Flexible thermoelectric materials and devices: From materials to applications

Electrocatalysis plays a central role in clean energy conversion, enabling a number of sustainable processes for future technologies. This review discusses design strategies for state-of-the-art heterogeneous electrocatalysts and associated materials for several different electrochemical transformations involving water, hydrogen, and oxygen, using theory as a means to rationalize catalyst performance. By examining the common principles that govern catalysis for different electrochemical reactions, we describe a systematic framework that clarifies trends in catalyzing these reactions, serving as a guide to new catalyst development while highlighting key gaps that need to be addressed. We conclude by extending this framework to emerging clean energy reactions such as hydrogen peroxide production, carbon dioxide reduction, and nitrogen reduction, where the development of improved catalysts could allow for the sustainable production of a broad range of fuels and chemicals. Show more

Thermoelectric materials, which can generate electricity from waste heat or be used as solid-state Peltier coolers, could play an important role in a global sustainable energy solution. Such a development is contingent on identifying materials with higher thermoelectric efficiency than available at present, which is a challenge owing to the conflicting combination of material traits that are required. Nevertheless, because of modern synthesis and characterization techniques, particularly for nanoscale materials, a new era of complex thermoelectric materials is approaching. We review recent advances in the field, highlighting the strategies used to improve the thermopower and reduce the thermal conductivity. Show more

Cyclooxygenase-2 isozyme is a promising anti-inflammatory drug target, and overexpression of this enzyme is also associated with several cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. The amino-acid sequence and structural similarity between inducible cyclooxygenase-2 and housekeeping cyclooxygenase-1 isoforms present a significant challenge to design selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors. Herein, we describe the use of the cyclooxygenase-2 active site as a reaction vessel for the in situ generation of its own highly specific inhibitors. Multi-component competitive-binding studies confirmed that the cyclooxygenase-2 isozyme can judiciously select most appropriate chemical building blocks from a pool of chemicals to build its own highly potent inhibitor. Herein, with the use of kinetic target-guided synthesis, also termed as in situ click chemistry, we describe the discovery of two highly potent and selective cyclooxygenase-2 isozyme inhibitors. The in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of these two novel small molecules is significantly higher than that of widely used selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors. Show more