Atomically Dispersed Nickel Anchored on a Nitrogen-Doped Carbon/TiO2 Composite for Efficient and Selective Photocatalytic CH4 Oxidation to Oxygenates.

Direct photocatalytic oxidation of methane to liquid oxygenated products is a sustainable strategy for methane valorization at room temperature. However, in this reaction, noble metals are generally needed to function as cocatalysts for obtaining adequate activity and selectivity. Here, we report atomically dispersed nickel anchored on a nitrogen-doped carbon/TiO2 composite (Ni-NC/TiO2 ) as a highly active and selective catalyst for photooxidation of CH4 to C1 oxygenates with O2 as the only oxidant. Ni-NC/TiO2 exhibits a yield of C1 oxygenates of 198 µmol for 4 h with a selectivity of 93 %, exceeding that of most reported high-performance photocatalysts. Experimental and theoretical investigations suggest that the single-atom Ni-NC sites not only enhance the transfer of photogenerated electrons from TiO2 to isolated Ni atoms but also dominantly facilitate the activation of O2 to form the key intermediate ⋅OOH radicals, which synergistically lead to a substantial enhancement in both activity and selectivity.

Efficient and selective photocatalytic CH4 conversion to CH3OH with O2 by controlling overoxidation on TiO2.

The conversion of photocatalytic methane into methanol in high yield with selectivity remains a huge challenge due to unavoidable overoxidation. Here, the photocatalytic oxidation of CH4 into CH3OH by O2 is carried out on Ag-decorated facet-dominated TiO2. The {001}-dominated TiO2 shows a durable CH3OH yield of 4.8 mmol g-1 h-1 and a selectivity of approximately 80%, which represent much higher values than those reported in recent studies and are better than those obtained for {101}-dominated TiO2. Operando Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, electron spin resonance, and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques are used to comprehensively clarify the underlying mechanism. The straightforward generation of oxygen vacancies on {001} by photoinduced holes plays a key role in avoiding the formation of •CH3 and •OH, which are the main factors leading to overoxidation and are generally formed on the {101} facet. The generation of oxygen vacancies on {001} results in distinct intermediates and reaction pathways (oxygen vacancy → Ti-O2• → Ti-OO-Ti and Ti-(OO) → Ti-O• pairs), thus achieving high selectivity and yield for CH4 photooxidation into CH3OH.

Through-space 11 B-27 Al correlation: Influence of the recoupling channel.

Through-space heteronuclear correlation (D-HETCOR) experiments based on heteronuclear multiple-quantum correlation (D-HMQC) and refocused insensitive nuclei enhanced by polarization transfer (D-RINEPT) sequences have been proven to be useful approaches for the detection of the spatial proximity between half-integer quadrupolar nuclei in solids under magic-angle spinning (MAS) conditions. The corresponding pulse sequences employ coherence transfers mediated by heteronuclear dipolar interactions, which are reintroduced under MAS by radiofrequency irradiation of only one of the two correlated nuclei. We investigate herein using numerical simulations of spin dynamics and solid-state NMR experiments on magnesium aluminoborate glass how the choice of the channel to which the heteronuclear dipolar recoupling is applied affects the transfer efficiency of D-HMQC and D-RINEPT sequences between 11 B and 27 Al nuclei. Experimental results show that maximum transfer efficiency is achieved when the recoupling scheme is applied to the channel, for which the spin magnetization is parallel to the B0 axis in average.

Metal Nanoparticles Confined within an Inorganic-Organic Framework Enable Superior Substrate-Selective Catalysis.

