Aqueous zinc-based batteries (ZBBs) are widely used for portable and grid-scale applications due to their high safety, low cost and high energy density.
　　However, the inhomogeneous zinc deposition on anode during charging and the zinc dendrite formation decrease the cycling stability of ZBBs. Moreover, the traditional aqueous electrolytes are not capable of working at low temperature due to the suddenly dropped ionic conductivities, limiting the applicable temperature range of aqueous ZBBs.
　　Recently a research group led by Prof. LI Xianfeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed a low-temperature resisting, cost-effective, safe and eco-friendly hybrid electrolyte for aqueous ZBBs.
　　This work was published in Energy & Environmental Science.
　　Schematic illustration of the ZBBs with hybrid electrolytes at low temperatures and possible mechanism of how Zn2+-EG solvation interaction impacts the chemistry of the hybrid electrolyte (Image by CHANG Nana)
　　The developed electrolyte, consisting of water (H2O), ethylene glycol (EG) and zinc sulfate (ZnSO4), exhibited high zinc-ion conductivity at low temperature.
　　"We demonstrated the unique solvation interaction of Zn2+ with EG through experiments together with theoretical calculation," said Prof. LI.
　　This interaction could not only enhance the hydrogen bonding between EG and H2O, providing the hybrid electrolyte with lower freezing point, but also weaken the solvation interaction of Zn2+ with H2O, achieving highly reversible Zn/Zn2+ chemistry and uniform zinc deposition.
　　Both the Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZHSCs) and Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) with the hybrid electrolytes showed high energy densities, high power densities and long-cycle life at -20 °C. This series of hybrid electrolytes with tunable EG-to-H2O ratios provided good balance between performance and cost, which enabled promising application in various regions.
　　This work offers enlightenment for designing electrolytes for low-temperature energy storage devices. It was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and CAS Engineering Laboratory for Electrochemical Energy Storage. (Text by CHANG Nana)

　　During the Mission Innovation Champions Awards Ceremony held via virtual webinar on 12 June 2020, Prof. LI Can was awarded the 2020 Mission Innovation Champions (MI Champions).
　　The MI Champions Program recognizes individuals spanning academia, business and research who are working on key innovative clean energy research and technology developments.
　　21 clean energy innovators were announced as the 2nd cohort of Mission Innovation Champions following a rigorous competition and evaluations by a diverse panel of experts from around the globe. Prof. LI was the only Chinese scholar to receive this award due to his outstanding contributions in both fundamental and applied research on Solar Energy Conversion and Utilization.
　　Launched at the Paris Climate Conference on 30 November 2015, Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative with strong commitment accelerating global clean energy innovation and making clean energy world widely affordable and reliable.
　　Mission Innovation Champions Awards was launched in 2019, seeking to celebrate and support innovative individuals who have made great contributions in accelerating the clean energy revolution.
　　Prof. CHEM Ping from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was awarded the 2019 Mission Innovation Champions for her great achievements in Hydrogen Storage. (Text by HAN Hongxian and ZHENG Min)

　　On 15 June, Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) announced the list of new Fellows elected into the CAE. Prof. ZHANG Tao from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was elected as International Fellow.
　　Zhang is nominated due to his conceptual contribution of single-atom catalysis and innovative catalysts for biomass conversion. As one of the most-prominent scientists in heterogeneous catalysis worldwide, Zhang devoted to synthesize low cost metal catalysts for chemical production. The new concept of single-atom catalysis stimulates to discover next-generation of industrial catalysts and promote the understanding to an atomic level. His contributions to the biomass conversion, especially the unique process for cellulose conversion to EG, have evoked intense interests from both academia and industry. Zhang has also actively collaborated with many colleagues in Canada and is leading international collaborations at national level.
　　The CAE comprises many of the country’s most accomplished engineers, who have expressed their dedication to the application of science and engineering principles in the interests of the country and its enterprises. The Academy is an independent, self-governing and non-profit organization established in 1987 to serve the nation in matters of engineering concern.
　　In 2020, 52 new Fellows elected into the CAE, including 50 new Fellows and two new International Fellows. (Text by WANG Yongjin)

