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.     

LiNi0.8Co0.2O2/CNTs Composite used as the Materials for Supercapacitor Electrodes

Stupercapacitors or electrochemical capacitors(ECs) have attracted considerable attentionas an intermediate power source between conventional capacitors and batteries since they possesshigh power density and energy density, exhibit excellent reversibility, and have long cycle life1.Conductive polymers2, electrically conductive metal oxide3,4, activated carbon5 and carbonnanotubes(CNTs) 6-9 have been used as supercapacitor electrode materials. LiNi0.sCo0.2O2 is apromising lithium battery material because it has some advantages of both LiNiO2 and LiCoO2besides its low cost and high power10.In this paper, the electrochemical properties of supercapacitors based on LiNi0.8Co0.2O2/carbonnanotubes composite and LiNi0.8Co0.2O2/acetylene black composite and CNTs in 1 mol/LLiClO4/EC+DEC [V(EC):V(DEC)=1:1] electrolyte have been investigated by means of constantcharge/discharge current tests. The experiment results show that the LiNi0.8Co0.2O2/carbon nanotubescomposite has better properties than others, and the maximun specific capacitance of thesupercapacitor can reach 284.88F/g, while the energy density is up to 158.27Wh/Kg.That discharge capacities, coulombic efficiencies and energy densities at the first cycle and themaximum value and capacity retention at the 100th cycle for supercapacitors using differentelectrode materials (A) LiNi0.8Co0.2O2/acetylene black, (B) LiNi0. 8Co0.2O2/CNTs, (C) CNTs is listedin table 1*Capacity retention rate obtained by dividing the discharge capacity at the 100th cycle by themaximum valueFrom above, the LiNi0. 8Co0.2O2/carbon nanotubes composite should be a good candidatesupercapacitor electrode material.     

萘基相互连接的多孔碳纳米囊的制备及超电容性能

以萘为碳源, 采用MgO模板诱导耦合KOH裁剪技术制备了相互连接的多孔碳纳米囊(ICNC). 结果表明所制备的ICNC₂具有大的比表面积(1811 m²/g)、 高的压实密度(1.38 g/cm³)和微孔孔容含量(58.93%). 在对称的超级电容器(SC)中, ICNC₂电极的体积比容在不同电流密度下分别高达420.8 F/cm³(0.069 A/cm³)和315 F/cm³(27.6 A/cm³), 容量保持率为74.82%. 在38 W/L功率密度下, ICNC₂基SC的体积能量密度为14.6 W?h/L. 经过20000次循环后, 其体积比容仅衰减1.4%, 库伦效率为99.1%, 为从萘基小分子制备储能用功能碳材料提供了一种可行的方法.     

三维钴基MOF[KCo7(OH)3(ip)6(H2O)4]·12H2O作为超级电容器的高容量电极材料

为了开发较高能量密度的超级电容器,我们通过简单的溶剂热反应合成了一种三维的钴基金属有机框架(MOF)化合物([KCo7(OH)3(ip)6(H2O)4]·12H2O,Co?ip;ip=间苯二甲酸根),并考察了其作为超级电容器电极材料的性能。Co?ip电极显示出高比电容、良好的循环稳定性和优良的倍率性能。在1 mol·L^-1 KOH溶液中,电流密度为1 A·g^-1时,其最大比电容为1660 F·g^-1。在电流密度为2 A·g^-1条件下,循环3000次后,其比电容的保持率为82.7%。优异的超级电容性能可归因于Co?ip具有纳米尺寸颗粒和三维的多孔结构。     

高功率超级电容器用介孔炭电极材料

以纳米CaCO3为模板、蔗糖为前躯体制备超级电容器用介孔炭电极材料.材料的结构由氮吸附、TEM表征,借助恒流充放电、循环伏安和交流阻抗评价了其在6 mol.L-1KOH电解液中的电化学电容性能.结果表明,蔗糖基介孔炭的比表面积606 m2/g,富含10~30 nm的介孔.恒流放电法测得介孔炭在电流密度50 mA/g下的比电容为125 F/g,大电流倍率性能特别突出.电流密度增大到20 000 mA/g,比电容还保持有88F/g,远高于进口电容炭,该介孔炭是一种很有前景的高功率超级电容器炭电极材料.     

Electrodeposited NiSe_2 on carbon fiber cloth as a flexible electrode for high-performance supercapacitors

A flexible electrode of nickel diselenide/carbon fiber cloth(NiSe_2/CFC) is fabricated at room temperature by a simple and efficient electrodeposition method. Owing to NiSe_2 character of nanostructure and high conductivity, the as-synthesized electrodes possess perfect pseudocapacitive property with high specific capacitance and excellent rate capability. In three-electrode system, the electrode specific capacitance of the NiSe_2/CFC electrode varies from 1058 F g~(-1) to 996.3 F g~(-1) at 2 A g~(-1) to 10 A g~(-1) respectively, which shows great rate capability. Moreover, the NiSe_2 electrode is assembled with an active carbon(AC) electrode to form an asymmetric supercapacitor with an extended potential window of 1.6 V. The asymmetric supercapacitor possesses an excellent energy density 32.7 Wh kg~(-1) with a power density 800 W kg~(-1) at the current density of 1 A g~(-1). The nanosheet array on carbon fiber cloth with high flexibility, specific capacitance and rate capacitance render the NiSe_2 to be regarded as the promising material for the high performance superconductor.     

