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.     

基于三联吡啶衍生物的Fe~(2+)/Fe~(3+)化学比色敏感器

合成和表征了一种新的化合物(E)-4-′(4-(2-(2-萘)乙烯基)苯基)-2,2′:6′,2″-三联吡啶L.用Fe2+或Fe3+来滴定时,L的溶液(三氯甲烷和乙醇的体积比为1∶20)颜色分别从无色变成洋红色和橙红色,相应的紫外可见吸收光谱都在374和574 nm出现特征吸收峰.此外,即使存在其它过量金属阳离子时,L对Fe2+或Fe3+离子仍然表现出很强的敏感性和选择性.另外,还研究了L对Fe2+或Fe3+离子及两者共同存在时的线性检测浓度范围和最低检测极限(LOD).     

生血宁片中Fe元素的形态分析方法研究

为对生血宁片中Fe元素的形态进行分析,采用了溶剂法、树脂法制备相应供试品溶液,通过微波消解与ICP-MS法测定了生血宁片中Fe元素的含量,并进行了形态研究。结果表明,生血宁片中Fe元素主要以稳定态形式存在,既以有机态又以无机态形式存在,且主要以Fe2+的稳定结合态的形式存在。通过离子树脂筛选出不同价态的铁元素,为价态的分离提供一新方法,且进一步证明了Fe元素的起效形式,同时为中药材或中成药的质量控制及药理研究提供理论参考。     

HY沸石超笼“半三明治”环戊二烯铁物种的接枝

在真空条件下研究了Cp₂Fe在HY沸石表面的接枝反应，并用原位FTIR、ICP、XRD、TPD-MS和UV-Vis DRS等方法对接枝产物的组成、结构及性质进行了表征。结果表明，在低于423 K的温度下，Cp₂Fe可以强吸附在沸石的超笼内，并被氧化为Cp₂Fe⁺阳离子；当在423 K长时间加热时，Cp₂Fe⁺可与超笼表面的酸性中心发生化学反应，脱除一个环戊二烯基团，在沸石超笼形成“半三明治”环戊二烯铁CpHFe(OZ≡)₃(Z为沸石骨架Si或Al原子)表面物种。一个超笼中可接枝3个CpHFe基团，该物种在真空、惰性气体气氛和473 K以下能够在表面稳定存在。接枝反应不破坏HY的骨架结构，修饰后HY沸石的BET比表面积和微孔体积大约降低一半。     

SO2在Fe2O3颗粒表面不同温度下非均相反应的实验模拟

使用漫反射Fourier变换红外光谱(DFTIRS)、离子色谱(IC)及透射电子显微镜(TEM)对不同温度条件下SO2在α-Fe2O3颗粒表面的非均相反应过程进行实验模拟和监测,并分析了反应剧烈波段(8.7μm)的产物硫酸盐以及颗粒吸收和后向散射光学系数的变化.结果表明,在15-45℃内,硫酸盐生成量、生成速率以及吸收系数、后向散射系数都随反应温度的升高而呈现先增加后减少的趋势;同一反应温度下,硫酸盐生成速率随时间呈现先增大后减小,最后逐渐趋于稳定的演变;光学系数变化与硫酸盐生成量之间存在较好的指数关系.在当前全球气候变暖背景下,研究结果将对深入了解真实大气中SO2与矿尘非均相反应造成的气溶胶光学特性演变,以及定量评估其辐射强迫影响具有一定意义.     

Fe2O3-TiO2磁性复合材料的制备及可见光催化性能

以FeCl₃和Ti(C₄H₉O)₄为前驱体, 通过复合溶胶法制备了Fe₂O₃-TiO₂磁性复合光催化剂, 并用 XPS, XRD, SEM, EDS及BET进行了表征. 对亚甲基蓝的降解实验证明, Fe₂O₃的引入将复合材料的光响应范围扩展至可见光区, 且掺杂的Fe₂O₃摩尔分数为1.0%时, 样品可见光催化性能最高. 磁强计的测试结果显示, 复合光催化剂具有一定的磁性, 可在反应结束后利用磁场从体系分离, 使催化剂得到回收再利用.     

