence, building heterostructures, doping heteroatoms, etc. In this work, copper-1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate (HKUST-1) octahedra in-situ grow on the Cu nanorod (NR)-supported N-doped carbon microplates, meanwhile an active layer of Cu(OH)2 forms on the surface of the original conductive Cu NRs. The octahedral HKUST-1, serving as a spacer between the microplates, greatly improves the porosity and increases the available active sites, facilitating the mass transport and electron transfer, thus resulting in greatly enhanced OER performance.

Review Article Issue
The synthesis of MOF derived carbon and its application in water treatment
Nano Research 2022, 15 (8): 6793-6818
Published: 09 June 2022
Downloads:171

In recent years, since water pollution has aroused great public concern, various carbon materials have already been widely applied for water treatment. In this respect, tremendous effort has been made to provide different synthesis methods of carbon materials. Among all carbon materials, metal-organic framework (MOF) derived carbon has always been favored as it possesses several appealing merits such as high specific surface area, large pore volume, and outstanding chemical stability. This review presents the latest development of MOFs as templates and precursors for the fabrication of various carbon materials, including porous carbon, nanocarbon, and graphene, which are pyrolyzed at different temperatures. The article also emphasizes on their future trends and perspectives on the application of water treatment.

Open Access Review Article Issue
Porphyrin-based framework materials for energy conversion
Nano Research Energy 2022, 1: 9120009
Published: 29 May 2022
Downloads:2581

With the increasing demand for fuel causing serious environmental pollution, it is urgent to develop new and environmentally friendly energy conversion devices. These energy conversion devices, however, require good, inexpensive materials for electrodes and so on. The multifunctional properties of porphyrins enable framework materials (e.g., metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks) to be applied in energy conversion devices due to their simple synthesis, high chemical stability, abundant metallic active sites, adjustable crystalline structure and high specific surface area. Herein, the types of porphyrin structural blocks are briefly reviewed. They can be used as organic ligands or directly assembled with framework materials to generate high-performance electro-/photo-catalysts. These types of catalysts applied in electro-/photo-catalytic water splitting, electro-/photo-catalytic carbon dioxide reduction, and electrocatalytic oxygen reduction are also summarized and introduced. At the end of the article, we present the challenges of porphyrin-based framework materials in the above application and corresponding solutions. We expect porphyrin-based framework materials to flourish energy conversion in the coming years.

Research Article Issue
Rapid construction of highly-dispersed cobalt nanoclusters embedded in hollow cubic carbon walls as an effective polysulfide promoter in high-energy lithium-sulfur batteries
Nano Research 2022, 15 (6): 5105-5113
Published: 15 March 2022
Downloads:71

The ultrahigh specific energy density and low cost of lithium-sulfur batteries are suitable for the next generation of energy storage. However, the shuttle issue and sluggish conversion kinetics of polysulfides remain unsolved. Confining metal nanoclusters with strong polarity in conductive porous carbon is an effective strategy for tackling such knotty issues. Herein, we design and synthesize hollow cubic carbon embedded with highly dispersed cobalt nanoclusters as an effective sulfur reservoir for lithium sulfur batteries. The large cavity structure and well-dispersed cobalt nanoclusters, with uniform sizes near 11 nm, enable the hosting structure to hold the high sulfur loading, 70% capacity retention after 500 cycles at 2 C with a high sulfur loading of 6.5 mg·cm−2, effective stress release, accelerated polysulfide conversion, superior rate performance, strong physical confinement and chemical absorption capability. Further density functional theoretical calculations demonstrate that the well-dispersed cobalt nanoclusters in the hosting structure play a critical electrocatalytic role in boosting the capability of absorbing and converting polysulfides.

Research Article Issue
Porous rod-like Ni2P/Ni assemblies for enhanced urea electrooxidation
Nano Research 2021, 14 (5): 1405-1412
Published: 15 November 2020
Downloads:21

The urea oxidation reaction has attracted increasing attention. Here, porous rod-like Ni2P/Ni assemblies, which consist of numerous nanoparticle subunits with matching interfaces at the nanoscale have been synthesized via a simple phosphating approach. Density functional theory calculations and density of states indicate that porous rod-like Ni2P/Ni assemblies can significantly enhance the activity of chemical bonds and the conductivity compared with NiO/Ni toward the urea oxidation reaction. The optimal catalyst of Ni2P/Ni can deliver a low overpotential of 50 mV at 10 mA·cm-2 and Tafel slope of 87.6 mV·dec-1 in urea oxidation reaction. Moreover, the constructed electrolytic cell exhibits a current density of 10 mA·cm-2 at a cell voltage of 1.47 V and an outstanding durability in the two-electrode system. This work has provided a new possibility to fabricate metal phosphides-metal assemblies with advanced performance.

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