Electrocatalytic reduction of carbon monoxide into fuels or chemicals with two or more carbons is very attractive due to their high energy density and economic value. Herein we demonstrate the synthesis of a hydrophobic Cu/Cu₂O sheet catalyst with hydrophobic n-butylamine layer and its application in CO electroreduction. The CO reduction on this catalyst produces two or more carbon products with a Faradaic efficiency of 93.5% and partial current density of 151 mA cm⁻² at the potential of −0.70 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode. A Faradaic efficiency of 68.8% and partial current density of 111 mA cm⁻² for ethanol were reached, which is very high in comparison to all previous reports of CO₂/CO electroreduction with a total current density higher than 10 mA cm⁻². The as-prepared catalyst also showed impressive stability that the activity and selectivity for two or more carbon products could remain even after 100 operating hours. This work opens a way for efficient electrocatalytic conversion of CO₂/CO to liquid fuels.

Hypercrosslinked MPILs with high ionic density and excellent textural properties were prepared for efficient simultaneous CO₂ adsorption and cycloaddition.

With the fast-growing accumulation of electronic waste and rising demand for rare metals, it is compelling to develop technologies that can promotionally recover targeted metals, like gold, from waste, a process referred to as urban mining. Thus, there is increasing interest in the design of materials to achieve rapid, selective gold capture while maintaining high adsorption capacity, especially in complex aqueous-based matrices. Here, a highly porous metal-organic framework (MOF)–polymer composite, BUT-33–poly( para -phenylenediamine) (PpPD), is assessed for gold extraction from several matrices including river water, seawater, and leaching solutions from CPUs. BUT-33–PpPD exhibits a record-breaking extraction rate, with high Au ³⁺ removal efficiency (>99%) within seconds (less than 45 s), a competitive capacity (1600 mg/g), high selectivity, long-term stability, and recycling ability. Furthermore, the high porosity and redox adsorption mechanism were shown to be underlying reasons for the material’s excellent performance. Given the accumulation of recovered metallic gold nanoparticles inside, the material was also efficiently applied as a catalyst.

Hole for faster OER: The hole state induced by Fe ⁴⁺ promotes the OER process. It reduces the energy barrier for electron transfer at the interface and facilitates a faster electron transfer from reaction intermediates to the catalyst.

Novel sponge-like ammonium-based PILs with rich exposed anion, excellent textural properties, and CO₂ adsorption were prepared for efficient CO₂ cycloaddition.