The imbibition of salts by sodalite and cancrinite during their hydrothermal formation from kaolinite has been studied. Isotherm contours recalling those of Langmuir's isotherm were observed in sodalite for NaCl, NaBr, NaClO3, NaClO4, and Na2CO3. These results have been interpreted in terms of a Donnan equilibrium, in which solid-phase activities were calculated on the experimentally justified assumption that each sodalite cage is capable of accommodating a particular number of each kind of guest molecule, which number varies with the size of the guest. The stoicheiometry, thermal stability, chemical reactivity, and crystallization kinetics of representative compounds have been discussed, and the possible importance of salt inclusion in other zeolitic materials has been noted.

Chemistry of soil minerals. Part VI. Salt entrainment by sodalite and cancrinite during their synthesis.

Multi-atom cluster catalysts have turned out to be novel heterogeneous catalysts with atomic dispersion for electrochemical energy applications. Beyond a simple combination of single-atom catalysts, they could offer boosted activity as a result of the synergistic effects between adjacent atoms. Meanwhile, the multiple active sites in the catalytic center may render them versatile binding modes toward adsorbates and provide an opportunity for catalyzing complex reactions with diverse products. Herein, a comprehensive review of the recent development of multi-atom cluster catalysts for electrochemical energy applications is provided. Specifically, the origin of synergistic effects in multi-atom cluster catalysts and related modulation methods are illustrated and summarized. The introduction of multi-atom cluster catalysts to circumvent the scaling relationships as well as their potential for developing new descriptors is then discussed. Subsequently, the methods for fabricating multi-atom cluster catalysts and related characterization techniques are reviewed. This is followed by the discussion of their application in key electrochemical reactions such as water splitting, oxygen reduction, and carbon dioxide/monoxide reduction, as well as the real-time techniques for their mechanistic study. Finally, the future challenges and opportunities concerning the improvement of multi-atom cluster catalysts are outlined, which are essential to make such electrocatalysts viable for electrochemical energy conversion.

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Multi-atom cluster catalysts for efficient electrocatalysis.

Space-induced charge carriers separation enhances photocatalytic hydrogen evolution on hollow urchin-like TiO2 nanomaterial

Energy and the environment has long been a topic of concern. Activated carbon (AC) is a widely used high-performance industrial material. Agricultural and forestry waste (AFW) is a sustainable and economical resource for AC production. In the field of AFW-derived AC (AFWAC) research, the characteristics of the pore structure are important indicators of the quality and possible applications of AFWAC. Therefore, it is of great significance to conduct in-depth studies on the factors affecting the pore structure in the preparation process of AFWAC, and to control and predict the properties and extent of the pore structure of AFWAC during the preparation so its performance can also be controlled. In this paper, various preparation methods and condition parameters of AFWAC are reviewed, including carbonization and activation methods, and the effects of AFW types, activator types, activator amount, activation temperature, and activation time on the pore structure of AFWAC are discussed in detail. Second, other properties and an economic analysis of AFWAC are carried out. Finally, the specific application of AFWAC with different pore structure characteristics in gas and liquid phase adsorption is expounded. This review promotes the research of AFWAC and its real-world applications by optimizing different preparation methods and conditions to effectively obtain high-performance, low-cost, and targeted AFWACs suitable for different applications.

Analysis of factors influencing pore structure development of agricultural and forestry waste-derived activated carbon for adsorption application in gas and liquid phases: A review

Silica (SiO2) is considered as a promising candidate anode material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) owing to its low cost, abundant reserve on Earth, and relatively high theoretica...

Synergistic Lithium Storage in Silica–Tin Composites Enables a Cycle-Stable and High-Capacity Anode for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Facing the increasingly serious energy and environmental crisis, the development of heteronuclear metal-free double-atom catalysts is a potential strategy to realize efficient catalytic nitrogen reduction with low energy consumption and no pollution because it could combine the advantages of flexible active sites in double-atom catalysts while also being pollution-free and have high Faraday efficiency in metal-free catalysts simultaneously. However, according to the existing mechanism, the finite orbits of other nonmetallic atoms, except the boron atom, reduce the possibility of metal-free catalysis and hinder the development of heteronuclear metal-free double-atom catalysts. Herein, we propose a new "capture-backdonation-recapture" mechanism, which skillfully uses the electron capture-backdonation-recapture between boron, the substrate, and other nonmetallic elements to solve the above problems. Based on this mechanism, by means of the first-principle calculations, the material structure, adsorption energy, catalytic activity, and selectivity of 36 catalysts are systematically investigated to evaluate their catalytic performance. B-Si@BP1 and B-Si@BP3 are selected for their good catalytic performance and low limiting potentials of -0.14 and -0.10 V, respectively. Meanwhile, the "capture-backdonation-recapture" mechanism is also verified by analyzing the results of adsorption energy and electron transfer. Our work broadens the ideas and lays the theoretical foundation for the development of heteronuclear metal-free double-atom catalysts in the future.

"Capture-Backdonation-Recapture" Mechanism for Promoting N2 Reduction by Heteronuclear Metal-Free Double-Atom Catalysts.

This study mainly reports on the preparation of Sn-imidazolates (Sn(Im)n) supported on boron and nitrogen-doped activated carbon (AC), which proved to be highly active catalysts for the acetylene h...

Sn-imidazolates supported on boron and nitrogen-doped activated carbon as novel catalysts for acetylene hydrochlorination

Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous sodalite and investigation of the effects of inorganic salts on its structure and properties

Carbon-supported binary Li-Sn catalyst for acetylene hydrochlorination

In this paper, a novel organosiloxane was prepared and employed as mesoporogen to synthesis mesoporous zeolite Beta successfully. With the increase of organosiloxane to synthesis mixture, the total BET (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller) surface areas of the as-obtained samples increased initially and then decreased. When the mesoporogen/SiO2 ratio was 0.0142, the prepared zeolite sample had the largest BET surface area up to 810 m2/g. The DFT pore size distribution shows that the resulting mesoporous zeolite Beta samples have mesopore size distributions of approximately 2–6 nm. SEM images exhibit the morphology of the samples comprised ellipsoidal particles of 400–500 nm, and its surface is similar to a cracked cauliflower. From the TEM images, large numbers of worm-like mesopores and the basic crystal structure of the mesoporous zeolite Beta are clearly presented.

Yibo Wu

Papers

"Capture-Backdonation-Recapture" Mechanism for Promoting N2 Reduction by Heteronuclear Metal-Free Double-Atom Catalysts.

Sn-imidazolates supported on boron and nitrogen-doped activated carbon as novel catalysts for acetylene hydrochlorination

Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous sodalite and investigation of the effects of inorganic salts on its structure and properties

Carbon-supported binary Li-Sn catalyst for acetylene hydrochlorination

Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous zeolite Beta templated by a novel organosiloxane