Direct dehydrogenation with high selectivity and oxidative dehydrogenation with low thermal limit has been regarded as promising methods to solve the increasing demands of light olefins and styrene. Metal-based catalysts have shown remarkable performance for these reactions, such as Pt, CrO_x, Co, ZrO_x, Zn and V. Compared with metal-based catalysts, carbon materials with stable structure, rich pore texture and large surface area, are ideal platforms as the catalysts and the supports for dehydrogenation reactions. In this review, carbon materials applied in direct dehydrogenation and oxidative dehydrogenation reactions including ordered mesoporous carbon, carbon nanodiamond, carbon nanotubes, graphene and activated carbon, are summarized. A general introduction to the dehydrogenation mechanism and active sites of carbon catalysts is briefly presented to provide a deep understanding of the carbon-based materials used in dehydrogenation reactions. The unique structure of each carbon material is presented, and the diversified synthesis methods of carbon catalysts are clarified. The approaches for promoting the catalytic activity of carbon catalysts are elaborated with respect to preparation method optimization, suitable structure design and heteroatom doping. The regeneration mechanism of carbon-based catalysts is discussed for providing guidance on catalytic performance enhancement. In addition, carbon materials as the support of metal-based catalysts contribute to exploiting the excellent catalytic performance of catalysts due to superior structural characteristics. In the end, the challenges in current research and strategies for future improvements are proposed.

With the rapid development of industry, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are gaining attention as a class of pollutants that need to be eliminated due to their adverse effects on the environment and human health. Catalytic combustion is the most popular technology used for the removal of VOCs as it can be adapted to different organic emissions under mild conditions. This review first introduces the hazards of VOCs, their treatment technologies, and summarizes the treatment mechanism issues. Next, the characteristics and catalytic performance of perovskite oxides as catalysts for VOC removal are expounded, with a special focus on lattice distortions and surface defects caused by metal doping and surface modifications, and on the treatment of different VOCs. The challenges and the prospects regarding the design of perovskite oxides catalysts for the catalytic combustion of VOCs are also discussed. This review provides a reference base for improving the performance of perovskite catalysts to treat VOCs.

Carbon-supported Pt-based materials are highly promising electrocatalysts. The carbon support plays an important role in the Pt-based catalysts by remarkably influencing the growth, particle size, morphology, dispersion, electronic structure, physiochemical property and function of Pt. This review summarizes recent progress made in the development of carbon-supported Pt-based catalysts, with special emphasis being given to how activity and stability enhancements are related to Pt–C interactions in various carbon supports, including porous carbon, heteroatom doped carbon, carbon-based binary support, and their corresponding electrocatalytic applications. Finally, the current challenges and future prospects in the development of carbon-supported Pt-based catalysts are discussed.

The electrocatalyst NiFeRuO_x/NF, comprised of NiFeRuO_x nanosheets grown on Ni foam, was synthesized using a hydrothermal process followed by thermal annealing. NiFeRuO_x/NF displays high electrocatalytic activity and stability for overall alkaline seawater splitting: 98 mV@ 10 mA∙cm⁻² in hydrogen evolution reaction, 318 mV@ 50 mA∙cm⁻² in oxygen evolution reaction, and a cell voltage of 1.53 V@ 10 mA∙cm⁻², as well as 20 h of durability. A solar-driven system containing such a bifunctional NiFeRuO_x/NF has an almost 100% Faradaic efficiency. The NiFeRuO_x coating around Ni foam is an anti-corrosion layer and also a critical factor for enhancement of bifunctional performances.

Water electrolysis technology is considered to be one of the most promising means to produce hydrogen. Herein, aiming at the problems of high overpotential and slow kinetics in water splitting, N-doped porous carbon nanofibers-coupled CoNi₂S₄ nanoparticles are prepared as bifunctional electrocatalyst. In the strategy, NaCl is used as the template to prepare porous carbon nanofibers with a large surface area, and sulfur vacancies are created to modulate the electronic structure of CoNi₂S₄. Electron spin resonance confirms the formation of abundant sulfur vacancies, which largely reduce the bandgap of CoNi₂S₄ from 1.68 to 0.52 eV. The narrowed bandgap is conducive to the migration of valence electrons and decreases the charge transfer resistance for electrocatalytic reaction. Moreover, the uniform distribution of CoNi₂S₄ nanoparticles on carbon nanofibers can prevent the aggregation and facilitate the exposure of electrochemical active sites. Therefore, the composite catalyst exhibits low overpotentials of 340 mV@100 mA·cm^–2 for oxygen evolution reaction and 380 mV@100 mA·cm^–2 for hydrogen evolution reaction. The assembled electrolyzer requires 1.64 V to achieve 10 mA·cm^–2 for overall water-splitting with good long-term stability. The excellent performance results from the synergistic effect of porous structures, sulfur deficiency, nitrogen doping, and the well-dispersed active component.

