A Free Boundary Problem for Some Modified Predator-Prey Model in a Higher Dimensional Environment

Applications of Mathematics - We focus on the free boundary problems for a Leslie-Gower predator-prey model with radial symmetry in a higher dimensional environment that is initially well populated...     

Metal organic frameworks as advanced extraction adsorbents for separation and analysis in proteomics and environmental research

Science China Chemistry - Human health is always under global spotlight, but now it suffers from severe environmental issue and various diseases. Developing highly selective and effective...     

A composition-free parallel volume rendering method

Journal of Visualization - In the in situ visualization of large-scale simulation, if using the traditional sort-last parallel rendering method, the performance cannot be fully improved due to the...     

A visible light responsive molecularly imprinted photoelectrochemical sensor for the sensitive detection of BSA

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - A molecularly imprinted photoelectrochemical (PEC) cathodic sensor was developed for the detection of bovine serum albumin (BSA). The PEC sensor was...     

Caterpillars with maximum degree 3 are antimagic

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a connected graph with $m$ edges. An antimagic labeling of $G$ is a one-to-one mapping from $E$ to $\{1,2,\dots ,m\}$ such that the vertex sum (i.e., sum of the labels assigned to edges incident to a vertex) for distinct vertices are different. A graph $G$ is called antimagic if $G$ has an antimagic labeling. It was conjectured by Hartsfield and Ringel that every tree other than $K_2$ is antimagic. The conjecture remains open though it was verified for trees with some constrains. Caterpillars are an important subclass of trees. This paper shows caterpillars with maximum degree 3 are antimagic, which gives an affirmative answer to an open problem of Lozano et al. (2019).     

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.     

Non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis of pyrolysis kinetics of four oil shales using Sestak–Berggren method

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, the non-isothermal pyrolysis method was used to investigate the pyrolysis characteristics of oil shale from four areas: namely Nongan,...     

Amphiphilic Graft Copolymers of Hydroxypropyl Cellulose Backbone with Nonpolar Polyisobutylene Branches

The novel amphiphilic graft copolymers with hydrophilic hard polar hydroxypropyl cellulose(HPC) backbone and hydrophobic soft nonpolar polyisobutylene(PIB) branches have been successfully synthesized through nucleophilic substitution reaction of living PIB chains carrying oxonium ions with the-OH groups along HPC backbone. The PIB branch length in the graft copolymers could be designed by living cationic polymerization and the grafting density could be adjusted by PIB~+/-OH molar ratio. The living PIB chains carrying oxonium ion were prepared by transformation of allyl bromide end groups in the presence of AgClO_4 and silver nanoparticles(3.2±0.3 nm, 0.7 wt%-1.8 wt%)generated in situ from AgBr. The phase-separation morphology was formed in the graft copolymers due to their incompatibility between backbone and branches. The hydrophilicity on the surface of graft copolymer films could be turned to hydrophobicity by increasing grafting density or/and length of PIB branches. The soft PIB segments in graft copolymers provided an unique surface via self-assembly for anti-protein adsorption against bovine serum albumin. A small amount of Ag nanoparticles in the copolymers contributed to good antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli.     

BiVO4/TiO2 heterojunction with rich oxygen vacancies for enhanced electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction

The large-scale production of ammonia mainly depends on the Haber–Bosch process, which will lead to the problems of high energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. Electrochemical nitrogen fixation is considered to be an environmental friendly and sustainable process, but its efficiency largely depends on the activity and stability of the catalyst. Therefore, it is imperative to develop highefficient electrocatalysts in the field of nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). In this paper, we developed a BiVO₄/TiO₂ nanotube (BiVO₄/TNT) heterojunction composite with rich oxygen vacancies as an electrocatalytic NRR catalyst. The heterojunction interface and oxygen vacancy of BiVO₄/TNT can be the active site of N₂ dynamic activation and proton transition. The synergistic effect of TiO₂ and BiVO₄ shortens the proton transport path and reduces the over potential of chemical reaction. BiVO₄/TNT has high ammonia yield of 8.54 μg·h⁻¹·cm⁻² and high Faraday efficiency of 7.70% in −0.8 V vs. RHE in 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ solution.     

Bicomponent Cocatalyst Decoration on Flux-assisted CaTaO2N Single Crystals for Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction under Visible Light

Cubic-like CaTaO₂N photocatalysts with high crystallinity and uniform particle size were successfully prepared by the flux-assisted nitridation method. The growth of CaTaO₂N single crystals under different synthesis conditions was systematically investigated to understand the effects of the crystallinity and optical property on photocatalytic performance of CO₂ reduction. Moreover, the modification of CaTaO₂N single crystals with core-shell Ni−Ag bicomponent cocatalyst by two-step decoration process gave a 2.4 times higher amount of CO evolution than the deposition of sole Ag cocatalyst, because of the synergistic effects of bicomponent cocatalyst on the interfacial electron transfer and surface catalytic process. This study provides a valuable way to construct high-crystalline photocatalysts with effective bicomponent cocatalyst for visible-light-driven CO₂ reduction with H₂O.