Since metal-organic frameworks were firstly suggested and developed as highly porous materials, zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) derived carbons have been considered as promising materials for energy con-version/storage applications. In particular, ZIF-derived carbons are among the most feasible media in which to store metallic lithium (Li) to create a practical lithium-ion battery anode, because of their large pore volume and easily adjustable properties. With this background, we suggest that the electrochemical performance of this Li-metal storage medium can be maximized by controlling the properties of ZIF-derived carbon. Finally, we discuss perspectives on future Li-metal anode research.

In June 2019, two hydrogen-related accidents occurred independently at a hydrogen refueling station in Norway and at a chemical plant in California while filling a truck due to supply the fuel at stations in California. The accidents raised questions about the safety and reliability of hydrogen for powering both fuel cell electric vehicles and buildings. As a preventive measure, for instance, Germany and Norway closed the hydrogen refueling stations from the same manufacturer of Norway accident, while the hydrogen manufacturer in California ceased supply of hydrogen fuel for more than three months. It is significant to review the outcomes of the two accidents in the context of the emerging solar economy, in which H₂ is locally produced from water via simple electrolysis using renewable electricity. This study provides an insight and selected recommendations aiming at hydrogen companies, professionals and trainers and educators in renewable energy and clean technology.

Scientific meetings on topics of socioeconomic and environmental global relevance such as the “FineCat Symposium on heterogeneous catalysis for fine chemicals” held in Sicily between 2012 and 2017 may actively promote sustainable development and progress in frontier research from and within developing areas of the world.

The recent advances in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) surprised the traditional photovoltaic community. The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of PSCs have achieved more than 20%, in which the key functional layer is currently constituted by spirobifluorene (SBF)-based hole transporting materials (HTMs), typically known as spiro-OMeTAD. In the meanwhile, a new rising spiro-core, spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthene] (SFX), has attracted great interest for contrasting HTMs. SFX exhibits two main advantages compared with SBF: one is low-cost, the other is high stability. Hence, a lot of highly efficient HTMs based on SFX have been designed and synthesized, and the corresponding PSCs devices have shown competitive performances with spiro-OMeTAD- based cells. In this minireview, we summarize the structure-performance relationship of high-efficiency SFX-based HTMs for PSCs. The effects of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level, hole mobility and conductivity, film-forming ability of SFX-based HTMs on the PCEs have been focused.

In this review, we present the recent use of anilato-based ligands (derivatives of the 3,6-disubstituted-2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone dianion = C₆O₄X₂²⁻) to build heterometallic 2D magnets. Among the different metal couples, the Mn(II)Cr(III)-containing layers are, by far, the most studied and characterized ones. We will show the structures and properties of the extended families of layered magnets formulated as A[M^IIM^III(C₆O₄X₂)₃]·G and A₂[M^IM^III(C₆O₄X₂)₃]·G (A = monocation; X = Cl, Br, CN,··· G = solvent molecules). We also focus on how it is possible to modulate the magnetic properties of these magnets (ordering temperatures and coercive fields) by simply changing the cation, the X groups, the solvent molecules and the oxidation state of the anilato ligand. Moreover, the tune of the magnetic properties of these layered magnets in a post-synthetic way is also shown.

Polyolefin materials are the most synthesized polymer used nowadays and symbolize the development level of the national petrochemical industry, in which polyethylenes are major along with alternative product α-olefins for co-monomer and substrates for fine chemicals. Likely operating catalysts such as Ziegler-Natta and metallocene meet all demanding of various polyethylene materials, what is any business in developing late-transition metal catalysts for ethylene reactivity? In the past two decades, we realized the advantages of late-transition metal catalysts, such as easy variousness and easy preparation, good stability and high catalytic activity. Besides these, the characteristic different polyethylenes have been achieved as either highly linear polyethylene or highly branched polyethylenes. Therefore, there are some spaces in developing new catalytic system on the base of late-transition metal catalysts to compromise the demanding for new polyethylenes from sole ethylene polymerization.

Cu₆Sn₅ nanoparticles have been synthesized successfully via chemical reduction method in aqueous solutions, which is a kind of intermetallic compound (IMC) with active/inert Sn-Cu interfaces. The active layer reacted with Li⁺ and the inert layer inhibited the volume change effectively. Meanwhile, reduced oxide graphene (RGO)/Cu₆Sn₅ composites were also prepared by the similar method for the reason that the presence of RGO alleviated the aggregation of Cu₆Sn₅ nanoparticles. Therefore, RGO/Cu₆Sn₅ nanoparticles showed more su-perior electrochemical performance compared with Cu6Sn5 nanoparticles. The results showed that RGO/Cu₆Sn₅ nanoparticles exhibited promising cycling stability (461 mAh·g^-1 after 18 cycles), high rate ca-pability and prominent capacity retention, which can be extensively used in the field of lithium-ion battery anode. Herein, we also develop a simple and environmantal friendly fabrication approach to prepare Cu6Sn5 nano-composites, which is suitable for mass production.

CeO₂ nanospheres with different diameters were successfully prepared and embedded in one-dim- ensional chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol (CS/PVA) composite nanofibers by electrospinning technique for further antibacterial evaluation. The obtained composites exhibited different antibacterial activities to Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli). We propose that CeO2-CS/PVA nanofibrous membranes with attractive antibacterial activities witness the practical use for tissue engineering such as wound dressing.