Original breakthroughs in chemistry and materials science have taken the first prizes of the 2020 State Natural Science Award, the nation's highest academic accolade for basic sciences.
　　One of the winning team is led by Prof. BAO from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Liaoning province.
　　As a key technology, catalysis has played an essential role in the fields of energy conversion, material synthesis, environmental protection, life and health. Precise control of chemical reaction has been a dream of scientists. This becomes particularly important under the current quests for highly efficient conversion of energies, optimized utilization of natural resources and ecological/environmental protection. It requires chemical reactions to be operated under milder conditions, to be more precisely and efficiently controlled. Therefore, the catalysis science and technology is confronted with grand challenges and opportunities for innovations.
　　Since the middle of the 1990s, Prof. BAO Xinhe from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been leading his research team and being devoted to the fundamentals and applications of nanocatalysis, pursing for deep understanding of catalytic processes and rational design of advanced catalysts. With the systematic experimental and theoretical studies over more than 20 years, they have developed a new concept of "Nano-confined Catalysis", which covers confinement effects within nanospaces and at interfaces.
　　The "Nano Confinement" is essentially the driving force to generate and stabilize the coordinatively unsaturated active sites and to maintain the catalytic cycles. This generalized concept provides a theoretical guidance for rational design of nanocatalysts, and modulation of activity and selectivity of reactions, for instance, selective oxidation and hydrogenation reactions.
　　The team has a few catalysts and catalytic processes gone through industrial pilot scale tests. One representative example is the Pt-FeO nanocatalyst they have designed, containing coordinatively unsaturated metal sites, which enables removal of 30 ppm CO in H2 feed gas down to 1 ppm in commercial fuel cells for over 3500 h. This provides a solution for the long-standing deactivation problem of Pt electrocatalysts in fuel cells due to poisoning of CO.
　　Another representative example is the OXZEO？ catalytic system, by integrating interface and nanospace confinement effects. The coordinatively unsaturated active sites at the oxide/oxide interfaces of partially reduced mixed oxides allow activation of CO/H2 to form active intermediates, while the shape selective nanopores of zeolites allow controlled C-C coupling. Thus, coal-derived syngas (a mixture of CO and H2) is converted directly in one step to light olefins, i.e., ethylene, propylene and butane with a selectivity reaching 80%. This surpasses the selectivity limit of 58%, a challenge in the conventional Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which was invented almost a century ago. Furthermore, water-gas-shift reaction for hydrogen production can be discarded in this OXZEO？-TO process and thus H2O-H2 recycling is not needed. In addition, the team has extended this OXZEO？ catalyst design concept for direct conversion of syngas to a series of other chemicals and fuels, making significant contribution to the coal chemical industry.

　　The involvement between electron transfer (ET) and catalytic reaction at electrocatalyst surface makes electrochemical process challenging to understand and control. How to experimentally determine ET process occurred at nanoscale is important to understand the overall electrochemical reaction process at active sites.
　　Recently, a research group led by Prof. LI Can and Prof. FAN Fengtao from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) captured the ET image in electrocatalysis process.
　　This study was published in Nano Letters on Oct. 14.
　　Electron transfer current followed the trend: corner> edge> basal plane, driven by the interfacial inner potential differences (Imaged by NIE Wei and FAN Fengtao)
　　The researchers clearly captured the image of ET dominated by mass transport effect at corner and edge sites bounded by {111} facets on single Au triangular nanoplates. They found that ET rate constant of corner sites on Au nanoplate was about twofold that of basal {111} plane.
　　Furthermore, they found the linear correlation between the logarithm of rate constants and the potential differences of different sites, which demonstrated that spatial heterogeneity of local inner potential differences of Au nanoplates/solution interfaces plays a key role in the ET process.
　　"We establish the operando AFM/SKPM/SECM instrumental methodology with nanometer-scale spatial resolution, and reveal the quantitative correlation between the inner potential and the kinetic rate by separating the interference of mass transfer from the interfacial electron transfer," said Prof. LI.
　　"This is a new milestone of the scanning electrochemical probe techniques, making it possible to discover the structure-performance relation of nanocatalyst from the bottom of physical and chemical principles," commented by one of the reviewers.
　　This work was conducted by the Fundamental Research Center of Artificial Photosynthesis. And it was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, CAS Projects for Young Scientists in Basic research, and Interdisciplinary Innovation Team. (Text by NIE Wei and FAN Fengtao)

　　CO oxidation at room temperature is significant for gas purification. Pt promoted by 3d transition metals (TMs) is a promising candidate for this reaction. However, TMs are prone to be deeply oxidized in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, leading to low activity.
　　Recently, a research group led by Prof. DENG Dehui from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) designed a chainmail catalysis of graphene-isolated Pt from CoNi nanoparticles (Pt|CoNi) for CO oxidation at room temperature.
　　The study was published in Nature Communication on October 04.
　　Graphene-isolated Pt from CoNi nanoparticles (Pt|CoNi) for efficiently catalytic CO oxidation (Image by HU Jingting)
　　CoNi alloy was protected by ultrathin graphene shell from oxidation and therefore modulated the electronic property of Pt-graphene interface via electron penetration effect. It achieved near 100% CO conversion at room temperature, while there were limited conversions over Pt/C and Pt/CoNiOx catalysts.
　　By experiments and theoretical calculations, the researchers indicated that CO could saturate Pt sites, but O2 could adsorb at the Pt-graphene interface without competing with CO, which facilitated the O2 activation and the subsequent surface reaction.
　　"The graphene-isolated system in this work is distinct from the classical metal-metal oxide interface for catalysis, and it provides a new thought for the design of heterogeneous catalysts," said Prof. DENG.
　　This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (2011. iChEM). (Text by HU Jingting)

