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Determining the effect of crystal facets on reaction performance is essential for designing an efficient propane oxidation catalyst. Herein, α-MnO2 nanowires with exposed (110), (211), (310) and (200) facets were proposed, and their crystal facet-dependent reactivity to propane oxidation was investigated. The resultant α-MnO2 nanowires with predominantly exposed (110) facets showed the maximum propane oxidation activity (T90 = 262.1 °C), oxidation rate, and turnover frequency (at 230 °C), and high stability during the oxidation of propane. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy revealed that the oxidation to form carboxylates is the decisive step; therefore, the production of reactive oxygen species is very important. The results from density of states computations revealed that the lowest electron energy was present in the (110) facet, which helps in the generation of reactive oxygen species and the regulation of the surface valence of Mn. The characterization and calculation results indicated that the (110) facets are conducive to forming oxygen vacancies, which allowed the activation and adsorption of O2 and propane, resulting in significantly enhanced propane oxidation activity. Apart from offering new insights about the structure–activity relationship of α-MnO2 with different facets exposed for short-chain volatile oxidation reactions, this study proposes a technique that can be used for improving other manganese-based catalyst oxidation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an efficient method to fabricate Al-based metal organic framework (Al-MOF) MIL-96 crystals with controllable size and morphology, by mixing other forms of reactants to replace the coordination modulators or capping agents, is presented. The size and morphology of the MIL-96 crystals can be selectively varied by simply altering the ratio of dual reactants via their hydrolysis reaction. All the samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and nitrogen sorption. Then based on the BFDH theory, a mechanism for the impact of hydrolysis of reactants on the crystal size and morphology is presented and discussed. We also evaluated the performance of these MOFs as sorbents for capturing CO2, and they all show enhanced adsorption properties compared with the bulk material, displaying high adsorption capacities on CO2 at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]