Recently, the research group led by Prof. LI Xianfeng and Prof. ZHANG Huamin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed a 100 kWh lead-carbon battery energy storage system and successfully connected the system to the grid in Xinghai main capus of DIC. This system mainly provides stable power supply for DICP canteen load and realizes the dynamic balance between power supply, power grid, load, and energy storage, further promoting the development and industrialization of lead-carbon battery technology. The system consists of solar photovoltaic power generation module, lead carbon battery, grid-connected inverter, power metering system, battery management system, and remote monitoring system. It operates with grid-connected and off-grid mixed operation mode, which facilitates the consumption of renewable energy and provides additional power that is stored in electricity valley for peak load. Besides, the system can ensure the continuous power supply for canteen load and achieve the dynamic balance between power supply, power grid, load, and energy storage. Specifically, in the off-grid mode, solar photovoltaic power generation module gives priority to the canteen power supply, and the excess energy is used to charge the lead-carbon battery system. In the grid-connected mode, the power grid charges the battery system when the power demand is low. On the contrary, the battery system discharges its power to ensure canteen power supply during peak hours and abnormal operation of power grid.  
　　100 kWh Energy Storage System of Lead-Carbon Batteries. (Image By YAN Jingwang)
　　 
　　Solar Panels on the Roof of the Dining Hall for Staff & Students. (Image by YAN Jingwang) DICP has cooperated with FENGFAN co., LTD. since 2015 and established the center of the joint research and development for advanced battery technology, dedicated to the research and development of the advanced technology of lead-carbon battery industrialization. Now, special carbon materials for lead-carbon battery with proprietary intellectual property rights and various models of lead-carbon battery prototype including 12 V/38 Ah, 12 V/150 Ah, and 2 V/1000 Ah have been developed. The series of lead-carbon batteries jointly developed by both sides have the advantages of long-cycle life, high rechargeable capacity, and low cost, thus showing an excellent application prospect in the field of energy storage. 
　　Control Panel of the 100 kWh Energy Storage System of Lead-Carbon Batteries. (Image by YAN Jingwang) The project was supported by CAS Strategic Leading Science & Technology Program (A) "transformational clean energy key technologies and demonstration". (Text by YAN Jingwang)

　　Scientists from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University revealed ordered to disordered transformation of enhanced water structure on hydrophobic surfaces in concentrated alcohol-water solutions. The research was published in Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
　　The effects of hydrophobic solutes on the structure of the surrounding water have been a topic of debate for almost 70 years. However, a consistent description of the physical insight into the causes of the anomalous thermodynamic properties of alcohol-water mixtures is lacking.
　　This work employed the temperature-dependent FTIR spectroscopy combined with the femtosecond infrared spectroscopy to explore the water structural transformation in concentrated alcohol-water solutions.
　　Experiments show that the enhancement of water structure arises around micro-hydrophobic interfaces at room temperature in the solutions. As temperature increases, this ordered water structure disappears and a surface topography dependent new disordered water structure arises at concentrated solutions of large alcohols. A more-ordered-than-water structure can transform into a less-ordered-than-water structure.
　　Effect of alcohol size on water structural transformation in concentrated alcohol-water solutions. (Image by YUAN Kaijun)
　　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 Chemical Dynamics Research Center. (Text by YUAN Kaijun)
　　