　　More than 350 million tonnes of lower olefins are produced per year through the steam cracking of hydrocarbons. It consumes lots of energy to separate large quantities of chemical mixtures into pure accounts.
　　The efficient removal of alkyne impurities to produce polymer-grade lower olefins remains challenging.
　　A research team led by Prof. JIANG Ling from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. LI Landong from Nankai University and Prof. YANG Sihai from the University of Manchester, reported a strategy to control the pore interior of faujasite (FAU) zeolites and thus improve chemoselective alkyne/olefin separations. The results were published in Science.
　　They revealed that the reversible, chemoselective binding of alkynes on open Ni(II) sites confined in Faujasite (FAU) zeolites enables the efficient production of polymer-grade lower olefins under ambient conditions.
　　Under ambient conditions, Ni@FAU showed exceptional adsorption of alkynes and efficient separations of acetylene/ethylene, propyne/propylene and butyne/1,3-butadiene mixtures with unprecedented dynamic separation selectivities of 100, 92, and 83, respectively.
　　Prof. JIANG’s group developed an infrared photodissociation spectroscopy for in-situ and sensitive detection of key reaction intermediates. The adsorption species in C2H2- and C2H4- loaded Ni@FAU were identified by infrared photodissociation spectroscopy.
　　Their results indicated that by confining atomically dispersed Ni(II) sites into the FAU zeolite channels, the discrimination between alkyne and olefin binding was amplified in Ni@FAU, which enabled the production of polymer-grade olefins under conditions relevant to practical processes.
　　Combining its facile synthesis at large scale and excellent stability, the Ni@FAU sorbent offers a potential practical solution to the challenging alkyne/olefin separations.
　　The above work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Text and Image by WANG Chong)
　　Adsorption isotherms of C2H2 and C2H4 for Ni@FAU (Left). Mass spectra of species produced by pulsed laser vaporization of the Ni@FAU target (Right). (Image by WANG Chong)

Most people think that quantum theory, which describes the motion of molecules and atomic and subatomic particles, is counterintuitive, since quantum mechanics describes behavior at odds with classical mechanics. Even Albert Einstein, who never accepted quantum mechanics, famously said that “He (God or Nature) does not play dice” – meaning that the laws of physics do not surrender to uncertainty or chance as implied by quantum theory. Just like the work style of quantum theory, a chemical reaction sometimes occurs in an odd way, since in microscopic view the progress of a reaction is governed by the quantum theory.New research by scientists at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has shown, surprisingly, in the simplest, well-studied reaction, there is still uncovered mechanism. It leads to clear quantum interference and verifies again Nature does play dice.The reaction in question is H + HD → H2 + D. In the study, published in Science on May 15, groups led by Profs. YANG Xueming, ZHANG Donghui, SUN Zhigang and XIAO Chunlei of DICP discovered a new kind of quantum interference in this simple reaction.Schematic illustration of the two topological pathways in the H + HD → H2 + D reaction: direct abstraction reaction (counter-clockwise) path and the roaming insertion reaction (clockwise) path. (Image by DICP)In physics, interference is the combination of two or more waveforms to form a resultant wave, in which the displacement is either reinforced or canceled. Quantum interference can happen between particles that arrive at the same position or quantum state but by different paths.Since a chemical reaction is essentially a collision and scattering process involving atoms or molecules and molecules, we can expect interference phenomena to occur in a chemical reaction.Among all chemical reactions, the H + H2 reaction and its isotopologues are the simplest ones. This reaction only involves three electrons; thus it is convenient to deal with accurate quantum chemistry to calculate the interaction energy involving the three atoms.Last year, DICP researchers found strong and regular oscillations as a function of energy at certain scattering angle of the product H2 during the H + HD reaction in particular rovibrational states.Actually, similar oscillations have been observed in other reactions, but they are not as regular as those in the H + HD reaction. The physical origin of such oscillations remains unclear.To understand this interesting phenomenon, the researchers conducted a combined theoretical and experimental study of the H + HD reaction.Experimentally, by improving the crossed molecular beam apparatus, they recorded reactive scattering signals at certain scattering angle as a function of relative high energy.They further developed quantum dynamics methods by applying topological theory to analyze the paths through which the reaction proceeded. Topological theory revealed that the observed regular oscillations resulted from interference between products generated via two different paths.The researchers analyzed the reaction dynamics mechanisms using quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) theory. The results showed that the reaction proceeded via one path using the traditional direct extraction mechanism, i.e., the incoming H atom collided with the H atom in the diatomic reactant HD molecule and extracted it to form a new chemical bond of H2.The reaction also proceeded via another path using a new roaming mechanism. The snapshots from the QCT theory for the roaming mechanism show that the incoming H atom initially approached the HD molecule via the conical intersection (Cl) region in the direction of the D atom end, and then roamed around the D atom in HD. When the incoming H atom approached the CI region, the HD bond started to stretch, making it possible for the roaming H atom to insert itself into the stretched HD molecule. The incoming H atom then formed a new chemical bond with the H atom in HD.The products (H2) from these two paths were scattered into the same scattering angle, where quantum interference occurred.Moreover, the probability for such an unusual roaming mechanism to occur is quite low – only about 0.3% of all reactions.A representative trajectory of the H + HD → H2 + D reaction in certain scattering angle (backward scattering direction ) via the roaming mechanism moving with time in Cartesian coordinate. (Image by DICP)This work once again demonstrates the quantum nature of a chemical reaction at the microscopic level. It also reveals that chemical reactions are complicated.Even the simple reaction H + HD → H2 + D, which has been studied for decades, has a small probability of employing unexpected mechanisms.In life, many big events are triggered by small-probability events. Who can guarantee that a reaction mechanism of such small probability will not lead to surprising results? (Text by SUN Zhigang)