In recent years, organic photocatalyst under visible-light absorption has shown significant potential for solving environmental problems. However, it is still a great challenge for constructing a highly active organic photocatalyst due to the low separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers. Herein, an effective and robust photocatalyst perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diamide/boron nitride quantum dots (PDI/BNQDs), consisting of self-assemble PDI with π–π stacking structure and BNQDs, has been constructed and researched under visible light irradiation. The PDI/BNQDs composite gradually increases organic pollutant photodegradation with the loading amount of BNQDs. With 10 mL of BNQDs solution added (PDI/BNQDs-10), the organic pollutant photodegradation performance reaches a maximum, about 6.16 times higher with methylene blue and 1.68 times higher with ciprofloxacin than that of pure PDI supramolecular. The enhancement is attributed to improved separation of photogenerated carriers from self-assembled PDI by BNQDs due to their preeminent ability to extract holes. This work is significant for the supplement of PDI supramolecular composite materials. We believe that this photocatalytic design is capable of expanding organic semiconductors’ potential for their applications in photocatalysis.

A novel Z-scheme ZnFe₂O₄/BiVO₄ heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully synthesized using a convenient solvothermal method and applied in the visible light photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin, which is a typical antibiotic contaminant in wastewater. The heterostructure of as-synthesized catalysts was confirmed using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterizations. Compared with the single-phase counterparts, ZnFe₂O₄/BiVO₄ demonstrated considerably enhanced photogenerated charge separation efficiencies because of the Z-scheme transfer mechanism of electrons between the composite photocatalysts. Consequently, the 30% ZnFe₂O₄/BiVO₄ catalyst afforded a degradation rate of up to 97% of 20 mg/L ciprofloxacin under 30 min of visible light irradiation with a total organic carbon removal rate of 50%, which is an excellent activity compared with ever reported BiVO₄-based catalysts. In addition, the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and quantitative structure-activity relationships model analyses demonstrated that the toxicity of the intermediates was lower than that of the parent ciprofloxacin. Moreover, the as-synthesized ZnFe₂O₄/BiVO₄ heterojunctions were quite stable and could be reused at least four times. This study thus provides a promising Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst for the efficient removal and detoxication of antibiotic pollutants from wastewater.

Based on monolayer dispersion theory, Co₃O₄/ZSM-5 catalysts with different loadings have been prepared for selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides by ammonia. Co₃O₄ can spontaneously disperse on HZSM-5 support with a monolayer dispersion threshold of 0.061 mmol 100 m^–2, equaling to a weight percentage around 4.5%. It has been revealed that the quantities of surface active oxygen (O₂^–) and acid sites are crucial for the reaction, which can adsorb and activate NO_x and NH₃ reactants effectively. Below the monolayer dispersion threshold, Co₃O₄ is finely dispersed as sub-monolayers or monolayers and in an amorphous state, which is favorable to generate the two kinds of active sites, hence promoting the performance of ammonia selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxide. However, the formation of crystalline Co₃O₄ above the capacity is harmful to the reaction performance. 4% Co₃O₄/ZSM-5, the catalyst close to the monolayer dispersion capacity, possesses the most abundant active O₂^– species and acidic sites, thereby demonstrating the best reaction performance in all the samples. It is proposed the optimal Co₃O₄/ZSM-5 catalyst can be prepared by loading the capacity amount of Co₃O₄ onto HZSM-5 support.

Owing to the complexity of electron transfer pathways, the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction process is defined as the bottleneck for the practical application of Zn–air batteries. In this effort, metal nanoparticles (Co, Ni, Fe, etc.) encapsulated within nitrogen-doped carbon materials with abundant edge sites were synthesized by one-step pyrolysis treatment using cigarette butts as raw materials, which can drastically accelerate the overall rate of oxygen evolution reaction by facilitating the adsorption of oxygenated intermediates by the edge-induced topological defects. The prepared catalyst of nitrogen-doped carbon porous nanosheets loaded with Co nanoparticles (Co@NC-500) exhibits enhanced catalytic activity toward oxygen evolution reaction, with a low overpotential of 350 mV at the current density of 10 mA·cm^–2. Furthermore, the Zn–air battery assembled with Co@NC-500 catalyst demonstrates a desirable performance affording an open-circuit potential of 1.336 V and power density of 33.6 mW·cm^–2, indicating considerable practical application potential.