ZnSe: Fe2+中的动态Jahn-Teller效应和远红外光谱的研究

推导了3d4/3d6离子基态 5D在立方晶体场、自旋-轨道耦合和动态Jahn-Teller效应作用下的哈密顿矩阵,并用对角化该哈密顿矩阵的方法研究了Fe2+在ZnSe中的远红外光谱,理论计算与实验符合得好.研究表明,在ZnSe∶ Fe2+中,比晶体场理论分析多出的分裂谱线是Fe2+与ZnSe晶格间的动态Jahn-Teller效应引起的.还预测了其它Jahn-Teller效应分裂谱.所推导的哈密顿矩阵对研究3d4/3d6离子在立方晶体中的精细光谱、电子顺磁共振谱和动态Jahn-Teller分裂都是有用的.     

MaterialSO2与Fe2O3生成Fe(Ⅱ)(aq)和硫酸盐的复相反应机理

使用DRIFTS, XPS, HPLC和IC考察了常温、常压和氧气存在下SO2与Fe2O3的复相反应, 结果表明, SO2在Fe2O3表面的反应活性与Fe2O3表面含水量密切相关, 表面含水量增加有助于Fe(Ⅱ)(aq)和硫酸盐的生成.室温下(T=291 K, 相对湿度68%), 每毫克Fe2O3在30 min内可消耗53.6 μg SO2, 生成12.6 ng Fe(Ⅱ)(aq)和56.2 μg SO2-4.反应产物 SO2-4的浓度比Fe(Ⅱ)(aq)的浓度高3个数量级, 表明在生成硫酸盐的复相反应中铁对SO2氧化具有非常高的催化活性.提出了Fe(Ⅱ)(aq) 和硫酸盐的生成机理.     

粉末烧结钕铁硼激光熔凝过渡区组织的研究

对粉末烧结Nd15Fe77B8永磁体表面激光熔凝池中过渡区的组织进行了研究. 结果表明, 过渡区由初生相α-Fe和富Nd的Nd2Fe14B两相组成.离激光熔凝池与基体的分界面越远, α-Fe二次枝晶间距越小, 而Nd2Fe14B以胞状液固界面向上推进的速度逐步加快, 最后越过了先析出的α-Fe, 导致在过渡区结束时α-Fe相不再出现.当粉末烧结Nd15Fe77B8磁体易磁化轴的取向为z轴时, 过渡区的α-Fe体积百分数最大; Nd2Fe14B以与z轴夹角30°～50°的方向生长, 直到进入胞状区, 其生长方向才逐步调整到与z轴基本平行.当磁体易磁化轴取向为随机分布时, 过渡区α-Fe的体积分数最小; 过渡区Nd2Fe14B选择在基体内易磁化轴在XOY面内的等轴晶Nd2Fe14B上生长. 当磁体的易磁化轴取向分别为x或y轴时, 过渡区Nd2Fe14B直接在基体的Nd2Fe14B上生长, 并在过渡区结束前后, 1个过渡区Nd2Fe14B上平均分化出3个胞状区Nd2Fe14B柱状晶.     

胡椒碱与牛血清白蛋白的作用及Cu2+、Fe3+影响的研究

采用荧光光谱及紫外光谱法研究了胡椒碱与牛血清白蛋白（bovine serum albumin,BSA）的相互作用。实验结果表明：胡椒碱与BSA形成基态复合物从而猝灭BSA的内源性荧光,猝灭原因主要为静态猝灭和非辐射能量转移作用。胡椒碱对BSA的猝灭速率常数Kq为7．31×10^12 L·mol^-1·s^-1（25℃）和7．20×10^12 L·mol^-1·s^-1（37℃）,胡椒碱与BSA的结合常数K为1．02×10^7 L·mol^-1（25℃）和1．11×10^7 L·mol^-1（37℃）,结合位点数n为1．45（25℃）和1．46（37℃）。根据Ftirster偶极-偶极非辐射能量转移理论问题得到结合距离r为3．28nm（25℃）和3．30nm（37℃）。通过热力学参数的计算,确定胡椒碱与牛血清白蛋白的相互作用是一个熵增加和吉布斯自由能降低的自发过程,主要作用力为疏水作用力。同步荧光光谱表明,胡椒碱与BSA的相互作用没有引起BSA构象的变化。讨论了共存金属离子Cu^2＋、Fe^3＋对胡椒碱与BSA相互作用的影响。