Carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) uses renewable electricity to convert carbon dioxide and water into fuels and chemicals, which is considered as an effective way to simultaneously realize carbon recycling and renewable energy storage.
　　The electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons involves a multi-electron reduction reaction process, facing problems such as complex conversion pathways and difficulty in selectivity control.
　　A research group led by Prof. WANG Guoxiong and Prof. BAO Xinhe from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences enhanced CO2 electroreduction to methane with cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) and zinc-nitrogen-carbon (Zn-N-C) tandem catalyst.
　　They achieved high activity of CH4 production in CO2RR on a non-copper-based catalyst, and provided a new strategy for the electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to hydrocarbons.
　　This work was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. on Sept. 4.
　　CO2 is firstly electrochemically reduced into CO and then CO diffuses to Zn-N-C for further conversion into CH4 over CoPc@Zn-N-C tandem catalyst (Image by LIN Long and LIU Tianfu)
　　Compared with CoPc or Zn-N-C alone, the methane/carbon monoxide rate ratio of this CoPc and Zn-N-C tandem catalyst was increased by more than 100 times.
　　Density functional theory calculations and comparative experimental results showed that carbon dioxide was first reduced to carbon monoxide on the CoPc, and then the carbon monoxide diffused onto the Zn-N-C and was further converted into methane.
　　This tandem catalytic strategy converted carbon dioxide into methane and decomposed the process into tandem electrocatalytic reactions at two active sites. In this tandem catalytic system, CoPc provided carbon monoxide to retain the adsorbed hydrogen on the adjacent-nitrogen in the Zn-N site, thereby increasing the rate of methane production.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program, and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Text by LIN Long and LIU Tianfu)

　　In recent years, all-inorganic CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) perovskite nanocrystals have attracted extensive research attention due to their excellent photoelectric properties. However, the problems of Pb toxicity and poor stability hinder their practical application.
　　Lead-free perovskite Cs2ZrCl6 NCs with a PLQY up to 60.37% is synthesized (Image by LIU Siping and YANG Bin)  
　　A research group led by Prof. HAN Keli from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) synthesized vacancy ordered Cs2ZrBrxCl6-x(0≤x≤1.5) double perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) for the first time by hot injection method.
　　This study was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. on August 22.
　　The Cs2ZrCl6 NCs exhibited long-lived triplet excited state, featuring highly efficient photoluminescence (PL) quantum efficiency due to thermally activated delayed fluorescence.
　　The scientists also revealed the mechanism of TADF by detailed experimental characterizations including temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectra, temperature-dependent time-resolved photoluminescence spectra, nanosecond transient emission spectra, and pump-probe femtosecond time-resolved spectra.
　　TADF is promising luminescence mechanism for obtaining high exciton utilization. It is common in solid organic molecules or metal-organic complexes, but rarely reported in all-inorganic colloidal nanocrystals.
　　The study provides a unique strategy for the development of new inorganic phosphors. It was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Text by LIU Siping and YANG Bin)

　　Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are promising in electrocatalysis processes due to their maximum utilization of active species.
　　However, manipulation of these atomic-scale active sites to satisfy specific reactions is still an essential bottleneck due to their isolation features.
　　Prof. LIU Jian from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his collaborators proposed a nano-confinement strategy to host multiple Fe and Cu single atoms inside the extremely narrow yet regular surface cavities of graphitic carbon nitride to form "sub-nanometer reactors".
　　The study was published in Advanced Materials on Sept. 2.
　　"These Fe and Cu atoms, highly confined in the sub-nanometer reactors, not only provide stronger interaction with the reactants but also, more importantly, lead to significant synergetic effect due to their unique microenvironments in this extremely narrow space, which is highly favorable for catalysis, especially the tandem processes such as the nitrogen reduction reaction," said Prof. LIANG Ji from Tianjin University, a co-author of the study.
　　"This is the first time that we successfully and conceptually push the nanoreactors towards a much smaller dimension to form sub-nanometer reactors, which brings distinctively different properties from the conventional nanoreactors," added by Prof. LIU.
　　"First principle simulation reveals that this synergistic effect originates from the unique Fe-Cu coordination, which effectively modifies N2 absorption, improves electron transfer, and offers extra redox couples for nitrogen reduction reaction," said Prof. SUN Chenghua from Swinburne University of Technology, another co-author of the study.
　　TEM image of a triple-atom active center and the schematic illustration of a sub-nanometer reactor hosting it for catalyzing NRR (Image by LIANG Ji)
　　The researchers found that this significant synergy caused by the multiple confined atoms led to significant performance enhancement for the model electrocatalytic process, the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR).
　　Improvements in terms of high ammonia yield and efficiency that are much higher in comparison with the mono-metal counterparts have been achieved.
　　This concept of constructing sub-nanometer reactors not only provides a new strategy of manipulating catalysts active centers at the subnanometer scale, but also sheds light on the design of novel catalysts with a precision spatial location at the sub-nanometer scale for a wide spectrum of catalytic reactions as well. (Text by LIANG Ji)

