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.     

聚苯胺/ZnFe_2O_4纳米复合物的制备与表征

以Fe(NO3)3·9H2O和Zn(NO3)2·6H2O为原料,采用改进的柠檬酸盐前驱物法合成了片状ZnFe2O4,进一步通过原位聚合反应得到了聚苯胺(PANI)/ZnFe2O4纳米复合物。利用X射线粉末衍射、扫描电子显微镜、透射电子显微镜、红外光谱以及荧光光谱等测试技术对其进行了表征。实验结果表明,通过原位聚合反应PANI沉积在片状ZnFe2O4表面。X射线粉末衍射和红外光谱进一步证实了PANI/ZnFe2O4纳米复合物的生成。ZnFe2O4的引入提高了PANI的荧光发光性能和热稳定性。     

铬和钼掺杂对HCa_2Nb_3O_(10)/Pt光催化性能的影响

通过高温固相反应合成了铌酸盐KCa2Nb3O10及Cr3+和Mo6+掺杂(摩尔分数5%)的KCa2Nb3O10,并通过离子交换反应制备出HCa2Nb3O10及Cr3+和Mo6+掺杂的HCa2Nb3O10,采用X射线衍射、原子吸收光谱、扫描电镜等对所制得的样品进行了表征.在甲醇为电子给体、Pt为助催化剂的情况下,研究了催化剂HCa2Nb3O10及Cr3+和Mo6+掺杂的HCa2Nb3O10在紫外光辐射下分解水产氢的光催化活性,并讨论了引起催化剂活性差异的原因.     

Nd2O3/TiO2光催化剂的光生羟基自由基和光活性

以硝酸钕和钛酸四正丁酯作为前驱体,采用溶胶-凝胶法制备了Nd₂O₃/TiO₂纳米光催化剂,并通过XRD和BET等手段进行了表征.以对苯二甲酸作为探针分子,结合化学荧光技术研究了光催化剂表面羟基自由基的生成;并以甲基橙为光催化降解反应模型化合物,考察了光催化剂的活性.测定了甲基橙在TiO₂和Nd₂O₃/TiO₂(1.0%)光催化剂上的吸附常数.结果表明:Nd₂O₃掺杂使TiO₂的粒径减小,比表面积增大;羟基自由基的生成速率越大,催化剂的催化活性越高.Nd₂O₃掺杂有利于反应底物在催化剂表面的吸附,Nd₂O₃的最佳掺入量为Nd/Ti(摩尔比)=1.0%.     

钠铝辉石由非晶态到晶态的转化研究

在3.0－5.0 GPa，1150－1750 ℃，1－480 min条件范围内，合成了钠铝辉石，通过XRD、SEM及IR分析对比研究了人工翡翠和天然翡翠的微观精细结构；通过DAT分析测定了人工翡翠与天然翡翠的熔点，淬火实验检验了人工翡翠的熔点，通过退火及老化实验研究了翡翠的热稳定性。同时还就人工翡翠和天然翡翠的硬度、密度及折射率等其它物化性质进行了比较研究。根据上述研究总结了合成优质钠铝辉石翡翠的最佳实验条件为压力＞4.0 GPa，温度＞1450 ℃，晶化时间＞45 min。     

铁酸铋的水热合成及其光催化性能

以Fe(NO_3)_3·9H_2O和Bi(NO_3)_3·5H_2O为原料,NaOH为矿化剂,用水热法合成了柱状晶体Bi_2Fe_4O_9,其结构和催化性能经XRD,SEM和UV-Vis表征.结果表明,Bi_2Fe_4O_9截面边长约500 nm,长约2μm～3μm,分散均匀.Bi_2Fe_4O_9在可见光区域有较强吸收,对甲基橙降解效果较好.     

Synthesis, Characterization, and Photocatalytic Activity of Bi_2O_3

A series of Bi2O3 were prepared by a facile hydrothermal method using NaOH and ammonia as the mineralizers. The products were characterized by XRD, IR, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, and photodegradation of Rhodamine B dye. Simply using NaOH to supply a strong base condition, single phase α-Bi2O3 was formed. When changing the amount of NaOH and ammonia, mixed phases of α-Bi2O3, （BiO）4CO3（OH）2 and Bi2O2CO3 were obtained. All samples were found to show photocatalytic activities towards the degradation of Rhodamine B dye under UV light irradiation, in which mixed phase samples showed higher activities than single phase α-Bi2O3 possibly owing to the synergistic effect of the mixed phases.     

