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.     

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。     

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。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

硅铝氧化物二元包覆钛白粉颗粒的有机改性

在二元包覆SiO₂,Al₂O₃薄膜的基础上,用钛酸酯偶联剂、硅烷偶联剂及三乙醇胺、季戊四醇对亚微米TiO₂颗粒表面进行有机改性.考察了改性条件对颗粒表面改性结果的影响.通过疏水性试验和润湿性试验对改性前后TiO₂颗粒的表面特性进行了表征.高温裂解色谱、热重分析、X光电子能谱的测试结果表明,不同改性剂与颗粒表面存在不同程度的化学键合作用.分析了改性剂在颗粒表面的包覆状态与结构.     

The adsorption and reaction of a titanate coupling reagent on the surfaces of different nanoparticles in supercritical CO2

The adsorption and reaction in supercritical CO2 of the titanate coupling reagent NDZ-201 on the surfaces of seven metal oxide particles, SiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, TiO2 (anatase), TiO2 (rutile), Fe2O3, and Fe3O4, was investigated. FTIR and TG analysis indicated that the adsorption and reaction were different on different particle surfaces. On SiO2 and Al2O3 particles, there was a chemical reaction of the titanate coupling reagent on the surfaces. On the surfaces of ZrO2 and TiO2 (anatase) particles, there were two kinds of adsorption, weak and strong adsorption. On the surfaces of TiO2 (rutile), Fe2O3, and Fe3O4 particles, there was only weak adsorption. The acidity or basicity of the OH groups on the particle surface was the key factor that determined if a surface reaction occurred. When the OH groups were acidic, the titanate coupling reagent reacted with these, but otherwise, there was no reaction. The surface density of OH groups on the original particles and the amount of titanate coupling reagent adsorbed and reacted were estimated from TG analysis. The reactivity of the surface OH groups of Al2O3 particles was higher than that of the SiO2 particles.     

纳米氧化铕的表面改性及其在聚丙烯中的分散性能

以钛酸酯偶联剂在无水乙醇中对纳米氧化铕进行表面修饰,分别测定了处理好的样品的粒径及分布、在二氧六环中的沉降稳定性以及在聚丙烯中的分散性。结果表明:表面修饰有利于纳米氧化铕在聚丙烯中的分散,其中以10%钛酸酯处理的效果最佳;处理后样品的红外光谱表明,纳米氧化铕与偶联剂发生了化学键合作用,它们之间并不是简单的物理包覆。     

合成聚对苯二甲酸丙二醇酯负载型催化剂钛酸四丁酯/纳米二氧化硅的制备

以钛酸酯偶联剂(TMC-201)为改性剂,采用超声波分散方法对亲水性纳米二氧化硅(nano-SiO2)进行了表面改性。采用浸渍法将钛酯四丁酯(Ti(OC4H9)4)负载于表面改性的nano-SiO2上,制备了纳米级Ti(OC4H9)4/nano-SiO2负载型催化剂。考察了偶联剂用量、温度、时间对纳米SiO2表面改性的影响,研究了负载时间、负载温度和Ti(OC4H9)4用量对表面改性后纳米SiO2负载Ti(OC4H9)4的影响。结果表明,当TMC-201质量分数为35%、反应温度为90℃、反应时间为3.5 h时,纳米SiO2粒子表面接枝的偶联剂量最大;在室温下,负载48 h,Ti(OC4H9)4用量为表面改性纳米SiO2量的1/2时得到的Ti(OC4H9)4/nano-SiO2负载型催化剂负载Ti(OC4H9)4量最大;运用ICP-AES、FESEM等测试技术对修饰后的纳米SiO2及Ti(OC4H9)4/nano-SiO2负载型催化剂进行了表征;将Ti(OC4H9)4/nano-SiO2负载型催化剂用于聚对苯二甲酸丙二醇酯(PTT)聚酯合成的结果表明,与均相Ti(OC4H9)4催化剂相比,Ti(OC4H9)4/nano-SiO2负载型催化剂催化合成PTT聚酯过程中酯化时间177 min,与均相催化剂催化酯化时间相近,在缩聚2 h后得到PTT的特性粘度高达1.05,证明该负载型催化剂具有高的催化活性,既可催化酯化反应又可催化缩聚反应。     

