Efficient Electrosynthesis of White Phosphorus from Molten Condensed Phosphate Salts

Elemental white phosphorus (P4) is a crucial feedstock for the entire phosphorus-derived chemicals industry, spanning everything from herbicides to food additives. Currently, industrial P4 production is gated by the infrastructurally demanding reduction of phosphate rock by carbon coke in an arc furnace at temperatures of up to 1500 °C. The electrochemical reduction of phosphate salts could enable the sustainable, point-of-use manufacture of white phosphorus; however, such P4 electrosynthesis requires the rapid activation of strong P—O bonds. Herein, we show that the intrinsic oxide-accepting character of phosphoryl anhydride linkages in molten condensed phosphate salts promotes the reduction of phosphate to white phosphorus at high electron and energy efficiencies. These findings could enable an efficient, low-carbon alternative to legacy carbothermal synthesis of P4.

One-Step Carbothermal Synthesis of Super Nanoadsorbents for Rapid and Recyclable Wastewater Treatment

As a potential magnetic super adsorbent in wastewater treatment, Fe3O4 has been researched intensively up to date. However, its key problem of poor comprehensive magnetic properties is still challenging. In this work, an effective solution to this problem has been developed by a one-step carbothermal synthesis of Fe3O4 crystals, which are merited with pure-stoichiometry (FeO-phase free), high crystallinity, small-size (~10 nm), strong magnetism and sensitive magnetic response. The unveiled saturation magnetization of Fe3O4 nanoparticles reaches as high as 90.32 emu·g−1, and the fastest magnetic response time is as short as only 5 s. Such magnetic Fe3O4 super adsorbents exhibit outstanding performance when applied as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment. They can quickly and effectively adsorb methylene blue with an adsorption capacity of 62.5 mg·g−1, which is much higher than that of Fe3O4 adsorbents prepared by other methods reported in the literature. Importantly, this capacity is refreshable after removing the adsorbed methylene blue just by ultrasonic cleaning. With such combined outstanding magnetic properties and recyclable adsorption capacity, the problems associated with the conventional adsorbent solid–liquid separation could be resolved, thus making a forward development towards industrial wastewater treatment.

Carbothermal generated copper-molybdenum carbide supported on graphite for the CO2 hydrogenation to methanol.

The carbothermal synthesis of monometallic and bimetallic molybdenum carbide and copper, supported over high surface area graphite (H), has been studied by in situ XRD, XPS, D2-TPD, TEM/STEM, TG-mass, N2...