|
|
Liqun
Kang
,
Bolun
Wang
,
Andreas T.
Güntner
,
Siyuan
Xu
,
Xuhao
Wan
,
Yiyun
Liu
,
Sushila
Marlow
,
Yifei
Ren
,
Diego
Gianolio
,
Chiu C.
Tang
,
Vadim
Murzin
,
Hiroyuki
Asakura
,
Qian
He
,
Shaoliang
Guan
,
Juan J.
Velasco-Vélez
,
Sotiris E.
Pratsinis
,
Yuzheng
Guo
,
Feng Ryan
Wang
Open Access
Abstract: Electronic metal‐support interaction (EMSI) describes the electron flow between metal sites and a metal oxide support. It is generally used to follow the mechanism of redox reactions. In the study of CuO‐CeO2 redox, an additional flow of electron from metallic Cu to surface carbon species is observed via a combination of operando X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, synchrotron X‐ray powder diffraction, near ambient pressure‐near edge X‐ray absorption fine structure, and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy. An electronic metal‐support‐carbon interaction (EMSCI) is proposed to explain the reaction pathway of CO oxidation. The EMSCI provides a complete picture of the mass and electron flow, which will help predict and improve the catalytic performance in the selective activation of CO2 , carbonate or carbonyl species in C1 chemistry.
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Mar 2021
|
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E01-JEM ARM 200CF
|
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[20643]
Abstract: The magnesium–sulfur (Mg-S) battery may be a safer alternative for the lithium-sulfur battery because Mg plating usually proceeds without dendrite formation. Here, we correlate the thermal runaway of Mg-S battery with the associated change of electrolyte vapour pressure via battery testing calorimetery. Over-pressure builds up along with the programmed heating of the cell, and as a result, the thermal runaway is triggered at 20 to 45 K over the electrolyte boiling point, corresponding to 70 to 150 kPa pressure difference between the cell and the environment. The distinct performance-safety-cost behaviours of three ether type of electrolytes stems from the different CH2CH2O chain lengths. Such molecular insight will serve as a fundamental guideline in choosing and designing the desired electrolyte that simultaneously achieves a high explosion limit and good electrochemical performance.
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Jan 2021
|
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E01-JEM ARM 200CF
E02-JEM ARM 300CF
|
Jian
Guo
,
Liqun
Kang
,
Xuekun
Lu
,
Siyu
Zhao
,
Jianwei
Li
,
Paul R.
Shearing
,
Ryan
Wang
,
Dan J. L.
Brett
,
Guanjie
He
,
Guoliang
Chai
,
Ivan P.
Parkin
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[22572, 20847]
Abstract: Developing cost-effective and durable air-cathodes is crucial for improving metal-air batteries. Most reports of cathode formulation involve preparing bi-functional electrocatalysts from wet chemistry or solid-state synthesis, followed by pasting onto a substrate. In this work, the cathodes generated from electrochemical activation of normal carbon paper substrates were directly used in Zn-air batteries. The self-activated carbon paper substrate without any additional electrocatalysts exhibits an impressive cycling stability (more than 165 hours for 1,000 cycles) and a small discharge-charge voltage gap. After the activation, the maximum power density and electrochemical surface area were increased by over 40 and 1,920 times respectively. It is discovered that substrates after activation can be directly used as a cathode. The new method is scalable, inexpensive and produces near best in class performance. The mechanism behind this enhancement is due to the creation of oxygen functional groups within the cathode, which overcame slow kinetics, enhanced wettability and enabled optimum three-phase boundaries.
|
Dec 2020
|
|
B18-Core EXAFS
E01-JEM ARM 200CF
|
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[15151, 21370, 19246, 22572]
Abstract: Selective transformation of biomass feedstocks to platform molecules is a key pursuit for sustainable chemical production. Compared to petrochemical processes, biomass transformation requires the defunctionalization of highly polar molecules at relatively low temperatures. As a result, catalysts based on functional organic polymers may play a prominent role. Targeting the hydrogenolysis of the platform chemical 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), here, we design a polyphenylene (PPhen) framework with purely sp2-hybridized carbons that can isolate 5-HMF via π–π stacking, preventing hemiacetal and humin formation. With good swellability, the PPhen framework here has successfully supported and dispersed seven types of metal particles via a newly developed swelling-impregnation method, including Ru, Pt, Au, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu. Ru/PPhen is studied for 5-HMF hydrogenolysis, achieving a 92% yield of 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) under mild conditions, outperforming the state-of-the-art catalysts reported in the literature. In addition, PPhen helps perform a solventless reaction, achieving direct 5-HMF to DMF conversion in the absence of any liquid solvent or reagent. This approach in designing support–reactant/solvent/metal interactions will play an important role in surface catalysis.
|
Nov 2020
|
|
E01-JEM ARM 200CF
|
Yiding
Jiao
,
Liqun
Kang
,
Jasper
Berry-gair
,
Kit
Mccoll
,
Jianwei
Li
,
Haobo
Dong
,
Hao
Jiang
,
Ryan
Wang
,
Furio
Corà
,
Dan J. L.