The search for catalysts with a perfect substrate selectivity toward the hydrogenation of nitroarenes is a goal of high importance, which still remains a significant challenge. Here, we designed a new type of catalyst with superior substrate selectivity by combining a space-confined effect and a hydrogen-bonding network, in which metal nanoparticles (MNPs) were confined in hierarchical hollow silica (HHS) with a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) coating. Given the strong induced properties of hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors in the HHS support and PNIPA coating, the as-synthesized catalyst would achieve perfect substrate selectivity for the hydrogenation of various nitroarenes and their mixture by thoroughly impeding the reduction of nitroarenes with any hydroxyl or carboxyl groups, which is typically very difficult to be realized over almost all of the reported supported-metal catalysts. Notably, the hydrogenation of nitroarenes can produce almost quantitative yields of anilines over the as-synthesized catalyst. Furthermore, density functional theory and experimental evidence are also provided for the hierarchical structure of HHS and PNIPA coating associated with substrates to demonstrate how a substrate could have access or be blocked into the confined active centers (MNPs). Therefore, this work would open a new window to design efficient catalysts for a wide variety of substrate-selective catalyses.

Observation of an oxonium ion intermediate in ethanol dehydration to ethene on zeolite.

Zeolite-catalyzed dehydration of ethanol offers promising perspectives for the sustainable production of ethene. Complex parallel-consecutive pathways are proposed to be involved in the reaction network of ethanol dehydration on zeolites, where the initial step of ethanol dehydration is still unclear particularly for the favorable production of ethene at lower temperature. Here we report the observation of a triethyloxonium ion (TEO) in the dehydration of ethanol on zeolite H-ZSM-5 by using ex situ and in situ solid-state NMR spectroscopy. TEO is identified as a stable surface species on the working catalyst, which shows high reactivity during reaction. Ethylation of the zeolite by TEO occurs at lower temperature, leading to the formation of surface ethoxy species and then ethene. The TEO-ethoxide pathway is found to be energetically preferable for the dehydration of ethanol to ethene in the initial stage, which is also supported by theoretical calculations.

The acidic nature of "NMR-invisible" tri-coordinated framework aluminum species in zeolites.

The unambiguous characterization of different acid sites in zeolites is of great importance for understanding their catalytic performance and the rational design of highly efficient zeolite catalysts. In addition to various well-characterized extra-framework Al species, a tri-coordinated framework aluminum species can also serve as a Lewis acid site in zeolites, which is "NMR-invisible" owing to its extremely distorted local environment. Here we provide a feasible and reliable approach to elucidate the acidic nature of the tri-coordinated framework Al in dehydrated H-ZSM-5 zeolites via sensitivity-enhanced two-dimensional (2D) multiple nuclear correlation NMR experiments coupled with trimethylphosphine oxide (TMPO) probe molecules. Two types of tri-coordinated framework Al sites have been unambiguously identified, which amount to 11.6% of the total Brønsted and Lewis acid sites. Furthermore, it was found that synergistic effects arising from the close spatial proximity between the tri-coordinated framework Al site and the Brønsted acid site lead to the generation of superacidity (with an acid strength stronger than 100% H2SO4) in the zeolite.

Control of Spatially Homogeneous Distribution of Heteroatoms to Produce Red TiO2 Photocatalyst for Visible-Light Photocatalytic Water Splitting.

The strong band-to-band absorption of photocatalysts spanning the whole visible-light region (400-700 nm) is critically important for solar-driven photocatalysis. Although it has been actively and widely used as a photocatalyst for various reactions in the past four decades, TiO2 has a very poor ability to capture the whole spectrum of visible light. In this work, by controlling the spatially homogeneous distribution of boron and nitrogen heteroatoms in anatase TiO2 microspheres with a predominance of high-energy {001} facets, a strong visible-light absorption spectrum with a sharp edge beyond 680 nm has been achieved. The red TiO2 obtained with homogeneous doping of boron and nitrogen shows no increase in defects like Ti3+ that are commonly observed in doped TiO2 . More importantly, it has the ability to induce photocatalytic water oxidation to produce oxygen under the irradiation of visible light beyond 550 nm and also the photocatalytic reduction of water to produce hydrogen under visible light. These results demonstrate the great promise of using red TiO2 for visible-light photocatalytic water splitting and also reveal an attractive strategy for realizing the wide-spectrum visible-light absorption of wide-band-gap oxide photocatalysts.

Uniform signal enhancement in MAS NMR of half-integer quadrupolar nuclei using quadruple-frequency sweeps.

