Adding Cu to Ni/Al ₂ O ₃ is an excellent strategy to suppress methane formation and enhance carbon monoxide yield through formation of alloyed nanoparticles.

Supported Pt nanoparticles are widely used for the catalytic dehydrogenation of propane to propylene. However, Pt nanoparticles suffer from strong deactivation under dehydrogenation conditions. In this study, we present a novel approach for the precise formation of bimetallic nanoparticles via tailoring of the interface between metal nanoparticles and SiO₂ by deposition of ultra-thin functional layer of ZnO via atomic layer deposition (ALD). The synthesized Pt/ZnO/SiO2 material undergoes phase transformation under reductive thermal treatment to form Pt1Zn1 alloy nanoparticles. The Pt/ZnO/SiO2 catalyst showed high and stable selectivity to propylene at 97 % over time on stream. The activity of ALD prepared Pt/ZnO/SiO2 catalyst was 1.3 times higher than conventionally prepared catalyst using incipient wetness impregnation. Formation of intermetallic alloy causes the electronic and geometric modification of Pt by Zn which reduces the side reactions leading to stable and active propane dehydrogenation catalyst.

ZnO is a remarkable material with many applications in electronics and catalysis. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of ZnO on flat substrates is an industrially applied and well-known process. Various studies describe the growth of ZnO layers on flat substrates. However, the growth characteristics and reaction mechanisms of atomic layer deposition of ZnO on mesoporous powders have not been well studied. This study investigates the ZnO ALD process based on diethylzinc (DEZn) and water with silica powder as substrate. In-situ thermogravimetric analysis gives direct access to the growth rates and reaction mechanisms of this process. Ex-situ analytics, e.g., N₂ sorption analysis, XRD, XRF, HRTEM, and STEM-EDX mapping, confirm deposition of homogenous and thin films of ZnO on SiO₂. In summary, this study offers new insights into the fundamentals of an ALD process on high surface area powders.

In this work, a novel secondary Zn/air battery using protic Diethylmethylammonium trifluoro-methanesulfonate (DEATfO) ionic liquid as electrolyte and Pt/C as gas diffusion electrode was developed. The bi-functional activity of Pt/C GDE and the quasi reversibility of Zn electro-deposition/stripping in DEMATfO were demonstrated by using cyclic voltammetry method under half-cell conditions. The effect of temperature, humidity and cycling on cell performance was investigated under full-cell configuration with 0.01 M ZnTfO in DEMATfO. Interestingly, in dry air and ambient air, Zn/air cell was quite stable for about 700 h. The average cell voltage of Zn || DEMATfO + 0.01 M ZnTfO || Pt/C system was 1.2 and 1.8 V during discharging and charging step for 2 h each at 50 μA cm⁻², respectively. First experiments in ambient air were also very promising. However, maximal cell power density was relatively low (45 μW cm^-2). This can be explained by low contact angle of the IL on GDE substrate that presumably hindered triple-phase boundary formation.

Polyurethane (PU) is the 6th most produced plastic on a global basis, and thus one of the most important targets in the field of recycling of plastic waste. The glycolysis of PU is currently considered the most promising pathway toward industrial implementation. However, the energy consumption during the process, the cost of the excess glycol relative to PU, and the potentially reduced quality of polyol products resulting from glycol residues may still limit the speed of implementation of PU chemical recycling processes from lab to the pilot plant scale. Therefore, an alternative route for PU depolymerization is explored using mechanochemistry and catalysis. In this work, recovery of up to 86% of soluble polyol by mechanocatalytic methanolysis/hydrolysis of NaOH‐impregnated commercial PU product (household sponge), with a Cu/MgAlO_x co‐catalyst below 100 °C, is described. The recycled polyol can serve as new raw material and has been successfully used as feedstock for the resynthesis of PU. The low reaction temperature, reduced volume of solvent, and easy separation of products could make this novel chemical recycling methodology an attractive alternative to the conventional solvolysis pathways.

Atomic layer deposition of phosphorus oxide on divanadium pentoxide powder undergoes controllable redox chemistry.