Nanostructured metal phosphides: from controllable synthesis to sustainable catalysis

Metal phosphides (MPs) with unique and desirable physicochemical properties provide promising potential in implementable sustainable catalytic fields including electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, mild thermocatalysis, and interdisciplinary hybrid systems.

Recent Advances in Synthesis and Applications of Carbon-Doped TiO2 Nanomaterials

TiO2 has been widely used as a photocatalyst and an electrode material toward the photodegradation of organic pollutants and electrochemical applications, respectively. However, the properties of TiO2 are not enough up to meet practical needs because of its intrinsic disadvantages such as a wide bandgap and low conductivity. Incorporation of carbon into the TiO2 lattice is a promising tool to overcome these limitations because carbon has metal-like conductivity, high separation efficiency of photogenerated electron/hole pairs, and strong visible-light absorption. This review would describe and discuss a variety of strategies to develop carbon-doped TiO2 with enhanced photoelectrochemical performances in environmental, energy, and catalytic fields. Emphasis is given to highlight current techniques and recent progress in C-doped TiO2-based materials. Meanwhile, how to tackle the challenges we are currently facing is also discussed. This understanding will allow the process to continue to evolve and provide facile and feasible techniques for the design and development of carbon-doped TiO2 materials.

New Trends in Automotive Exhaust Gas Purification Materials: Improvement of the Support against Stability of the Active Components

Lanthanum and zirconium oxides are well known to be applied as an additive to improve the properties of the commercial alumina. Such modified aluminas are widely used in different catalytic fields including three-way catalysis. In the present research we have paid attention to the possible effects of the doping on the catalytic performance and stability of bimetallic Pd-Rh catalysts. The samples were prepared via an incipient wetness impregnation of the commercial supports, tested in CO oxidation under prompt thermal aging regime and characterized by physicochemical methods.

Manipulation of Pt-Ni Tetrahexahedral Nanoframes Using a Gaseous Etching Method

ABSTRACTNanosized Platinum (Pt) nanocrystals (NCs) have been extensively investigated in catalytic fields because of their high reactivity due to the unique electron structure. However, the rarity and the high cost of Pt limit its applications in industry. To reduce the usage of Pt in catalytic industry, research interests have been extended to Pt-based nanoalloys. Among various nanostructures, nanoframes (NFs) showed promising catalytic performance even with a lower metallic loading dose. Herein, we report a facile and robust method to transfer the Pt-Ni tetrahexahedral (THH) NCs into THH NFs in which carbon monoxide (CO) plays a role of the “etching reagent”. The driving force of the etching is a formation of gaseous metallic complex, Ni(CO)4, known as Mond Process, preferentially dealloying nickel atoms along <100> directions of the Pt-Ni THH NCs. It is determined that the resultant Pt-Ni THH NFs possess an open, stable and high-index preserved nanostructure, in which the outside atomic layers are composed of only Pt atoms with surface strains. Compared to a solution-based etching process, this approach requires less etching time and generates a well-defined structure. The associated thermal annealing operation also releases extra internal stress, making the NFs more stable with fewer surface defects. Such Pt-Ni THH NFs show interesting potentials in the improvement of stability and activity as advanced catalysts.