A stable and recyclable of BiOBr/silk fibroin-cellulose acetate composite film was prepared by blending-wet phase transformation and in situ precipitate technology. The cellulose acetate film modified by silk fibroin formed a finger-shaped porous structure, which provided a large space for the uniform growth of BiOBr nanosheets and facilitated the shuttle flow of dyes in film. The morphology, phase structure, and optical properties of the composite films were characterized using various techniques, and their photocatalytic performance for dye wastewater was evaluated under visible light irradiation. Results showed that the BiOBr/SF-CA composite film exhibited efficient photocatalytic activity with 99.9% of rhodamine B degradation rate. Moreover, the composite film maintained high catalytic stability because Bi as the active species deposited on the film showed almost no loss. Finally, the possible photocatalytic mechanisms in the BiOBr/SF-CA composite film were speculated through radical-trapping experiments and electron spin resonance testing.

Compared with traditional hydrodesulfurization, new nonhydrodesulfurization methods have the advantage of a high removal efficiency for thiophene compounds under mild conditions. However, independent nonhydrodesulfurization technologies are faced with their own shortcomings, such as limitations of the desulfurization performance and regeneration of materials. To overcome these limitations, four nanofluids were prepared by dispersing different metal-modified MCM-41 particles in deep eutectic solvent as multifunctional promoters to develop a comprehensive desulfurization method. Based on the excellent adsorbability and high catalytic activity of the dispersed particles and the outstanding extractability of deep eutectic solvent in nanofluids, a high sulfur removal of 99.33% was achieved for model oil under mild conditions in 15 min. The nanofluids also showed excellent reusability due to their high structural stability. In addition, NF@Cu/Al-MCM-41-2.5% exhibited the best desulfurization performance among the prepared nanofluids. This result was obtained because the introduction of Al ions increased the number of acid sites and defect sites to improve the catalytic activity and adsorbability, and the best affinity of Cu/Al-MCM-41 for the deep eutectic solvent favored the reaction mass transfer. This work opens the door to the development of a comprehensive nonhydrodesulfurization method based on the design of nanofluid materials.

Monodispersed nitrogen-doped carbon nanospheres with tunable particle size (100–230 nm) were synthesized via self-polymerization of biochemical dopamine in the presence of hexamethylenetetramine as a buffer and F127 as a size controlling agent. Hexamethylenetetramine can mildly release NH_3, which in turn initiates the polymerization reaction of dopamine. The carbon nanospheres obtained exhibited a significant energy storage capability of 265 F·g^–1 at 0.5 A·g^–1 and high-rate performance of 82% in 6 mol·L^–1 KOH (20 A·g^–1), which could be attributed to the presence of abundant micro-mesoporous structure, doped nitrogen functional groups and the small particle size. Moreover, the fabricated symmetric supercapacitor device displayed a high stability of 94% after 5000 cycles, revealing the considerable potential of carbon nanospheres as electrode materials for energy storage.

Improving the aromatic selectivity in the alkane aromatization process is of great importance for its practical utilization but challenge to make because the high H/C ratio of alkanes would lead to a serious hydrogen transfer process and a large amount of light alkanes. Herein, CO₂ is introduced into the cyclohexane conversion process on the HZSM-5 zeolite, which can improve the aromatic selectivity. By optimizing the reaction conditions, an improved aromatic (benzene, toluene, xylene, and C₉₊) selectivity of 48.2% can be obtained at the conditions of 2.7 MPa (CO₂), 450 °C, and 1.7 h⁻¹, which is better than that without CO₂ (aromatic selectivity = 43.2%). In situ transmission Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra illustrate that many oxygenated chemical intermediates (e.g., carboxylic acid, anhydride, unsaturated aldehydes/ketones or ketene) would be formed during the cyclohexane conversion process in the presence of CO₂. ¹³C isotope labeling experimental results demonstrate that CO₂ can enter into the aromatics through the formation of oxygenated chemical intermediates and thereby improve the aromatic selectivity. This study may open a green, economic, and promising way to improve the aromatic selectivity for alkane aromatization process.