A pyrolysis-free Ni/Fe bimetallic electrocatalyst for overall water splitting.

Catalysts capable of electrochemical overall water splitting in acidic, neutral, and alkaline solution are important materials. This work develops bifunctional catalysts with single atom active sites through a pyrolysis-free route. Starting with a conjugated framework containing Fe sites, the addition of Ni atoms is used to weaken the adsorption of electrochemically generated intermediates, thus leading to more optimized energy level sand enhanced catalytic performance. The pyrolysis-free synthesis also ensured the formation of well-defined active sites within the framework structure, providing ideal platforms to understand the catalytic processes. The as-prepared catalyst exhibits efficient catalytic capability for electrochemical water splitting in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes. At a current density of 10 mA cm-2, the overpotential for hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution is 23/201 mV and 42/194 mV in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1 M KOH, respectively. Our work not only develops a route towards efficient catalysts applicable across a wide range of pH values, it also provides a successful showcase of a model catalyst for in-depth mechanistic insight into electrochemical water splitting.

Design and Construction of a Metal-Organic Framework as an Efficient Luminescent Sensor for Detecting Antibiotics.

We first design and synthesize a dendritic aromatic 6-carboxyl linker (H6TDCPB), which is successfully assembled with Cd(II) ion to construct a porous metal-organic framework with a raw Cd6 cluster, {[Cd3(TDCPB)·2DMAc]·DMAc·4H2O}n (namely, complex 1). More interestingly, six adjacent linkers are packed together by π-π-stacking interactions to form an amazing six-molecule accumulation in the crystal structure. By virtue of high stability and luminescent properties, the as-synthesized sample not merely owns an excellent detectable ability but also possesses an outstanding selectivity for nitrofurans with remarkable recursitivity.

An Exceptionally Stable TbIII-Based Metal-Organic Framework for Selectively and Sensitively Detecting Antibiotics in Aqueous Solution.

An exceptionally stable metal-organic framework based on one-dimensional (1D) TbIII chains with significant green emission under excitation energy, {[Tb(TATMA)(H2O)·2H2O} n (namely, 1), has been fabricated successfully under hydrothermal conditions. By virtue of the spectral overlap between the absorbance spectra of nitrofurans (NFAs) and the excitation spectrum of MOF 1, the resultant sample exhibits outstandingly sensitive and selective luminescence detectability for NFT ( Ksv = 3.35 × 104 M-1) and NFZ ( Ksv = 3.00 × 104 M-1) by quenching phenomenon. More importantly, it can detect NFAs in water from bovine serum samples. The portable MOF film can be easily prepared and used with excellent stability and recursitivity.