Brett
,
Guanjie
He
,
Ivan
Parkin
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[24450]
Open Access
Abstract: The primary issue faced by MnO2 cathode materials for aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs) is the occurrence of structural transformations during cycling, resulting in unstable capacity output. Pre-intercalating closely bonded ions into the MnO2 structures has been demonstrated as an effective approach to combat this. However, mechanisms of the pre-intercalation remain unclear. Herein, two distinct δ-MnO2 (K0.28MnO2·0.1H2O and K0.21MnO2·0.1H2O) are prepared with varying amounts of pre-intercalated K+ and applied as cathodes for AZIBs. The as-prepared K0.28MnO2·0.1H2O cathodes exhibit relatively high specific capacity (300 mA h g−1 at 100 mA g−1), satisfactory rate performance (35% capacity recovery at 5 A g−1) and competent cyclability (ca. 95% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 2 A g−1), while inferior cyclability and rate performance are observed in K0.21MnO2·0.1H2O. A stable δ-MnO2 phase is observed upon cycling, with the reversible deposition of Zn4SO4(OH)6·5H2O (ZSH), ion migration between electrodes and synchronous transition of Mn valence states. This work firstly and systematically reveals the role of the pre-intercalated ions via density functional theory simulations and show that above a threshold K/Mn ratio of ca. 0.26, the K ions suppress structural transformations by stabilizing the δ phase. To demonstrate its commercial potential, AZIBs with high-loading active materials are fabricated, which deliver adequate energy and power densities compared with most commercial devices.
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Nov 2020
|
|
E01-JEM ARM 200CF
|
Ruoyu
Xu
,
Jingwei
Xiang
,
Junrun
Feng
,
Xuekun
Lu
,
Zhangxiang
Hao
,
Liqun
Kang
,
Ming
Li
,
Yunsong
Wu
,
Chun
Tan
,
Yiyun
Liu
,
Guanjie
He
,
Dan J. L.
Brett
,
Paul R.
Shearing
,
Lixia
Yuan
,
Yunhui
Huang
,
Feng Ryan
Wang
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[17559, 19318, 19246, 20643]
Abstract: The lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have high theoretical energy density, exceeding that of the lithium-ion batteries. However, their practical applications are hindered by the capacity decay due to lithium polysulfide shuttle effect and sulfur volume expansion. Here, we design a S@hollow carbon with porous shell/MnOx (S@HCS/MnOx) cathode to accommodate and immobilize sulfur and polysulfides, and develop a non-destructive technique X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) to in situ visualize the volume expansion of Li-S cathode. The designed cathode achieves a specific capacity of ~1100 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C with a fade rate of 0.18% per cycle over 300 cycles. The X-ray CT shows that only 16% volume expansion and 70% volume fraction of solid sulfur remaining in the S@HCS/MnOx cathode, superior to the commercial cathode with 40% volume expansion and 5% volume remaining of solid sulfur particles. This is the first reported visualization evidence for the effectiveness of hollow carbon structure in accommodating cathode volume expansion and immobilizing sulfur shuttling. X-ray CT can serve as a powerful in situ tool to trace the active materials and then feedback to the structure design, which helps develop efficient and reliable energy storage systems.
|
Oct 2020
|
|
B18-Core EXAFS
E01-JEM ARM 200CF
E02-JEM ARM 300CF
|
Liqun
Kang
,
Bolun
Wang
,
Adam
Thetford
,
Ke
Wu
,
Mohsen
Danaie
,
Qian
He
,
Emma
Gibson
,
Ling-dong
Sun
,
Hiroyuki
Asakura
,
Richard
Catlow
,
Feng Ryan
Wang
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[16966, 17559, 18909, 19246, 19318, 20643, 20847, 17377, 15151, 14239]
Open Access
Abstract: Ru(II) compounds are widely used in catalysis, photocatalysis and medical applications. They are usually obtained in reductive environment as molecular O 2 can oxidize Ru(II) to Ru(III) and Ru(IV). Here we report the design, identification and evolution of an air‐stable surface ‐[bipy‐Ru(II)(CO) 2 Cl 2 ] site that is covalently mounted onto a polyphenylene framework. Such Ru(II) site was obtained by reduction of ‐[bipy‐Ru(III)Cl 4 ] ‐ with simultaneous ligand exchange from Cl ‐ to CO. This structural evolution was witnessed by a combination of in situ X‐ray and infrared spectroscopy studies. The ‐[bipy‐Ru(II)(CO) 2 Cl 2 ] site enables oxidation of CO with a turnover frequency of 0.73 × 10 ‐2 s ‐1 at 462 K, while the Ru(III) site is completely inert. This work contributes to the studies of structure‐activity relationship by demonstrating a practical control over both geometric and electronic structures of single‐site catalysts at molecular level, which can be further applied in other single site catalyst researches.
|
Sep 2020
|
|
B18-Core EXAFS
E01-JEM ARM 200CF
E02-JEM ARM 300CF
I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
I20-Scanning-X-ray spectroscopy (XAS/XES)
|
Liqun
Kang
,
Bolun
Wang
,
Qiming
Bing
,
Michal
Zalibera
,
Robert
Büchel
,
Ruoyu
Xu
,
Qiming
Wang
,
Yiyun
Liu
,
Diego
Gianolio
,
Chiu C.
