Miniaturized electrochemical sensors and their point-of-care applications

Most of the current analytical methods depend largely on laboratory-based analytical techniques that require expensive and bullky equipment,potentially incur costly testing,and involve lengthy detection processes.With increasing requirements for point-of-care testing(POCT),more attention has been paid to miniaturized analytical devices.Miniaturized electrochemical(MEC)sensors,including different material-based MEC sensors(such as DNA-,paper-,and screen electrode-based),have been in strong demand in analytical science due to their easy operation,portability,high sensitivity,as well as their short analysis time.They have been applied for the detection of trace amounts of target through measuring changes in electrochemical signal,such as current,voltage,potential,or impedance,due to the oxidation/reduction of chemical/biological molecules with the help of electrodes and electrochemical units.MEC sensors present great potential for the detection of targets including small organic molecules,metal ions,and biomolecules.In recent years,MEC sensors have been broadly applied to POCT in various fields,including health care,food safety,and environmental monitoring,owing to the excellent advantages of electrochemical(EC)technologies.This review summarized the state-of-the-art advancements on various types of MEC sensors and their applications in POCT.Furthermore,the future perspectives,opportunities,and challenges in this field are also discussed.     

Machine Learning towards Screening Solid-state Lithium Ion Conductors

Machine learning is an emerging method to discover new materials with specific characteristics.An unsupervised machine learning research is highlighted to discover new potential lithium ionic conductors by screening and clustering lithium compounds,providing inspirations for the development of solid-state electrolytes and practical batteries.     

Surface defect-rich ceria quantum dots anchored on sulfur-doped carbon nitride nanotubes with enhanced charge separation for solar hydrogen production

Designing defect-engineered semiconductor heterojunctions can effectively promote the charge carrier separation.Herein,novel ceria(CeO2) quantum dots(QDs) decorated sulfur-doped carbon nitride nanotubes(SCN NTs) were synthesized via a thermal polycondensation coupled in situ depositionprecipitation method without use of template or surfactant.The structure and morphology studies indicate that ultrafine CeO2 QDs are well distributed inside and outside of SCN NTs offering highly dispersed active sites and a large contact interface between two components.This leads to the promoted formation of rich Ce³⁺ ion and oxygen vacancies as confirmed by XPS.The photocatalytic performance can be facilely modulated by the content of CeO2 QDs introduced in SCN matrix while bare CeO2 does not show activity of hydrogen production.The optimal catalyst with 10% of CeO2 loading yields a hydrogen evolution rate of 2923.8 μmol h-1 g-1 under visible light,remarkably higher than that of bare SCN and their physical mixtures.Further studies reveal that the abundant surface defects and the created 0 D/1 D junctions play a critical role in improving the separation and transfer of charge carriers,leading to superior solar hydrogen production and good stability.     

Superfast and solvent-free core-shell assembly of sulfur/carbon active particles by hail-inspired nanostorm technology for high-energy-density Li-S batteries

The demand on low-carbon emission fabrication technologies for energy storage materials is increasing dramatically with the global interest on carbon neutrality.As a promising active material for metal-sulfur batteries,sulfur is of great interest due to its high-energy-density and abundance.However,there is a lack of industry-friendly and low-carbon fabrication strategies for high-performance sulfur-based active particles,which,however,is in critical need by their practical success.Herein,based on a hail-inspired sulfur nano-storm(HSN)technology developed in our lab,we report an energy-saving,solvent-free strategy for producing core-shell sulfur/carbon electrode particles(CNT@AC-S)in minutes.The fabrication of the CNT@AC-S electrode particles only involves low-cost sulfur blocks,commercial carbon nanotubes(CNT)and activated carbon(AC)micro-particles with high specific surface area.Based on the above core-shell CNT@AC-S particles,sulfur cathode with a high sulfur-loading of 9.2 mg cm^-2 delivers a stable area capacity of 6.6 mAh cm^-2 over 100 cycles.Furthermore,even for sulfur cathode with a super-high sulfur content(72 wt%over the whole electrode),it still delivers a high area capacity of 9 mAh cm^-2 over50 cycles in a quasi-lean electrolyte condition.In a nutshell,this study brings a green and industryfriendly fabrication strategy for cost-effective production of rationally designed S-rich electrode particles.     

