Xiaodong Wen

Bio: Xiaodong Wen is an academic researcher from Chinese Academy of Sciences. The author has contributed to research in topics: Catalysis & Adsorption. The author has an hindex of 44, co-authored 283 publications receiving 9004 citations. Previous affiliations of Xiaodong Wen include Los Alamos National Laboratory & Beijing Information Science & Technology University.

Low-temperature hydrogen production from water and methanol using Pt/α-MoC catalysts

Abstract: Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) running on hydrogen are attractive alternative power supplies for a range of applications, with in situ release of the required hydrogen from a stable liquid offering one way of ensuring its safe storage and transportation before use. The use of methanol is particularly interesting in this regard, because it is inexpensive and can reform itself with water to release hydrogen with a high gravimetric density of 18.8 per cent by weight. But traditional reforming of methanol steam operates at relatively high temperatures (200-350 degrees Celsius), so the focus for vehicle and portable PEMFC applications has been on aqueous-phase reforming of methanol (APRM). This method requires less energy, and the simpler and more compact device design allows direct integration into PEMFC stacks. There remains, however, the need for an efficient APRM catalyst. Here we report that platinum (Pt) atomically dispersed on α-molybdenum carbide (α-MoC) enables low-temperature (150-190 degrees Celsius), base-free hydrogen production through APRM, with an average turnover frequency reaching 18,046 moles of hydrogen per mole of platinum per hour. We attribute this exceptional hydrogen production-which far exceeds that of previously reported low-temperature APRM catalysts-to the outstanding ability of α-MoC to induce water dissociation, and to the fact that platinum and α-MoC act in synergy to activate methanol and then to reform it.

Enhanced oxygen reduction with single-atomic-site iron catalysts for a zinc-air battery and hydrogen-air fuel cell

Abstract: Efficient, durable and inexpensive electrocatalysts that accelerate sluggish oxygen reduction reaction kinetics and achieve high-performance are highly desirable. Here we develop a strategy to fabricate a catalyst comprised of single iron atomic sites supported on a nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur co-doped hollow carbon polyhedron from a metal-organic framework@polymer composite. The polymer-based coating facilitates the construction of a hollow structure via the Kirkendall effect and electronic modulation of an active metal center by long-range interaction with sulfur and phosphorus. Benefiting from structure functionalities and electronic control of a single-atom iron active center, the catalyst shows a remarkable performance with enhanced kinetics and activity for oxygen reduction in both alkaline and acid media. Moreover, the catalyst shows promise for substitution of expensive platinum to drive the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction in zinc-air batteries and hydrogen-air fuel cells.

Atomic-layered Au clusters on α-MoC as catalysts for the low-temperature water-gas shift reaction

Abstract: The water-gas shift (WGS) reaction (where carbon monoxide plus water yields dihydrogen and carbon dioxide) is an essential process for hydrogen generation and carbon monoxide removal in various energy-related chemical operations. This equilibrium-limited reaction is favored at a low working temperature. Potential application in fuel cells also requires a WGS catalyst to be highly active, stable, and energy-efficient and to match the working temperature of on-site hydrogen generation and consumption units. We synthesized layered gold (Au) clusters on a molybdenum carbide (α-MoC) substrate to create an interfacial catalyst system for the ultralow-temperature WGS reaction. Water was activated over α-MoC at 303 kelvin, whereas carbon monoxide adsorbed on adjacent Au sites was apt to react with surface hydroxyl groups formed from water splitting, leading to a high WGS activity at low temperatures.

Alumina-Supported CoFe Alloy Catalysts Derived from Layered-Double-Hydroxide Nanosheets for Efficient Photothermal CO2 Hydrogenation to Hydrocarbons.

Abstract: A series of novel CoFe-based catalysts are successfully fabricated by hydrogen reduction of CoFeAl layered-double-hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets at 300-700 °C. The chemical composition and morphology of the reaction products (denoted herein as CoFe-x) are highly dependent on the reduction temperature (x). CO2 hydrogenation experiments are conducted on the CoFe-x catalysts under UV-vis excitation. With increasing LDH-nanosheet reduction temperature, the CoFe-x catalysts show a progressive selectivity shift from CO to CH4 , and eventually to high-value hydrocarbons (C2+ ). CoFe-650 shows remarkable selectivity toward hydrocarbons (60% CH4 , 35% C2+ ). X-ray absorption fine structure, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Mossbauer spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations demonstrate that alumina-supported CoFe-alloy nanoparticles are responsible for the high selectivity of CoFe-650 for C2+ hydrocarbons, also allowing exploitation of photothermal effects. This study demonstrates a vibrant new catalyst platform for harnessing clean, abundant solar-energy to produce valuable chemicals and fuels from CO2 .

