Amorphous High-Entropy Hydroxides of Tunable Wide Solar Absorption for Solar Water Evaporation

The high-entropy materials have raised much attention in recent years due to their extraordinary performances in mechanical, catalysis, energy storage fields. Herein, a new type of high-entropy hydroxides (e.g., NiFeCoMnAl(OH)_x) that are amorphous and capable of broad solar absorption is reported. A facile one-pot co-precipitation method is employed to synthesize these amorphous high-entropy hydroxides (a-HEHOs) under ambient conditions. The a-HEHOs thus obtained display widely tunable bandgap (e.g., from 2.6 to 1.1 eV) due to their high-entropy and amorphous characteristics, enabling efficient light absorbance and photothermal conversion in the solar regime. Further solar water evaporation measurements show that the a-HEHOs delivered a considerable energy conversion efficiency of 55%, comparable to black titanium oxides that are synthesized using more complex and expensive methods.     

XANES/EPR Evidence of the Oxidation of Nickel(II) Quinolinylpropioamide and Its Application in Csp3−H Functionalization

An in situ generated oxidation species of nickel quinolinylpropioamide intermediate was produced. Characterization by X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and EPR provides complementary insights into this oxidized nickel species. With aliphatic amides and isocyanides as substrates, a nickel-catalyzed facile synthesis of structurally diverse five-membered lactams could be achieved.     

浊度干扰下硝酸盐浓度紫外导数光谱检测方法研究

硝酸盐是水中“三氮”（硝酸盐氮、氨氮、总氮）之一，是反映水体受污染程度的一项重要指标。传统 “现场采样-离线分析” 的硝酸盐化学检测方法操作繁琐、耗时长，难以满足现代水环境实时在线检测需求。由于硝酸根在紫外区具有很强的紫外吸收特性，并且紫外吸收光谱法具有简便快速、可实现实时在线监测等特点，近年来被广泛用于硝酸盐浓度的测量。但使用紫外吸收光谱法检测水体硝酸盐含量时，容易受到水体浊度影响，造成谱线非线性抬升，导致测量误差。目前对浊度补偿算法的研究大都用于水中COD含量的检测，对硝酸盐检测中浊度干扰去除研究较少。为此提出一种基于一阶导数紫外吸收光谱的硝酸盐浓度测量方法，该方法可以减小浊度干扰，从而提高紫外光谱快速检测硝酸盐含量的准确度。通过测量福尔马肼与硝酸钠标准溶液和它们混合溶液在190~300 nm波段的紫外吸收光谱并做一阶导数光谱处理，处理后的光谱采用Savitzky-Golay滤波进行去噪平滑处理，比较浊度与硝酸盐紫外吸收一阶导数光谱特征，分波段研究浊度对硝酸盐紫外一阶导数光谱影响，结果表明硝酸盐导数光谱在220~230 nm波段受浊度影响小；选取220~230 nm波段作为光谱分析区间，以30种不同浓度混合的福尔马肼与硝酸钠溶液作为训练样本，利用偏最小二乘算法建立硝酸盐定量分析模型，使用该建模模型预测剩下的6种不同浓度福尔马肼与硝酸钠混合溶液中硝酸盐的浓度，结果表明福尔马肼干扰下硝酸盐测量结果的预测决定系数（correlation coefficient，R2）为0.994 3，预测均方根误差（root mean square error of prediction，RMSEP）为0.346 9 mg·L-1。为进一步验证该方法的准确性与稳定性，使用该建模模型预测高岭土与硝酸钾配制的混合水样中硝酸盐的浓度，结果表明该方法对高岭土干扰下硝酸盐测量结果的预测决定系数r2为0.991 5，预测均方根误差RMSEP为0.362 8 mg·L-1。综上所述，提出的硝酸盐浓度紫外导数光谱检测方法，采用220~230 nm波段的紫外导数光谱数据，结合PLS建模，可以快速准确测量在浊度干扰下水体硝酸盐的浓度，为发展实际水体硝酸盐在线监测技术与设备提供方法基础。     

X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of the electronic structure and local coordination of 1st row transition metal-promoted Chevrel-phase sulfides

Abstract

The electronic structures of S and Mo as well as the local coordination of Mo are investigated as a function of metal promotion Chevrel-phase (CP) sulfides. We observe the effect of metal promoter-induced electron donation into the stoichiometric range M_xMo₆S₈ (M?=?Fe, Ni, Cu; x?=?0–2) through analysis of X-ray absorption near-edge structure regions. We further observe the effect of this promotion on the bonding environment of Mo₆ metal centers through extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. We monitor expansion and contraction of Mo₆ octahedra with and without metal promotion, as has been predicted by Hückel molecular orbital theory. We further observe a marked tunability in the electronic structure of sulfur upon charge transfer between promoting species and Mo₆S₈ units. Average Mo₆ octahedron Mo–Mo bond contraction from 2.76 Å to as short as 2.69 Å was observed upon incorporation of metal promoters, while intercluster separation displays a pronounced increase for promoter-host lattices compared to un-promoted Mo₆S₈. To corroborate spectroscopically observed phenomena, we performed computational analyses of spin-polarized densities of state for the CP materials investigated herein, where a detectable increase in sulfur-based frontier orbital population is observed in accordance with experimentally validated orbital filling.     