Unraveling the stabilization mechanism of solid electrolyte interface on ZnSe by rGO in sodium ion battery

Transition metal selenides have been widely studied as anode materials of sodium ion batteries(SIBs),however,the investigation of solid-electrolyte-interface(SEI)on these materials,which is critical to the electrochemical performance of SIBs,remains at its infancy.Here in this paper,ZnSe@C nanoparticles were prepared from ZIF-8 and the SEI layers on these electrodes with and without reduced graphene oxide(rGO)layers were examined in details by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies at varied charged/discharged states.It is observed that fast and complicated electrolyte decomposition reactions on ZnSe@C leads to quite thick SEI film and intercalation of solvated sodium ions through such thick SEI film results in slow ion diffusion kinetics and unstable electrode structure.However,the presence of rGO could efficiently suppress the decomposition of electrolyte,thus thin and stable SEI film was formed.ZnSe@C electrodes wrapped by rGO demonstrates enhanced interfacial charge transfer kinetics and high electrochemical performance,a capacity retention of 96.4%,after 1000 cycles at 5 A/g.This study might offer a simple avenue for the designing high performance anode materials through manipulation of SEI film.     

CXN天然沸石的研究2: 吸附性质

采用N~2,NH~3,CO~2,乙烯,丙烯,水,甲醇,乙醇,丙醇等作为吸附剂,研究了由我国CXN天然沸石改性制得的H-STI和Na-STI沸石的吸附性质,H-STI和Na-STI沸石的BET表面积及微孔孔体积约为420m^2/g和0.20m^3/g。根据NH~3和CO~2在H-STI沸石上的吸附等温线计算得到它们的吸附热分别为44.8和26.5kJ/mol。乙烯,丙烯,甲醇,乙醇,丙醇等在Na-STI沸石上的吸附等温线表明该沸石对有机分子的吸附具有链长选择性。在低分压下水相对于甲醇的吸附量表明沸石具有一定的疏水性质。     

常温常湿条件下Au/MeO~x催化剂上CO氧化性能

利用共沉淀法制备了Au/MeO~x催化剂(Me=Al,Co,Cr,Cu,Fe,Mn,Ni,Zn)。在常温常湿条件下,考察了不同氧化物负载的金基催化剂的CO氧化性能。结果表明,氧化物种类对催化剂的活性和稳定性均有较大的影响。Cu,Mn,Cr等氧化物负载的金基催化剂的活性较差,而Zn,Fe,Co,Ni,Al等金属氧化物负载的金基催化剂可将CO完全氧化,又具有一定的稳定性,在相同反应条件下,CO完全转化时的稳定性顺序为Au/ZnO>Au/α-Fe~2O~3>Au/Co~3O~4>Au/γ-Al~2O~3≈Au/NiO。还发现水对Au/MnO~x催化剂的活性和稳定性有负作用,而对180℃焙烧制备的Au/ZnO-180催化剂的活性和稳定性均有明显的湿度增强作用。     

Boost oxygen reduction reaction performance by tuning the active sites in Fe-N-P-C catalysts

Cost-effective atomically dispersed Fe-N-P-C complex catalysts are promising to catalyze the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)and replace Pt catalysts in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.However,it remains a challenge to increase the number of atomically dispersed active sites on these catalysts.Here we report a highly efficient impregnation-pyrolysis method to prepare effective ORR electrocatalysts with large amount of atomically dispersed Fe active sites from biomass.Two types of active catalyst centers were identified,namely atomically dispersed Fe sites and Fe_xP particles.The ORR rate of the atomically dispersed Fe sites is three orders of magnitude higher than it of Fe_xP particles.A linear correlation between the amount of the atomically dispersed Fe and the ORR activity was obtained,revealing the major contribution of the atomically dispersed Fe to the ORR activity.The number of atomically dispersed Fe increases as the Fe loading increased and reaching the maximum at 1.86 wt%Fe,resulting in the maximum ORR rate.Optimized Fe-N-P-C complex catalyst was used as the cathode catalyst in a homemade Zn-air battery and good performance of an energy density of 771 Wh kgZn^-1,a power density of 92.9 m W cm^-2 at 137 m A cm^-2 and an excellent durability were exhibited.     