Preparation and Properties of Nb-Coated Barium Titanate Composite Particles by Surface Modification with Nb Alkoxide in Hydrophobic Solvent

Chemical processing for the preparation of Nb-coated barium titanate composite particles was investigated using surface modification technology, hydrolyzing Nb ethoxide on the surface of barium titanate particles dispersed in hydrophobic solvent.It was confirmed from the measurements of specific surface area and zeta potential as well as SEM, TEM and EDX observations of the resulting composite particles that the original barium titanate particles were coated uniformly with hydrolysis product of Nb ethoxide.Barium titanates coated with 1 wt% of Nb as oxide were well sintered at 1200–1300°C. The dielectric constants of the sintered barium titanates showed flattened temperature dependence, but it depended upon the average particle size of original barium titanate. The sintered bodies of Nb-coated barium titanate powders with average particle size of 0.2 m gave dielectric constants of 2000–3000 and those of barium titanate with average particle size of 0.5 m showed dielectric constants of 3000–4000 at room temperature.The microstructure of the sintered barium titanate coated with Nb oxide consisted of grains of about 1 m, smaller than those of sintered original barium titanate.     

Surface modification of iron particles with a polyfluorinated disulfude: Effect of solvent and temperature

Adsorption of bis(2-chloro-3-oxaperfluorobutyl) disulfide from nonaqueous solutions onto the surface of carbonyl iron particles was studied with the aim of modification of these particles. The adsorption parameters were calculated using the Langmuir equation from the adsorption isotherms obtained in the interval 20-60°C. With an increase in temperature and in the solvent affinity for the modifying agent, the limiting amounts of the reagent that has interacted with the iron particle surface increase. This fact suggests the chemisorption nature of the process. The products of the reaction of iron with the disulfide can be desorbed from the particle surface.     

Controlled fluorination of clays

The fluorination of clays by a mild fluorinating reagent, HPF₆ was investigated using a sample of bentonite. The reaction resulted in the fluorination at the aluminum sites to form octahedral aluminum oxyfluoride species. This led to considerable modification of the surface characteristics such as surface area, porosity and particle size of nano-clay particles. The fluorinated clay was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, XPS, SEM, EDS, infrared spectroscopy and solid-state NMR.     

磁性Fe3O4微粒表面有机改性

在分散聚合法制备复合磁性微球过程中,采用硅烷偶联剂KH 570对磁性Fe3O4微粒进行表面改性.红外光谱(FTIR)、光电子能谱(XPS)分析结果表明,偶联剂与磁性微粒表面以化学键形式结合.改性后,Fe3O4微粒与单体及其聚合物之间具有良好的亲和性,采用改性后的磁性微粒可以显著改善磁性微球的性能指标.     

磁性Fe_3O_4微粒表面有机改性

在分散聚合法制备复合磁性微球过程中 ,采用硅烷偶联剂 KH- 570对磁性 Fe_3O_4微粒进行表面改性 .红外光谱 (FTIR)、光电子能谱 (XPS)分析结果表明 ,偶联剂与磁性微粒表面以化学键形式结合 .改性后 ,Fe_3O_4微粒与单体及其聚合物之间具有良好的亲和性 ,采用改性后的磁性微粒可以显著改善磁性微球的性能指标 .     

Impact of titanate coupling agent on properties of high density polyethylene composite filled with coal gangue

In this study, surface modification of coal gangue (CG) was performed with titanate coupling agent 201 (isopropyl tri(dioctylpyrophosphate) titanate), and the effects of surface modifier on mechanical properties and thermal stability of high-density polyethylene filled with CG (HDPE/CG) and high-density polyethylene filled with modified CG (HDPE/mCG) composites were investigated. The coupling agent was successfully grafted on CG surface through chemical reaction according to the analyses of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the coupling agent can effectively enhance the hydrophobicity of surface that was verified by water contact angle beyond 90° of modified CG sample. With the introduction of coupling agent, some enhancements of tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength were observed in HDPE/mCG compared with HDPE/CG, due to the improved compatibility between mCG fillers and matrix. The increased storage modulus and decreased loss factor of HDPE/mCG composite further confirm the stronger interface adhesion after modification. Moreover, it is found that titanate coupling agent 201 can improve the thermal stability of HDPE/mCG composite to some extent.