有序介孔碳负载NiCo2O4电极的制备及其超电容性能

以有序介孔碳(OMC)为载体,采用共沉淀法制备了OMC/NiCo2O4复合物.用X射线衍射(XRD)、傅里叶变换红外(FT-IR)光谱和透射电镜(TEM)研究其结构与形貌,发现NiCo2O4纳米颗粒均匀地负载在有序介孔碳上.循环伏安和恒流充放电测试表明,NiCo2O4质量分数为40%时,在1A·g-1的电流密度下,复合物电极的比电容可以达到577.0F·g-1,电流密度为8A·g-1时,比电容可以达到470.8F·g-1,并具有良好的循环稳定性.在2A·g-1的电流密度下,经过2000次循环后,比电容还可达到508.4F·g-1,电容保持率为92.7%.     

基于钴酸锂载体构筑高体积比容量硫基复合材料

锂-硫电池具有高的理论质量/体积能量密度,因而成为最具发展潜力的高比能二次电池体系. 然而,由于硫载体通常采用轻质的碳纳米材料,导致硫基复合材料的振实密度和体积比容量均偏低,制约了电池体积能量密度的提升. 本文尝试采用具有高密度特征的钴酸锂(LiCoO₂)作为硫的载体材料,以构筑高振实密度的硫基复合材料,进而提高硫正极的体积比容量. 研究显示,LiCoO₂对可溶性多硫化物具有较强的吸附作用,能够促进硫的电化学转化,因而提高了硫的活性物质利用率和循环稳定性. 同时,由于具有高的振实密度(1.90 g·cm^-3),S/LiCoO₂复合材料的首周体积比容量高达1750.5 mAh·cm^-3,是常规硫/碳复合材料的2.2倍. 因此,本文利用具有高密度特征的LiCoO₂作为硫载体来提升硫复合材料的体积比容量,有助于实现锂-硫电池的高体积能量密度.     

基于玉米秸秆合成的多孔生物质炭材料及其电化学储能

以玉米秸秆为原料,合成了高比表面积(2167 m²/g)的多孔生物质炭材料。 优化实验条件即可获得性能最佳的生物质炭电极材料,其在电流密度为1 A/g时的比电容高达390 F/g。 更重要的是,以所得最佳多孔生物质炭为电极材料,3 mol/L 的KOH溶液为电解质,组装了液相对称超级电容器。 该超级电容器在功率密度为818 W/kg时,其能量密度高达7 Wh/kg,在循环10000圈后的电容保持率为91.1%。 同时,将两个这种超级电容器串联充电之后,能够点亮15个LED灯并驱动小风扇正常工作。 这些结果表明,将基于玉米秸秆的多孔生物质炭作为先进电极材料应用于超级电容器具有较大的实际应用价值。     

碳纳米管/聚苯胺/石墨烯复合纳米碳纸及其电化学电容行为

通过真空抽滤的方法制备碳纳米管纸,并对其进行循环伏安电化学氧化处理.以该电化学氧化处理的碳纳米管(CV-CNT)纸为基体,采用电化学聚合沉积聚苯胺(PANI),随后吸附石墨烯(GR),制备具有三明治夹心结构的碳纳米管/聚苯胺/石墨烯(CV-CNT/PANI/GR)复合纳米碳纸.该结构外层为GR,内层由PANI包裹的CNT形成网络骨架,充分发挥三者各自优势构建柔性电极材料.用场发射扫描电镜(FE-SEM)、透射电子显微镜(TEM)、拉曼光谱对其形貌与结构进行表征,并测试其电化学性能.研究发现:PANI呈纳米晶须状,并均匀包裹在CV-CNT表面;该复合碳纸具有良好的电容特性、大电流充放电特性以及良好的循环稳定性能.电流密度为0.5A·g-1时,比电容可达415F·g-1;20A·g-1时仍能保持106F·g-1的比电容.由于GR的保护作用,1000次循环之后较CV-CNT/PANI保持更高的有效比电容.该CV-CNT/PANI/GR复合碳纸展现出在高性能超级电容器柔性电极材料的潜在应用价值.     

Tin oxide (SnO2) nanoparticles/electrospun carbon nanofibers (CNFs) heterostructures: controlled fabrication and high capacitive behavior

Tin oxide (SnO(2))/carbon nanofibers (CNFs) heterostructures were fabricated by combining the versatility of the electrospinning technique and template-free solvent-thermal process. The results revealed that the SnO(2) nanostructures were successfully grown on the primary electrospun carbon nanofibers substrates. And, the coverage density of SnO(2) nanoparticles coating on the surface of the CNFs could be controlled by simply adjusting the mass ratio of CNFs to SnCl(4)·5H(2)O in the precursor during the solvent-thermal process for the fabrication of SnO(2)/CNFs heterostructures. The electrochemical performances of the SnO(2)/CNFs heterostructures as the electrode materials for supercapacitors were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge measurement in 1 M H(2)SO(4) solution. At different scan rates, all the samples with different coverage densities of SnO(2) showed excellent capacitance behavior. And, the sample CS2 (the mass ratio of CNFs to SnCl(4)·5H(2)O reached 1:7) exhibited a maximum specific capacitance of 187 F/g at a scan rate of 20 mV/s. Moreover, after 1000 cycles, the specific capacitance retention of this sample was over 95%. The high capacitive behavior could be ascribed to the low resistance of SnO(2)/CNFs heterostructures and rapid transport of the electrolyte ions from bulk solution to the surface of SnO(2).