Regulation of carbon distribution to construct high-sulfur-content cathode in lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur(Li-S)battery is regarded as one of the most promising next-generation energy storage systems due to the ultra-high theoretical energy density of 2600 Wh kg^-1.To address the insulation nature of sulfur,nanocarbon composition is essential to afford acceptable cycling capacity but inevitably sacrifices the actual energy density under working conditions.Therefore,rational structural design of the carbon/sulfur composite cathode is of great significance to realize satisfactory electrochemical performances with limited carbon content.Herein,the cathode carbon distribution is rationally regulated to construct high-sulfur-content and high-performance Li-S batteries.Concretely,a double-layer carbon(DLC)cathode is prepared by fabricating a surface carbon layer on the carbon/sulfur composite.The surface carbon layer not only provides more electrochemically active surfaces,but also blocks the polysulfide shuttle.Consequently,the DLC configuration with an increased sulfur content by nearly 10 wt%renders an initial areal capacity of 3.40 mAh cm^-2 and capacity retention of 83.8%during 50 cycles,which is about two times than that of the low-sulfur-content cathode.The strategy of carbon distribution regulation affords an effective pathway to construct advanced high-sulfur-content cathodes for practical high-energy-density Li-S batteries.     

Confined Ni-In intermetallic alloy nanocatalyst with excellent coking resistance for methane dry reforming

Carbon dioxide and methane are two main greenhouse gases which are contributed to serious global warming.Fortunately,dry reforming of methane(DRM),a very important reaction developed decades ago,can convert these two major greenhouse gases into value-added syngas or hydrogen.The main problem retarding its industrialization is the seriously coking formation upon the nickel-based catalysts.Herein,a series of confined indium-nickel(In-Ni)intermetallic alloy nanocatalysts(In_xNi@SiO₂)have been prepared and displayed superior coking resistance for DRM reaction.The sample containing 0.5 wt.%of In loading(In_0.5Ni@SiO₂)shows the best balance of carbon deposition resistance and DRM reactivity even after 430 h long term stability test.The boosted carbon resistance can be ascribed to the confinement of core–shell structure and to the transfer of electrons from Indium to Nickel in In-Ni intermetallic alloys due to the smaller electronegativity of In.Both the silica shell and the increase of electron cloud density on metallic Ni can weaken the ability of Ni to activate C–H bond and decrease the deep cracking process of methane.The reaction over the confined InNi intermetallic alloy nanocatalyst was conformed to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood(L-H)mechanism revealed by in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy(in-situ DRIFTS).This work provides a guidance to design high performance coking resistance catalysts for methane dry reforming to efficiently utilize these two main greenhouse gases.     

二{氧合—二[2—呋喃甲酸二苄基锡（IV）]}的合成、性质及晶体结构

以二苄基氧化锡和2-呋喃基羧酸反应，合成了新的化合物二[氧合-二[2—呋喃甲酸二苄基锡(IV)]}．生物活性测试结果表明，该配合物具有较强的体外抗癌活性．X射线单晶衍射测定表明，配合物是以Sn2O2四元环为中心的、中心对称的二聚体结构，内环锡为六配位的畸变八面体结构，外环锡为五配位的加帽畸变三角双锥结构．     

有机锡配合物{[(n-C8H17)2Sn(O2CCH2CS2NC4H8O)]2O}2的合成，表征及晶体结构

The title complex {[(n-C₈H₁₇)₂Sn(O₂CCH₂CS₂NC₄H₈O)]₂O}₂ has been synthesized by the reaction of (morpholinylthiocarbamoylthio)acetic acid with the di-n-octyltin oxide in 1∶1 molar ratio. The complex was characterized by elemental analysis, IR and ¹H NMR. The crystal and molecular structure of complex was determined by X-ray single crystal diffraction. The crystal belongs to triclinic system with space group P1 and unit cell dimensions: a=1.201 5(9) nm, b=1.481 8(11) nm, c=1.894 1(14) nm, α=72.485(10)°, β=88.586(10)°, γ=66.893(9)°, and Z=1, μ=1.034 mm^-1, V=2.941(4) nm³, D_c=1.295 g·cm^-3, F(000)=1 196, R₁=0.058 8, wR₂=0.155 8. The complex is a centrosymmetric structure with a four-membered central endo-cyclic Sn₂O₂ unit in which two bridged oxygen atoms both connect with an exo-cyclic tin atom. The endo-cyclic tin atoms and the exo-cyclic tin atom are all five-coordinate and have coordination geometry of distorted trigonal bipyramid with an additional weak coordination carboxylate oxygen. Four carboxylate ligands are divided into two types. And two of them are monodentate and connecting to each of exo-cyclic tin atoms by using one oxygen atom, whereas the others bridge to each pair of exo-and endo-cyclic tin atoms utilizing one oxygen atom. CCDC: 277048.     

