Self-Accelerating Diels–Alder Reaction for Preparing Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity

It is a formidable challenge in polycondensation to simultaneously construct multiple covalent bonds to prepare double-stranded polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) with fused multicyclic linkages. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to develop a self-accelerating Diels–Alder reaction for successfully preparing double-stranded PIMs with fused multicyclic backbone structures. A self-accelerating Diels–Alder reaction was developed based on the [4+2] cycloaddition of sym-dibenzo-1,5-cyclooctadiene-3,7-diyne (DIBOD) and ortho-quinone compounds. In this reaction, the cycloaddition of ortho-quinone with the first alkyne of DIBOD activates the second alkyne, which reacts with ortho-quinone at a rate constant 192 times larger than that of the original alkyne. Using this self-accelerating reaction to polymerize DIBOD and spirocyclic/cyclic difunctional ortho-quinone monomers, a novel stoichiometric imbalance-promoted step-growth polymerization method was developed to prepare PIMs. The resultant PIMs possess intrinsic ultramicropores with pore sizes between 0.45 to 0.7 nm, high specific surface areas above 646 m² g⁻¹, and good H₂ separation performance.     

Ambient Preparation of Benzoxazine-based Phenolic Resins Enables Long-term Sustainable Photosynthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide

Rational design of polymer structures at the molecular level promotes the iteration of high-performance photocatalyst for sustainable photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) production from oxygen and water, which also lays the basis for revealing the reaction mechanism. Here we report a benzoxazine-based m-aminophenol-formaldehyde resin (APFac) polymerized at ambient conditions, exhibiting superior H₂O₂ yield and long-term stability to most polymeric photocatalysts. Benzoxazine structure was identified as the crucial photocatalytic active segment in APFac. Favorable adsorption of oxygen/intermediates on benzoxazine structure and commendable product selectivity accelerated the reaction kinetically in stepwise single-electron oxygen reduction reaction. The proposed benzoxazine-based phenolic resin provides the possibility of production in batches and industrial application, and sheds light on the de novo design and analysis of metal-free polymeric photocatalysts.     

Tracking an FeV(O) Intermediate for Water Oxidation in Water

High-valent iron-oxo species are appealing for conducting O−O bond formation for water oxidation reactions. However, their high reactivity poses a great challenge to the dissection of their chemical transformations. Herein, we introduce an electron-rich and oxidation-resistant ligand, 2-[(2,2′-bipyridin)-6-yl]propan-2-ol to stabilize such fleeting intermediates. Advanced spectroscopies and electrochemical studies demonstrate a high-valent Fe^V(O) species formation in water. Combining kinetic and oxygen isotope labelling experiments and organic reactions indicates that the Fe^V(O) species is responsible for O−O bond formation via water nucleophilic attack under the real catalytic water oxidation conditions.     

TiO2修饰La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ用于中温固体氧化物燃料电池的阴极

纳米TiO2修饰的La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ(LSCF)阴极被直接应用于YSZ电解质电池上. TiO2可阻止LSCF和YSZ间的化学反应,抑制SrZrO3的形成. LSCF-0.25 wt% TiO2阴极电池在0.7 V和600°C下的电流密度是LSCF阴极电池的1.6倍.电化学阻抗谱结果表明, TiO2修饰显著加快了氧离子注入电解质的过程,这可能与TiO2抑制了阴极/电解质界面处高电阻SrZrO3层的形成有关.本文为在ZrO2基电解质上使用高性能的(La,Sr)(Co,Fe)O3阴极材料提供了一种简单有效的方法.     