We introduce two MAS schemes that allow manipulating the satellite-transition (ST) populations of half-integer quadrupolar nuclei, and which both exhibit improved robustness to the quadrupolar coupling constant (CQ). These schemes, called quadruple frequency sweep (QFS) or quadruple WURST (QWURST) are the sums of two DFS or four WURST to efficiently invert the ST populations of nuclei subject to large or small quadrupole interactions, simultaneously. These quadruple sweeps methods only require 6% more rf-power than the double sweeps ones. We demonstrate, both numerically and experimentally, that the QFS and QWURST schemes benefit from robustness to CQ and rf amplitude and offset and hence achieve uniform enhancement of the CT signal for 27Al nuclei subject to different quadrupole interactions. Although the version of QFS with repetitive accumulation can achieve higher enhancement in the S/N of the 27Al MAS spectrum, the final sensitivity gains mainly depend on the longitudinal relaxation time of different 27Al sites. We also confirm that these schemes provide an improved acceleration of the 31P-{27Al} coherence transfer in PT-J-HMQC experiments.

Transfer Channel of Photoinduced Holes on a TiO2 Surface As Revealed by Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy.

The detailed structure-activity relationship of surface hydroxyl groups (Ti-OH) and adsorbed water (H2O) on the TiO2 surface should be the key to clarifying the photogenerated hole (h+) transfer mechanism for photocatalytic water splitting, which however is still not well understood. Herein, one- and two-dimensional 1H solid-state NMR techniques were employed to identify surface hydroxyl groups and adsorbed water molecules as well as their spatial proximity/interaction in TiO2 photocatalysts. It was found that although the two different types of Ti-OH (bridging hydroxyl (OHB) and terminal hydroxyl (OHT) groups were present on the TiO2 surface, only the former is in close spatial proximity to adsorbed H2O, forming hydrated OHB. In situ 1H and 13C NMR studies of the photocatalytic reaction on TiO2 with different Ti-OH groups and different H2O loadings illustrated that the enhanced activity was closely correlated to the amount of hydrated OHB groups. To gain insight into the role of hydrated OHB groups in the h+ transfer process, in situ ESR experiments were performed on TiO2 with variable H2O loading, which revealed that the hydrated OHB groups offer a channel for the transfer of photogenerated holes in the photocatalytic reaction, and the adsorbed H2O could have a synergistic effect with the neighboring OHB group to facilitate the formation and evolution of active paramagnetic intermediates. On the basis of experimental observations, the detailed photocatalytic mechanism of water splitting on the surface of TiO2 was proposed.

Heteronuclear correlation experiments of 23Na-27Al in rotating solids.

We demonstrated that the heteronuclear correlation experiments between two quadrupolar nuclei, 23Na and 27Al, with close Larmor frequencies can be achieved via D-HMQC and D-RINEPT approaches by using a diplexer connected to a conventional probe in magic-angle-spinning solid-state NMR. Low-power heteronuclear dipolar recoupling schemes can be applied on 23Na or 27Al to establish polarization transfers between the central transitions of 23Na and 27Al for a model compound, NaAlO2. Further, we showed a practical implementation of the two dimensional 23Na-27Al dipolar-based heteronuclear correlation experiment on a heterogeneous catalyst, Na2CO3/γ-Al2O3. This allows to determine spatial proximities between different 23Na and 27Al sites, thus the surface Na species adjacent to octahedral-coordination Al can be clearly discriminated.

Unravelling the Efficient Photocatalytic Activity of Boron-induced Ti3+ Species in the Surface Layer of TiO2.

Ti3+ species are highly unstable in air owing to their facile oxidation into Ti4+ species, and thus they cannot concentrate in the surface layer of TiO2 but are mainly present in its bulk. We report generation of abundant and stable Ti3+ species in the surface layer of TiO2 by boron doping for efficient utilization of solar irradiation. The resultant photocatalysts (denoted as B-TiO2-x) exhibit extremely high and stable solar-driven photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen production. The origin of the solar-light activity enhancement in the B-TiO2-x photocatalysts has been thoroughly investigated by various experimental techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The unique structure invoked by presence of sufficient interstitial boron atoms can lead to substantial variations in density of states of B-TiO2-x, which not only significantly narrow the band gap of TiO2 to improve its visible-light absorption, but also promote the photogenerated electron mobility to enhance its solar-light photocatalytic activity.