Performance of Pleurotus ostreatus Mushrooms and Spent Substrate for the Biosorption of Cd(II) From Aqueous Solution

The capacities of Pleurotus ostreatus mushroom and spent substrate were evaluated for the biosorption of cadmium (II) from aqueous solution in order to select the most efficient material for bioremediation. The optimum sorption conditions were optimized, including the pH of the aqueous solution, contact time, biomass dosage, initial metal concentration, and temperature. The sorption of cadmium on both biosorbents was also evaluated by several kinetic, equilibrium, and thermodynamic models. The possible heavy metal biosorption mechanisms were evaluated through point of zero charge (pH_pzc), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDX). Based on the results of column studies, the effectiveness of the P. ostreatus spent substrate was confirmed as a biosorbent for Cd(II) removal from aqueous solutions.     

Automatic spike correction using UNIFIT 2020

The improvement of the software UNIFIT 2020 from an analysis processing software for photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) only to a powerful tool for XPS, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and Raman spectroscopy requires new additional programme routines. Particularly, the implementation of the analysis of Raman spectra needs a well-working automatic spike correction. The application of the modified discrete Laplace operator method allows for a perfect localization and correction of the spikes and finally a successful peak fit of the spectra. The theoretical basis is described. Test spectra allow for the evaluation of the presented method. A comparison of the original and spike-corrected real measurements demonstrates the high quality of the method used.     

Synthesis,Structures, and Near‐IR Absorption of Heterole‐Fused Earring Porphyrins

A reaction sequence of regioselective peripheral bromination, Suzuki–Miyaura coupling with 2‐borylated thiophene or pyrrole, and oxidative ring‐closure with FeCl₃ allowed the synthesis of heterole‐fused earring porphyrins 4Pd and 9Pd from the parent earring porphyrin 1 . Differently pyrrole‐fused porphyrins 5H and 6H and their Pd^II complexes 5Pd and 6Pd were also synthesized. The structures of 4Pd , 5H, 6Pd , and 8Pd have been revealed by X‐ray analysis to be slightly twisted owing to constraints imposed by heterole‐fused structures. 5Pd exhibits an intensified band at 1505 nm, while 4Pd and 9Pd display small but remarkably red‐shifted absorption bands reaching around 2200 nm.     

Effects of Thermal Radiation and Slip Mechanism on Mixed Convection Flow of Williamson Nanofluid Over an Inclined Stretching Cylinder

The current investigation highlights the mixed convection slip flow and radiative heat transport of uniformly electrically conducting Williamson nanofluid yield by an inclined circular cylinder in the presence of Brownian motion and thermophoresis parameter.A Lorentzian magnetic body force model is employed and magnetic induction effects are neglected.The governing equations are reduced to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations with associated boundary conditions by applying scaling group transformations.The reduced nonlinear ordinary differential equations are then solved numerically by Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg fifth-order method with shooting technique.The effects of magnetic field,Prandtl number,mixed convection parameter,buoyancy ratio parameter,Brownian motion parameter,thermophoresis parameter,heat generation/absorption parameter,mass transfer parameter,radiation parameter and Schmidt number on the skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt are analyzed and discussed.It is found that the velocity of the fluid decreases with decrease in curvature parameter,whereas it increases with mixed convection parameter.Further,the local Nusselt number decreases with an increase in the radiation parameter.The numerical comparison is also presented with the existing published results and found that the present results are in excellent agreement which also confirms the validity of the present methodology.     

Bridging the Green Gap: Metal–Organic Framework Heteromultilayers Assembled from Porphyrinic Linkers Identified by Using Computational Screening

In organic photovoltaics, porphyrins (PPs) are among the most promising compounds owing to their large absorption cross-section, wide spectral range, and stability. Nevertheless, a precise adjustment of absorption band positions to reach a full coverage of the so-called green gap has not been achieved yet. We demonstrate that a tuning of the PP Q- and Soret bands can be carried out by using a computational approach for which substitution patterns are optimized in silico. The most promising candidate structures were then synthesized. The experimental UV/Vis data for the solvated compounds were in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions. By attaching further functionalities, which allow the use of PP chromophores as linkers for the assembly of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), we were able to exploit packing effects resulting in pronounced redshifts, which allowed further optimization of the photophysical properties of PP assemblies. Finally, we use a layer-by-layer method to assemble the PP linkers into surface-mounted MOFs (SURMOFs), thus obtaining high optical quality, homogeneous and crystalline multilayer films. Experimental results are in full accord with the calculations, demonstrating the huge potential of computational screening methods in tailoring MOF and SURMOF photophysical properties.