The group of Prof. WANG Junhu from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently reported the produce of ultrastable Au nanoparticles on titania achieved by an encapsulated strategy under oxidative atmosphere induced by melamine.This work was recently published on Nat. Conmun. and highlighted on Nature Research Chemistry Community. Supported gold catalysts play an important role in many catalytic reactions, such as CO oxidation, water-gas shift (WGS) reaction and oxidative reforming of methane. However, Au nanoparticles (NPs) are tending to sinter at high temperature because of its low Tammann temperature, resulting in poor on-stream stability. Strong metal-support interaction (SMSI), an important concept in heterogeneous catalysis, has been studied extensively since it was termed by Tauster et al. in the late 1970s. The classical SMSI was widely found for platinum group metals supported on reducible oxides, such as TiO2 and CeO2, upon high-temperature reduction pretreatment. However, unlike platinum group metals, it has been well-recognized for a long time that Au cannot manifest SMSI due to its low work function and low surface energy. In 2017, we demonstrated the existence of classical SMSI between Au and TiO2 for the first time and the encapsulation of Au by TiOx overlayer was also observed (Sci Adv., 2017, 3, e1700231). Whereas SMSI state is reversible that the formed TiOx overlayer will retreat under further oxidation pretreatment at high temperature (>400 oC), leading to invalid effect on the catalytic performance of the gold. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new strategy to construct an overlayer containing Ti species on Au, which is endurable under oxidative atmosphere.  
　　SMSI and melamine-induced TiOx overlayer structure and behavior. (a) Bare Au nanoparticles on TiO2. (b) Au/TiO2 catalyst that forms an impermeable SMSI TiOx overlayer after treatment with 10 vol% H2/He at 500 oC. (c) SMSI TiOx overlayer retreats when exposed to oxidation condition at 400 oC which is almost similar with that in (a). (d) Melamine-modified catalyst that forms a permeable TiOx overlayer after treatment with N2 at high temperature (600 oC) followed by treatment with air at 800 oC. (e) Stable melamine-induced TiOx overlayer under air condition modifies the Au NPs catalytic bahavior. (Image by LIU Shaofeng) Here, we reported that Au NPs can be encapsulated by a permeable TiOx overlayer under oxidative atmosphere, the reverse of the condition required for classical SMSI. We found that the key to construct the above cover layer is the application of melamine and pretreatment in nitrogen condition, followed by calcination at 800 oC in air atmosphere. More importantly, this TiOx overlayer is stable upon further calcination under oxidation condition, which is contrary to the classical SMSI. In order to confirm the valance of the Ti species, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) was examined and it was found that the Ti species existed as Ti3+ oxidation state, in consistent with the classical SMSI. And X-ray adsorption spectroscopy was also employed to investigate whether new bond was formed and the fitting results revealed that new Au-Ti bond was formed when the encapsulation occurred. Owing to the formation of the overlayer, the resultant catalyst is resistant to sintering and exhibits high activity as well excellent durability in WGS reaction and simulated practical testing. Moreover, this original strategy can be extended to colloidal Au supported on TiO2 and commercial gold catalyst named RR2Ti. We believe these new findings provide a new avenue to rationally devise and develop highly stable Au catalysts with controllable activity. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of DICP, CAS.(Text by LIU Shaofeng)

The group of Prof. JIN Shengye from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently reported the excitation-dependent PL tunability from an individual Mn2+ doped CsPbCl3 perovskite microcrystal (MC), realizing a continuous, reversible, wide-range and stable emission color tuning. This work was recently published on J. Am. Chem. Soc. 
　　PL spectra, exciton dynamics illustration and PL images of Mn-Doped CsPbCl3 MC. (Image by SUN Qi)
　　CsPbX3 (X=Cl-, Br-, I-) perovskites exhibit great application potentials in light-emitting devices because of their stable physical and chemical properties, high PL quantum yield and continuously adjustable band structures, etc. Previously, researches on the regulation of emission color of perovskites are mainly focusing on controlling the particle size of nanocrystals and adjusting the types and relative proportions of halogen ions. However, among these materials, the fluorescence emission wavelength corresponds to their structures and compositions therefore it is required to change the composition of materials or use multiple kinds of material for emission color tuning, which is inconvenient to practical applications. The group for the first time reported the synthesis of Mn2+ doped CsPbCl3 MCs showing dual-color PL emission from exciton (blue) and Mn2+ (orange). The obtained Mn2+ doped CsPbCl3 MCs show a continuous, reversible and wide-range excitation-dependent color tuning without changing the chemical composition of materials. Transient spectroscopy and temperature-dependent PL measurements confirmed that the exciton-to-dopant internal energy transfer (IET) in Mn2+ doped CsPbCl3 MCs is mediated by some shallow trap states, rather than through a direct transfer pathway. Therefore, the saturation of Mn2+ emission is caused by a bottlenecked energy transfer effect by saturating the mediating trap states at high excitation intensities. The Mn2+ doped MCs also exhibit a high photo-stability on the reversible switch of emission color between orange and blue for more than 300 cycles within a continuous operation time of 14 h. In view of the stable and color-switchable emission properties, Mn2+ doped perovskite MCs may find applications in nanophotonic devices with using a single MC. This work is financially supported by the NFSC, the MOST, and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Text by SUN Qi)

