Aromatics are usually produced from petroleum via chemical conversion processes, which are energy intensive and accompanied by high CO2 emissions.
　　Using CO2 as a feedstock for the sustainable production of aromatics through catalytic hydrogenation is an economically and environmentally viable approach to address the pressing challenges of energy demand and global warming.
　　A research team led by Assoc. Prof. SUN Jian, Prof. GE Qingjie and Assoc. Prof. WEI Jian from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences synthesized light aromatics from CO2 hydrogenation by precisely regulating Bronsted acid sites (BAS).
　　This study was published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental on October 17.
　　Precisely regulating Bronsted acid sites to promote the synthesis of light aromatics via CO2 hydrogenation (Image by WEI Jian and YAO Ruwei)
　　The scientists studied a series of composite catalysts comprising Fe-based component and ZSM-5 zeolites with distinct Bronsted acidities to explore the influence of BAS on the light aromatic synthesis and coke formation in CO2 hydrogenation.
　　They found that BAS of ZSM-5 were the main active sites for aromatization, and the increasing of Bronsted acidity significantly promoted the synthesis of aromatics, especially light aromatics. The further passivation of the external BAS of HZ(25) zeolite by silylation process could inhibit the alkylation of light aromatics and the isomerization of xylene.
　　The results showed that light aromatics accounted for up to 75% of aromatics, which was the highest value reported in CO2 hydrogenation, and p-xylene could make up as high as 72% of xylene. Moreover, a larger density of BAS, which promoted the formation of highly condensed, carbon-rich, and hard-to-oxidize coke, would accelerate the coke formation, degrade their physico-chemical properties, and shorten the catalyst lifetime.
　　This work provides a promising strategy to directly synthesize high-valued light aromatics from CO2 and H2, which is importance to cope with energy and environmental problems.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Text and Image by WEI Jian and YAO Ruwei)

　　The biorefinery process using renewable biomass such as (hemi) cellulose and lignin as raw materials contributes to the sustainable development of global economy.
　　Furfural is produced from acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of C5 sugars (xylose). The challenge relies on the low yield and productivity, with high-boiling-point furfural (162°C) being in a diluted aqueous solution.
　　Recently, a group led by Prof. YANG Weishen from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported control over the microenvironment of hydrated MIL-53 and isoreticular variants with diversified functional terephthalic acid linkers for the purpose of preferential binding of furfural through delicate host-guest interactions.
　　The results were published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. on Oct. 6.
　　a) Illustration of MIL‐53 and functional variants decorated with altered linkers. b),c) XRD patterns of the as‐prepared phase (b) and hydrated phase after thermal activation (c). d) Pore size distribution calculated by Horvath‐Kawazoe method (Image by BAN Yujie)
　　The scientists constructed isoreticular stable MOF materials with diversified functional terephthalic acid linkers. Methyl-bonded hydrated MIL-53 showed highly efficient capture ratio (~98%) in the extremely low concentration of furfural solution (0.5-3 wt.%) and 100% furfural specificity over xylose.
　　In collaboration with DEND Weiqiao’s group from Shandong University, they identified a distinct "hydrogen-bonding-linkage" between furfural and materials at molecular level by means of detailed DFT calculations, along with gaining binding energy that showed preference of hydrated frameworks to furfural in thermodynamics.
　　Furthermore, the recovery ratio of furfural reaches ~93% in desorption, was holding promise for recovery of furfural and the recycling of MOF materials in the actual industrials.
　　This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Text by BAN Yujie)

　　Sodium (Na) has similar properties to lithium (Li), but is much more abundant and widely distributed, which makes sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) a highly competitive alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, the ionic radius of Na+ is larger than Li+, which is not suitable for the intercalation reaction of conventionally used graphite anode in LIBs.
　　As a kind of metal with high theoretical capacity and a low redox potentiais, sodium is regarded as an ideal anode material of SIBs with high output voltage and energy density. However, sodium metal batteries (SMBs) in organic electrolyte systems still suffer from serious safety issues, such as the leakage of electrolyte, and dendrite formation of Na.
　　Recently, a research team led by WU Zhong-Shuai from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a photopolymerized gel electrolyte with high room-temperature ionic conductivity, wide electrochemical window and excellent flexibility for ultra-high rate and ultra-long cycling sodium metal batteries.
　　This work was published in Advanced Energy Materials on Nov. 10.
　　Photopolymerized gel electrolyte with unprecedented room‐temperature ionic conductivity for high‐energy‐density solid‐state sodium metal batteries was developed (Image by WEN pengchao and HOU Xiaocheng)
　　"We prepared an ethoxylated trimethylolpropane triacrylate based quasisolid-state electrolyte by photopolymerization for high-energy-density solid-state SMBs," said Prof. WU.
　　The resulting electrolyte exhibited remarkable room-temperature ionic conductivity of 1.2 mS/cm, and provided a wide electrochemical window of > 4.7 V versus Na+/Na as well as extraordinary interfacial compatibility with Na metal anodes, effectively inhibiting the growth of Na dendrites.
　　Moreover, the as-assembled solid-state SMBs offered high specific capacity of 101 mAh/g at 1 C, and record rate performance at room temperature.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key R&D Program of China, Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, and Dalian National Laboratory For Clean Energy (DNL), CAS, etc. (Text by WEN pengchao and HOU Xiaocheng)