球磨法制备异质结型光催化剂ZnO/Bi_4Ti_3O_(12)及催化性能

本文用水作为分散介质,掺杂一定量的ZnO于Bi_4Ti_3O_(12)中,采用高能球磨法制备了异质结型光催化剂ZnO/Bi_4Ti_3O_(12).利用UV-Vis、XRD、SEM和PL等仪器对样品进行了分析与表征.以375 W中压汞灯为光源,通过对亚甲基蓝的氧化来研究其光催化活性.结果表明,对于光氧化亚甲基蓝(MB),异质结型光催化剂ZnO/Bi_4Ti_3O_(12)光催化活性高于钛酸铋的光催化活性.当ZnO的掺杂量分别是0.0和0.5wt.%,异质结型光催化剂ZnO/Bi_4Ti_3O_(12)对亚甲基蓝光氧化率分别达到50.2和80.3 %.     

不同晶型Bi2O3可见光光催化降解罗丹明B的研究

采用化学沉淀法制备了α、β、γ 3种晶体结构的Bi₂O₃光催化剂。利用XRD、TEM、氮气吸附、TG-DSC、紫外-可见漫反射光谱对样品的晶体结构、微观形貌、光学吸收特性进行了表征,并以罗丹明B(RhB)作为模型污染物,研究了不同的粉体光催化剂在可见光(λ>420 nm)照射下的光催化能力。结果表明：制备的α-Bi₂O₃为长3 μm、宽1 μm的板条状颗粒,带隙为2.84 eV;β-Bi₂O₃为粒径约150 nm的不规则颗粒,带隙为2.75 eV;γ-Bi₂O₃为直径6 nm、长度150~200 nm的纳米管,带隙为2.68 eV。在可见光照射下Bi₂O₃光催化降解RhB的活性如下：γ-Bi₂O₃>β-Bi₂O₃>α-Bi₂O₃,其中γ-Bi₂O₃在辐照60 min后对罗丹明B的脱色率可达97%以上。     

红外导数光谱鉴定铁系复合氧化物中γ-Fe2O3

It is well known that γ-Fe_2O_3 is a very active and selective catalyst for okidative dehydrogenation ofbutene to butadiene. It is hard, however, to distingulsh between ferrite spinels and therefore to identify its existence in ferrite-ferric oxide catalysts using XRD. On the IR spectra γ-Fe_2O_3 has characteristic bands in the range of 600~800 cm~(-1), which do not exist for α-Fe_2O_3, Fe3O4, ZnFe_2O_4 and MgFe_2O_4. But these bands are too weak to deterAnne for the small amount of γ-Fe_2O_3, e g. less than 30% (mass fraction), in catalysts.
Usually using second derivative IR spectra can increase the analytical sensitivity substantially. The mechanical mixtures of γ-Fe_2O_3 and MgFe_2O_4 in different ratio were prepared and their second derivative IR spectra were taken. It was found that the bands 730 and 695 cm~(-1) were characteristic of γ-Fe_2O_3 and their intensities increased with the content of γ-Fe_2O_3 in the mixtures. A staight line with R=0.994 can describe the relation between γ-Fe_2O_3 content and the peak area of band 695 cm~(-1). The lowest detectable content of γ-Fe_2O_3 is about 1% (mass fraction). The existence of γ-Fe_2O_3 in the used B-02 comercial catalyst was identified by this method.     

MoO3/TiO2-Al2O3催化剂表面结构的LRS研究

负载型Mo和Co-Mo催化剂由于工业上的广泛应用,多年来一直是催化工作者的重要研究课题.工业上应用的Mo和Co-Mo催化剂多以活性Al_2O_3和SiO_2-Al_2O_3为载体,近年来也有用TiO_2,ZrO_2和活性碳作为催化剂载体的研究报导.有关催化剂活性组分与载体之间相互作用对催化剂表面相结构和催化性能的影响方面研究已引起人们的重视。我们多年来在金属-载体相互作用研究基础上,以石油加氢精制催化剂为应用背景,开