Microcalorimetry study on the microbial activity of permafrost on the Tibetan plateau of China

Microcalorimetric techniques had been used to study the influence of different physicochemical parameters on microbial growth in different permafrosts on the Tibetan plateau. The total heat evolution of the permafrost samples amended with glucose, Q _T , the values of microbial growth rate constant, k, and the heat output power, P _t , were calculated from the power–time (P–t) curves. It is observed that the same coverage vegetation show similar P–t curves, which strongly suggest that the permafrost microorganisms of the homology vegetation coverage have similar structures of community. Furthermore, the vegetation degradation turns out to have significant influence, that is, the better the status of vegetation is, the higher the values of k, CFU and Q _T are.     

Characterizing the Role of Iodine Doping in Improving Photovoltaic Performance of Dye‐Sensitized Hierarchically Structured ZnO Solar Cells

We report two novel types of hierarchically structured iodine‐doped ZnO (I? ZnO)‐based dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSCs) using indoline D205 and the ruthenium complex N719 as sensitizers. It was found that iodine doping boosts the efficiencies of D205 I? ZnO and N719 I? ZnO DSCs with an enhancement of 20.3 and 17.9 %, respectively, compared to the undoped versions. Transient absorption spectra demonstrated that iodine doping impels an increase in the decay time of I? ZnO, favoring enhanced exciton life. Mott–Schottky analysis results indicated a negative shift of the flat‐band potential (V_fb) of ZnO, caused by iodine doping, and this shift correlated with the enhancement of the open circuit voltage (V_oc). To reveal the effect of iodine doping on the effective separation of e^?‐h⁺ pairs which is responsible for cell efficiency, direct visualization of light‐induced changes in the surface potential between I? ZnO particles and dye molecules were traced by Kelvin probe force microscopy. We found that potential changes of iodine‐doped ZnO films by irradiation were above one hundred millivolts and thus significantly greater. In order to correlate enhanced cell performance with iodine doping, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, incident‐photon‐current efficiency, and cyclic voltammetry investigations on I? ZnO cells were carried out. The results revealed several favorable features of I? ZnO cells, that is, longer electron lifetime, lower charge‐transfer resistance, stronger peak current, and extended visible light harvest, all of which serve to promote cell performance.     

纳米SO42-/ZrO2的合成及其在酯交换反应中的催化性能

采用两步晶化-后浸渍法合成了纳米SO₄^2-/ZrO₂固体酸催化剂,并考察了其在植物油与甲醇酯交换反应中的催化性能。XRD、N₂吸附-脱附和TEM等结果表明,经过600℃焙烧,催化剂仍保持单一四方相,粒径大小为5~10 nm,比表面积为137 m²·g^-1,孔径为3.6 nm。NH₃-TPD结果表明,随着焙烧温度升高,催化剂表面的酸含量和酸强度逐渐增加,超强酸含量的增加,更有利于反应在温和条件下进行。在酯交换反应中,当醇油物质的量之比为20：1,反应温度为135℃,反应时间为6 h,600℃焙烧后催化剂用量为5%（w/w）时,植物油能够完全转化为脂肪酸甲酯。与传统的SO₄^2-/ZrO₂催化剂相比,该催化剂在低温反应条件下具有更高的催化性能和良好的重复使用性。