Catalytic properties of mesoporous materials supported heteropoly acids for Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of cyclic ketones

Three mesoporous molecular sieves loaded silicotungstic acids, named HSiW/SBA-15, HSiW/MCM-41, HSiW/MCM-48, were prepared and characterised by XRD, FT-IR, TEM and SEM. The catalytic performance of the prepared materials for the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of cyclic ketones was carried out in the presence of 30%H₂O₂ under mild conditions. These loading materials were proved to be efficient and reusable catalysts, they all exhibited excellent catalytic performance for the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of cyclic ketones with 30% H₂O₂ as oxidant. Many cyclic ketones were efficiently converted to the corresponding lactones with up to 90% conversions and high selectivities under the optimum reaction conditions.

Cyclic ketones were efficiently oxidised by mesoporous materials sopported silicotungstic acid to the corresponding lactones with 30%H₂O₂ as oxidant. All of the catalysts showed promising recyclability in the reactions.     

Microstructure evolution and passivation quality of hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide(a-SiOx:H) on〈100〉- and 〈111〉-orientated c-Si wafers

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide(a-SiOx:H) is an attractive passivation material to suppress epitaxial growth and reduce the parasitic absorption loss in silicon heterojunction(SHJ) solar cells. In this paper, a-SiOx:H layers on different orientated c-Si substrates are fabricated. An optimal effective lifetime(τ(eff)) of 4743 μs and corresponding implied opencircuit voltage(iV(oc)) of 724 mV are obtained on〈100〉-orientated c-Si wafers. While τ(eff) of 2429 μs and iV_oc of 699 mV are achieved on 111-orientated substrate. The FTIR and XPS results indicate that the a-SiOx:H network consists of SiOx(Si-rich), Si–OH, Si–O–SiHx, SiO2 ≡ Si–Si, and O3 ≡ Si–Si. A passivation evolution mechanism is proposed to explain the different passivation results on different c-Si wafers. By modulating the a-SiOx:H layer, the planar silicon heterojunction solar cell can achieve an efficiency of 18.15%.     

An improved evaluation of the neutron background in the PandaX-Ⅱ experiment

In dark matter direct detection experiments,neutron is a serious source of background,which can mimic the dark matter-nucleus scattering signals.In this paper,we present an improved evaluation of the neutron background in the PandaX-II dark matter experiment by a novel approach.Instead of fully relying on the Monte Carlo simulation,the overall neutron background is determined from the neutron-induced high energy signals in the data.In addition,the probability of producing a dark-matter-like background per neutron is evaluated with a complete Monte Carlo generator,where the correlated emission of neutron(s)andγ(s)in the(α,n)reactions and spontaneous fissions is taken into consideration.With this method,the neutron backgrounds in the Run 9(26-ton-day)and Run 10(28-ton-day)data sets of PandaX-II are estimated to be(0.66±0.24)and(0.47±0.25)events,respectively.     

Enhancing hydrogen evolution of MoS2 basal planes by combining single-boron catalyst and compressive strain

MoS₂ is a promising candidate for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), while its active sites are mainly distributed on the edge sites rather than the basal plane sites. Herein, a strategy to overcome the inertness of the MoS₂ basal surface and achieve high HER activity by combining single-boron catalyst and compressive strain was reported through density functional theory (DFT) computations. The ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulation on B@MoS₂ suggests high thermodynamic and kinetic stability. We found that the rather strong adsorption of hydrogen by B@MoS₂ can be alleviated by stress engineering. The optimal stress of −7% can achieve a nearly zero value of ΔG_H (~ −0.084 eV), which is close to that of the ideal Pt–SACs for HER. The novel HER activity is attributed to (i) the B– doping brings the active site to the basal plane of MoS₂ and reduces the band-gap, thereby increasing the conductivity; (ii) the compressive stress regulates the number of charge transfer between (H)–(B)–(MoS₂), weakening the adsorption energy of hydrogen on B@MoS₂. Moreover, we constructed a SiN/B@MoS₂ heterojunction, which introduces an 8.6% compressive stress for B@MoS₂ and yields an ideal ΔGH. This work provides an effective means to achieve high intrinsic HER activity for MoS₂.     

Adaptive vehicle posture and height synchronization control of active air suspension systems with multiple uncertainties

This paper addresses the tasks of height and posture motion control for an electronically controlled active air suspension (AAS) system. A mathematical model of a vehicle body with AAS system is established to describe the dynamic characteristics and then formulated into a multi-input multi-output nonlinear system by considering parametric uncertainties and unmodelled dynamics. Based on this mathematical model, a synchronization control strategy is proposed to adjust the heights of adjacent AASs simultaneously, driving the pitch and roll angles closely to an arbitrarily neighborhood of zero, achieving global uniform ultimate boundedness. The proposed controller is robust to parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. A projection operator is utilized to limit the estimated parameters to their corresponding prescribed bounds in finite time. A co-simulation is conducted by combining a virtual vehicle plant with ASS system in AMEsim with the proposed synchronization controller in MATLAB/Simulink. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed synchronization controller is effective and robust.     

