On the spectral features of dangling bonds in CH4/H2O amorphous ice mixtures

Nitrogen-Doped Porous Nickel Molybdenum Phosphide Sheets for Efficient Seawater Splitting

Hydrogen is emerging as an alternative clean fuel; however, its dependency on freshwater will be a threat to a sustainable environment. Seawater, an unlimited source, can be an alternative, but its salt-rich nature causes corrosion and introduces several competing reactions, hindering its use. To overcome these, a unique catalyst composed of porous sheets of nitrogen-doped NiMo₃ P (N-NiMo₃ P) having a sheet size of several microns is designed. The presence of large homogenous pores in the basal plane of these sheets makes them catalytically more active and ensures faster mass transfer. The introduction of N and Ni into MoP significantly tunes the electronic density of Mo, surface chemistry, and metal-non-metal bond lengths, optimizing surface energies, creating new active sites, and increasing electrical conductivity. The presence of metal-nitrogen bonds and surface polyanions increases the stability and improves anti-corrosive properties against chlorine chemistry. Ultimately, the N-NiMo₃ P sheets show remarkable performance as it only requires overpotentials of 23 and 35 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction, and it catalyzes full water splitting at 1.52 and 1.55 V to achieve 10 mA cm^-2 in 1 m KOH and seawater, respectively. Hence, structural and compositional control can make catalysts effective in realizing low-cost hydrogen directly from seawater.

Optical Studies of Thin Films of Cryocondensed Mixtures of Water and Admixture of Nitrogen and Argon

The interaction of host molecules with water molecules is of primary importance in astrophysical and atmospheric studies. Water-binding interactions continue to attract a broad interest in various fields, especially those related to the formation of assembly structures. Using the physical vapor deposition (PVD) method and a two-beam interferometer with a wavelength of 406 nm, the refractive indices of thin films of a water and nitrogen (argon) mixture were calculated in the range from 15 to 35 K. The results of temperature transformations of the obtained films from a two-beam interferometer, and thermal desorption characteristics from the temperature of condensation to the temperature of evaporation of water (15-180 K), are presented. The relationship between the signal of the interferometer, the refractive index, and the film thickness during glass transition is demonstrated.