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.     

降解裙带菜多糖对纳米硒的形成与稳定作用

在常温下的降解裙带菜多糖(Degraded Undaria Pinnatifida Charv. Suringer polysaccharide, DUP)水溶液中, 由适当过量的抗坏血酸(Vc)与二氧化硒(SeO2)反应制备纳米单质硒(Se0). 通过共振瑞利散射、激光散射和透射电镜(TEM)研究了DUP对Se0粒径的调控和在液相中的稳定作用. 结果表明, DUP通过控制还原速度和表面修饰而把Se0粒子调节在较窄的粒径分布范围内当Se0浓度为0.0507—3.245 mmol/L时, DUP表面修饰的球状纳米硒的平均粒径稳定地保持在24—65 nm范围内, 4 ℃时可在水溶液中稳定保存1个月.     

PREPARATION OF NANOMETER TiO2 ORGANIC SOLUTION —EFFECT OF ORGANIC SILOXANE ON SOL PROPERTIES*

A homogeneous longtime stabilized transparent nanometer TiO2 organic solution was obtained by means of the simultaneous hydrolysis and co-polycodensation of tetrabutyltitanate (TBT) and methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MAPTMS) by the sol-gel process. The particle size of nanometer titanium dioxide was controlled by use of bifunctional silanes, such as diphenyldimethoxysilane (DPDMS), diphenyldiethoxysilane (DPDES) and dimethyldiethoxysilane (DMDES). The effect of TiO2 content in the solution on the refractive index of system was discussed in detail. The result shows that the refractive index of solution increases linearly with TiO2 content. The refractive index of the three hybrid nanometer materials attained 1.6053, 1.5846 and 1.5346, respectively. The size of nanometer particles was characterized by TEM and the particle diameter thus obtained is in the range of 20-90 nm. FT-IR spectra of the materials show that the TiO-Si bond is formed.     

Biosynthesis and structural characteristics of selenium nanoparticles by Pseudomonas alcaliphila

In this paper, we report that selenium (Se) nanoparticles were first biosynthesized by Pseudomonas alcaliphila with a simple and eco-friendly biological method. The structural characteristics of Se nanoparticles were examined. The results showed that spherical particles appeared with diameters ranging from 50 to 500 nm during incubation and Se nanorods were present after incubating in an aqueous reaction solution for 24 h. However, the formation of Se nanorods was interrupted when 5% (w/v) poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) was added in the aqueous reaction solution, obtaining stable spherical Se nanoparticles with a diameter of about 200 nm.     

In situ AFM study of sorbed humic acid colloids at different pH

Humic acid colloids adsorbed on the basal plane of cleaved muscovite are investigated under in situ conditions by non-contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) in liquid (also called fluid tapping-mode AFM). Structures are found to be of nanometer scale, consisting of flat particles (8–13 nm in diameter), aggregates of particles (20–100 nm), chain-like assemblies, networks and torus-like structures. In contrast to former investigations colloids are investigated in aquatic solution and structures are not influenced by sample preparation. Nanostructure, surface coverage and particle sizes are found to depend on solution pH. Humic colloids can be distinguished from surface roughness and background noise by image processing. Furthermore, an approach to quantify the surface coverage is discussed. Therefore, non-contact mode AFM in liquid is shown to be a powerful method to study the interaction of colloids at solid–liquid interfaces.     

纳米二氧化钛催化苯乙烯环氧化反应研究(Ⅱ)

纳米材料的制备及催化研究日益受到人们的注意 [1～ 7] .前文 [8] 报道了负载异丙醇纳米二氧化钛催化苯乙烯环氧化反应 ,发现其具有一定的催化活性和较好的环氧化选择性 ,而负载乙醇 -丁醇纳米Ti O2 的选择性稍差 ,说明催化剂表面物种对催化反应有一定影响 ,故引起了我们进一步研究负载丁醇、辛醇及水合二氧化钛催化剂及溶剂对催化反应的影响的兴趣。本文将对这方面的工作进行报道 .1　实验部分1 .1　仪器及测定方法　催化剂合成在 1 0 0 m L不锈钢高压反应釜中进行 ,用 ZRY- 1型综合热分析仪进行 TG- DTA分析 (α- Al2 O3 为参比样 )…     