三元磁性氮化碳复合光催化剂的制备和表征及其在可见光下去除四环素的应用

g-C3N4作为一种新型有机半导体材料,由于其良好的化学稳定性和可直接利用可见光等优点已经引起了人们的广泛关注,近年来已逐渐将其应用于光催化氧化环境污染物等方面.同时在实际应用中因其光能利用率低、难回收、电子-空穴易复合等缺点也受到了限制.研究发现将四氧化三铁与氮化碳相结合,可以有效提高复合催化剂的光催化活性,而且可回收再利用很大程度上降低成本.采用光催化氧化技术处理实际环境污染物废水时,将光催化剂投入到废水中后,环境及水体的温度往往会对催化剂的催化活性产生一定的影响,导致无法实现最佳的光催化处理效果.制备一种催化活性不受外界温度影响的智能光催化材料是当今面临的一项挑战.我们研究制备了一种具有温度响应的磁性复合光催化剂PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4,其可根据外界温度的不同而表现出不同的光催化活性.温敏型聚合物PNIPAM是一类结构、性能和形态随温度变化而做出响应的功能材料,将光催化材料与温敏型PNIPAM智能高分子材料相结合,实现了智能催化的效果.PNIPAM温敏聚合物在水溶液中存在一个低临界溶解温度,其可以作为开关,通过改变温度实现对光催化过程的控制,达到过程智能化的效果.随着温度的改变,温敏聚合物的溶解状态在临界点附近会发生变化.不同温度对催化速率影响很大,当温度升高到临界值以上,催化反应速率降低很多;当温度降低到临界值以下,催化活性随之升高.这样不仅随时控制反应的进行,还可以通过改变温度控制反应速率.同时,温敏聚合层又相当于一个保护层,可以增强其抗腐蚀能力,提高对内部光催化材料的保护,进而提高其稳定性.众所周知四环素等抗生素类药物生产废水,属于高浓度有机废水,具有一定的毒性,一般较难处理.我们将制备的PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4复合光催化材料用于四环素废水的处理取得了很好的效果.XRD,FT-IR、Raman等表征手段充分证明了我们所制备的三元复合材料PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4的组成及各个组分的存在.并对PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4复合光催化剂在不同温度(20和45°C)条件下处理四环素废水进行了系统的研究,从20和45℃的吸附曲线结果可以看出,低温时PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4的吸附性较强,高温时吸附较差.同时PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4低温时具有较高的催化活性,高温时催化活性较低.经过分析可知这种对温度响应的特殊性能与PNIPAM的亲水及疏水性密切相关.另外,通过对PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4复合材料的VSM测试及5次循环实验测试可以看出,PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4复合材料由于Fe3O4的引入而表现出较好的磁性,且在外加磁铁的作用下很容易实现分离回收.另外,PNIPAM/Fe3O4/g-C3N4在经过5次重复利用后其催化活性几乎没有减退,说明催化剂具有很好的稳定性.另一方面,说明我们的复合光催化剂在工业废水等污染治理方面有一定的潜在应用价值.     

The intermediate disorder regime for a directed polymer model on a hierarchical lattice

We study a directed polymer model defined on a hierarchical diamond lattice, where the lattice is constructed recursively through a recipe depending on a branching number $b\in \mathbb{N}$ and a segment number $s\in \mathbb{N}$. When $b\le s$ it is known that the model exhibits strong disorder for all positive values of the inverse temperature $\beta$, and thus weak disorder reigns only for $\beta =0$ (infinite temperature). Our focus is on the so-called intermediate disorder regime in which the inverse temperature $\beta \equiv {\beta }_n$ vanishes at an appropriate rate as the size $n$ of the system grows. Our analysis requires separate treatment for the cases $b<s$ and $b=s$. In the case $b<s$ we prove that when the inverse temperature is taken to be of the form ${\beta }_n=\stackrel{?}{\beta }{(b/s)}^{n/2}$ for $\stackrel{?}{\beta }>0$, the normalized partition function of the system converges weakly as $n\to \infty$ to a distribution $L\left(\stackrel{?}{\beta }\right)$ and does so universally with respect to the initial weight distribution. We prove the convergence using renormalization group type ideas rather than the standard Wiener chaos analysis. In the case $b=s$ we find a critical point in the behavior of the model when the inverse temperature is scaled as ${\beta }_n=\stackrel{?}{\beta }/n$; for an explicitly computable critical value ${\kappa }_b>0$ the variance of the normalized partition function converges to zero with large $n$ when $\stackrel{?}{\beta }\le {\kappa }_b$ and grows without bound when $\stackrel{?}{\beta }>{\kappa }_b$. Finally, we prove a central limit theorem for the normalized partition function when $\stackrel{?}{\beta }\le {\kappa }_b$.     