　　Different from the narrow band emission based on free excitons in lead-perovskite nanocrystals (NCs), the low electronic dimensionality in lead-free double perovskite NCs can lead to self-trapped excitons (STEs), giving a broadband emission.
　　To date, how the singlet/triplet STEs influence the photoluminescence (PL) properties and whether triplet STEs can give efficient emission in double-perovskite NCs are still unclear.
　　Recently, a research team led by Prof. HAN Keli and YANG Bin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences synthesized double perovskite NCs with bright PL emission based on triplet STEs.
　　This study was published in Nano Letters on Oct. 11.
　　Efficient emission based on the triplet STEs and the energy transition process (Image by CONG Muyu and YANG Bin)
　　They synthesized lead-free double perovskite NCs with varying sizes. The optical results indicated that the size had negligible influence on the absorption and PL peak position, while which mainly affected the PL quantum yield (PLQY). They further modified the Sb doping content, and obtained the NCs with bright green emission, whose PLQY was as high as 95%.
　　They also studied the dynamics of triplet STEs in double perovskite NCs via the measurements such as time-resolution PL (TR-PL), femtosecond transient absorption (TA), and magneto-optical spectroscopic measurement.
　　Furthermore, they achieved the triplet STEs mediated efficient energy transfer to dopants by alloying with Mn2+, and they formed the efficient white-emission with high PLQY of 87%. In addition, they formulated simple LEDs based the Mn2+ alloy NCs.
　　"This work may boost the understanding of STEs in double perovskites and promote its development in illumination-related applications," said Prof. HAN.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, and the Science Challenging Program. (Text by CONG Muyu and YANG Bin)

Chronic diseases are main killer affecting the health of human. The morbidities of major chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, hyperuricemia and dyslipidemia are as high as 10% to 30%, showing a gradually upward trend as well.More and more studies have shown that environmental pollution is a major health risk factor that cannot be ignored. However, the evidence for their relationship is equivocal and the underlying mechanisms is unclear.Recently, a research group led by Prof. XU Guowang from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) discovered the risk of chronic diseases caused by exogenous chemical residues through metabolome-wide association study.Their findings were published in Environment International on Oct. 8. Researchers from National Institute for Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology were also involved in this study.The researchers discovered the positive associations of serum perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) with hyperuricemia, and revealed the mechanism of the relationship between the exogenous chemical residues in the serum and the risk of chronic diseases at the metabolic level.Metabolome-wide association study of serum exogenous chemical residues in a cohort with 5 major chronic diseases (Image by YOU Lei)The researchers investigated the relationship between 106 exogenous chemical residues and five chronic diseases in 496 serum samples. They revealed the metabolic perturbations related to exogenous chemical residues and chronic diseases by the metabolome-wide association study combined with meeting-in-the-middle approach and mediation analysis, and investigated the further potential underlying mechanism at the metabolic level."PFASs were the risk factor for hyperuricemia," said Prof. XU. Lipid species including glycerophospholipids and glycerides presented the strongest correlation with exposure and disease, which were not only positively related to PFASs exposure but also the risk factor for hyperuricemia. "We also found that key mediation metabolites mediated 25% to 68% of the exposure-disease risk relationship," Prof. XU added.This study provides in-depth etiological understanding for the occurrence and development of diseases, which may be helpful for the early detection of the disease and the identification of early warning markers.The above work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, key foundation of Dalian City, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS , and the innovation program of DICP. (Image by YOU Lei)

　　Sodium ion batteries (SIBs) have attracted wide attention owing to the advantages of abundant sodium source and low cost. Electrodes with higher Na+ storage capability and cycling stability are vital to improve the energy density and rate capability of SIBs.
　　Recently, Prof. LI Xianfeng's and Assoc. Prof. ZHENG Qiong's group from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. TANG Yongfu's group from Yanshan University, proposed a new mechanism of sodium/lithium ion batteries electrode energy storage.
　　This study was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on Sep. 14.
　　Schematic diagram of the mechanism of particle refinement to induce increase the cycle capacity of SIBs (Image by WANG Canpei)
　　The researchers designed a coral-like FeP composite with FeP nanoparticles anchored and dispersed on a nitrogen-doped three-dimensional carbon framework (FeP@NC). The coral-like FeP@NC composite had a shorter charge transfer path and a higher conductive N-doped carbon network, which improved the charge transfer kinetics of this composite.
　　Due to the highly continuous N-doped carbon framework and a spring-buffering graphitized carbon layer around the FeP nanoparticle, the SIB with FeP@NC composite exhibited an ultra-stable cycling performance at 10 A g-1 with a capacity retention of 82.0% in 10,000 cycles.
　　More importantly, they combined electrochemical research and in-situ electron microscopy characterization to confirm a unique mechanism of particle refinement to induce increase capacity during cycling, and this capacity-enhancing effect was more pronounced under small currents.
　　They found that the FeP nanoparticles went through a refining-recombination process during the first cycle and presented a global refining trend after dozens of cycles. This resulted in a gradual increase in graphitization degree and interface magnetization, and further provided more extra active sites for Na+ storage and contributed to a rising capacity with cycling. The capacity ascending phenomenon could also extend to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). It can maintain a capacity retention of 90.3% for LIBs after 5,000 cycles at 10 A g-1.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS. (Text by WANG Canpei)