The electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an attractive technology for the mass production of hydrogen. Ru‐based materials are promising electrocatalysts owing to the similar bonding ...strength with hydrogen but much lower cost than Pt catalysts. Herein, an ordered macroporous superstructure of N‐doped nanoporous carbon anchored with the ultrafine Ru nanoclusters as electrocatalytic micro/nanoreactors is developed via the thermal pyrolysis of ordered macroporous single crystals of ZIF‐8 accommodating Ru(III) ions. Benefiting from the highly interconnected reticular macro–nanospaces, this superstrucure affords unparalleled performance for pH‐universal HER, with order of magnitude higher mass activity compared to the benchmark Pt/C. Notably, an exceptionally low overpotential of only 13 mV@10 mA cm−2 is required for HER in alkaline solution, with a low Tafel slope of 40.41 mV dec−1 and an ultrahigh turnover frequency value of 1.6 H2 s−1 at 25 mV, greatly outperforming Pt/C. Furthermore, the hydrogen generation rates are almost twice those of Pt/C during practical overall alkaline water splitting. A solar‐to‐hydrogen system is also demonstrated to further promote the application. This research may open a new avenue for the development of advanced electrocatalytic micro/nanoreactors with controlled morphology and excellent performance for future energy applications.
An ordered macroporous superstructure of nitrogen‐doped nanoporous carbon implanted with ultrafine Ru nanoclusters is developed via thermal pyrolysis of the ordered macroporous single crystals of ZIF‐8 accommodating Ru(III) ions, which affords unparalleled performance for the pH‐universal hydrogen evolution reaction, with order of magnitude higher mass activity compared to the benchmark Pt/C.
Single‐atom catalysts (SACs) have received tremendous attention due to their extraordinary catalytic performances. The synthesis of this kind of catalysts is highly desired and challenging. In the ...last few years, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been demonstrated as a promising precursor for fabricating SACs. In this review, the progress and recent advances in the synthesis of MOF‐derived SACs and their electrochemical applications are summarized. First, the synthetic approaches based on MOFs and accessible characterization techniques for SACs as well as their advantages/disadvantages are discussed. Then, the electrochemical applications of these MOF‐derived SACs including the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), and other energy‐related reactions are reviewed. Finally, insights into the current challenges and future prospects of this field are briefly presented.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are considered as an excellent platform for synthesizing single‐atom catalysts (SACs). This review presents the recent progress and advances in the synthetic strategies, characterization techniques, and electrochemical applications of MOF‐derived SACs.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of distinctive porous crystalline materials constructed by metal ions/clusters and organic linkers. Owing to their structural diversity, functional ...adjustability, and high surface area, different types of MOF-based single metal sites are well exploited, including coordinately unsaturated metal sites from metal nodes and metallolinkers, as well as active metal species immobilized to MOFs. Furthermore, controllable thermal transformation of MOFs can upgrade them to nanomaterials functionalized with active single-atom catalysts (SACs). These unique features of MOFs and their derivatives enable them to serve as a highly versatile platform for catalysis, which has actually been becoming a rapidly developing interdisciplinary research area. In this review, we overview the recent developments of catalysis at single metal sites in MOF-based materials with emphasis on their structures and applications for thermocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis. We also compare the results and summarize the major insights gained from the works in this review, providing the challenges and prospects in this emerging field.
Superstructures have attracted extensive attention because of their potential applications in materials science and biology. Herein, we fabricate the first centimeter‐sized porous superstructure of ...carbon nanosheets (SCNS) by using metal–organic framework nanoparticles as a template and polyvinylpyrrolidone as an additional carbon source. The SCNS shows a honeycomb‐like morphology with wall‐sharing carbon cages, in each cavity of which a porous carbon sphere is encapsulated. A single piece of SCNS is directly used as the electrode for a two‐electrode symmetrical supercapacitor cell without any binders and supports, benefiting from its advantage in ultra‐large geometric size, and the Fe‐immobilized SCNS exhibits excellent catalytic performances for oxygen reduction reaction and in a Zn–air battery. This synthetic strategy presents a facile approach for preparing functional SCNS at centimetric scale with controllable morphologies and compositions favoring the fabrication of energy devices.
Nanosheets to honeycombs: Superstructures have attracted extensive attention in material science and biology. The first centimeter‐sized porous superstructure of carbon nanosheets was prepared by using MOF nanoparticles as a template, which exhibits a honeycomb‐like morphology with wall‐sharing carbon cages and shows great potential applications in electrochemical devices.
Understanding the thermal aggregation behavior of metal atoms is important for the synthesis of supported metal clusters. Here, derived from a metal–organic framework encapsulating a trinuclear ...FeIII2FeII complex (denoted as Fe3) within the channels, a well‐defined nitrogen‐doped carbon layer is fabricated as an ideal support for stabilizing the generated iron nanoclusters. Atomic replacement of FeII by other metal(II) ions (e.g., ZnII/CoII) via synthesizing isostructural trinuclear‐complex precursors (Fe2Zn/Fe2Co), namely the “heteroatom modulator approach”, is inhibiting the aggregation of Fe atoms toward nanoclusters with formation of a stable iron dimer in an optimal metal–nitrogen moiety, clearly identified by direct transmission electron microscopy and X‐ray absorption fine structure analysis. The supported iron dimer, serving as cooperative metal–metal site, acts as efficient oxygen evolution catalyst. Our findings offer an atomic insight to guide the future design of ultrasmall metal clusters bearing outstanding catalytic capabilities.
