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The structural stability of nanocatalysts during electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR) is crucial for practical applications. However, highly active nanocatalysts often reconstruct under reductive conditions, requiring stabilization strategies to maintain activity. Here, we demonstrate that the N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) polymer stabilizes Au nanowire (NW) catalysts for selective CO2 reduction to CO over a broad potential range, enabling coupling with Cu NWs for one-step tandem conversion of CO2 to C2H4. By combining the hydrophobicity of the polystyrene chain and the strong binding of NHC to Au, the polymer stabilizes Au NWs and promotes CO2RR to CO with excellent selectivity (>90%) across −0.4 V to −1.0 V (vs RHE), a significantly broader range than unmodified Au NWs (−0.5 V to −0.7 V). Stable CO2RR at negative potentials yields a high jCO of 142 A/g Au at −1.0 V. In situ ATR-IR analysis indicates that the NHC polymer regulates the water microenvironment and suppresses hydrogen evolution at high overpotential. Moreover, NHC-Au NWs maintain excellent stability during 10 h of CO2RR testing, preserving the NW morphology and catalytic performance, while unmodified NWs degrade into nanoparticles with reduced activity and selectivity. NHC-Au NWs can be coupled with Cu NWs in a flow cell to catalyze CO2RR to C2H4 with 58% efficiency and a partial current density of 70 mA/cm2 (overall C2 product efficiency of 65%). This study presents an adaptable strategy to enhance the catalyst microenvironment, ensure stability, and enable efficient tandem CO2 conversion into value-added hydrocarbons. 

Abstract We report a new class of hydrophobic polymer ligands with quaternary ammonium head groups for surface modification of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs). Quaternary ammonium ligands bind NPs through non‐covalent electrostatic interactions, producing polymer‐grafted NPs with high colloidal and chemical stability. These polymers having charged head groups offer powerful strategies to tailor the structure and function of metal‐electrolyte interfaces in electrocatalytic systems. The ammonium head groups serve as ionic reservoirs that preconcentrate bicarbonate counterions at the surface of nanocatalysts, while the hydrophobic polymer backbones restructure local hydrogen‐bonding networks, modulating water and ion transport dynamics. These interfacial effects promote CO₂electroreduction, particularly under diffusion‐limited conditions, resulting in a CO Faradaic efficiency (FE) exceeding 90%. 

We summarize recent advances in the design of hybrid nanostructures through the combination of synthetic polymers and plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs). We categorize the synthetic methods of those polymer-coated metal NPs into two main strategies: direct encapsulation and chemical grafting, based on how NPs interact with polymers. In direct encapsulation, NPs with hydrophobic ligands are physically encapsulated into polymer micelles, primarily through hydrophobic interactions. We discuss strategies for controlling the loading numbers and locations of NPs within polymer micelles. On the other hand, polymer-grafted NPs (PGNPs) have synthetic polymers as ligands chemically grafted on NPs. We highlight that polymer ligands can asymmetrically coat metal NPs through hydrophobicity-driven phase segregation using homopolymers, BCPs and blocky random copolymers. This review provides insights into the methodologies and mechanisms to design new nanostructures of polymers and NPs, aiming to enhance the understanding of this rapidly evolving field. 

Abstract We present a new clustering-enabled regression approach to investigate how functional connectivity (FC) of the entire brain changes from childhood to old age. By applying this method to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data aggregated from three Human Connectome Project studies, we cluster brain regions that undergo identical age-related changes in FC and reveal diverse patterns of these changes for different region clusters. While most brain connections between pairs of regions show minimal yet statistically significant FC changes with age, only a tiny proportion of connections exhibit practically significant age-related changes in FC. Among these connections, FC between region clusters from the same functional network tends to decrease over time, whereas FC between region clusters from different networks demonstrates various patterns of age-related changes. Moreover, our research uncovers sex-specific trends in FC changes. Females show much higher FC mainly within the default mode network, whereas males display higher FC across several more brain networks. These findings underscore the complexity and heterogeneity of FC changes in the brain throughout the lifespan. 

We report the use of fluorinated polymer zwitterions to build hybrid systems for efficient CO₂electroreduction.