Themed collection Asia-Pacific Catalysis collection

The use of renewable fuels will exacerbate nitrogen oxide emissions, damaging the climate, environment, and human health. Sustainable technologies in development must replace current abatement techniques.

This review explores the environmental impacts, technical challenges, and potential solutions for sustainable seawater electrolysis, offering insights into advancing this technology for green hydrogen production.

This review details the working mechanism of adsorption–catalysis synergy in RT Na–S batteries and systematically discusses the latest progress and strategies in enhancing adsorption–catalysis synergistic effects in RT Na–S batteries.

The preparation and utilization of hydrogen (H₂) energy rely on the water splitting and fuel cell technology, specifically involving the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), respectively.

By creating surface vacancy-dopant-mediated solid frustrated Lewis pairs, efficient photochemical conversion of CO₂ to formic acid is achieved on Bi-doped CeO₂ in the presence of strain, which is investigated by using density functional theory.

Development of efficient bifunctional catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly required for the application in rechargeable metal–air batteries.

Porphyrin-incorporated conjugated polymer dots serve as ultra-low loading photocatalysts for the aerobic oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides in aqueous environments. The photocatalytic process can be scaled to yield gram quantities of the product.

An electrode surface strategy was proposed for Cu and Co bimetallic electrodes to enhance CO₂ electrochemical reduction towards C₂₊ products.

A new method for synthesizing ammonia from water and nitrogen using electricity has been developed, employing a molten NaOH–KOH electrolyte, a Pd alloy membrane, and Ru catalysts at 250 °C and 1.0 MPa.

The use of dual acidity ionic liquids for direct hexose sugars conversions aims to increase the yields and selectivity of biofuel additive, ethyl levulinate production.

Two Ni complexes are used as water oxidation catalyst. Complex 1 with pyridine-amine ligand is found to be a molecular catalyst, while complex 2 with amine ligand is a pre-catalyst, revealing that the pyridine ring benefits their stability.

Ligand displacement in a metal–organic framework to introduce nitrogen and sulphur elements could tailor the electronic environment and oxygen binding force of the resulting cobalt–nitrogen/carbon catalyst to improve its oxygen reduction activity.

A novel design of the gap reactor boosts conversion of photothermal methane reforming by reducing temperature gradients.

A one-pot synthesis of the (op)Ru@C–TiO₂ catalyst for the thermocatalytic conversion of levulinic acid at 200 °C and at an H₂ pressure of 30 bar for 3 h afforded a high yield of 2-butanol (up to 87% yield).

This study adopts a very simple and effective method to prepare the O–CuGa₂ catalyst electrode enriched with oxygen vacancies. Its Faraday efficiency for CO production reaches as high as 82.6%.

Hydrogen production via MSR has been achieved over spherical micro-mesoporous supported CuMn catalysts using sepiolite-derived silica. Cu–MnO_x interfaces inhibit the excessive oxidation of Cu⁰ to supply active Cu⁺ and oxygen vacancies.

The spatial confinement method is developed to synthesize Mn–N–C catalysts with dense Mn–N_x sites and porous structures.

The construction of pore structures at different scales (atomic defect and molecular porous structures) is the most promising method to achieve excellent ORR catalytic activity for carbon-based catalysts.

Catalytic reactions in an electric field for ammonia synthesis.

In this study, a P-doped In₂S₃ photocatalyst with rich S vacancies was fabricated and applied for photocatalytic hydrogen production from alkaline formaldehyde solution.

Pt co-catalyst results in strong H₂ evolution and piece-by-piece peeling of xylose; Ag co-catalyst results in cleavage of C2–C3 bond.

Ni/zeolite 13X catalyst synthesized by deposition–precipitation exhibits improved low-temperature performance for NH₃ decomposition owing to high dispersion and uniform deposition of active Ni on the surface and in the pores of the zeolite support.

We have revealed that solution plasma assisted Mn-doping is a powerful strategy for enhancing the durability and activity of Co-based OER catalysts, where the OER activity is enhanced by a factor of 11 for Ca₃Co₄O₉.