Enhanced photocatalytic CO2 hydrogenation with wide-spectrum utilization over black TiO2 supported catalyst

Light-driven conversion of CO₂into chemicals/fuels is a desirable approach for achieving carbon neutrality using clean and sustainable energy.However,its scale-up application is restricted due to insufficient efficiency.Herein,we present a photothermal catalytic hydrogenation of CO₂into CH₄over Ru/black Ti O₂catalysts,aiming to achieve the synergistic use of light and heat in solar energy during CO₂conversion.Owing to the desirable spectral ...     

High-performance nonfused ring electron acceptor with a steric hindrance induced planar molecular backbone

Three nonfused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) TTC6,TT-C8T and TT-TC8 were purposefully designed and synthesized.The molecular geometry can be adjusted by the steric hindrance of lateral substituents.According to the DFT calculations,from TTC6 to TT-C8T and TT-TC8,planarity of the molecular backbone is gradually improved,accompanying with the enhancing of intramolecular charge transfer effect.As for TT-TC8,the two phenyl substituents are almost perpendicular to the molecular backbone,which endues the acceptor with good solubility and suppresses it to form over-aggregation.Multidirectional regular molecular orientation and closer molecular stacking are formed in TT-TC8 film.As a result,TT-TC8 based devices afford the highest PCE of 13.13%,which is much higher than that of TTC6 (4.41%) and TT-C8T (10.42%) and among the highest PCE values based on NFREAs.     

A flame retardant separator modified by MOFs-derived hybrid for safe and efficient Li-S batteries

In this work,we have successfully prepared a novel separator modified with N,S co-doped carbon framework(named NSPCF)with confined CoS₂ nanoparticles and rooted carbon nanotubes material(named NSPCF@CoS₂)to apply for high-performance Lithium-Sulfur batteries(Li-S batteries).Robust carbon structure with large specific surface can act as a physical barrier and possess physical adsorption effect on lithium polysulfides(LiPSs).In addition,highly-conductive carbon can improve integral conductivity,leading to the fast charge transport and reaction kinetics.Also,doping heteroatoms could form more active sites to adsorb LiPSs strongly so that modified separator could inhibit the shuttle effect effectively.Moreover,the presence of CoS₂ further enhances the ability of modified separator to trap LiPSs owing to the Lewis acid-base action.As a result,the NSPCF@CoS₂@C-150 battery can deliver initial discharge capacities of 863.0,776.2,649.1 and 489.4 mAh g^-1 at 0.1,0.5,1 and 2C with a high sulfur loading of 2.04 mg cm^-2,respectively.Notably,when turning the current density back to 0.1 C,its discharge capacity can recover to 1008.7 mAh g^-1.In addition,the modified separators exhibit outstanding capacities to restrain the growth of lithium dendrites.It is noteworthy that the flame retardant performances of Li-S batteries are improved dramatically owing to the novel structures of modified separators.This rationally designed separator endows Li-S batteries with higher safety and excellent electrochemical performances,providing a feasible strategy for practical application of Li-S batteries.     

TPE based aggregation induced emission fluorescent sensors for viscosity of liquid and mechanical properties of hydrogel

Two amphiphilic TPE E/Z isomers with aggregation induced emission(AIE) property have been synthesized and characterized. The logarithmic fluorescent intensity of the two molecules was in positive relationship with logarithmic viscosity of liquid. To note, the Z-TPE isomer exhibited more sensitivity in the viscosity of liquid sensing in comparison with the corresponding E-TPE counterpart(around 1.80 folds).Furthermore, two molecules could be used as fluorescent sensors for mechanical properties(v...     

Flexible strain sensor with ridge-like microstructures for wearable applications

The flexible stretchable sensors have great potential for implementation in various applications, such as intelligent soft robots, health monitoring, and motion detection. However, most of the flexible stretchable sensors with microstructures and high sensitivities are fabricated by expensive templates and complex processes. In consideration of large-scale fabrication, a low cost and efficient way is in great demand. Herein, electroless plating on Nafion films with decent swelling ratios are proposed to fabricate stretchable sensors with wrinkle-structured electrodes. By adding isopropanol (IPA) to the electroless plating process, the H₂O-IPA sensor with larger swelling ratio shows deeper surface wrinkles, higher surface roughness, and better sensitivity to strain. At the same time, the H₂O-IPA sensor exhibit good durability (500 cycles). By mounting the sensor on the joint of human finger, the motion of the finger bending and even the bending degree can be accurately detected, indicating the potential use in the field of wearable devices and soft electronic skins.     