水在HfO2(111)和(110)表面的吸附与解离

运用广义梯度近似密度泛函理论方法(GGA-PW91)结合周期平板模型, 研究水分子在二氧化铪(111)和(110)表面不同吸附位置在不同覆盖度下的吸附行为. 通过比较不同吸附位的吸附能和几何构型参数发现:(111)和(110)表面铪原子(top 位)是活性吸附位. 水分子与表面的吸附能值随覆盖度的变化影响较小. 在(111)和(110)表面, 水分子都倾向以氧端与表面铪原子相互作用. 同时也计算了羟基、氧和氢在表面的吸附, Mulliken 电荷布居, 态密度及部分频率. 结果表明, 在两种表面羟基以氧端与表面铪相互作用, 氧原子与表面铪和氧原子同时成键, 而氢原子直接与表面氧原子相互作用形成羟基. 通过过渡态搜索, 水分子在(111)和(110)表面发生解离, 反应能垒分别为9.7和17.3 kJ·mol^-1, 且放热为59.9和47.6 kJ·mol^-1.     

Synthesis,Characterization and Properties of Bis{oxo—bis[heteroaromatic carboxylatodibenzyltin（Ⅳ）]}and Crystal Structure of Bis{oxo—bis[2—furylcarboxylatodibenzyltin（Ⅳ）]}

IntroductionThe organotin( ) derivatives of carboxylicacids have been extensively studied due to their bio-logical activities[1— 4] . In recent years more andmore reports on the synthesis,antitumour activi-ties,biocidal activities,antibiotic activities andstructural elucidation of various organotin ( )derivatives of carboxylic acids have appeared[5— 10 ] .In particular,the diorganotin ( ) complexes ofcarboxylic acids have aroused a considerable inter-est of some scientists in the structur…     

A new system in organooxotin cluster chemistry incorporating inorganic and organic spacers between two ladders each containing five tin atoms

Hydrolysis of dibenzyltin dichloride in ethanol has been found to give an unprecedented carbonate anion (CO(3) (2-))-bridged double-ladder organooxotin cluster, [(R(2)SnO)(3)(R(2)SnOH)(2)(CO(3))](2) (1, R = C(6)H(5)CH(2)), with five tin atoms in each ladder. With the aim of obtaining organooxotin clusters with large cavities suitable for host-guest chemistry, we used 1,1'-ferrocenedicarboxylic acid (H(2)L(a)) and hexanedioic acid (H(2)L(b)) to replace the carbonate anions (CO(3) (2-)), and thereby clusters [(R(2)SnO)(3)(R(2)SnOH)(2)L(a)](2) (2) and [(R(2)SnO)(3)(R(2)SnOH)(2)L(b)](2) (3) were obtained. When 1 was treated with benzoic acid (HL(c)) in different stoichiometric ratios (1:4, 1:10), ladder cluster (R(2)SnO)(3)(R(2)SnOH)(2)(L(c))(2) (4) and drum cluster [RSn(O)L(c)](6) (5) were obtained. Through the hydrolysis of Cy(2)SnCl(2) (Cy = C(6)H(11)) and (C(6)H(5)CH(2))(2)SnCl(2), two interesting ethanolate-modified clusters [Cy(2)(C(2)H(5)O)SnOSn(C(2)H(5)O)Cy(2)](2) (6) and [(R(2)SnO)(3)(R(2)SnOH)(R(2)SnOC(2)H(5))(CO(3))](2) (7) were obtained. All the tin atoms in these ladder clusters are five-coordinate surrounded by two alkyl groups and three O atoms, and have distorted trigonal-bipyramidal coordination environments with two carbon atoms and one O atom in the equatorial positions and two O atoms in the axial positions. The structures of all these compounds have been established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses.     

Synthesis,structure and biological activity of organotin derivatives with pyridylmethylthiobenzoic acid

Reaction of 2-(2-pyridylmethylthio)benzoic acid (1) with R₂SnO (R = Et or ⁿBu) in a 1:1 molar ratio gives the dimeric compounds {[(2-PyCH₂SC₆H₄CO₂)SnR₂]₂O}₂. A similar reaction of 2-(4-pyridylmethylthio)benzoic acid (2) with Et₂SnO yields an analogous result. However, treatment of 2 with ⁿBu₂SnO in a 1:1 molar ratio only gives the diorganotin dicarboxylate (4-PyCH₂SC₆H₄CO₂)₂Sn(ⁿBu)₂. X-ray crystal structure analyses indicate that the pyridyl nitrogen atoms do not coordinate to the tin atoms in the dimer, whilst in the diorganotin dicarboxylate the tin atom has a seven-coordinate distorted pentagonal-bipyramidal geometry, and this compound forms a linkage coordination polymer through the interactions of the pyridyl nitrogen atoms with the adjacent tin atoms. In addition, treatment of 1 or 2 with (Ph₃Sn)₂O in a 2:1 molar ratio affords triphenyltin carboxylates, in which the tin atoms also show different coordination environments. In the solid state, triphenyltin 2-(2-pyridylmethylthio)benzoate is a monomer and the pyridyl nitrogen atom does not participate in coordination to the tin atom either, while the interactions between the pyridyl nitrogen atoms and the adjacent tin atoms link triphenyltin 2-(4-pyridylmethylthio)benzoate into a coordination polymer. Preliminary in vitro tests for fungicidal activity show that all these compounds display good activity to Physolospora piricola in a low concentration. Moreover, the triphenyltin carboxylates show a higher inhibition percentage than the diorganotin carboxylates.     