Bifurcation of a modified railway wheelset model with nonlinear equivalent conicity and wheel–rail force

This paper presents the bifurcation behaviors of a modified railway wheelset model to explore its instability mechanisms of hunting motion. Equivalent conicity data measured from China high-speed railway vehicle are used to modify the wheelset model. Firstly, the relationships between longitudinal stiffness, lateral stiffness, equivalent conicity and critical speed are taken into account by calculating the real parts of the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix and Hurwitz criterion for the corresponding linear model. Secondly, measured equivalent conicity data are fitted by a nonlinear function of the lateral displacement rather than are considered as a constant as usual. Nonlinear wheel–rail force function is used to describe the wheel–rail contact force. Based on these modifications, a modified railway wheelset model with nonlinear equivalent conicity and wheel–rail force is set up, and then, some instability mechanisms of China high-speed train vehicle are investigated based on Hopf bifurcation, fold (limit point) bifurcation of cycles, cusp bifurcation of cycles, Neimark–Sacker bifurcation of cycles and 1:1 resonance. In particular, fold bifurcation of cycles can produce a vast effect on the hunting motion of the modified wheelset model. One of the main reasons leading to hunting motion is due to the fold bifurcation structure of cycles, in which stable limit cycles and unstable limit cycles may coincide, and multiple nested limit cycles appear on a side of fold bifurcation curve of cycles. Unstable hunting motion mainly depends on the coexistence of equilibria and limit cycles and their positions; if the most outward limit cycle is stable, then the motion of high-speed vehicle should be safe in a reasonable range. Otherwise, if the initial values are chosen near the most outward unstable limit cycle or the system is perturbed by noises, the high-speed vehicle will take place unstable hunting motion and even lead to serious train derailment events. Therefore, in order to control hunting motions, it may be the easiest way in theory to guarantee the coexistence of the inner stable equilibrium and the most outward stable limit cycle in a wheelset system.

     

Multi-stable quantum droplets in optical lattices

Nonlinear Dynamics - We address the nonlinear dynamics of binary Bose-Einstein condensates with mutually symmetric spinor components trapped in an optical lattice. The interaction between the...     

Global dynamics of a flexible asymmetrical rotor

Nonlinear Dynamics - Global dynamics of a flexible asymmetrical rotor resting on vibrating supports is investigated. Hamilton’s principle is used to derive the partial differential governing...     

One-Step Nucleic Acid Purification and Noise-Resistant Polymerase Chain Reaction by Electrokinetic Concentration for Ultralow-Abundance Nucleic Acid Detection

Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs)integrated on a chip hold great promise for point-of-care diagnostics. Currently, nucleic acid (NA) purification remains time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it takes extensive efforts to optimize the amplification chemistry. Using selective electrokinetic concentration, we report one-step, liquid-phase NA purification that is simpler and faster than conventional solid-phase extraction. By further re-concentrating NAs and performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in a microfluidic chamber, our platform suppresses non-specific amplification caused by non-optimal PCR designs. We achieved the detection of 5 copies of M. tuberculosis genomic DNA (equaling 0.3 cell) in real biofluids using both optimized and non-optimal PCR designs, which is 10- and 1000-fold fewer than those of the standard bench-top method, respectively. By simplifying the workflow and shortening the development cycle of NAATs, our platform may find use in point-of-care diagnosis.     

Fabricating Dual-Atom Iron Catalysts for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction: A Heteroatom Modulator Approach

Understanding the thermal aggregation behavior of metal atoms is important for the synthesis of supported metal clusters. Here, derived from a metal–organic framework encapsulating a trinuclear Fe^III₂Fe^II complex (denoted as Fe₃) within the channels, a well-defined nitrogen-doped carbon layer is fabricated as an ideal support for stabilizing the generated iron nanoclusters. Atomic replacement of Fe^II by other metal(II) ions (e.g., Zn^II/Co^II) via synthesizing isostructural trinuclear-complex precursors (Fe₂Zn/Fe₂Co), namely the “heteroatom modulator approach”, is inhibiting the aggregation of Fe atoms toward nanoclusters with formation of a stable iron dimer in an optimal metal–nitrogen moiety, clearly identified by direct transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. The supported iron dimer, serving as cooperative metal–metal site, acts as efficient oxygen evolution catalyst. Our findings offer an atomic insight to guide the future design of ultrasmall metal clusters bearing outstanding catalytic capabilities.