Recently, on the basis of their previous studies towards two-dimensional catalytic materials and nano confined catalysis, Assoc. Prof. Dehui Deng and Prof. Xinhe Bao etc. from SKLC, DICP have successfully confined FeN4 structure in the matrix of graphene nanosheets, and for the first time observed the atomic structure of the FeN4 centers in graphene nanosheets by multiple high resolution probe techniques. The obtained confined structure can efficiently stabilize the coordinatively unsaturated (CUS) single iron sites, achieving a high activity and stability in the direct catalytic oxidation of benzene to phenol at room temperature and even 0 oC. This work was published in Science Advances (Sci. Adv. 2015, 1(11): e1500462) in the recent.
　　Previous researches show that CUS iron sites can exhibit higher catalytic activity for some reactions even than precious metals. For example, in cytochrome P-450 and methane monooxygenase in organism, the organic ligands and proteins confine these CUS iron sites, making them highly active and stable. In heterogeneous catalysis, however, preparation of the analogous CUS iron sites in supported catalysts with robust structures and high activity remains an attractive challenge. Early in 1960s, scientists had tried using organic macrocycles with FeN4 centers supported on carbon materials for the catalytic activation of oxygen in fuel cells and heterogeneous catalysis. However, supported FeN4 macrocycles on substrates often tend to aggregate during catalytic reactions because of the weak interactions between these macrocycles and substrates. On the other hand, it is also a great challenge to characterize or directly observe the atomic structure of the FeN4 center due to its complicated structure on carbon materials.
　　DICP Successfully Confines FeN4 Structure in the Matrix of Graphene Nanosheets(Photo by Ying Shi and Xiaoqi Chen)
　　During the past five years, this research group has achieved a highly dispersed single FeN4 center with CUS Fe sites confined in a graphene matrix using N atoms as “anchors” via high-energy ball milling of iron phthalocyanine and graphene nanosheets under controllable conditions. In collaborations with Prof. Litao Sun’s group (SEU-FEI Nano-Pico Center, Southeast University), Prof. Jianqi Li’s group (Institute of Physics, CAS), Canadian Light Source, Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Prof. Junhu Wang (Mossbauer Effect Data Center, DICP) etc., they, for the first time, directly observed the atomic structure of the FeN4 centers in graphene nanosheets. Further DFT calculations indicate that FeN4 centers are well stabilized by the graphene matrix, and H2O2 molecule can be easily dissociated on the confined iron site by forming O=FeN4=O centers. The activation barriers of oxidation of benzene to phenol on these centers are quite moderate for reactions to proceed at room temperature and even at 0 °C. These findings pave the way toward the design of highly efficient nonprecious catalysts for catalytic oxidation reactions at low temperature.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials of the Ministries of Education (2011?iChEM). (by Ying Shi and Xiaoqi Chen).
　　

　　Supported by the Zhang Dayu Lectureship funding from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Jens Nielsen, professor of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, was invited to visit DICP during December 3-4, 2015.
　　On December 3, Prof. Nielsen, delivered the Zhang Dayu lecture (XIX) entitled as “Yeast as a Platform Cell Factory for Production of Fuels and Chemicals” at the conference hall of Biotechnology Building. Prof. Zongbao K. Zhao presided the meeting and Academician Tao Zhang, the director of DICP, presented the “Zhang Dayu Lectureship Certificate” to Prof. Nielsen.
　　In his lecture, Prof. Nielsen presented the application status and prospects of yeast cell factory. He also systematically summarized synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and system biology tools for metabolism network and platform cell factory design. He also answered a number of questions from the audiences and talked more details on some specific issues beyond his lecture.
　　After the lecture, Prof. Nielsen visited several research groups of Division of Biotechnology. Group PIs and researchers participated in the in-depth academic exchange and discussion.
　　 
　　Professor Jens Nielsen gave Zhang Dayu Lecture(XIX) (Photo by Wansheng Liu)Jens Nielsen has an MSc degree in Chemical Engineering and a PhD degree (1989) in Biochemical Engineering from the Danish Technical University (DTU). He established his independent research group in DTU and was appointed full Professor there in 1998. In 2008 he was recruited as Professor and Director to Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, where he is currently directing a research group of over 50 people. He has founded several companies that have raised more than 20 million € in venture capital. He has received numerous awards such as Charles D. Scott Award and Merck Award for Metabolic Engineering. He is member of the Academy of Technical Sciences in Denmark, National Academy of Engineering in USA, the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in USA, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.(Text: Wujun Liu, Picture: Wansheng Liu)
　　

