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  1. null (Ed.)
  2. Abstract

    Cu‐containing metalloenzymes are known to catalyze oxygen activation through cooperative catalysis. In the current work, we report the design of synthetic polymer Cu catalysts using pyrene‐labelled poly(2‐hydroxy‐3‐dipicolylamino) propyl methacrylate (Py‐PGMADPA) to coordinate multiple Cu sites along polymer chains. The catalysts feature a pyrene end group that can form supramolecular π‐π stacking with conductive carbon to allow efficient immobilization of catalysts to the graphite electrode. Cu‐containing Py‐PGMADPA was examined for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction. The hybrid catalyst showed an onset potential of 0.5 V (vs. RHE) at pH 7 and 0.79 V at pH 13. The kinetic study indicated that the catalyst had a 2ereduction of oxygen mainly mediated by Cu+centers. We demonstrated the importance of cooperative catalysis among Cu sites which did not exist for other transition metal ions, like Mn2+, Fe2+, Co2+, and Ni2+. The confinement of polymer chains promotes the activity and stabilizes Cu catalysts even at an extremely low Cu loading. The rational design of bioinspired polymer catalysts offers an alternative way to prepare synthetic mimics of metalloenzymes.

     
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  3. Abstract

    A colloidal‐amphiphile‐templated growth is developed to synthesize mesoporous complex oxides with highly crystalline frameworks. Organosilane‐containing colloidal templates can convert into thermally stable silica that prevents the overgrowth of crystalline grains and the collapse of the mesoporosity. Using ilmenite CoTiO3as an example, the high crystallinity and the extraordinary thermal stability of its mesoporosity are demonstrated at 800 °C for 48 h under air. This synthetic approach is general and applicable to a series of complex oxides that are not reported with mesoporosity and high crystallinity, such as NiTiO3, FeTiO3, ZnTiO3, Co2TiO4, Zn2TiO4, MgTi2O5, and FeTi2O5. Those novel materials make it possible to build up correlations between mesoscale porosity and surface‐sensitive physicochemical properties, e.g., electromagnetic response. For mesoporous CoTiO3, there is a 3 K increase of its antiferromagnetic ordering temperature, compared with that of nonporous one. This finding provides a general guideline to design mesoporous complex oxides that allow exploring their unique properties different from bulk materials.

     
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