　　Chemical reactions that occur on the surface of solid catalytic materials obey the Sabatier principle, that is, when the catalyst is too reactive, the total reaction rate is limited by elementary steps, for instance of desorption, diffusion, and recombination, eventually resulting in low activity.
　　While if the reactivity of a catalyst is too weak, the reactants are difficult to adsorb and dissociated, which will also result in relatively low reaction rate.
　　Therefore, a moderate reactivity is optimal to achieve the best reaction rate.
　　Recently, a group led by Prof. XIAO Jianping Xiao from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. HOU Yang from Zhejiang University and Prof. WU Gang from the State University of New York at Buffalo studied the mechanism of electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to formic acid.
　　The result was recently published in Advanced Materials on Nov. 30.
　　The map of activity rate → reaction network → global energy optimization → double-peak activity (Image by DONG Xue)
　　The scientists proved that the process of formic acid production in electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide proceed via the formate (HCOO*) pathway, where carbon dioxide could be first protonated to formate (HCOO*), then the resulting formate was protonated to produce formic acid (HCOOH).
　　Previously, it was generally believed that CO was the only product via the path of carboxyl (COOH*). However, in this study, the scientists demonstrated that formic acid could also be produced through the carboxyl (COOH*) pathway on many metal surfaces at low potential by the theoretical results. And it explained the exceptional experimental results observed over Pd according to the analysis of the reaction network and the energy global optimization aspect.
　　"We also revealed in general that a reaction with very complex reaction networks, a traditional volcano curve with a single optimum should not be the case. Instead, an activity volcano map with multiple optimums should be general features," said Prof XIAO.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program. (Text by DONG Xue)

　　Single-atom catalyst (SAC) is a conceptual bridge between homo- and heterogeneous catalysis. It offers new opportunities for capturing the reaction intermediates by identifying the active sites, and even monitoring the dynamic behaviors of both the geometric structure and electronic environment of the catalytic sites at atomic scale.
　　Both the exploration of model SACs with definite microenvironment and the development of novel operando techniques with high atomic resolution are significant, yet still challenging.
　　Recently, a research team led by Prof. HUANG Yanqiang and Prof. ZHANG Tao from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. WANG Junhu from DICP, Prof. LIU Bin from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, and Prof. LI Jun from Tsinghua University, reported their findings on electronic and structural dynamics of catalytic centers in single-Fe-atom material under in situ oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) conditions.
　　The study was published in Chem on November 20.
　　The identification of the electronic and structural dynamics of catalytic centers in single-Fe-atom material by Operando Mossbauer spectroscopy (Image by LI Xuning)
　　The researchers synthesized single-Fe-atom catalysts with well-controlled site density and definite N-coordination environment via a solvent-assisted linker exchange (SALE) method. They used it as model systems for electronic-level understanding of the ORR mechanism.
　　"We developed Operando Mossbauer spectroscopy for the first time to identify the exact structures and spin state of active atomically dispersed Fe moieties during ORR," said Prof. HUANG.
　　By combining with operando Raman and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements, as well as density functional theory (DFT) studies, the researchers proved that the potential-relevant structural and electronic evolutions of the active single-Fe-atom moieties were via directly capturing the *O2- and *OH- intermediates under ORR conditions.
　　These results provided a proof of concept for the integration of operando techniques and SACs, which might direct the way toward the electronic-level insight into the catalytic centers and reaction mechanism.
　　The research was supported by the National Key Projects for Fundamental Research and Development of China, and the Strategic Priority Research Programme of the CAS. (Text by LI Xuning)

　　C-H bond is very important in organic chemistry. Chemical reactions related to the break and further synthesis of C-H bond require high activation energy and poor selectivity. Therefore, it's important to understand reaction mechanism of C-H bond.
　　Recently, a research team led by Prof. YANG Xueming and Prof. MA Zhibo from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. PAN Minghu from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, discovered the C-H bond breaking reaction catalyzed by low-temperature photocatalysis on the surface of titanium oxide, and explained the reaction mechanism at the single molecular level.
　　The results were published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters on November 10.
　　 High-resolution STM visualizing the intermediate states of the reaction and the reaction pathway of EB dehydrogenation on TiO2 (Image by WANG Haochen)
　　The scientists used the rutile 110 surface of titanium oxide as the model system and the C-H bond molecule ethylbenzene as the model molecule.
　　They found that ethylbenzene could be induced to remove hydrogen at low temperature (77K) only by photoinduced reaction. They also experimentally observed the images of the reaction steps by in-situ tracking single molecules.
　　Prof. PAN's team provided theoretical support for the theoretical interpretation of the image and confirmed the reaction process.
　　This work was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Pioneer Science and Technology Special Project (Category B), the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Key Frontier Science Research Program, the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Text by WANG Haochen)