　　The research on photocatalytic splitting of water and CO2 reduction for solar fuel production has been drawing great attention due to the increasing concerns on energy and environmental problems. These two reactions are energetically uphill and require multi-electron transfer, particularly the water splitting is regarded as the Holy Grail of science. One of the long-standing challenges in this filed is that most of photocatalysts possess suitable band structures and make the overall water splitting reaction thermodynamically possible, however, they cannot achieve overall water splitting actually.
　　Following this challenging issue, extensive research has been carried out by the Solar Energy Division (DNL 16) at DICP, led by Prof. Can Li. They have chosen different phases of titanium dioxide (TiO2), a popular and standard semiconductor used in photocatalysis, as examples to investigate the intrinsic reasons for photocatalytic overall water splitting. They found that the stable overall water splitting with stoichiometric H2/O2 ratio can be achieved on rutile TiO2. However, anatase and brookite TiO2 can only produce H2 at the initial stage, but H2 and O2 are obtained simultaneously on after long time irradiation. Further investigations by means of electron spin resonance spectra (EPR), transient infrared absorption-excitation energy scanning spectrum (TRIRA-ESS) and DFT calculations reveal that both thermodynamics and kinetics contributed to unique overall water splitting activity for different phases of TiO2. Kinetically the process of photocatalysis differs on different phases of TiO2 due to the intermediates (?OH radical for anatase and brookite TiO2, peroxy species for rutile TiO2) that are formed. Thermodynamically there are many trapped states lying below the Fermi levels of anatase and brookite TiO2 (but no trapped states can be found on rutile TiO2), which can reduce the overpotential for water oxidation. This finding will be helpful for understanding why many semiconductors are inactive as overall water splitting photocatalysts despite having thermodynamically suitable band structures for the proton reduction and water oxidation reactions. The work has been recently published in《Energy & Environmental Science》（Rengui Li, Yuxiang Weng and Can Li et al, Energy Environ. Sci., 2015, 8, 2377-2382.）
　　DICP Researchers Achieve Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting on Titanium Dioxide-based Photocatalysts of Different Phases(Photo by Li Rengui)
　　This work was cooperated with Prof. Yuxiang Weng at Institute of Physics, CAS, and has been financially supported by NSFC and MOST 973 program. (Text/ Photo by Li Rengui)
　　

　　The sustainability energy is eternal topic in the 21st century. Prof. Yi-Heng Percival Zhang concluded that carbohydrate was the best energy storage compound, replacing crude oil. He proposed an electricity-carbohydrate-hydrogen (ECHo) cycle bridging among primary energies and secondary energies in our biology building hall on November 27. Prof. Zongbao K. Zhao hosted his lectures. Prof. Zhongmin Liu, the Vice Director of DICP, delivered a welcome speech and awarded the “Senior Partner Researcher” certificate.
　　In his cycle, carbohydrates could be converted to hydrogen, sugar biobattery, artificial starch, artificial photosynthesis (conceptual), and renewable materials. All these conversion could be achieved via in vitro assembly of numerous enzymes or their complexes and/or (biomimetic) cofactors. Compared to microbial fermentation, his platform has numerous manufacturing advantages.
　　 
　　Prof. Yi-Heng Percival Zhang from Virginia Tech of USA Visits DICP(Photo by Wenyi Sun)
　　Prof. Yi-Heng Percival Zhang obtained MSc from East China University of Science and Technology (1996), PhD from Dartmouth College, USA in Prof. Lee R Lynd’s laboratory (2002) and did Postdoc in the same lab until 2004. He took an Assistant Professor position in 2005 and became full Professor in 2014 at Virginia Tech, USA. In 2014, he took a PI position in Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, CAS, China. He current also holds Chief Scientific Officer position in Gate Fuels Inc. and Cell Free Bioinnovations Inc.（Text/Wujun Liu, Photo/Wenyi Sun）
　　

