Biological heme–copper oxidases (HCOs) play a critical role in the four-electron, four-proton reduction of O₂ to H₂O in biosystems. HCOs exhibit high enzymatic activity due to their natural structure with heme–non-heme metal active sites, and the non-heme metal plays a role in conferring and fine-tuning the O₂ reduction activity of the HCOs. Inspired by this binuclear active enzyme, herein, we designed an efficient electrocatalyst (Fe, Mn–N/C) for the oxygen reduction reaction, which contains two types of metal–N_x active site incorporated within the graphene framework of porous carbon. The catalyst displayed remarkable ORR performance with a half-potential of 0.904 V and kinetic current density of 33.33 mA cm⁻², which is 4.9 times that of 20% Pt/C (6.76 mA cm⁻²). When the Fe, Mn–N/C catalyst was applied as an air electrode in a Zn–air battery, it exhibited a superior performance compared to commercial Pt/C. Its discharge curve showed that the change in output voltage was negligible at 20 mA cm⁻² for 23 000 seconds (6.4 h). First principles calculations revealed that Fe, Mn–N/C needs less energy for the protonation of O* to OH* in ORR procedures compared with Fe–N/C. This catalyst, with its bimetal reactive center mimicking a metal enzyme, will pave a new way to design efficient electrocatalysts for the ORR in fuel cells.

Atomic Cu–N_x cofactors are incorporated within graphene encapsulated Co by direct annealing of MOFs and exhibit excellent ORR activity.

We report the direct carbonization of organic solvents to graphene quantum dots without the addition of catalysts or molecular precursors.

In this work, by taking commercial P25 hydrophilic titanium dioxide (TiO ₂ ) as a photocatalyst, the magnetic field effect (MFE) on the photodegradation rate of methyl orange is studied.

As an external field, a magnetic field can change the electrocatalytic activity of catalysts through various effects. Among them, electron spin polarization on the catalyst surface has attracted much attention. Herein, we investigate the sensitive response behavior of a Cu₂O nanocubes to an in situ magnetic field. Under a 3 T strong magnetic field, the total transferred electron quantity in IT test (−1.1 V_RHE) and the current density in the polarization curve increase by 28.7% and 54.7%, respectively, while the onset potential decreases significantly by 114 mV. Moreover, it was found that product selectivity was also altered by the magnetic field. The Faraday efficiency of C₁ increases substantially, along with the inhibition of C₂₊ reaction paths and the HER. Our experimental results and DFT calculation demonstrate that a hybrid magnetic effect accelerates the CO₂RR kinetic and generates spin polarization of the catalyst surface. The polarized surface changes the binding energy of *OCHO/*COOH and inhibits singlet C–C coupling, which restrains the C₂₊ reduction path and thus more CO₂ is reduced to HCOOH.

As they are liquids at room temperature, gallium-based metal substrates allow catalytic metal atoms to move freely without lattice constraints, thereby facilitating the development of catalysts with reconfigurable structures. Here we design an iron-embedded liquid metal catalyst that enables reversible switching of the aggregation and electron spin of iron atoms by controlling an external magnetic field. This facilitates a reversible conversion of the primary liquid products, methyl hydroperoxide (CH₃OOH) and acetic acid (CH₃COOH), under ambient conditions. The catalyst achieves promising production rates (CH₃OOH, 1,679.6 \({\rm{m}}{\rm{m}}{\rm{o}}{\rm{l}}\,{{\rm{g}}}_{{\rm{F}}{\rm{e}}}^{-1}\,{{\rm{h}}}^{-1}\); CH₃COOH, 790.5 \({\rm{m}}{\rm{m}}{\rm{o}}{\rm{l}}\,{{\rm{g}}}_{{\rm{F}}{\rm{e}}}^{-1}\,{{\rm{h}}}^{-1}\)) and high selectivities (CH₃OOH, 99.9%; CH₃COOH, 91.7%). In the absence of the magnetic field, iron atoms are atomically dispersed, leading to the C1 pathway without C–C bond coupling. When a magnetic field is applied, iron atoms cluster, favouring CH₃COOH production in the C2 pathway. The product distribution can be finely and reversibly tuned with magnetic field intensity adjustments ranging from 0 to 500 G. Our findings highlight the potential for using an external magnetic field to precisely control catalytic pathways.