　　A research group led by Prof. QING Guangyan from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently constructed a bioinspired nanochannel device and realized the precise recognition and discrimination of sialylated glycan linkage isomers. This work was published in Chemical Science.
　　Design of the biomimetic nanochannels for glycan recognition. (A) H7N9 virus binds to avian a2–3-linked sialylated glycan receptor, while the reassortant H7N9 virus binds to human a2–6-linked glycan receptor. (B) Schematic illustration of glycan-induced nanochannel“OFF–ON”changes and
　　the tug-of-war cartoon to illustrate the competition between polymer-glycan binding and the polymer shrinkage. (Image by LI Minmin)
　　Sialylated glycans that are attached to cell surface mediate diverse cellular processes such as immune responses, pathogen binding, and cancer progression. Precise determination of sialylated glycans, particularly their linkage isomers that can trigger distinct biological events and are indicative of different cancer types, remains a challenge, due to their complicated composition and limited structural differences.
　　In this work, QING and co-workers creatively introduced the bioinspired nanochannel as its sensitive perturbation of ion flux to the recognition of glycans with subtitle difference in structure. They report a glycan-responsive polymer-modified nanochannels device, which demonstrates the capacity of recognizing and discriminating sialic acid form other neutral monosaccharides, different sialic acids, and even sialylated glycans with α2-3 and α2-6 linkage.
　　In-depth studies revealed a competition between the polymer shrinkage caused by electrostatic attraction and shrinkage-resistance from the strong binding of the polymer with glycan molecules, which contributed to the varying extend of shrinkage of the graft polymer in nanochannels, and the different “OFF-ON” change in ion flux and the detectable current signals.
　　This work broadens the application of nanochannel systems in bioanalysis and biosensing, and opens a new route to glycan analysis, for example, the single-molecule analysis of complex glycan using single nanochannel/nanopore, that could help to uncover the mysterious and wonderful glycoworld.
　　According to the similar strategy, the group also designed and developed the Ca2+-self-controlled bioinspired Ca2+ nanochannels (NPG Asia Materials, 2019) and the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-controlled ion nanochannels (J. Mater. B., 2019). These works further highlight the potential of biomolecule-responsive polymer for the construction of bioinspired ion nanochannels.
　　These works were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, DICP Innovation Funding, and LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program. It was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of DICP, CAS. (Text by LI Minmin Li, QING Guangyan) 

　　Recently, the research group led by Prof. DENG Dehui from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Scientists (CAS) has made a new progress in highly selective electroreduction of CO to ethylene. This work was published as a communication in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and was highlighted as the Hot Paper.
　　Performance of CO electroreduction over Cu-Ps loaded on hydrophobic carbon papers and schematic illustration for CORTE process on Cu catalysts with the assistant of the hydrophobic micro-porous layer to improve the CO diffusion. (Image by CHEN Ruixue, GAO Hehua)
　　Ethylene (C2H4) is an important building block for chemical industry and usually be produced by steam cracking of naphtha feedstocks at 800-900 oC worldwide. However, considering the utilization of the nonpetroleum carbon resources, converting CO from syngas (CO + H2) to C2H4 is also regard as one of the key process.
　　Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is usually under high temperature (200-450 oC) and high pressure (5-50 bar), the products from FTS process are often limited by the Anderson-Schulz-Flory distribution, which leads to 30% selectivity of C2 hydrocarbons at most.
　　Therefore, the development of highly selective and energy-saving ethylene production route without additional separation and waste of carbon resources is of great technological, economical and environmental interest.
　　A highly selective production of ethylene process from electrocatalytic CO reduction with water at room temperature and ambient pressure was achieved through rational optimization of polytetrafluoroethylene content to increase CO concentration at the surface of electrode and Cu particle catalysts to enhance the C-C bond coupling.
　　This electrocatalytic CORTE process can achieve an unprecedentedly high ethylene FE of 52.7%. Moreover, the selectivity based on CO conversion to ethylene is around 70%, breaking through the 30% selectivity limitation from CO to C2 hydrocarbons in traditional FTS process, which always delivers uncontrollable mixture of C1-C4 hydrocarbons and massive CO2.
　　Besides, cooperating with Prof. SU Haiyan and Prof. ZHANG Donghui, DENG’s group studied the reaction active sites and mechanism by DFT calculations. Theoretical calculations suggest that Cu(100) is the most preferred plane for C2H4 formation via considering all possible products.
　　This electrocatalytic CORTE process provides a highly selective, energy-efficient and eco-friendly way to convert the abundantly industrial CO to C2H4 in comparison with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process.
　　This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the DNL Cooperation Fund and National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (2011. iChEM). (Text by CHEN Ruixue and GAO Hehua)