Amines are important building blocks possessing various applications in agrochemicals, the fine chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, materials science and biotechnology. The catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles is an important reaction for the onestep synthesis of diverse amines. However, significant amounts of side product formation during the course of the reaction is a major issue. In recent y...

Phase stability of transition metal nanoparticles during exposure to elevated temperature and gaseous environment is a highly relevant topic in catalytic research with broad implications for rationalization of catalytic properties and design of new catalytic materials. For Pd based catalysts, the phase stability under oxidizing environment represents an important topic as many Pd based catalyst...

Pt nanoparticles (NPs) in the range of 1.7−3.4 nm were synthesized in an ionic liquid (IL). Subsequent immobilization on various solid supports (silica, alumina, titania, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)) in some cases proved to be beneficial. These catalysts exhibited excellent performance in the chemoselective hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene. The presence of the IL, the reaction medium (acidic or basi...

Catalysts for oxygen evolution reactions (OER) are at the heart of key renewable energy technologies, and development of non-precious metal catalysts with high activity and stability remain a great challenge in this field. Among various material candidates, metal sulfides are receiving increasing attention. While morphology-dependent catalytic performances are well established in noble metal-ba...

High performance catalysts for carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation were obtained through thermal activation of a CuBTC (BTC: 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid) metal–organic framework (MOF) in various atmospheres. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photonelectron spectroscopy (XPS), N2 adsorption–desorption measurement, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were adopted to characterize t...

Although lithium-ion batteries are traditionally considered to be the most promising candidate for electrochemical energy storage owing to their relatively long cycle life and high energy efficiency, their limited energy density as well as high cost are still causing a bottleneck for their long-term applications. Alternatively, rechargeable Li-O2 batteries have the potential to practically prov...