Large‐Scale Soft Colloidal Template Synthesis of 1.4 nm Thick CdSe Nanosheets

Abstract: Two-dimensional (2D) nanocrystals have attracted tremendous attention from many researchers in various disciplines because of their unique properties. Since ways of making graphene were devised, there have been significant research efforts to synthesize free-standing 2D nanocrystals of various materials, including metals, oxides, and chalcogenides. Many of these 2D nanocrystals have been generated from exfoliation of materials with layered structures, and tiny amounts of products are generally produced. CdSe nanocrystals are among the most intensively studied nanostructured materials, owing to their many size-dependent optical and electrical characteristics and resulting exciting applications. Herein, we report on the large-scale synthesis of single-layered and lamellar-structured 2D CdSe nanocrystals with wurtzite crystal structure as thin as 1.4 nm by a soft colloidal template method. These free-standing 2D nanocrystals with insulating organic layers at the interface could find many interesting electronic and optoelectronic applications, including in quantum cascade lasers and resonant tunneling diodes utilizing their multiple quantum well structures. Compared to materials with layered crystal structures such as graphite, the synthesis of free-standing 2D nanocrystals of nonlayered materials such as CdSe is extremely challenging, because selective growth along one specific facet among several with similar energies is required. For example, in CdSe with a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure, a (0001) facet has significantly higher surface energy than other facets, which leads to the formation of many one-dimensional nanostructures. Although there is a slight difference in the surface energies of (1120) and (1100) facets, quantum-confined thin CdSe 2D nanocrystals could not be synthesized using a conventional colloidal chemical route that employs thermal decomposition of precursors at high temperature, because the small difference in the surface energies of these two facets is negated by the high reaction temperature. Consequently, there have been only a few reports on the successful chemical synthesis of 2D CdSe nanocrystals. For example, CdSe inorganic–organic hybrid lamellar structures and CdSe nanoplatelets with zinc-blende structure were synthesized using colloidal chemical routes. However, their 2D growth mechanism has not been clearly elucidated. Furthermore, nanostructural control to form single-layered or multiple-layered nanosheets has not been demonstrated. In the current approach to creating 2D CdSe nanocrystals, we employed a soft template method, and we were able to synthesize not only free-standing single-layered CdSe nanosheets but also lamellar-structured nanosheets by controlling the interaction between organic layers in 2D templates of cadmium chloride alkyl amine complexes. It has been reported that the complex of cadmium halide and diamine can form a cadmium halide /diamine alternating layered structure through diamine bridging and hydrogen bonding between hydrogen atoms of the amine and halogen atoms. Likewise, a [CdCl2(RNH2)2] lamellar complex, which is used herein as a soft template, is expected to form lamellar structures composed of 2D arrays of CdCl2 and alkyl amine by van der Waals attraction between hydrocarbon sidechains of the alkyl amine. The small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns of [CdCl2(RNH2)2] complexes with butylamine (BA), octylamine (OA), and dodecylamine (DA) show 00l orders of reflection, which confirms that the complexes formed typical lamellar structures (Supporting Information, Figure S1). A [CdCl2(OA)2] lamellar complex was chosen as the soft template for the synthesis of lamellarstructured CdSe nanosheets because of its optimum reactivity. [*] J. S. Son, Dr. J. Joo, K. Park, Dr. J. H. Kim, Dr. K. An, J. H. Yu, S. G. Kwon, Dr. S.-H. Choi, Prof. T. Hyeon National Creative Research Initiative Center for Oxide Nanocrystalline Materials and School of Chemical and Biological Engineering Seoul National University Seoul 151-744 (Korea) Fax: (+82)2-886-8457 E-mail: thyeon@snu.ac.kr

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

Fast parallel algorithms for short-range molecular dynamics

Abstract: Three parallel algorithms for classical molecular dynamics are presented. The first assigns each processor a fixed subset of atoms; the second assigns each a fixed subset of inter-atomic forces to compute; the third assigns each a fixed spatial region. The algorithms are suitable for molecular dynamics models which can be difficult to parallelize efficiently—those with short-range forces where the neighbors of each atom change rapidly. They can be implemented on any distributed-memory parallel machine which allows for message-passing of data between independently executing processors. The algorithms are tested on a standard Lennard-Jones benchmark problem for system sizes ranging from 500 to 100,000,000 atoms on several parallel supercomputers--the nCUBE 2, Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon, and Cray T3D. Comparing the results to the fastest reported vectorized Cray Y-MP and C90 algorithm shows that the current generation of parallel machines is competitive with conventional vector supercomputers even for small problems. For large problems, the spatial algorithm achieves parallel efficiencies of 90% and a 1840-node Intel Paragon performs up to 165 faster than a single Cray C9O processor. Trade-offs between the three algorithms and guidelines for adapting them to more complex molecular dynamics simulations are also discussed.

Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities in Two-Dimensional Materials Beyond Graphene

Abstract: Graphene’s success has shown that it is possible to create stable, single and few-atom-thick layers of van der Waals materials, and also that these materials can exhibit fascinating and technologically useful properties. Here we review the state-of-the-art of 2D materials beyond graphene. Initially, we will outline the different chemical classes of 2D materials and discuss the various strategies to prepare single-layer, few-layer, and multilayer assembly materials in solution, on substrates, and on the wafer scale. Additionally, we present an experimental guide for identifying and characterizing single-layer-thick materials, as well as outlining emerging techniques that yield both local and global information. We describe the differences that occur in the electronic structure between the bulk and the single layer and discuss various methods of tuning their electronic properties by manipulating the surface. Finally, we highlight the properties and advantages of single-, few-, and many-layer 2D materials in...

Recent Advances in Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials

Abstract: Since the discovery of mechanically exfoliated graphene in 2004, research on ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials has grown exponentially in the fields of condensed matter physics, material science, chemistry, and nanotechnology. Highlighting their compelling physical, chemical, electronic, and optical properties, as well as their various potential applications, in this Review, we summarize the state-of-art progress on the ultrathin 2D nanomaterials with a particular emphasis on their recent advances. First, we introduce the unique advances on ultrathin 2D nanomaterials, followed by the description of their composition and crystal structures. The assortments of their synthetic methods are then summarized, including insights on their advantages and limitations, alongside some recommendations on suitable characterization techniques. We also discuss in detail the utilization of these ultrathin 2D nanomaterials for wide ranges of potential applications among the electronics/optoelectronics, electrocat...