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In the area of catalysis, selective reduction of nitro compounds to amino compounds is a colossal challenge due to the existence of competitive reducible functional groups. Herein, an Fe-based catalyst FeSAs/Fe2O3ACs/N-doped polyhedral carbon (NPC) has been designed and synthesized. As we expected, compared with FeSAsand FeNPs, FeSAs/Fe2O3ACs/NPC shows excellent catalytic performance (turnover frequency up to 1923 h–1, calculated with nitrobenzene), chemoselectivity, and tolerance during the hydrogenation reaction of nitro compounds under room temperature because of the synergistic effects between FeSAsand Fe2O3ACs. The theoretical calculations show that FeSAsprefers to undergo hydrazine decomposition to generate hydrogen and the Fe2O3ACssurface is more active toward the nitrobenzene reduction to aniline.

Stabilized Cu+species have been widely considered as catalytic active sites in composite copper catalysts for catalytic reactions with industrial importance. However, few examples comprehensively explicated the origin of stabilized Cu+in a low-cost and widely investigated CuO/TiO2system. In this study, mass producible CuO/TiO2catalysts with interface-stabilized Cu+were prepared, which showed excellent low-temperature CO oxidation activity. A thorough characterization and theoretical calculations proved that the strong charge-transfer effect and Ti–O–Cu hybridization in Ti-doped CuO(111) at the CuO/TiO2interface contributed to the formation and stabilization of Cu+species. The CO molecule adsorbed on Cu+and reacted directly with Ti doping-promoted active lattice oxygen via a Mars–van Krevelen mechanism, leading to the enhanced low-temperature activity.

Hydrogen production by water splitting and seawater electrolysis is a promising alternative to develop clean hydrogen energy. The construction of high-efficiency and durable electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in a wide pH range and seawater is critical to overcoming the sluggish kinetic process. Herein, we develop an efficient catalytic material composed of a single-atom Ru–N4site and Ru nanoparticles anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon (Ru1+NPs/N–C) through the coordination-pyrolysis strategy of the melamine formaldehyde resin. The Ru1+NPs/N–C catalyst shows outstanding HER activity with the smallest overpotentials, the lowest Tafel slopes, the highest mass activity and turnover frequency, as well as excellent stability in both acidic and alkaline media. Moreover, Ru1+NPs/N–C shows comparable hydrogen production performance and a higher faradic efficiency to 20% Pt/C in natural seawater and artificial simulated seawater. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the strong synergistic effects between the Ru–N4site and Ru nanoparticles modify the electronic structure to accelerate the HER kinetics. Ru nanoparticles can effectively realize dissociation of H2O to generate adsorbed hydrogen and also promote the single-atom Ru–N4site to combine adsorbed hydrogen to H2and desorption. This work provides a new perspective for designing high-efficiency hydrogen production electrocatalysts for large-scale seawater electrolysis.