We designed a cascade nanozyme with both superoxide dismutase– and catalase-mimicking activities for anti-inflammation therapy.

In this work, several commonly used conductive substrates as electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under alkaline conditions were studied, including nickel foam (Ni foam), copper foam (Cu foam), nickel mesh (Ni mesh) and stainless steel mesh (SS mesh). Ni foam and SS mesh are demonstrated as high-performance and stable electrocatalysts for HER and OER, respectively. For HER, Ni foam exhibited an overpotential of 0.217 V at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² with a Tafel slope of 130 mV dec⁻¹, which were larger than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst, but smaller than that of the other conductive substrates. Meanwhile, the SS mesh showed the best electrocatalytic performance for OER with an overpotential of 0.277 V at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² and a Tafel slope of 51 mV dec⁻¹. Its electrocatalytic performance not only exceeded those of the other conductive substrates but also the commercial RuO₂ catalyst. Moreover, both Ni foam and SS mesh exhibited high stability during HER and OER, respectively. Furthermore, in the two-electrode system with Ni foam used as the cathode and SS mesh used as the anode, they enable a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² at a small cell voltage of 1.74 V. This value is comparable to or exceeding the values of previously reported electrocatalysts for overall water splitting. In addition, NiO on the surface of Ni foam may be the real active species for HER, NiO and FeO_x on the surface of SS mesh may be the active species for OER. The abundant and commercial availability, long-term stability and low-cost property of nickel foam and stainless steel mesh enable their large-scale practical application in water splitting.

A mild and eco-friendly visible-light-induced decarboxylative acylation of quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones and α-oxo carboxylic acids with ambient air as the sole oxidant at room temperature was established. The reaction proceeded efficiently without any metal catalysts, strong oxidants or external-photosensitizers, ultimately reducing the generation of waste.

The application of the cyano group as a radical acceptor in the cascade reactions for the construction of various important heterocycles and carbocycles was summarized.

The first example of selective oxidation of sulfides to sulfones and sulfoxides using molecular oxygen under clean conditions was established. The desired products could be easily collected through recrystallization in large-scale preparation.

Aryl radicals were generated for the first time from cheap and easily available aryl acyl peroxides in eco-friendly ethyl acetate under ambient conditions and visible-light illumination in the absence of any additive, metal catalyst, or external photosensitizer. The present arylation of quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones was chemo- and regioselective, and provided good access to various 3-arylquinoxalin-2(1H)-ones.