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.     

外电场作用下甲基乙烯基硅酮分子结构和电子光谱

采用密度泛函B3P86方法在6-311++G(d, p)基组水平上优化得到了沿分子轴方向不同外电场(0-0.04 a.u.)作用下, 甲基乙烯基硅酮分子的基态电子状态、几何结构、电偶极矩和分子总能量. 在优化构型下利用杂化CIS-DFT方法(CIS-B3P86)研究了同样外电场条件下对甲基乙烯基硅酮的激发能和振子强度的影响. 计算结果表明, 分子几何构型与电场大小呈现强烈的依赖关系, 分子偶极矩μ随电场的增加先减小后急剧增大. 电场为零时, 分子总能量为-483.5532137 a.u., 随着电场增加, 能量升高, 在F=0.02 a.u.时达到最大值-483.5393952 a.u., 此后, 继续增大电场系统总能量则开始降低. 激发能随电场增加急剧减小, 表明在电场作用下, 分子易于激发和离解.     

外电场对甲醛分子的结构与电子光谱的影响

采用密度泛函理论(DFT)在B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)基组水平上,计算了不同外加电场(-8.22×10~9~8.22×10~9 V/m)下甲醛分子基态稳定构型、分子键长、电荷分布、能级分布、能隙、红外光谱、拉曼光谱和分子的总能量.在此基础上利用TDDFT/B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)方法研究了甲醛分子由基态跃迁到前25个激发态的激发能E、谐振强度f、吸收波长λ受外电场的影响.结果表明:随着C=O连线方向外电场的增加,C=O键键长、氢原子电荷、偶极矩和能隙递增;C—H键键长、C,O原子电荷递减,总能量降低.振动频率与红外强度及拉曼强度由于不同振动有不同变化.甲醛分子UV-Vis光谱随外电场的增加,不同的吸收峰发生了不同程度的蓝移或者红移;外电场对甲醛分子的激发能、谐振强度和吸收波长的强度有一定影响,但随电场变化比较复杂.     

The predicted spectrum of the hypermetallic molecule MgOMg

The present study of MgOMg is a continuation of our theoretical work on Group 2 M(2)O hypermetallic oxides. Previous ab initio calculations have shown that MgOMg has a linear (1)Σ(g)+ ground electronic state and a very low lying first excited triplet electronic state that is also linear; the triplet state has (3)Σ(u)+ symmetry. No gas phase spectrum of this molecule has been assigned, and here we simulate the infrared absorption spectrum for both states. We calculate the three-dimensional potential energy surface, and the electric dipole moment surfaces, of each of the two states using a multireference configuration interaction (MRCISD) approach based on full-valence complete active space self-consistent field (FV-CASSCF) wavefunctions with a cc-pCVQZ basis set. A variational MORBID calculation using our potential energy and dipole moment surfaces is performed to determine rovibrational term values and to simulate the infrared absorption spectrum of the two states. We also calculate the dipole polarizability of both states at their equilibrium geometry in order to assist in the interpretation of future beam deflection experiments. Finally, in order to assist in the analysis of the electronic spectrum, we calculate the vertical excitation energies, and electric dipole transition matrix elements, for six excited singlet states and five excited triplet states using the state-average full valence CASSCF-MRCISD/aug-cc-pCVQZ procedure.     

电场中B2分子特性研究

利用密度泛函理论(DFT)B3LYP/6-3l1＋G(2d)方法研究在不同方向电场(0～＋0.02 a.u.)作用下的B2分子的基态键长、总能量、偶极矩、最高占据轨道(HOMO)能量、最低空轨道(LUMO)能量、能隙及势能曲线的变化规律. 结果表明: 在一定外加电场范围内, 随电场强度的增大, 分子键长变大; 总能量降低; 偶极矩增大; HOMO能级、LUMO能级均降低; 能隙依赖外电场方向, 平行分子轴(Z)方向电场使能隙递减, 垂直分子轴(X)方向电场使能隙递增; 分子势能降低, 平行分子轴线(Z)方向电场对分子势能的影响随着核间距的增大而增大, 原有的“势能平台”遭到破坏.     

Electronic optical response of molecules in intense fields: comparison of TD-HF, TD-CIS, and TD-CIS(D) approaches

Time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TD-HF) and time-dependent configuration interaction (TD-CI) methods with Gaussian basis sets have been compared in modeling the response of hydrogen molecule, butadiene, and hexatriene exposed to very short, intense laser pulses (760 nm, 3 cycles). After the electric field of the pulse returns to zero, the molecular dipole continues to oscillate due to the coherent superposition of excited states resulting from the nonadiabatic excitation caused by the pulse. The Fourier transform of this residual dipole gives a measure of the nonadiabatic excitation. For low fields, only the lowest excited states are populated, and TD-CI simulations using singly excited states with and without perturbative corrections for double excitations [TD-CIS(D) and TD-CIS, respectively] are generally in good agreement with the TD-HF simulations. At higher field strengths, higher states are populated and the methods begin to differ significantly if the coefficients of the excited states become larger than approximately 0.1. The response of individual excited states does not grow linearly with intensity because of excited state to excited state transitions. Beyond a threshold in the field strength, there is a rapid increase in the population of many higher excited states, possibly signaling an approach to ionization. However, without continuum functions, the present TD-HF and TD-CI calculations cannot model ionization directly. The TD-HF and TD-CIS simulations are in good accord because the excitation energies obtained by linear response TD-HF [also known as random phase approximation (RPA)] agree very well with those obtained from singly excited configuration interaction (CIS) calculations. Because CIS excitation energies with the perturbative doubles corrections [CIS(D)] are on average lower than the CIS excitation energies, the TD-CIS(D) response is generally stronger than TD-CIS.     