　　Recently，one chapter, entitled as “Recent Advances in the Application of Mossbauer Spectroscopy (MS) in Heterogeneous Catalysis”, has been published on the book series of Advances in Catalysis (Adv. Catal., DOI: 10.1016/bs.acat.2015.09.001). This chapter was written under the leadership of Professors Junhu Wang and Tao Zhang from the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis and the Mossbauer Effect Data Center.
　　MS is a science of studying the phenomenon of the nuclear resonance absorption of gamma rays. It has been widely applied in many fields, as material structure, chemical bonding, in situ state characterization of catalyst and so on. Junhu Wang has been engaged in it and its applications for many years. In 2007, he was invited to join Tao Zhang’s laboratory to make the MS’s study in the heterogeneous catalysis.
　　In this chapter, we introduce MS’s new application in heterogeneous catalysis, including catalysis for fuel production, environmental catalysis, aerospace catalysis, photocatalysis, etc. We summarize MS’s research work in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. We also analyze MS’s advantages and disadvantages. Except for the conventional M？？bauer characterization, in situ Mossbauer characterization can determine the state of Mobauer elements, e.g, Fe, Sn etc., either in bulk or on surface during the catalytic reaction. So we can easily obtain the oxidation state, coordination number, local symmetry, effective magnetic field, interaction strength between active component and support, and active sites. This kind characteristic of MS is of benefit to understand the mechanism of catalytic reactions. Although the Mossbauer elements are limited in numbers, MS is often used to obtain the catalytic results, which cannot be easily gotten by other characterization methods. And it can also verify the correctness of the results which acquire through other technologies.
　　Mossbauer Applications in Heterogeneous Catalysis Published on Advances in Catalysis
　　For more than 60 years, the Advances in Catalysis has been committed to the latest progress in the catalytic field, and to provide a comprehensive, authoritative evaluation to the progress in catalytic science. It fills the gap between the journal papers and the textbooks in the areas of catalysis research. So the publication of this chapter is of great value for the development of MS in investigating the catalytic mechanism and the structure-activity correlation.
　　The above-mentioned research work has been financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences for the “100 Talents”, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorships for Senior International Scientists. (Text/Photo by Dr. Kuo Liu)
　　

　　Recently, Dr. Zhangxun Xia et al. form the Division of Fuel Cell & Battery led by Prof. Gongquan Sun has made new progress in ordered nanostructure for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Inspired by the catalytic microstructure of enzyme, they were first to construct ordered triple-phase boundaries for oxygen oxidation reactions in nanoscale with high efficiency and durability. The mass activity of PEMFC exceeded the Department of Energy’s target for 2015. This work is recently published in Scientific Reports（doi:10.1038/srep16100）
　　DICP Researchers Firstly Construct Ordered Triple-Phase Boundaries for Oxygen Oxidation Reactions in Nanoscale with High Efficiency and Durability(Photo by Zhangxun Xia, Suli Wang)
　　The significant use of platinum for catalyzing the cathodic oxygen reduction reactions has hampered the widespread use of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. The construction of well-defined electrode architecture in nanoscale with enhanced utilization and catalytic performance of Pt might be a promising approach to address such barrier. Inspired by the highly efficient catalytic processes in enzymes with active centers embedded in charge transport pathways, here we demonstrate for the first time a design that allocates platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) at the boundaries with dual-functions of conducting both electrons by aid of polypyrrole and protons via Nafion? ionomer within hierarchical nanoarrays. By mimicking enzymes functionally, an impressive ORR activity and stability is achieved. Using this brand new electrode architecture as the cathode and the anode of a PEMFC, a high mass specific power density of 5.23?W?mg?1Pt is achieved, with remarkable durability. These improvements are ascribed to not only the electron decoration and the anchoring effects from the Nafion? ionomer decorated PPy substrate to the supported Pt NPs, but also the fast charge and mass transport facilitated by the electron and proton pathways within the electrode architecture. (Text and photo by Zhangxun Xia, Suli Wang)