Tang
,
Emma K.
Gibson
,
Mohsen
Danaie
,
Christopher
Allen
,
Ke
Wu
,
Sushila
Marlow
,
Ling-dong
Sun
,
Qian
He
,
Shaoliang
Guan
,
Anton
Savitsky
,
Juan J.
Velasco-vélez
,
June
Callison
,
Christopher W. M.
Kay
,
Sotiris E.
Pratsinis
,
Wolfgang
Lubitz
,
Jing-yao
Liu
,
Feng Ryan
Wang
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[15151, 15763, 16966, 17377, 19072, 19246, 20939, 17559, 24285, 19318, 19850]
Open Access
Abstract: Supported atomic metal sites have discrete molecular orbitals. Precise control over the energies of these sites is key to achieving novel reaction pathways with superior selectivity. Here, we achieve selective oxygen (O2) activation by utilising a framework of cerium (Ce) cations to reduce the energy of 3d orbitals of isolated copper (Cu) sites. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance and density-functional theory simulations are used to demonstrate that a [Cu(I)O2]3− site selectively adsorbs molecular O2, forming a rarely reported electrophilic η2-O2 species at 298 K. Assisted by neighbouring Ce(III) cations, η2-O2 is finally reduced to two O2−, that create two Cu–O–Ce oxo-bridges at 453 K. The isolated Cu(I)/(II) sites are ten times more active in CO oxidation than CuO clusters, showing a turnover frequency of 0.028 ± 0.003 s−1 at 373 K and 0.01 bar PCO. The unique electronic structure of [Cu(I)O2]3− site suggests its potential in selective oxidation.
|
Aug 2020
|
|
B18-Core EXAFS
|
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[17377, 19072]
Abstract: Understanding and tuning the catalytic properties of metals atomically dispersed on oxides are major stepping-stones towards a rational development of single-atom catalysts (SACs). Beyond individual showcase studies, the design and synthesis of structurally regular series of SACs opens the door to systematic experimental investigations of performance as a function of metal identity. Herein, a series of single-atom catalysts based on various 4d (Ru, Rh, Pd) and 5d (Ir, Pt) transition metals has been synthesized on a common MgO carrier. Complementary experimental (X-ray absorption spectroscopy) and theoretical (Density Functional Theory) studies reveal that, regardless of the metal identity, metal cations occupy preferably octahedral coordination MgO lattice positions under step-edges, hence highly confined by the oxide support. Upon exposure to O2-lean CO oxidation conditions, FTIR spectroscopy indicates the partial de-confinement of the monoatomic metal centers driven by CO at pre-catalysis temperatures, followed by the development of surface carbonate species under steady-state conditions. These findings are supported by DFT calculations, which show the driving force and final structure for the surface metal protrusion to be metal-dependent, but point to an equivalent octahedral-coordinated M4+ carbonate species as the resting state in all cases. Experimentally, apparent reaction activation energies in the range of 96±19 kJ/mol are determined, with Pt leading to the lowest energy barrier. The results indicate that, for monoatomic sites in SACs, differences in CO oxidation reactivity enforceable via metal selection are of lower magnitude than those evidenced previously through the mechanistic involvement of adjacent redox centers on the oxide carrier, suggesting that tuning of the oxide surface chemistry is as relevant as the selection of the supported metal.
|
Aug 2020
|
|
E01-JEM ARM 200CF
|
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[22572, 21641]
Open Access
Abstract: Porous polymer catalysts possess the potential to combine the advantages of heterogeneous and homogeneous cataly-sis, namely easy post-reaction recycling and high dispersion of active sites. Here we designed a -SO3H functionalized polyphenylene (PPhen) framework with purely sp2-hybridized carbons, which exhibited high activity in the hydration of alkynes including challenging aliphatic substrates such as 1-octyne. The superiority of the structure lies in its cova-lent crosslink in the xy-plane with π-π stacking interaction between the planes, enabling simultaneously high swella-bility and porosity (653 m2·g-1). High acidic sites density (2.12 mmol/g) was achieved at mild sulfonation condition. Similar turnover frequencies (0.015 ± 0.001 min-1) were obtained regardless of acidic density and crosslink content, suggesting high accessibility for all active sites over PPhen. In addition, the substituted benzene groups can activate alkynes through a T-shape CH/π interaction, as indicated by the 8 cm-1 and 16 cm-1 red shift of the alkyne C-H stretch-ing peak for phenylacetylene and 1-octyne repectively in the IR spectra. These advantages render PPhen-SO3H a prom-ising candidate as a solid catalyst replacing the highly toxic liquid phase acids such as the mercury salt.
|
May 2020
|
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