Encapsulation of a trinuclear FeIII2FeII complex within channels of a unique MOF is leading to the generation of iron nanoclusters stabilized on the carbon layer. To inhibit the aggregation of iron atoms toward nanoclusters, a “heteroatom modulator approach” is developed by atomic replacement of FeII by ZnII/CoII. A stable iron dimer in an optimal metal–nitrogen moiety is synthesized as efficient oxygen evolution catalyst.
This article addresses the distributed model-free adaptive control (DMFAC) problem for learning nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) subjected to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. An improved dynamic ...linearization method is proposed to obtain an equivalent linear data model for learning systems. To alleviate the influence of DoS attacks, an attack compensation mechanism is developed. Based on the equivalent linear data model and the attack compensation mechanism, a novel learning-based DMFAC algorithm is developed to resist DoS attacks, which provides a unified framework to solve the leaderless consensus control, the leader-following consensus control, and the containment control problems. Finally, simulation examples are shown to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed DMFAC algorithm.
Micro-/nanocapsules have received substantial attention due to various potential applications for storage, catalysis, and drug delivery. However, their conventional enclosed non-/polycrystalline ...walls pose huge obstacles for rapid loading and mass diffusion. Here, we present a new single-crystal capsular-MOF with openings on the wall, which is carefully designed at the molecular level and constructed from a crystal-structure transformation. This rare open-capsule MOF can easily load the largest amounts of sulfur and iodine among known MOFs. In addition, derived from capsular-MOF and melamine through pyrolysis–phosphidation, we fabricated a nitrogen-doped capsular carbon-based framework with iron–nickel phosphide nanoparticles immobilized on capsular carbons interconnected by plentiful carbon nanotubes. Benefiting from synergistic effects between the carbon framework and highly surface-exposed phosphide sites, the material exhibits efficient multifunctional electrocatalysis for oxygen evolution, hydrogen evolution, and oxygen reduction, achieving well-qualified assemblies of an overall water splitting (low potential of 1.59 V at 10 mA·cm–2) and a rechargeable Zn–air battery (high peak power density of 250 mW·cm–2 and excellent stability for 500 h), which afford remarkably practical prospects over previously known electrocatalysts.
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory disease that mainly affects the colon and rectum. It is believed that genetic factors, host immune system disorders, intestinal microbiota dysbiosis, and ...environmental factors contribute to the pathogenesis of UC. However, studies on the role of intestinal microbiota in the pathogenesis of UC have been inconclusive. Studies have shown that probiotics improve intestinal mucosa barrier function and immune system function and promote secretion of anti-inflammatory factors, thereby inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria in the intestine. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can reduce bowel permeability and thus the severity of disease by increasing the production of short-chain fatty acids, especially butyrate, which help maintain the integrity of the epithelial barrier. FMT can also restore immune dysbiosis by inhibiting Th1 differentiation, activity of T cells, leukocyte adhesion, and production of inflammatory factors. Probiotics and FMT are being increasingly used to treat UC, but their use is controversial because of uncertain efficacy. Here, we briefly review the role of intestinal microbiota in the pathogenesis and treatment of UC.
Passenger profiling plays a vital part of commercial aviation security, but classical methods become very inefficient in handling the rapidly increasing amounts of electronic records. This paper ...proposes a deep learning approach to passenger profiling. The center of our approach is a Pythagorean fuzzy deep Boltzmann machine (PFDBM), whose parameters are expressed by Pythagorean fuzzy numbers such that each neuron can learn how a feature affects the production of the correct output from both the positive and negative sides. We propose a hybrid algorithm combining a gradient-based method and an evolutionary algorithm for training the PFDBM. Based on the novel learning model, we develop a deep neural network (DNN) for classifying normal passengers and potential attackers, and further develop an integrated DNN for identifying group attackers whose individual features are insufficient to reveal the abnormality. Experiments on data sets from Air China show that our approach provides much higher learning ability and classification accuracy than existing profilers. It is expected that the fuzzy deep learning approach can be adapted for a variety of complex pattern analysis tasks.
Currently, knowledge about the impact of high‐grain (HG) feeding on rumen microbiota and metabolome is limited. In this study, a combination of the 454 pyrosequencing strategy and the mass ...spectrometry‐based metabolomics technique was applied to investigate the effects of increased dietary grain (0%, 25% and 50% maize grain) on changes in whole ruminal microbiota and their metabolites using goat as a ruminant model. We observed a significant influence of HG feeding in shaping the ruminal bacterial community structure, diversity and composition, with an overall dominance of bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes along with a low abundance of Bacteriodetes in the HG group. High‐grain feeding increased the number of ciliate and methanogens, and decreased the density of anaerobic fungi and the richness of the archaeal community. The metabolomics analysis revealed that HG feeding increased the levels of several toxic, inflammatory and unnatural compounds, including endotoxin, tryptamine, tyramine, histamine and phenylacetate. Correlation analysis on the combined datasets revealed some potential relationships between ruminal metabolites and certain microbial species. Information about these relationships may prove useful in either direct (therapeutic) or indirect (dietary) interventions for ruminal disorders due to microbial compositional shifts, such as ruminal acidosis.