Haezendonck–Goovaerts risk measure with a heavy tailed loss

Recently Haezendonck–Goovaerts (H–G) risk measure has received much attention in (re)insurance and portfolio management. Some nonparametric inferences have been proposed in the literature. When the loss variable does not have enough moments, which depends on the involved Young function, the nonparametric estimator in Ahn and Shyamalkumar (2014) has a nonnormal limit, which challenges interval estimation. Motivated by the fact that many loss variables in insurance and finance could have a heavier tail such as an infinite variance, this paper proposes a new estimator which estimates the tail by extreme value theory and the middle part nonparametrically. It turns out that the proposed new estimator always has a normal limit regardless of the tail heaviness of the loss variable. Hence an interval with asymptotically correct confidence level can be obtained easily either by the normal approximation method via estimating the asymptotic variance or by a bootstrap method. A simulation study and real data analysis confirm the effectiveness of the proposed new inference procedure for estimating the H–G risk measure.     

Intrinsic intermediate gap states of TiO2 materials and their roles in charge carrier kinetics

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is regarded as an important prototype photocatalytic material for several decades. The charge carrier kinetics determines the photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ materials; this is found to be greatly dependent on electronic structures. It has been revealed that the intrinsic intermediate gap states (intrinsic GSs) play a significant role in charge carrier kinetics that drive the photocatalytic processes of TiO₂ materials, which are not well summarized until now. Motivated by this thought, the purpose of this review focuses on physiochemical science of the intrinsic GSs of TiO₂ materials and their important role in charge carrier kinetics. We first give a summary on the chemical resources of the intrinsic GSs in TiO₂ and their physiochemical nature. Their general energy distribution, charge carrier population, and the associated thermodynamic properties are also elaborated from an overall viewpoint. We further carefully summarize and compare the experimental studies on the energy and the density distribution of the intrinsic GSs and discuss the associated chemical resources and charge carrier localizations. Trapping is the dominant function of intrinsic GSs in the charge carrier kinetics of TiO₂ materials. The significant effect of trapping on the transport, recombination, and interfacial transfer of charge carriers are also comprehensive summarized. Furthermore, the effects of charge carrier kinetics on photocatalytic performances are also discussed to some extents. Because of the importance of intrinsic GSs in modulating charge carrier kinetics, it is expected to increase the photocatalytic activity by engineering the intrinsic GSs, not only for TiO₂ materials, but also for the other semiconductor photocatalysts.     

Formation of intermediate coupling optical polarons and bipolarons in two-dimensional systems

The formation of the optical polaron and bipolaron in two-dimensional (2D) systems is studied in the intermediate electron–phonon coupling regime. The total energies of the 2D polaron and bipolaron are calculated by using the Buimistrov–Pekar method of canonical transformations. The obtained results are compared with other existing results obtained by using the Feynman path integral method and the modified Lee–Low–Pines unitary transformation method. It is shown that the electron–phonon correlation significantly reduces the total energy of the 2D polaron in comparison with the energy of the strong coupling (adiabatic) polaron. It is found that the polaron formation in 2D systems is possible when the electron–phonon coupling constant α is greater than the critical value ${\alpha }_c?2.94$, which is much lower than a critical value of the electron–phonon coupling constant α in three-dimensional (3D) systems. The critical values of the Fröhlich coupling constant α and the ratio $\eta ={\epsilon }_{\infty }/{\epsilon }_0$ (where ${\epsilon }_{\infty }$ and ${\epsilon }_0$ are the high frequency and static dielectric constants, respectively), which determine the bipolaron stability region in 2D systems, are calculated numerically. It is interesting for application to the layered cuprate superconductors that the (bi)polarons are formed more easily in quasi-2D regions than in the bulk. It is argued that the high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductivity can exist above the bulk superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ as the persisting superfluidity of polaronic (bosonic) Cooper pairs and large bipolarons at quasi-2D grain boundaries or in the CuO₂ layers above $T_c$.