The role of Pd nanoparticles in ionic liquid in the Heck reaction

Pd(0) nanoparticles with approximately 2 nm diameter, immobilized in 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ionic liquid, are efficient catalyst precursors for coupling of aryl halides with n-butylacrylate. In situ TEM analysis of the ionic liquid catalytic solution after the catalytic reaction shows the formation of larger nanoparticles ( approximately 6 nm). The palladium content in the organic phase during the arylation reaction was checked by ICP-AS and shows significant metal leaching (up 34%) from the ionic phase to the organic phase at low substrate conversions and drops to 5-8% leaching at higher conversions. These results strongly suggest that the Pd(0) nanoparticles serve as a reservoir of "homogeneous" catalytic active species.     

Controllable preparation of nanosized TiO_2 thin film and relationship between structure of film and its photocatalytic activity

~~Controllable preparation of nanosized TiO_2 thin film and relationship between structure of film and its photocatalytic activity@魏刚$College of Material Science and Engineering,Beijing University of Chemical Technology! Beijing 100029,China @张元晶$College of Material Science and Engineering,Beijing University of Chemical Technology! Beijing 100029,China @熊蓉春$College of Material Science and Engineering,Beijing University of Chemical Technology! Beijing 100029,China~…     

均相沉淀法合成纳米ZnO及其光催化性能研究

以ZnSO_4、尿素为原料,采用均相沉淀法在90 ℃合成出了纳米ZnO,并就反应 温度、反应时间、反应物浓度及物料配比等条件对产物的影响进行了探讨。XRD物 相分析,产物为六方晶系;TEM形貌观察,粒子基本为球形,平均粒径20 nm;并用 IR,TG-DTA等测试手段对其进行了表征。利用紫外-可见分光光度计测试了光吸收 性能,发现纳米氧化锌对200～380 nm波长范围的光有很强吸收性,在可见光范围 内,也有较强的吸收。利用纳米氧化锌作为光催化剂对有机染料溶液进行了降解实 验,发现在日光照射60 min后,对酸性大红4BE的降解率可达100%。     

球形氯化镁-乙醇络合物纳米颗粒的制备及其自组装

乙醇与氯化镁按摩尔比为20∶1的比例混合,升温至120℃溶解形成氯化镁醇溶液后,将氯化镁醇溶液冷却至70℃转移至处于搅拌状态的冷却液中,经过滤、正己烷洗涤、干燥后得到球形氯化镁-乙醇络合物纳米颗粒.经TEM表征颗粒粒径在30～100 nm之间.这种氯化镁-乙醇络合物纳米颗粒可在室温自组装,形成纳米线.WAXD结果表明,制备的球形氯化镁-乙醇络合物纳米颗粒的结晶行为受到影响,与纯氯化镁相比,氯化镁-乙醇络合物纳米颗粒的结晶度低.这种氯化镁-乙醇络合物纳米颗粒可作为Ziegler-Natta催化剂的载体材料,制备的催化剂可高效催化乙烯聚合,合成聚乙烯微纳米颗粒.     

PREPARATION OF NANOMETER TiO2 ORGANIC SOLUTION-EFFECT OF ORGANIC SILOXANE ON SOL PROPERTIES

A homogeneous longtime stabilized transparent nanometer TiO2 organic solution was obtained by means of the simultaneous hydrolysis and co-polycodensation of tetrabutyltitanate (TBT) and methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MAPTMS) by the sol-gel process. The particle size of nanometer titanium dioxide was controlled by use of bifunctional silanes, such as diphenyldimethoxysilane (DPDMS), diphenyldiethoxysilane (DPDES) and dimethyldiethoxysilane (DMDES). The effect of TiO2 content in the solution on the refractive index of system was discussed in detail. The result shows that the refractive index of solution increases linearly with TiO2 content. The refractive index of the three hybrid nanorneter materials attained 1.6053, 1.5846 and 1.5346, respectively. The size of nanometer particles was characterized by TEM and the particle diameter thus obtained is in the range of 20-90 nm. FT-IR spectra of the materials show that the TiO-Si bond is formed.