Direct Detection of Supramolecular Reaction Centers in the Methanol-to-Olefins Conversion over Zeolite H-ZSM-5 by (13)C-(27)Al Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy.

Hydrocarbon-pool chemistry is important in methanol to olefins (MTO) conversion on acidic zeolite catalysts. The hydrocarbon-pool (HP) species, such as methylbenzenes and cyclic carbocations, confined in zeolite channels during the reaction are essential in determining the reaction pathway. Herein, we experimentally demonstrate the formation of supramolecular reaction centers composed of organic hydrocarbon species and the inorganic zeolite framework in H-ZSM-5 zeolite by advanced (13)C-(27)Al double-resonance solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Methylbenzenes and cyclic carbocations located near Brønsted acid/base sites form the supramolecular reaction centers in the zeolite channel. The internuclear spatial interaction/proximity between the (13)C nuclei (associated with HP species) and the (27) Al nuclei (associated with Brønsted acid/base sites) determines the reactivity of the HP species. The closer the HP species are to the zeolite framework Al, the higher their reactivity in the MTO reaction.

Experimental Evidence on the Formation of Ethene through Carbocations in Methanol Conversion over H-ZSM-5 Zeolite.

The methanol to olefins conversion over zeolite catalysts is a commercialized process to produce light olefins like ethene and propene but its mechanism is not well understood. We herein investigated the formation of ethene in the methanol to olefins reaction over the H-ZSM-5 zeolite. Three types of ethylcyclopentenyl carbocations, that is, the 1-methyl-3-ethylcyclopentenyl, the 1,4-dimethyl-3-ethylcyclopentenyl, and the 1,5-dimethyl-3-ethylcyclopentenyl cation were unambiguously identified under working conditions by both solid-state and liquid-state NMR spectroscopy as well as GC-MS analysis. These carbocations were found to be well correlated to ethene and lower methylbenzenes (xylene and trimethylbenzene). An aromatics-based paring route provides rationale for the transformation of lower methylbenzenes to ethene through ethylcyclopentenyl cations as the key hydrocarbon-pool intermediates.

Population transfer HMQC for half-integer quadrupolar nuclei.

This work presents a detailed analysis of a recently proposed nuclear magnetic resonance method [Wang et al., Chem. Commun. 49(59), 6653-6655 (2013)] for accelerating heteronuclear coherence transfers involving half-integer spin quadrupolar nuclei by manipulating their satellite transitions. This method, called Population Transfer Heteronuclear Multiple Quantum Correlation (PT-HMQC), is investigated in details by combining theoretical analyses, numerical simulations, and experimental investigations. We find that compared to instant inversion or instant saturation, continuous saturation is the most practical strategy to accelerate coherence transfers on half-integer quadrupolar nuclei. We further demonstrate that this strategy is efficient to enhance the sensitivity of J-mediated heteronuclear correlation experiments between two half-integer quadrupolar isotopes (e.g., (27)Al-(17)O). In this case, the build-up is strongly affected by relaxation for small T2' and J coupling values, and shortening the mixing time makes a huge signal enhancement. Moreover, this concept of population transfer can also be applied to dipolar-mediated HMQC experiments. Indeed, on the AlPO4-14 sample, one still observes experimentally a 2-fold shortening of the optimum mixing time albeit with no significant signal gain in the (31)P-{(27)Al} experiments.

Direct visualization of a guest-triggered crystal deformation based on a flexible ultramicroporous framework.

Host-guest composites may exhibit abnormal and/or controllable physical properties that are unavailable for traditional solids. However, it is still very difficult to control or visualize the occupancy and motion of the guest. Here we report a flexible ultramicroporous coordination polymer showing exceptional guest-responsive thermal-expansion properties. The vacant crystal exhibits constant and huge thermal expansion over a wide temperature range not only in vacuum but also in air, as its ultramicroporous channel excludes air adsorption even at 77 K. More interestingly, as demonstrated by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, molecular dynamic simulations and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, it selectively responds to the molecular rearrangement of N,N-dimethylformamide, leading to conformation reversion of the flexible ligand, which transfers these actions to deform the whole crystal lattice. These results illustrate that combination of ultramicroporous channel and flexible pore surface could be an effective strategy for the utilization of external physical and chemical stimuli.