Highly efficient visible-light photocatalytic ethane oxidation into ethyl hydroperoxide as a radical reservoir

Photocatalytic ethane conversion into value-added chemicals is a great challenge especially under visible light irradiation. The production of ethyl hydroperoxide (CH₃CH₂OOH), which is a promising radical reservoir for regulating the oxidative stress in cells, is even more challenging due to its facile decomposition. Here, we demonstrated a design of a highly efficient visible-light-responsive photocatalyst, Au/WO₃, for ethane oxidation into CH₃CH₂OOH, achieving an impressive yield of 1887 μmol g_cat⁻¹ in two hours under visible light irradiation at room temperature for the first time. Furthermore, thermal energy was introduced into the photocatalytic system to increase the driving force for ethane oxidation, enhancing CH₃CH₂OOH production by six times to 11 233 μmol g_cat⁻¹ at 100 °C and achieving a significant apparent quantum efficiency of 17.9% at 450 nm. In addition, trapping active species and isotope-labeling reactants revealed the reaction pathway. These findings pave the way for scalable ethane conversion into CH₃CH₂OOH as a potential anticancer drug.

Highly efficient visible-light driven photocatalytic oxidation of ethane into ethyl hydroperoxide was realized for the first time over Au/WO₃.     

Investigation of viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microchannel

Microfluidic particle focusing has been a vital prerequisite step in sample preparation for downstream particle separation, counting, detection, or analysis, and has attracted broad applications in biomedical and chemical areas. Besides all the active and passive focusing methods in Newtonian fluids, particle focusing in viscoelastic fluids has been attracting increasing interest because of its advantages induced by intrinsic fluid property. However, to achieve a well-defined focusing position, there is a need to extend channel lengths when focusing micrometer-sized or sub-microsized particles, which would result in the size increase of the microfluidic devices. This work investigated the sheathless viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microfluidic channel. Benefit from the zigzag structure of the channel, the channel length and the footprint of the device can be reduced without sacrificing the focusing performance. In this work, the viscoelastic focusing, including the focusing of 10 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm magnetic particles, white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs), and cancer cells, were all demonstrated. Moreover, magnetophoretic separation of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles after viscoelastic pre-focusing was shown. This focusing technique has the potential to be used in a range of biomedical applications.     

Synergistic Effect of Boron Nitride and Carbon Domains in Boron Carbide Nitride Nanotube Supported Single-Atom Catalysts for Efficient Nitrogen Fixation

Developing the low-cost and efficient single-atom catalysts (SACs) for nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is of great importance while remains as a great challenge. The catalytic activity, selectivity and durability are all fundamentally related to the elaborate coordination environment of SACs. Using first-principles calculations, we investigated the SACs with single transition metal (TM) atom supported on defective boron carbide nitride nanotubes (BCNTs) as NRR electrocatalysts. Our results suggest that boron-vacancy defects on BCNTs can strongly immobilize TM atoms with large enough binding energy and high thermal/structural stability. Importantly, the synergistic effect of boron nitride (BN) and carbon domains comes up with the modifications of the charge polarization of single-TM-atom active site and the electronic properties of material, which has been proven to be the essential key to promote N₂ adsorption, activation, and reduction. Specifically, six SACs (namely V, Mn, Fe, Mo, Ru, and W atoms embedded into defective BCNTs) can be used as promising candidates for NRR electrocatalysts as their NRR activity is higher than the state-of-the art Ru(0001) catalyst. In particular, single Mo atom supported on defective BCNTs with large tube diameter possesses the highest NRR activity while suppressing the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction, with a low limiting potential of −0.62 V via associative distal path. This work suggests new opportunities for driving NH₃ production by carbon-based single-atom electrocatalysts under ambient conditions.     

用环形扩散管和滤纸联用采样技术采集空气中氨和铵盐

建立了环形扩散管和滤纸采样夹联用，分形态同时采集空气中所态氨和颗粒态铵盐的方法。在同一气流中，采用涂渍１．５％草酸乙醇水溶液的环形扩散管采集气态氨，用浸渍上述试剂的玻璃纤维纸和慢速定量滤纸分别采集颗粒安和第一层滤纸上的铵盐挥发产生的氨气。用靛酚蓝比色法分别测定氨和铵盐。当采气流速为１．０Ｌ／ｍｉｎ时，采样效率高于９８．２％。将本法测得的氨气和铵盐的总量与标准采样方法的测定结果比较。无显著性差异（Ｐ