　　Recently, Prof. YANG Xueming from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. YANG Tiangang from the Southern University of Science and Technology discussed significant advances in the study of quantum resonances in atomic and molecular collisions at near absolute zero temperature. Their article was published in Science on May 7.
　　The rules of quantum mechanics govern all atomic and molecular collision processes. Understanding the quantum nature of atomic and molecular collisions is essential for understanding energy transfer and chemical reaction processes, especially in the low collisional energy region, where quantum effect is the most prominent.
　　A remarkable feature of quantum nature in atomic and molecular collision is quantum scattering resonances, but probing them experimentally has been a great challenge due to the transient nature of these resonances.
　　The schematic shows quasi-bound quantum resonance state in the post barrier region, which is responsible for the enhanced reactivity in the F+H2 to HF+H reaction at temperature near absolute zero. (Image by YANG Tiangang) 
　　This article introduced a quantum resonance study published in the same issue of Science by a research group from University of Nijmegen. By using the Stark decelerated molecular beam of NO(j=1/2f) and a cryogenic helium beam combined with high resolution velocity map imaging technique, De Jongh and coworkers observed resonances in the NO + He inelastic collisions at the temperature range of 0.3 to 12.3 K.
　　Accurate quantum dynamics calculations are in excellent agreement with experimental results. Particularly interesting is that the resonances can only be accurately described using a new NO-He potential energy surface (PES) at the CCSDT(Q) level, demonstrating the exceptionally high accuracy of the resonance picture developed for this benchmark inelastic collision system.
　　In addition to inelastic scattering processes, resonances in chemical reactive collisions in the low collision energy regime have been discussed. An important benchmark system for reaction resonances, discussed in the article, is the F+H2 to HF+H reaction, which is a major source of HF formation in interstellar clouds (ISC).
　　The F+H2 reaction is known to have a significant reaction barrier (629 cm-1), therefore its reactivity should be negligible at the temperature near absolute zero. Understanding the HF formation mechanism through this reaction at the cold temperatures is important, which can help to determine hydrogen column density in space.
　　With the improved molecular crossed beam apparatus, the F reaction and H2 have been studied as low as 14 K (9.8 cm-1) at the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, DICP. A clear resonance peak at the collision energy of ~40 cm-1 has been discovered, which is found responsible for the enhanced reactivity near absolute zero temperature from the detailed dynamics analysis on an accurate PES. Because of the resonance enhanced quantum tunneling, this reaction should have unusually high reactivity at temperature below 1 K.
　　Further theoretical analysis indicated that if the contribution of the resonance-enhanced tunneling were removed from the reactivity, the reaction rate constant of F + H2 below 10 K would be reduced more than three orders of magnitude.
　　In this article, the authors pointed out that strong interaction between experiment and theory has been crucial in the study of transient collision resonances. The dynamics studies in atomic and molecular collisions are especially important to understanding energy transfer and chemical reaction processes that could have a wide impact on complicated systems, such as terrestrial and planetary atmospheres, interstellar clouds, gas-phase lasers, semiconductor processing, plasmas, and combustion processes. (Text by YANG Tiangang)