Signal enhancement of J-HMQC experiments in solid-state NMR involving half-integer quadrupolar nuclei.

We show that for half-integer quadrupolar nuclei, the manipulation of the satellite transitions can accelerate and enhance coherence transfer to other isotopes. This novel strategy is demonstrated to improve the sensitivity of (31)P-{(27)Al} J-HMQC experiments for a layered aluminophosphate Mu-4.

Understanding the high photocatalytic activity of (B, Ag)-codoped TiO2 under solar-light irradiation with XPS, solid-state NMR, and DFT calculations.

The origin of the exceptionally high activity of (B, Ag)-codoped TiO(2) catalysts under solar-light irradiation has been investigated by XPS and (11)B solid-state NMR spectroscopy in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. XPS experimental results demonstrated that a portion of the dopant Ag (Ag(3+)) ions were implanted into the crystalline lattice of (B, Ag)-codoped TiO(2) and were in close proximity to the interstitial B (B(int.)) sites, forming [B(int.)-O-Ag] structural units. In situ XPS experiments were employed to follow the evolution of the chemical states of the B and Ag dopants during UV-vis irradiation. It was found that the [B(int.)-O-Ag] units could trap the photoinduced electron to form a unique intermediate structure in the (B, Ag)-codoped TiO(2) during the irradiation, which is responsible for the photoinduced shifts of the B 1s and Ag 3d peaks observed in the in situ XPS spectra. Solid-state NMR experiments including (11)B triple-quantum and double-quantum magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR revealed that up to six different boron species were present in the catalysts and only the tricoordinated interstitial boron (T*) species was in close proximity to the substitutional Ag species, leading to formation of [T*-O-Ag] structural units. Furthermore, as demonstrated by DFT calculations, the [T*-O-Ag] structural units were responsible for trapping the photoinduced electrons, which prolongs the life of the photoinduced charge carriers and eventually leads to a remarkable enhancement in the photocatalytic activity. All these unprecedented findings are expected to be crucial for understanding the roles of B and Ag dopants and their synergistic effect in numerous titania-mediated photocatalytic reactions.

New insights into Keggin-type 12-tungstophosphoric acid from 31P MAS NMR analysis of absorbed trimethylphosphine oxide and DFT calculations.

The acid and transport properties of the anhydrous Keggin-type 12-tungstophosphoric acid (H(3)PW(12)O(40); HPW) have been studied by solid-state (31)P magic-angle spinning NMR of absorbed trimethylphosphine oxide (TMPO) in conjunction with DFT calculations. Accordingly, (31)P NMR resonances arising from various protonated complexes, such as TMPOH(+) and (TMPO)(2)H(+) adducts, could be unambiguously identified. It was found that thermal pretreatment of the sample at elevated temperatures (≥423 K) is a prerequisite for ensuring complete penetration of the TMPO guest probe molecule into HPW particles. Transport of the TMPO absorbate into the matrix of the HPW adsorbent was found to invoke a desorption/absorption process associated with the (TMPO)(2)H(+) adducts. Consequently, three types of protonic acid sites with distinct superacid strengths, which correspond to (31)P chemical shifts of 92.1, 89.4, and 87.7 ppm, were observed for HPW samples loaded with less than three molecules of TMPO per Keggin unit. Together with detailed DFT calculations, these results support the scenario that the TMPOH(+) complexes are associated with protons located at three different terminal oxygen (O(d)) sites of the PW(12)O(40)(3-) polyanions. Upon increasing the TMPO loading to >3.0 molecules per Keggin unit, abrupt decreases in acid strength and the corresponding structural variations were attributed to the change in secondary structure of the pseudoliquid phase of HPW in the presence of excessive guest absorbate.