Strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) effect is one of the most important concepts in heterogeneous catalysis. This effect is almost exclusively observed in metal catalysts supported on active and reducible oxides, in which the support-derived material can encapsulate metal nanoparticles under certain treatment or reaction conditions.
　　A research team led by Prof. FU Qiang and Prof. BAO Xinhe from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported the SMSI effect in transition metal catalysts supported on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) sheets.
　　The results were published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. on September 14.
　　Formation of etching nanopits in h-BN sheets aided by Ni particles and encapsulation of the Ni particles by BOx overlayers during dry reforming of methane reaction.(Image by DONG Jinhu)
　　The scientists observed classical SMSI process between metal nanoparticles, e.g., Ni, Fe, Co, and Ru, and inert hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanosheets.
　　Weak oxidizing gases such as CO2 and H2O induced the encapsulation of Ni nanoparticles by ultrathin boron oxide (BOx) overlayers derived from the h-BN support during the dry reforming of methane (DRM) reaction.
　　Experimental and theory calculation results showed that the etched nanopits at the Ni/h-BN interface could confine the Ni nanoparticles against sintering. The amorphous BOx encapsulation overlayers were permeable for the reactants and work synergistically with Ni. Both factors promote the DRM reaction.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. (Text by DONG Jinhu)

　　Catalytic conversion of one-carbon (C1) molecules, such as methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methanol, into fuels and value-added chemicals is an important process in chemical industry.
　　The most current C1 conversion processes in industry suffer from high energy consumption, complex processes of multi-step reactions, and product separations. Developing C1 molecules oriented conversion technology under mild conditions remains challenging.
　　Recently, a research group led by Prof. DENG Dehui and Prof. BAO Xinhe from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) summarized recent advances in catalysis for selected C1 chemistry in the last decade.
　　The perspective article was published in Chem on Sept. 24.
　　Schematic illustration of reaction pathways and keypoints in C1 chemistry (Image by LIU Yanting)
　　The researchers discussed the current status and challenges in this research area with an emphasis on the development of novel reaction processes for C1 conversions under mild conditions by thermo-, electro-, or photo-catalysis, and the future directions of the C1 chemistry.
　　"Exploring novel catalytic processes would open paths for the conversion of C1 molecules under mild reaction conditions. Meanwhile, developing in situ and operando characterization techniques for the effective identification of the structural evolution of catalysts as well as the deep understanding of the catalytic active centers could provide a guide for the synthesis of 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 Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the DNL Cooperation Fund, CAS. (Image by LIU Yanting)

　　Carbon-carbon (C-C) bonds are fundamental building blocks that make up organic compounds. Selective cleavage and functionalization of C-C bonds are important in organic chemistry, biodegradation, and oil industry.
　　However, functionalization of C-C bonds by controlled cleavage remains difficult and challenging because they are inert.
　　Recently, a research group led by Prof. DAI Wen from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed heterogeneous cobalt nanoparticles catalyst with dioxygen as the oxidant to break successive C-C bonds in alcohols to form esters with one or multiple carbon atoms less.
　　Scientists develop cobalt nanoparticles-catalyzed widely applicable successive C-C bond cleavage in alcohols to access esters (Image by LUO Huihui)
　　They prepared heterogeneous Co-NC catalysts for the aerobic oxidative successive C-C bond cleavage of various functionality aromatic, aliphatic, heterocyclic, allylic, propargylic primary and secondary alcohols to one or multiple carbon atoms shorter esters with O2 as the oxidant. The catalyst was used for seven times without any decrease in activity.
　　Characterization and control experiments disclosed that cobalt nanoparticles were responsible for the successive cleavage of C-C bonds to achieve excellent catalytic activity, while the presence of Co-Nx had just the opposite effect.
　　Preliminary mechanistic studies revealed that a sequence reaction including stepwise oxidation/nucleophilic addition/C-C bond cleavage was involved in this process.
　　This work not only realizes successive cleavage adjacent -(C-C)n- bonds, but also provides a new practical method for directly accessing ester through C-C bond cleavage in alcohols.
　　The study, published in Angew. chem. int. Ed. on August 24, was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Text by LUO Huihui)

