Preparation of 4-sulfonylcalix[6]arene modified Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript> as adsorbent for adsorption of U(VI) from aqueous solution

The 4-sulfonylcalix[6]arene modified Fe₃O₄ (MFS) was characterized by FT-IR, SEM, VSM, TGA, etc., which showed that its saturation magnetization was 64.99 emu g^?1 with the particle size 10–40 nm. The maximum adsorption efficiency by MFS for 2.5 mg L^?1 U(VI) solution amounted to 94.39%, which was higher than that by Fe₃O₄ (65.22%) under its optimum adsorption conditions. The adsorption of MFS and Fe₃O₄ were both followed the pseudo-second order model and the Langmuir isotherm model. The Gibbs free energy change and enthalpy change revealed that the adsorption of U(VI) by MFS was a spontaneous and endothermic process.     

还原氧化石墨烯@泡沫镍载CoO纳米花电极制备及催化CO2性能

本文以氧化石墨烯包覆泡沫镍电极(GO@NF)作为基底,采用水热法在GO@NF基底上原位生长CoO纳米花,同时GO在水热过程中被同步热还原为还原氧化石墨烯(RGO),从而一步制得还原氧化石墨烯包覆泡沫镍负载CoO纳米花电极(CoO/RGO@NF)。使用XRD和SEM对CoO/RGO@NF电极进行表征,发现CoO纳米花均匀生长在泡沫镍三维网络结构上,CoO纳米花为大量针状纳米棒围绕一个中心而成的花状结构,纳米棒的长度约为10 ~ 15 μm,直径约为100 ~ 200 nm。使用循环伏安和线性扫描法测试了CoO/RGO@NF电极电催化CO₂的还原性能,在-0.76 V（vs. SHE）电位下,CoO/RGO@NF电极电催化CO₂还原的电流效率达到70.9%,产甲酸法拉第效率达到65.2%,甲酸产率为59.8 μmol·h^-1·cm^-2,且电极可持续稳定电催化还原CO₂ 4 h,表明CoO/RGO@NF电极对CO₂电还原有着优良的催化活性、选择性和稳定性。     

PtM/MxBy (M=Ni,Co, Fe) Heterostructured Nanobundles as Advanced Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Optimizing the electronic and synergistic effect of hybrid electrocatalysts based on Pt and Pt-based nanocatalysts is of tremendous importance towards a superior hydrogen evolution performance under both acidic and alkaline conditions. However, developing an ideal Pt-based hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst with moderated electronic structure as well as strong synergistic effect is still a challenge. Herein, we fabricated boron (B)-doped PtNi nanobundles by a two-step method using NaBH₄ as the boron source to obtain PtNi/Ni₄B₃ heterostructures with well-defined nanointerfaces between PtNi and Ni₄B₃, achieving an enhanced catalytic HER performance. Especially, the PtNi/Ni₄B₃ nanobundles (PtNi/Ni₄B₃ NBs) can deliver a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² at the overpotential of 14.6 and 26.5 mV under alkaline and acidic media, respectively, as well as outstanding electrochemical stability over 40 h at the current density of 10 mA cm⁻². Remarkably, this approach is also universal for the syntheses of PtCo/Co₃B and PtFe/Fe₄₉B with outstanding electrocatalytic HER performance.     

Stable structure and effects of sulfur in CdTe/CdS heterojunctions

Structural and electronic properties of S in the CdTe/CdS(0001) interface are studied using the density functional theory. The interstitial S atom may induce the inversion of the surface Cd atoms and sublayer Te atoms of the Cd‐terminated surface, while S atoms may adsorb at the top sites, substitute Te atoms or accumulate at the voids inside the Te‐terminated (111) CdTe surface. Isovalent substituting S for Te in the CdTe(111)/CdS(0001) heterojunctions can reduce the strain arising from lattice mismatch and cause a reduction of interface states, so it may be better for solar cells. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN filmExtraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN filmExtraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN filmExtraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN film

We studied numerically the temperature dependent extraordinary terahertz transmission through niobium nitride （NbN） film perforated with subwavelength spindle-like apertures. Both the resonant frequency and intensity of extraor- dinary terahertz transmission peaks can be greatly modified by the transition of NbN film from the normal state to the superconducting state. An enhancement of the （~1,0） NbN/magnesium oxide （MgO） peak intensity as high as 200% is demonstrated due to the combined contribution of both the superconducting transition and the excitation of localized surface plasmons （LSPs） around the apertures. The extraordinary terahertz transmission through spindle-fike hole arrays patterned on the NbN film can pave the way for us to explore novel active tuning devices.     

Comb‐shaped guanidinium functionalized poly(ether sulfone)s for anion exchange membranes: Effects of the spacer types and lengths

A series of poly(ether sulfone)‐based anion exchange membranes (AEMs), tethering with guanidinium side chains with different spacers, were synthesized via azide‐alkyne cycloaddition, deprotection, and the subsequent ion exchange reactions. The designed polymer structures were verified by the ¹H NMR spectra. Because of the appropriate water uptake and formation of interconnected ionic clusters, the GPES‐3C with propyl spacer showed higher conductivity than the GPES‐1C and GPES‐9C, with methylene and nonyl spacers, respectively. Comparatively, the GPES‐EO AEM with two ethylene oxide (EO) spacers exhibited even higher conductivity, these can be interpreted by interconnectivity of ionic channels and hydrophilicity nature of the EO spacer. Additionally, although the GPES membranes displayed sufficient thermal stability, the chemical stability of as‐prepared materials needs to be much improved for fuel cell applications. Overall, these results demonstrated that the properties of “pendent‐type” AEM can be tuned facilely by the spacer types and lengths. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 1313–1321     

Analytical layer-element solutions of Biot’s consolidation with anisotropic permeability and incompressible fluid and solid constituents

Based on the governing equations of 2D plane-strain Biot’s consolidation, the relationship between generalized displacements and stresses of a single soil layer with anisotropic permeability and incompressible fluid and solid constituents is described by an analytical layer-element, which is deduced in the Laplace–Fourier transform domain by using the eigenvalue approach. Taking the boundary conditions and the continuity of the soil layers into consideration, a global stiffness matrix is subsequently assembled and solved. As to the 3D case, the same derivation is employed after the application of a decoupling transformation. The actual solutions in the physical domain can further be acquired by inverting the Laplace–Fourier transform. Finally, numerical examples are carried out to verify the presented theory and discuss the influence of the anisotropic permeability on the consolidation behavior.     

License plate location based on trichromatic imaging and color-discrete characteristic

License plate location (LPL) is the key part of automatic license plate recognition (LPR) system that plays an important role in many applications and a number of LPL methods based on color information have been proposed. However, some problems, such as country specific, similar color interference, lighting variation sensitive, time consuming, processing only one kind of LP with same color combination a time and omitting the case of more than one combinations in a LP, should be solved further. In this study, a color-based LPL method that consists of three modules: color edge extraction, denoising and searching, is proposed. Color edge extraction, the kernel of the proposed, is designed by color-discrete characteristics of license plates in the trichromatic wavebands. In the experiment, 1384 images taken from natural scenes in China and other 104 countries or regions are employed. Of which, 74 have been failed to locate the license plates. The success rate and average execution time are 94.7% and 57 ms, respectively.