Eye‐Readable Detection and Oxidation of CO with a Platinum‐Based Catalyst and a Binuclear Rhodium Complex

Dual-Site Single-Atom Catalysts with High Performance for Three-Way Catalysis

In response to growing levels of air pollution and emission regulations, novel three-way catalysts (TWCs) with high efficiency are highly coveted. Herein, a multi-step heating strategy to fabricate a unique dual-site catalyst composed of strongly coupled Pt and Pd atoms located in neighboring positions on the surface of CeO₂ is demonstrated. Outstanding three-way catalytic performance is demonstrated, especially for NO elimination. Based on comprehensive investigations, the enhancement is attributed to the strong interactions between the neighboring Pt and Pd atoms, which can separately serve as active sites for CO and NO adsorption, efficiently reducing the energy barrier and accelerating the reaction rate. These findings not only contribute to designing and constructing next-generation catalysts, but also provide a promising opportunity to improve fuel efficiency and control emissions.

Preparation of Metal Oxides Containing ppm Levels of Pd as Catalysts for the Reduction of Nitroarene and Evaluation of Their Catalytic Activity by the Fluorescence-Based High-Throughput Screening Method

Herein, an easily accessible and efficient green method for the reduction of nitroarene compounds was developed using metal oxide catalysts. Heterogeneous metal oxides with or without Pd were prepared by a simple and scalable co-precipitation method and used for the reduction of nitroarenes. A fluorescence-based high-throughput screening (HTS) method was also developed for the rapid analysis of the reaction conditions. The catalytic activity of the metal oxides and reaction conditions were rapidly screened by the fluorescence-based HTS method, and Pd/CuO showed the highest catalytic activity under mild reaction conditions. After identifying the optimal reaction conditions, various nitroarenes were reduced to the corresponding aniline derivatives by Pd/CuO (0.005 mol% of Pd) under these conditions. Furthermore, the Pd/CuO catalyst was used for the one-pot Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling/reduction reaction. A gram-scale reaction (20 mmol) was successfully performed using the present method, and Pd/CuO showed high reusability without a loss of catalytic activity for five cycles.

Hydrophilic Ultralong Organic Nanophosphors

Ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP), enabling of persistent luminescence after removal of external excitation light, shows great promise in biological applications such as bioimaging in virtue of antibackground fluorescence interference. Despite of good biocompatibility and outstanding phosphorescent properties, most current organic phosphors are hydrophobic with poor water solubility in the form of bulk crystal with large size, limiting their potential in the biological field. Here, a facile and versatile approach is provided to obtain nanoscale hydrophilic phosphorescent phosphors (HPPs) by physically loading ultralong organic phosphors into hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The as-prepared HPPs can be well suspended in aqueous solution and effectively internalized by HeLa cells with very low cytotoxicity. Such HPPs are successfully applied for afterglow bioimaging in living nude mice with a very high signal-to-noise ratio up to 31. The current study not only provides a universal strategy to realize UOP in aqueous media but also demonstrates their great potential for biomedical purposes as an advanced imaging indicator with long-lived emission lifetime.