　　Electrocatalytic decomposition of water is significant in clean energy system. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the bottleneck of electrochemical water splitting due to its slow kinetic characteristic.
　　Electrochemical water splitting is divided as alkaline electrolyzer and acid electrolyzer with harsh environment. Ruthenium oxide is a typical acidic OER catalyst, and its activity is poor in alkaline solution.
　　Recently, a group led by Prof. WU Zhongshuai from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed two-dimensional unsaturated ruthenium oxide/graphene heterostructures with high activity and stability for pH-universal oxygen evolution.
　　The study was published in Nano Energy on August 1.
　　Schematic diagram (a), SEM image (b), HRTEM image (c), OER performance in both acidic and alkaline solutions (d) of 2D D-RuO2/G (Image by LI Yaguang)
　　The OER activity of ruthenium oxide is closely related to the coordination structure of Ru sites. In general, the Ru sites in perfect ruthenium oxide are RuO6 coordination structure. However, it is reported that the RuO5 structure with oxygen deficiency has better OER activity compared with RuO6.
　　Therefore, the key of improving OER activity of ruthenium oxide is to create Ru sites with oxygen deficiencies. In addition, the ruthenium oxide electrode has high resistance of 2000 Ω level, resulting in limited OER activity.
　　The scientists proposed a confined oxygenation strategy using the finite oxygen species from graphene oxide to synthesize two dimensional (2D) heterostructures of intrinsically oxygen defective ruthenium oxide nanocrystals uniformly grown on graphene (2D D-RuO2/G).
　　Due to the strong coordination between graphene oxide and Ru precursor, the two-dimensional structure had an ultrathin thickness of 9 nm, high specific surface area of 125 m2/g, low resistance of 4 Ω level, and intrinsic RuO5 oxygen defective structure evidenced by synchrotron radiation.
　　Consequently, 2D D-RuO2/G exhibited an ultralow current density of 10 mA/cm2 at the overpotential of 169 and 175 mV in acidic and alkaline electrolytes respectively, far exceeding the state-of-the-art of pH-universal OER electrocatalysts.
　　Theoretical studies indicated that intrinsic defective RuO5 sites could enhance the adsorption and accelerate the decomposition of hydroxyl groups to boost the OER activity.
　　This work provides the new opportunities to develop 2D advanced defective OER electrocatalysts in all-pH electrolytes.
　　This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key R&D Program of China. (Text by LI Yaguang and HOU Xiaocheng)

　　CsPbI3 perovskite has drawn much attention due to its thermal stability and outstanding photovoltaic performance with suitable band gap (~1.73 eV) and high absorption coefficient.
　　Nonradiative recombination is mainly governed by undesirable energy levels at the interface between perovskite film and the charge transport layers. Therefore, it's important to modify the heterojunction interface with the desired energy level alignment for highly efficient and stable CsPbI3 perovskite solar cells (PSCs).
　　Recently, a research group led by Prof. LIU Shengzhong from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a beach-chair-shaped band structure (CSB) for CsPbI3 perovskite solar cells with stabilized efficiency as high as 17.12% and Voc up to 1.15V. The bare PSCs without any encapsulation retained 90.4% of their initial cell efficiency after being stored for one month under ambient conditions.
　　This work was published in Cell Reports Physical Science on Sept. 2.
　　Schematic structure of the optimized beach-chair-shaped band (CSB) device (Image by WANG Kang)
　　"The CSB architecture demonstrates an enhancement in the energy level match of CsPbI3 at the CsPbI3/PTAA(TiO2) interface, improving carrier transport at each interface, which is the main advantage of this designed structure. Another advantage is the effective reduction of defect density and interfacial recombination loss at the modified interface," said Prof. LIU.
　　The optimized CSB structure could further improve the stability of the β-CsPbI3 layer as well as the entire device by organic PMA cation surface passivation, gradient Br doping, and CsPbI3 QD capping.
　　This work provides a promising strategy to further improve the performance of Cs-based halide perovskites through an approach also applicable to other optoelectronic devices and perovskite material systems.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Joint Talent Cultivation Funds of NSFC-HN, National Key Research and Development Program of China, and DNL Cooperation Fund CAS. (Text by WANG Kang) 
　　

　　Due to the possible formation of a set of regioisomers in chemical reactions, controlling the regioselectivity has been a fundamental issue in organic synthesis.
　　Organosilanes are widely used in silicon rubbers, paper releasing coatings, and pressure-sensitive adhesives. Catalytic hydrosilylation of alkenes represents a simple strategy for the synthesis of organosilanes.
　　So far, the catalytic hydrosilylation of alkenes focused more on simple alkenes while less on hydrosilylation of naturally abundant terpenes because it's hard to differentiate four electronically unbiased alkenylcarbons on isoprene.
　　Regiodivergent hydrosilylation of isoprene (Image by KUAI Chang-Sheng)
　　Recently, a research team led by Prof. CHEN Qing'an from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed a novel "ligand regulation" strategy to realize iron-catalyzed regiodivergent isoprene hydrosilylation.
　　Their findings were published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
　　The key to success relies on the coordination number of the ligand to the iron center. The utilization of tri-N ligand enabled the formation of 3,4-adducts homoallylsilanes, whereas varying to bis-N ligand switched the selectivity to 4,1-adducts allysilanes.
　　This study contributes to the art of regioselectivity control in alkene hydrofunctionalization. It was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Text by KUAI Chang-Sheng)