The cycloaddition reaction of CO₂ with epoxide not only effectively reduces the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere, but also has excellent industrial application value and up to 100% atom utilization, but there are difficulties in separation and recovery of traditional homogeneous catalysts, harsh reaction conditions of traditional heterogeneous catalysts, and activation of CO₂ molecules. In this paper, an easily synthesized heterogeneous catalyst CeNCl/C was used to catalyze the cycloaddition reaction of CO₂ with styrene oxide, with a high yield of 92.7%, a high selectivity of 96.7%, a TON value of 349, and a good stability demonstrated in six cycle tests (equivalent to 216 hours of testing). Through comprehensive studies, it was shown that CeNCl/C contains Lewis acid-base centers as active centers, which can effectively reduce the energy barrier required for ring opening of the reaction substrate, enhance the adsorption and activation of CO₂, and promote the formation of intermediates, which led to the acquisition of excellent catalytic activity.

Zeolite-based catalyst hydrocracking of plastics is a potential strategy for mitigating the environmental impacts of plastic wastes and recycling valuable resources, but difficult mass transfer, low concentration of acid sites, and high cost are still barriers to their practical applications. In this paper, we report an excellent hydrocracking catalyst of ZSM-5 nanosheets (Ce/b-ZSM-5) modified by Ce species with high conversion up to 96.3%, C₃−C₅ selectivity up to 80.9%, and good stability during the hydrogenation of low-density polyethylene. Through comprehensive studies, b-ZSM-5 shows higher molecular diffusion efficiency and acid site concentrations compared with normal ZSM-5 (n-ZSM-5) and hollow ZSM-5 (h-ZSM-5). The introduction of Ce species into b-ZSM-5 further increases the density of Brønsted (B) and Lewis (L) acid sites as active sites, which enhances the adsorption of substrates and facilitates the formation of intermediates and desorption of products. As a result, the hydrocracking activity of Ce/b-ZSM-5 is significantly improved.

One-pot tandem catalysis has been regarded as one of the most atomic economic ways to produce secondary amines, the important platform molecules for chemical synthesis and pharmaceutical manufacture, but it is facing serious issues in overall efficiency. New promotional effects are highly desired for boosting the activity and regulating the selectivity of conventional tandem catalysts. In this work, we report a high-performance tandem catalyst with maximized synergistic effect among each counterpart by preciously manipulating the spatial structure, which involves the active CeO₂/Pt component as kernel, the densely-coated N-doped C (NC) layer as selectivity controller, and the differentially-grown Co species as catalytic performance regulators. Through comprehensive investigations, the unique growth mechanism and the promotion effect of Co regulators are clarified. Specifically, the surface-landed Co clusters (Co_cs) are crucial to selectivity by altering the adsorption configuration of benzylideneaniline intermediates. Meanwhile, the inner Co particles (Co_ps) are essential for activity by denoting their electrons to neighboring Pt_ps. Benefiting from the unique promotion effect, a remarkably-improved catalytic efficiency (100% nitrobenzene conversion with 94% N-benzylaniline selectivity) is achieved at a relatively low temperature of 80 °C, which is much better than that of CeO₂/Pt (100% nitrobenzene conversion with 12% N-benzylaniline selectivity) and CeO₂/Pt/NC (35% nitrobenzene conversion with 94% benzylideneaniline selectivity).

High entropy alloys (HEAs) based on five or more elements have caught worldwide attention due to the excellent properties endowed by their unique structures. Compared with traditional alloys, HEAs have high strength, thermal stability, oxidation resistance, and corrosion resistance. In recent years, the rapid development of HEAs shed light on the designing of new alloy systems. Their mixed multi-metallic sites give rise to a great potential for catalytic applications. In this review, we briefly introduce the phase structures of HEAs and their four core effects. In addition, the latest advances regarding HEAs are systematically summarized, with emphasis on the synthesis methods and catalytic applications, such as thermal-driven catalysis and electrocatalysis. To sum up, the current progress, challenges and future prospects of HEAs are discussed, hoping to provide a valuable route to understand this research field.

Electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) paves a new way to cost-efficient production of ammonia, but is still challenging in the sluggish kinetics caused by hydrogen evolution reaction competition and chemical inertness of N≡N bond. Herein, we report a “dual-site” strategy for boosting NRR performance. A high-performance catalyst is successfully constructed by anchoring isolated Fe and Mo atoms on hierarchical N doped carbon nanotubes through a facile self-sacrificing template route, which exhibits a remarkably improved NH₃ yield rate of 26.8 μg·h⁻¹·mg ${}_{\mathrm{c}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{t}.}^{-1}$ with 11.8% Faradaic efficiency, which is 2.5 and 1.6 times larger than those of Fe/NC and Mo/NC. The enhancement can be attributed to the unique hierarchical structure that profits from the contact of electrode and electrolyte, thus improving the mass and electron transport. More importantly, the in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (in situ FTIR) result firmly demonstrates the crucial role of the coupling of Fe and Mo atoms, which can efficiently boost the generation and transmission of *N₂H_y intermediates, leading to an accelerated reaction rate.

The Pt-Ni nanoframe catalysts have attracted great interest owing to their unique electronic structure and excellent catalytic performance. However, the stability of the tenuous edges of nanoframe-structures is dissatisfactory and their universal applications in catalytic market beyond electrocatalytic reactions are yet to be tapped and explored. Herein, we developed a new core@shell structured Pt-Ni nanoframe@CeO₂ (Pt-Ni NF@CeO₂) composite via etching the Ni from inhomogeneous Pt-Ni rhombic dodecahedra (Pt-Ni RD) by cerium(III) acetate hydrate (Ce(OAc)₃). In this path, Pt-Ni RD was used as self-sacrificial template, while the Ce(OAc)₃ serves as the provider of the Ce³⁺ source and OH⁻ for the formation of CeO₂ shell, etchant of Pt-Ni RD, and the surface modification agent. By this way, the etching of Pt-Ni RD and the formation of the CeO₂ shell are simultaneously proceeded to form the final Pt-Ni NF@CeO₂ in one step. The obtained Pt-Ni NF@CeO₂ exhibits strong interfacial charge transfer interaction between Pt-Ni NF core and CeO₂ shell even without reduction treatment, leading to enhanced catalytic activity in the hydrogenation of phenylacetylene. After introduction of trace silver, the Pt-Ni-Ag_4.9 NF@CeO₂ achieves remarkable catalytic performance for the selective conversion of phenylacetylene to styrene: high conversion (100%), styrene selectivity (86.5%), and good stability. It reveals that encapsulation noble metal nanoframes into metal oxide to form core@shell structured hybrids will indeed enhance their stability and catalytic properties. Particularly, this work expends the application of noble metal nanoframes materials to hydrogenation reactions.

A novel metal-free bulk nanocatalyst, S–N-codoped hollow carbon nanosphere/graphene aerogel (SNC-GA-1000), has been successfully fabricated using a facile and clean solid ion transition route. In this method, ZnS is used as the hard template and S source, while polydopamine acts as a reducing agent and carbon source. At a high annealing temperature, Zn metal is reduced and evaporates, leaving only free S vapor to diffuse into the carbon layer. Interestingly, the as-obtained SNC-GA-1000 exhibits much higher catalytic activity in an organic reduction reaction than unloaded bare S–N-codoped carbon nanospheres. Hydrothermal reduction of the graphene oxide sheets loaded with ZnS@polydopamine core–shell nanospheres (ZnS@PDA) affords a three-dimensional bulk graphene aerogel. Although nanosized catalysts exhibit high catalytic activities, their subsequent separation is not always satisfactory, making post-treatment difficult. This approach achieves a trade-off between activity and separability. More importantly, due to the 3D structural nature, such bulk and handheld nanocatalysts can be easily separated and recycled.

Significant attenuation and overheating, caused by the absorption of the excitation band (980 nm) in water, are the major obstacles in the in vivo application of lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). Therefore, appropriately- structured Nd³⁺-doped UCNPs with 808 nm excitation could be a promising alternative. Herein, we developed core–shell–shell structured Nd³⁺-sensitized UCNPs as imaging agents, and decorated them onto the surface of polydopamine (PDA) to construct a novel multifunctional core/satellite nanotheranostic (PDA@UCNPs) for in vivo imaging guidance photothermal therapy using single 808 nm laser irradiation. The core–shell–shell structured design enabled outstanding upconversion luminescence properties and strong X-ray attenuation, thereby making the nanocomposites potential candidates for excellent upconversion luminescence/computed tomography dual modal imaging. In addition, the PDA core not only provides high photothermal conversion efficiency and outstanding antitumor effect, but also endows the platform with robust biocompatibility owing to its natural features. Therefore, this multifunctional nanocomposite could be a promising theranostic in future oncotherapy, with high therapeutic effectiveness but low side effects. This study would stimulate interest in designing bio- application-compatible multifunctional nanocomposites, especially for cancer diagnosis and treatment in vivo.