　　Tyrosine phosphorylation (pTyr) can initiate cellular signaling and govern cellular functions. Its dysregulation is implicated in many diseases, especially cancers. Specific detection of pTyr is important for developing targeted anti-cancer drugs.
　　The commonly-used approach for detecting pTyr relies on the radiometric assay with [γ-32P]-ATP as a substrate, which suffers from the use of harmful radioactive reagent and generation of radioactive waste.
　　Antibody-based methods and some synthetic chemical sensors have also been developed to achieve specific detection of pTyr for kinase inhibitor screening assays. However, these methods are not cost-effective.
　　Recently, a research group led by Prof. QING Guangyan from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a new approach based on a functional ion nanochannel platform for the specific sensing of tyrosine phosphorylation.
　　The results were published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. on Sept. 7.
　　Functional nanochannels for sensing tyrosine phosphorylation (Image by QING Guangyan)
　　By mimicking the multiple interactions of guanidinium groups from arginine residues with phosphorylated residue in proteins, the researchers designed a functional polymer bearing rich guanidinium groups to modify an ion nanochannel substrate, and developed a functional nanochannel device.
　　The polymer could recognize the phosphorylated peptide (PP) through the binding of guanidinium group with phosphate group in PP, and amplify such recognition to the conformational change of the polymer itself. Further, the conformational change was converted into the "OFF-ON" change of nanochannel ion flux, finally achieving the detection of PP by means of the change in ionic current.
　　The specific recognition for pTyr peptide from its counterparts pSer and pThr peptides was achieved by constructing a simple nanofluidic logic gate when Ca2+ was introduced as a competitive binding element.
　　Importantly, the excellent pTyr sensing capacity makes the functional nanochannels available for real-time monitoring of pTyr process by tyrosine kinase on a peptide substrate, even in a complicated condition, and the proof-of-concept study of monitoring kinase activity demonstrates its potential in kinase inhibitor screening.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, DICP Innovation Funding and LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program. (Text by QING Guangyan)

　　The lithium sulfur (Li-S) battery with high energy density and capacity is a preferential option for next‐generation energy storage technologies. However, the lithium polysulfide shuttling, sluggish redox kinetics, and uncontrollable lithium dendrite growth resulted in low capacity, and limited cycling stability.
　　Research groups led by Prof. WU Zhongshuai and Prof. YANG Qihua from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed single atom zinc (Zn) decorated hollow carbon spheres as dual‐functional nanoreactors for polysulfides‐suppressed sulfur cathodes and dendrite‐free lithium anodes simultaneously for high-capacity, high-rate, and long-cycling Li-S batteries.
　　This work was published in Advanced Energy Materials on August 30.
　　The nanoreactor could host the polysulfides-suppressed sulfur cathode and the dendrite-free lithium anode simultaneously for kinetically enhanced, extremely stable, and high-rate Li-S full batteries.
　　Due to its excellent electronic conductivity, high surface area, highly-effective active sites and protective carbon shell, the resultant nanoreactor possessed strong physical confinement, chemical anchoring, and exceptional electrocatalysis for polysulfides. Meanwhile, the nanoreactor with excellent lithiophilic ability realized uniform and dendrite-free lithium deposition.
　　The assembled full battery delivered remarkable electrochemical properties including long cycle stability with an ultralow capacity fading rate of 0.015% per cycle over 700 cycles and superb rate performance of 989 mAh/g at 10 C. Moreover, a high areal capacity of 8.7 mAh/cm2 with high S loading of 7.8 mg/cm2 at low E/S ratio was achieved.
　　Synthesis schematic of the dual‐functional Zn1‐HNC nanoreactors for Zn1‐HNC‐S cathode and the Zn1‐HNC‐Li anode of the Zn1‐HNC‐S||Zn1‐HNC‐Li full battery (Image by SHI Haodong and REN Xiaomin)
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key R&D Program of China, and Dalian National Laboratory For Clean Energy. (Text by SHI Haodong and REN Xiaomin)

　　The nonadiabatic process is ubiquitous in physical chemistry. In principle, dynamical simulations of nonadiabatic processes can be performed in the adiabatic representation.
　　However, the derivative couplings are usually sharply varying functions of nuclear coordinates with singularities when degeneracy occurs, such as along conical intersection seams.
　　An alternative approach is to use the diabatic representation, in which the singular derivative coupling vanishes, and the formula of the nuclear Schrodinger equation is substantially simplified.
　　A research group led by Prof. FU Bina and Prof. ZHANG Donghui from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a numerically simple and straightforward, yet accurate and efficient neural networks-based fitting strategy to construct coupled potential energy surfaces (PESs) in a quasidiabatic representation.
　　The results were published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters on August 24.
　　3D plots of Hd determined adiabatic (Image by YIN Zhengxi and HONG Yingyue)
　　The scientists used the proposed approach to construct coupled PESs with conical intersections in a quasidiabatic representation. This approach was conceptually, numerically simple and exclusively replies on the neural networks.
　　Instead of derivative couplings or interstate couplings, a so-called modified derivative coupling term was fitted by neural networks, resulting in accurate description of near degeneracy points, such as the conical intersections.
　　This approach is expected to be very useful in developing highly accurate coupled PESs in a quasidiabatic representation in an efficient machine learning-based way.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Text by YIN Zhengxi and HONG Yingyue)