Coordination compounds of tin(IV) with products of gidazepam and arylaldehydes condensation

Reactions of tin tetrachloride in a 2-propanol solution and the products of condensation of 2-(7-bromo-2-oxo-5-phenyl-3H-1,4-benzodiazepin-1-yl)acetohydrazide (gidazepam) with 4-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde, 4-brombenzaldehyde, and 2-pyridinaldehyde made it possible to obtain for the first time the corresponding tin coordination compounds by the template synthesis. The composition and structure of the complexes were determined by physicochemical methods. Tin(IV) coordination polyhedron in these complexes is the octahedron formed by four chlorine atoms, the azomethyne nitrogen atom, and the oxygen atom of the ligand carbonyl group.     

二聚体有机锡配合物{[n-Bu2Sn(O2CCH2CS2NC4H8)]2O}2的合成，表征及晶体结构(英)

The title compound, {[n-Bu₂Sn(O₂CCH₂CS₂NC₄H₈)]₂O}₂, has been synthesized by the reaction of (tetrahydro-pyrrodithiolocarbamoylthio)acetic acid with the di-n-bubyltin oxide in 1∶1 molar ratio. The complex has been characterized by elemental analysis, IR and NMR. The crystal structure of it has been determined by X-ray single crystal diffraction. And the results showed that the crystal belongs to triclinic system with space group P1 and some crystal parameters: a=1.220 2(9) nm, b=1.315 8(10) nm, c=1.380 4(10) nm, α=111.215(9)°， β=99.357(9)°， γ=96.075(10)°, V=2.006(2) nm³, Z=1, F(000)=908, μ=1.489 mm^-1, D_c=1.474 g·cm^-3, R₁=0.037 5, wR₂=0.0839. The complex has a centrosymmetric dimer structure mode with a four-membered central endo-cyclic Sn₂O₂ unit in which two bridged oxygen atoms both connect with an exo-cyclic tin atom which has a distorted octahedron. Each of the endo-cyclic tin atoms exhibits a distorted trigonal bipyramid coordination geometry with an additional weak coordination carboxylate oxygen. Four carboxylate ligands are divided into two types. And two of them are bidentate and connecting to each of exo-cyclic tin atoms by using both oxygen atoms, whereas the others bridge to each pair of exo-and endo-cyclic tin atoms utilizing one oxygen atom only. CCDC: 220513.     

Comparisons of multilayer H2O adsorption onto the (110) surfaces of alpha-TiO2 and SnO2 as calculated with density functional theory

Mono- and bilayer adsorption of H2O molecules on TiO2 and SnO 2 (110) surfaces has been investigated using static planewave density functional theory (PW DFT) simulations. Potential energies and structures were calculated for the associative, mixed, and dissociative adsorption states. The DOS of the bare and hydrated surfaces has been used for the analysis of the difference between the H2O interaction with TiO2 and SnO 2 surfaces. The important role of the bridging oxygen in the H2O dissociation process is discussed. The influence of the second layer of H2O molecules on relaxation of the surface atoms was estimated.     

SnO2(110)弛豫表面构型与电子结构的第一性原理研究

采用基于第一性原理的密度泛函方法对SnO₂(110)表面的构型和电子结构进行了系统研究. 结果表明, 与理想表面相比, 表面弛豫导致表层五配位Sn原子向体相方向位移, 六配位Sn原子以及表面氧原子往真空方向移动, 而桥氧原子位置基本保持不变. 当表面厚度小于3 nm时, 表面能和表层原子的弛豫大小随着层数的增加出现振荡现象. 由能带计算结果得知, 以桥氧的2p_y/2i>p_z轨道为主要成分的能带出现在体相的带隙中. 进一步考察了弛豫对表面电子结构的影响.