Enhanced Photocatalytic H2-production Activity of CdS Nanoflower using Single Atom Pt and Graphene Quantum Dot as Dual Cocatalysts

Single-atom catalysts have high catalytic activity due to their unique quantum size effects and optimal atom utilization. Herein, visiblelight-responsive photocatalysts were designed by coupling Cd S with graphene quantum dots（GQDs） and platinum single atoms（Pt SAs）. GQDs and Pt SAs were successively loaded on ultrathin Cd S nanosheets through freeze-drying and in-situ photocatalytic reduction. The synergistic effect between Pt SAs and GQDs results in superior photocatalytic activity with a hydr...     

Nonlinear elastic constitutive relations of residually stressed composites with stiff curved fibres

Applied Mathematics and Mechanics - Mechanical models of residually stressed fibre-reinforced solids, which do not resist bending, have been developed in the literature. However, in some residually...     

Quantum algorithm for neighborhood preserving embedding

Neighborhood preserving embedding (NPE) is an important linear dimensionality reduction technique that aims at preserving the local manifold structure. NPE contains three steps, i.e., finding the nearest neighbors of each data point, constructing the weight matrix, and obtaining the transformation matrix. Liang et al. proposed a variational quantum algorithm (VQA) for NPE [Phys. Rev. A 101 032323 (2020)]. The algorithm consists of three quantum sub-algorithms, corresponding to the three steps of NPE, and was expected to have an exponential speedup on the dimensionality n. However, the algorithm has two disadvantages: (i) It is not known how to efficiently obtain the input of the third sub-algorithm from the output of the second one. (ii) Its complexity cannot be rigorously analyzed because the third sub-algorithm in it is a VQA. In this paper, we propose a complete quantum algorithm for NPE, in which we redesign the three sub-algorithms and give a rigorous complexity analysis. It is shown that our algorithm can achieve a polynomial speedup on the number of data points m and an exponential speedup on the dimensionality n under certain conditions over the classical NPE algorithm, and achieve a significant speedup compared to Liang et al.'s algorithm even without considering the complexity of the VQA.     

Automated synthesis of gadopentetate dimeglumine through solid-liquid reaction in femtosecond laser fabricated microfluidic chips

Despite the continuously increased requirement on automated synthesis of medicines for distributed manufacturing and personal care, it remains a challenge to realize automated synthesis which requires solid-liquid phase reactions. In this work, we demonstrated an automated solid-liquid synthesis for gadopentetate dimeglumine, the most widely used magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) contrast agent. The high-efficiency reaction was performed in a 3 D microfluidic chip which was fabricated by femtoseco...     

Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of NiMoO4 nanorods for high-performance urea electrooxidation

A large surface area with high active site exposure is desired for the nano-scaled electrocatalysts fabrication.Herein,taking Ni Mo O₄nanorods for example,we demonstrated the advantages of the microwaveassisted hydrothermal synthesis method compared to the traditional hydrothermal approaches.Both monoclinic structured Ni Mo O₄in the nanorods morphology are found for these samples but it is more time-saving and efficient in the Ni-Mo synergism for the catalyst obtained by mi...     

Hollow Fe4C/FeP Nanoboxes with Heterostructure and Carbon Armor for Efficient and Stable Hydrogen Evolution

The heterojunction interfacial modulation of FeP is an effective strategy to regulate the intrinsic activity and stability, which is a major challenge to promote the industrial application of FeP-based electrocatalysts. Herein, hollow Fe₄C/FeP box with heterojunction interface and carbon armor is successfully synthesized, which can expose numerous active sites and protect catalyst from corrosion. Electrochemical measurements show that Fe₄C/FeP exhibits excellent hydrogen ev...     

Optomechanical ratchet resonators

We describe an optomechanical ratchet scheme to realize nonreciprocal transmission of a light field, which is based on the bias of the optical cavity’s frequency spectrum caused by mechanical ratchet interactions. This approach to break the time-reversal symmetry of light propagation is universally valid in various optomechanical systems with ratchet-oscillator structures. We discuss specifically the implementation of an on-chip Casimir-ratchet optomechanical protocol and demonstrate the optical nonreciprocity with an extremely high isolation ratio and flexible controllability, which does not require external additional optical engineering. Our study opens a door for manipulating flexibly light propagation by using mechanical ratchet resonators, and has potential applications in the on-chip integration of nonreciprocal devices and harness of lateral Casimir forces.     

Bismuth chloride@mesocellular carbon foam nanocomposite cathode materials for rechargeable chloride ion batteries

Chloride ion batteries(CIB) are considered to be one of the most promising energy storage devices. As cathode materials for CIBs, metal chlorides have many advantages, such as high theoretical energy density, abundant elemental resources and ideal discharge voltage plateau. However, the dissolution and huge volume change of metal chlorides during cycling lead to considerable short lifespan, which limits their potential application for CIBs. Herein, the bismuth chloride nanocrystal is confined in...     

Graphene aerogel supported Pt-Ni alloy as efficient electrocatalysts for alcohol fuel oxidation

Alcohol fuels oxidation plays a significant role in carbon sustainable cycling and high-performance catalyst with a strong anti-poisoning effect is desired. Herein, Pt-Ni alloy supported on the N-doped graphene aerogel synthesized by simple freeze-drying and annealing was demonstrated to have such catalytic ability for alcohol fuel oxidation. Pt-Ni alloy particles were found uniformly dispersed over the surface of 3D N-doped graphene aerogel. High anti-poisoning ability for CO-like intermediates...     

Unidirectional acoustic metamaterials based on nonadiabatic holonomic quantum transformations

Nonadiabatic holonomic quantum transformations(NHQTs)have attracted wide attention and have been applied in many aspects of quantum computation,whereas related research is usually limited to the field of quantum physics.Here we bring NHQTs into constructing a unidirectional acoustic metamaterial(UDAM)for shaping classical beams.The UDAM is made up of an array of three-waveguide couplers,where the propagation of acoustic waves mimics the evolution of NHQTs.The excellent agreement among analytical predictions,numerical simulations,and experimental measurements confirms the great applicability of NHQTs in acoustic metamaterial engineering.The present work extends research on NHQTs from quantum physics to the field of classical waves for designing metamaterials with simple structures and may pave a new way to design UDAMs that would be of potential applications in acoustic isolation,communication,and stealth.