Dual Dopamine Derived Polydopamine Coated N-Doped Porous Carbon Spheres as a Sulfur Host for High-Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are considered to be one of the most promising energy storage systems owing to their high energy density and low cost. However, their wide application is still limited by the rapid capacity fading. Herein, polydopamine (PDA)-coated N-doped hierarchical porous carbon spheres (NPC@PDA) are reported as sulfur hosts for high-performance Li-S batteries. The NPC core with abundant and interconnected pores provides fast electron/ion transport pathways and strong trapping ability towards lithium polysulfide intermediates. The PDA shell could further suppress the loss of lithium polysulfide intermediates through polar–polar interactions. Benefiting from the dual function design, the NPC/S@PDA composite cathode exhibits an initial capacity of 1331 mAh g⁻¹ and remains at 720 mAh g⁻¹ after 200 cycles at 0.5 C. At the pouch cell level with a high sulfur mass loading, the NPC/S@PDA composite cathode still exhibits a high capacity of 1062 mAh g⁻¹ at a current density of 0.4 mA cm⁻².     

A Multi‐responsive Regenerable Europium–Organic Framework Luminescent Sensor for Fe3+, CrVI Anions,and Picric Acid

A novel luminescent microporous lanthanide metal–organic framework (Ln‐MOF) based on a urea‐containing ligand has been successfully assembled. Structural analysis revealed that the framework features two types of 1D channels, with urea N?H bonds projecting into the pores. Luminescence studies have revealed that the Ln‐MOF exhibits high sensitivity, good selectivity, and a fast luminescence quenching response towards Fe³⁺, Cr^VI anions, and picric acid. In particular, in the detection of Cr₂O₇^2? and picric acid, the Ln‐MOF can be simply and quickly regenerated, thus exhibiting excellent recyclability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a multi‐responsive luminescent Ln‐MOF sensor for Fe³⁺, Cr^VI anions, and picric acid based on a urea derivative. This Ln‐MOF may potentially be used as a multi‐responsive regenerable luminescent sensor for the quantitative detection of toxic and harmful substances.     

Two Novel Heterothiometallic Clusters Modified by 1,1′-Bis(diphenylphosphino) ferrocene (dppf) in Quasi-Closed Bridging Mode: Syntheses, Structures and Properties

Two heterothiometallic clusters modified by 1,1′-bis(diphenylphosphino) ferrocene (dppf) ligand [(Ag₄Mo₂S₈)(dppf)₂] (1) and [(Ag₄Mo₂S₆O₂)(dppf)₂] (2) have been synthesized and characterized. X-ray single-crystal studies reveal that the structures of the two clusters are both hexagonal prism-shaped cages, which are modified by dppf ligands in rarely quasi-closed mode. While, the terminal atoms of the hexagonal prism cages are different, S atoms for 1 and O atoms for 2. The discrete clusters of 1 and 2 are connected to form 2-D supramolecular layers through hydrogen bonds C–H···S, C–H···π for 1 and C–H···O for 2. The different supramolecular interactions may be caused by the different terminal atoms, which also result in different fluorescence emissions and oxidation potentials.     

Synthesis, structural characterization and thermal properties of three copper(II) complexes based on aryl hydrazide ligands

The thiosemicarbazide and hydrazide Cu(II) complexes, [Cu₃L₂¹(py)₄Cl₂] (1), [Cu(HL²)py] (2) and [Cu(HL³)py] (3), (H₂L¹ = 1-picolinoylthiosemicarbazide, H₃L² = N′-(2-hydroxybenzylidene)-3-hydroxy-2-naphthohydrazide, H₃L³ = 2-hydroxy-N′-((2-hydroxy-naphthalen-1-yl)methylene)benzohydrazide) have been prepared and characterized through physicochemical and spectroscopic methods as well as X-ray crystallography. Complex 1 has a centrosymmetric structure with –N–N– bridged Cu₃ skeleton. Neighboring molecules are linked into a 3D supermolecular framework by π–π stacking interactions, N–H···Cl and C–H···Cl hydrogen bonds. Complexes 2 and 3 have similar planar structures but different dimers formed by concomitant Cu···N and Cu···O interactions, respectively. Solvent accessible voids with a volume of 391 ?³ are included in the structure of complex 2, indicating that this complex is a potential host candidate. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the three complexes are stable up to 100 °C.     

Low-cost,high performance surface plasmon resonance-compatible films characterized by the surface plasmon resonance technique

A new analytical method based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique is presented, with which SPR curves for both wavelength and angular modulations can be obtained simultaneously via only a single scan of the incident angle. Using this method, the SPR responses of TiO2-coated Cu films are characterized in the wavelength range from 600 nm to 900 nm. For the first time, we determine the effective optical constants and the thicknesses of TiO2-coated Cu films using the SPR curves of wavelength modulation. The sensitivities of prism-based SPR refractive index sensors using TiO2-coated Cu films are investigated theoretically for both wavelength and angular modulations, the results show that in the case of sensitivity with wavelength modulation, TiO2-coated Cu films are not as good as the Au film, however, they are more suitable than the Au film for SPR refractive index sensors with angular modulation because a higher sensitivity can be achieved.     

The difference in noise property between the Autlerben Townes splitting medium and the electromagnetically induced transparent medium

The quantum noise of squeezed probe light passing through an atomic system with different electromagnetically induced transparency and Autler-Townes splitting effects is investigated theoretically. It is found that the optimal squeezing preservation of the outgoing probe beam occurs in the strong-coupling-field regime rather than in the weak-coupling-field regime. In the weak-coupling-field regime, which was recently recognized as the electromagnetically induced transparency regime (Abi-Salloum T Y 2010 Phys. Rev. A bf81 053836), the output amplitude noise is affected mainly by the atomic noise originating from the random decay process of atoms. While in the strong-coupling-field regime, defined as the Autler-Townes splitting regime, the output amplitude noise is affected mainly by the phase-to-amplitude conversion noise. This is useful in improving the quality of the experiment for efficient quantum memory, and hence has an application in quantum information processing.     

Robust object detection based on deformable part model and improved scale invariant feature transform

We propose an approach to improve the detection results of a generic offline trained detector on frames from a specific video. For two consecutive frames of a video with the object, deformable part model (DPM) detection is performed to get the original detections. Then the image patches corresponding to the detected root box and part boxes were respectively obtained. Thirdly, improved scale invariant feature transform features (SIFT) from those image patches were extracted and matched with the SIFT features by KD-Tree. K-means clustering the angle and scale of matched keypoints to filter out the uncorrected matches and further remove false matches by RANSAC algorithm. Finally, the SIFT_DPM detection result from the matches between image patches of continuous frames was obtained. We focus on methods with high precision detection results since it is necessitated in real application. Extensive experiments with state-of-the-art detector demonstrate the efficacy of our approach.