Efficient evolution of hydrogen through electrocatalysis at low overpotentials holds tremendous promise for clean energy. Herein, a highly active and stable MoS₂ electrocatalyst is supported on reduced graphene oxide-modified carbon nanotube/polyimide (PI/CNT-RGO) film for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The PI/CNT-RGO film allows the intimate growth of MoS₂ nanoparticles on its surface. The nanosize and high dispersion of MoS₂ nanoparticles provide a vast amount of available edge sites and the coupling of RGO and MoS₂ enhances the electron transfer between the edge sites and the substrate, greatly improving the HER activity of PI/CNT-RGO-MoS₂ film. The MoS₂ with a smaller loading less than 0.04 mg cm⁻² on the PI/CNT-RGO film exhibits excellent HER activities with a low overpotential of 0.09 V and large current densities, as well as good stability. The Tafel slope of 61 mV dec⁻¹ reveals the Volmer–Heyrovsky mechanism for HER. Thus, this work paves a potential pathway for designing efficient MoS₂-based electrocatalysts for HER.

Promising catalytic activity of MoSe₂ in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is synthesized on a new reduced graphene oxide/polyimide (rGO/PI) substrate by a simple electrochemical method. The MoSe₂ nanoparticles have excellent photo-responsive properties; the potential difference could reach 0.45 V with the photo-responsive time just 0.6 s. Furthermore, MoSe₂ thin film exhibits superior catalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It has a greater cathode current at more positive potential compared to other MoSe₂ and MoS₂, and the efficiency of H₂ evolution is strongly influenced by illumination; this suggests that MoSe₂ composite film has good photoelectrocatalysis properties for hydrogen evolution. Besides, both dark and illumination MoSe₂ films exhibit extremely high stability in acidic solution as the HER catalytic activity shows no degradation after 100 cycles for two hours. All results indicate that MoSe₂–rGO/PI composite film has potential to be a better catalyst for HER.

Dendritic MoO₃/Ag with good crystallinity has been prepared through an operando method. In the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), this catalyst, which was designed to utilize the best properties of each component material, showed a high catalytic activity. After the precursor was drop-cast onto a glassy carbon electrode, a reductive potential was applied to the coated electrode, and H₂ evolution occurred within the range of potentials. The overpotential required to evolve H₂ at the benchmark rate decreased progressively with subsequent voltammetric cycles, until a steady state was reached at which only 145 mV of overpotential was required to pass −10 mA cm⁻² of current density. During the electrocatalysis, the precursor was converted to catalyst through an operando method. This operando-synthesized MoO₃/Ag catalyst has a low Tafel slope (43 mV dec⁻¹), low overpotential (145 mV), and excellent durability for HER. It has the potential to be a promising material for HER.

Platinum nanoparticles were synthesized with molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) as a template through a facile hydrothermal method. The as-prepared nanocomposites (Pt-MoS₂) were characterized by TEM, HRTEM, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and they were then used to fabricate a biosensor for enzyme-like catalysis of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). The electrochemical activity for the reduction reactions of H₂O₂ was evaluated in N₂-saturated phosphate buffer solution. The cyclic voltammetry and amperometry results demonstrated that the biosensor modified by the nanocomposites exhibited a fast amperometric response and excellent electrocatalytic activity for reduction of H₂O₂ with a wide linear range from 0.004 to 48.5 mM and a low detection limit of 0.001 mM at 3σ. Thus, the present work indicates that Pt nanoparticles can be synthesized on the surface of few-layer MoS₂ owing to interfacial PtS bonds and that the composites show a clear enhancement in the catalytic activity relative to that of the platinum nanoparticles alone. This method provides a new way to prepare metal nanoparticles for extensive applications in the field of catalysis.

A simple and sensitive high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for simultaneous determination of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone in mice plasma and tissues was developed and validated. Costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone were extracted into acetonitrile and separated using an isocratic mobile phase, on a Hypersil ODS C18 column. The effluent was monitored by UV detector at 210 nm and at a flow rate of 1.0 mL· min⁻¹ and 25°C. The linearity ranges of proposed method were 0.223–8.920 µg·mL⁻¹ for costunolide and 0.227–9.080 µg·mL⁻¹ for dehydrocostuslactone. The intra-day and inter-day RSD of the assay method for the two components were less than 5%, and mean recovery was within the 86.5% to 101.8% range. The method was found to be precise, accurate, and specific during the study. The method was successfully applied for pharmacokinetic study of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone after application of ethanol extraction of Muxiang (EEM) in mice.

Porous silicon (PS) was chosen as the substrate for supporting the Pt particles because of great surface area, good conductivity and stability. Pt nanoparticles have been successfully prepared on the substrate by immersion deposition, which is convenient. The component and morphological properties of the films have been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which shows that the Pt particles have small size and big specific surface. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) research showed that the Pt nanoparticles had novel catalytic activity for methanol when the immersion deposition time was past 24 min.

A simple method was developed for the preparation of W-doped Ag dendrites by using electroless deposition from hydrofluoride solution. The samples characterized by XPS, XRD, SEM and TEM techniques, show that the growth of silver is leading and can not be changed essentially by tungstate ions in the Ag-W binary system. A doping mode of W element was proposed, i.e., the doping of W may occur during silver deposition through chemisorption-chemical bonding of oxygen atoms of tungstate dimer with silver. Cyclic voltammetry was employed to determine the chemical bonding energy between silver and oxygen.