The behavior of capillary suspensions at diverse length scales: From single capillary bridges to bulk

Liquid-liquid-solid systems are becoming increasingly common in everyday life with many possible applications. Here, we focus on a special case of such liquid-liquid-solid systems, namely, capillary suspensions. These capillary suspensions originate from particles that form a network based on capillary forces and are typically composed of solids in a bulk liquid with an added secondary liquid. The structure of particle networks based on capillary bridges possesses unique properties compared with networks formed via other attractive interactions where these differences are inherently related to the properties of the capillary bridges, such as bridge breaking and coalescence between adjacent bridges. Thus, to tailor the mechanical properties of capillary suspensions to specific requirements, it is important to understand the influences on different length scales ranging from the dynamics of the bridges with varying external stimuli to the often heterogeneous network structure.     

Self-emulsification in chemical and pharmaceutical technologies

The interest in the low energy self-emulsification techniques has exploded in the recent years, driven by three main trends: by the transition to “greener” technologies in both its aspects—less energy consumption and replacement of the petrochemicals by natural ingredients; by the costly and maintenance demanding equipment for nanoemulsification; and by the quest for efficient and robust self-emulsifying formulations for oral drug delivery. Here, we first present a brief overview of the main known low-energy methods for nanoemulsion formation, focusing on their mechanistic understanding and discussing some recent advances in their development and applications. Next, we review three conceptually new approaches for self-emulsification in chemical technologies, discovered in the last several years. The colloidal features and the specific requirements of the self-emulsifying drug-delivery systems (SEDDS) are also discussed briefly. Finally, we summarize the current trends and the main challenges in this vivid research area.     

Polymeric Carbon Nitride-based Single Atom Photocatalysts for CO2 Reduction to C1 Products

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to C₁ fuels is considered to be an important way for alleviating increasingly serious energy crisis and environmental pollution. Due to the environment-friendly, simple preparation, easy formation of highly-stable metal-nitrogen(M-N_x) coordination bonds, and suitable band structure, polymeric carbon nitride-based single-atom catalysts(C₃N₄-based SACs) are expected to become a potential for CO₂ reduction under visible-light irradiation. In this review, we summarize the recent advancement on C₃N₄-based SACs for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to C₁ products, including the reaction mechanism for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to C₁ products, the structure and synthesis methods of C₃N₄-based SACs and their applications toward photocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction(CO₂RR) for C₁ production. The current challenges and future opportunities of C₃N₄-based SACs for photoreduction of CO₂ are also discussed.     

Modified Eu3+ doped Y2O3 Nanoparticles as Turn-on Fluorescence Sensor for Sensitive Determination of Methamphetamine

Journal of Analytical Chemistry - In this article, a new spectrofluorometric method was developed for the determination of methamphetamine based on a turn-on luminescence response of captopril...     

Oxidation of methane to methanol with hydrogen peroxide in situ in the presence of glutathione-stabilized gold nanoclusters under mild conditions

Russian Chemical Bulletin - Oxidation of methane with a hydrogen-air mixture at 70 °C and a partial pressure of methane of 30 atm was studied. Water-soluble glutathione-stabilized nanoclusters...     

Application of advanced nuclear analytical techniques for the electrocatalyst's characterization: Paving the path for mechanistic investigations

As the application of electrocatalyst continues to expand, envisaging the hidden mechanisms occurring at various length scale affecting the catalytic efficiency became important. To enhance the stability of electrocatalyst and reduce the cost, it is of paramount importance to reveal the active site's dynamics (using in situ techniques for getting the real-time information) which directly affect the reactions such as oxygen evolution reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, and so on. Since such reactions are crucial for many engineering and scientific applications, in situ characterization techniques are required, which could capture such reactions happening at a different length and time scale. This article analyzes the recent progress made in the field of electrocatalyst's characterization using in situ neutron techniques. The article also paves the future path and has delineated the future challenges involved in multiscale correlative techniques (e.g., neutron techniques in the combination of synchrotron or microscopic techniques) used for getting the multiscale (atomic to micrometer range) mechanistic information about the electrocatalyst's working and degradation.     

Experimental study on the runaway behaviors of Panasonic 21,700 LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 battery used in electric vehicle under thermal failure

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Thermal runaway phenomena of the Panasonic 21,700 LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 lithium-ion batteries with 100, 50 and 25% capacity were studied under thermal...     

Empirical field mapping for gradient nonlinearity correction of multi-site diffusion weighted MRI

BackgroundAchieving inter-site / inter-scanner reproducibility of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) metrics has been challenging given differences in acquisition protocols, analysis models, and hardware factors.PurposeMagnetic field gradients impart scanner-dependent spatial variations in the applied diffusion weighting that can be corrected if the gradient nonlinearities are known. However, retrieving manufacturer nonlinearity specifications is not well supported and may introduce errors in interpretation of units or coordinate systems. We propose an empirical approach to mapping the gradient nonlinearities with sequences that are supported across the major scanner vendors.Study typeProspective observational study.SubjectsA spherical isotropic diffusion phantom, and a single human control volunteer.Field strength/sequence3 T (two scanners). Stejskal-Tanner spin echo sequence with b-values of 1000, 2000 s/mm² with 12, 32, and 384 diffusion gradient directions per shell.AssessmentWe compare the proposed correction with the prior approach using manufacturer specifications against typical diffusion pre-processing pipelines (i.e., ignoring spatial gradient nonlinearities). In phantom data, we evaluate metrics against the ground truth. In human and phantom data, we evaluate reproducibility across scans, sessions, and hardware.Statistical testsWilcoxon rank-sum test between uncorrected and corrected data.ResultsIn phantom data, our correction method reduces variation in mean diffusivity across sessions over uncorrected data (p < 0.05). In human data, we show that this method can also reduce variation in mean diffusivity across scanners (p < 0.05).ConclusionOur method is relatively simple, fast, and can be applied retroactively. We advocate incorporating voxel-specific b-value and b-vector maps should be incorporated in DW-MRI harmonization preprocessing pipelines to improve quantitative accuracy of measured diffusion parameters.