Molecular orientation via a dynamically induced pulse-train: wave packet dynamics of NaI in a static electric field

We regard the rovibrational wave packet dynamics of NaI in a static electric field after femtosecond excitation to its first electronically excited state. The following quasibound nuclear wave packet motion is accompanied by a bonding situation changing from covalent to ionic. At times when the charge separation is present, i.e., when the bond-length is large, a strong dipole moment exists and rotational excitation takes place. Upon bond contraction, the then covalently bound molecule does not experience the external field. This scenario repeats itself periodically. Thus, the vibrational dynamics causes a situation which is comparable to the interaction of the molecule with a train of pulses where the pulse separation is determined by the vibrational period.     

Electric field effects on the performance of a candidate multipole molecular switch: a quantum computational study

Structural and electronic responses of the organic molecule di(4-nitro-2-methylenamine phenyl) diazene a candidate molecular switch, as an active device in a nanoelectronic circuit, to the external electric fields with strengths 5 x 10(-4) - 1.8 x 10(-2) a.u. included explicitly in the Hamiltonian are studied using B3LYP/6-31G* method. This study shows that thermodynamic formation functions are not affected significantly by the applied field. Electronic spatial extent show a negligibly small change (<2%) over the studied range of the electric field strength. Calculated electric dipole moments show significant sensitivity to the external electric field, which result consequently in much stronger interactions with the electrodes (poles) of the mother nanoelectronic circuit at higher electric field strengths. Natural bond orbital atomic charges analysis shows different field effects on different atoms depending on their positions with respect to the direction of the field. The applied field increases HOMO, LUMO, and the Fermi level energies; however, decreases the HOMO-LUMO gap (HLG) values. Results of this study show that it is possible to control field-induced charge redistribution over the molecule by using push-pull effects of different substitution via their connection points to the extended pi-system.     

Density functional and spin-orbit ab initio study of CF3Br: molecular properties and electronic curve crossing

Quantum chemical calculations of CF(3)Br and the CF(3) radical are performed using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT). Molecular structures, vibrational frequencies, dipole moment, bond dissociation energy, and vertical excitation energies of CF(3)Br are calculated and compared with available experimental results. The performance of six hybrid and five hybrid meta functionals in DFT and TDDFT calculations are evaluated. The ωB97X, B3PW91, and M05-2X functionals give very good results for molecular structures, vibrational frequencies, and vertical excitation energies, respectively. The ωB97X functional calculates well the dipole moment of CF(3)Br. B3LYP, one of the most widely used functionals, does not perform well for calculations of the C-Br bond length, bond dissociation energy, and vertical excitation energies. Potential energy curves of the low-lying excited states of CF(3)Br are obtained using the multiconfigurational spin-orbit ab initio method. The crossing point between 2A(1) and 3E states is located near the C-Br bond length of 2.45 ?. Comparison with CH(3)Br shows that fluorination does not alter the location of the crossing point. The relation between the calculated potential energy curves and recent experimental result is briefly discussed.     

Study on the Physical and Dissociation Properties of Disulfur Dichloride under Electric Fields

Disulfur dichloride is a hazardous substance, which is irritating to the eyes. It is significant to study the physical and dissociation properties under external electric fields. The bond length, energy, dipole moment, orbital energy level distribution, infrared spectra and dissociation properties of disulfur dichloride molecule under different external fields are obtained by using the density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d, p) basis set level. In addition, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra of the molecule in different electric fields are studied with configuration interaction-single excitation(CIS)/6-311++G(d, p) method. According to the results, it has been found that as the electric field exerted along the positive direction of the z-axis increases, the two sulfur-chlorine(S-Cl) bond lengths become longer and tend to break, while the sulfur-sulfur(S-S) bond length becomes shorter and the energy gap decreases. The infrared spectrum and ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra both exhibit red shift under electric field. Moreover, by scanning the potential energy surface of disulfur dichloride about S-Cl bond, the dissociation barrier decreases with the increase of positive electric field. When the external electric field arrives at 0.040 atomic units, the barrier disappears, meaning the dissociation of disulfur dichloride. The present results offer an important reference to further study of disulfur dichloride.     

电场对(4, 0)Zigzag模型单壁碳纳米管的影响

The structural and electronic properties of a (4, 0) zigzag single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) under parallel and transverse electric fields with strengths of 0-1.4×10~(-2) a.u. Were studied using the density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP/6-31G~* method. Results show that the properties of the SWCNT are dependent on the external electric field. The applied external electric field strongly affects the molecular dipole moments. The induced dipole moments increase linearly with increase in the electrical field intensities. This study shows that the application of parallel and transverse electric fields results in changes in the occupied and virtual molecular orbitals (Mos) but the energy gap between the highest occupied MO (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied MO (LUMO) of this SWCNT is less sensitive to the electric field strength. The electronic spatial extent (ESE) and length of the SWCNT show small changes over the entire range of the applied electric field strengths. The natural bond orbital (NBO) electric charges on the atoms of the SWCNT show that increase in the external electric field strength increases the separation of the center of the positive and negative electric charges of the carbon nanotube.