氮掺杂碳包埋钴纳米粒子电催化合成过氧化氢

电催化还原氧是一种新兴的可持续生产过氧化氢(H2O2)的合成技术,寻找低成本、高活性和高选择性的电催化剂是该技术实际应用的关键.钴氮掺杂的碳材料因含有钴氮(Co-Nx)催化活性位,成为一类新兴的可促进H2O2电化学合成的材料.本文采用低能耗干式球磨外加控制热解的方法来制备包含许多Co-Nx结构的钴氮掺杂碳材料.该方法使用材料廉价,即将醋酸钴、2-甲基咪唑和Ketjenblack EC-600JD高纯度且导电的碳黑分别作为金属、氮和碳的前体.在酸性介质中的电化学测试结果表明,该材料的氧还原反应电流密度明显增加,同时起始电位向正方向移动.该催化剂在较大电位范围内对H2O2的选择性约为90％.H2O2整体电解实验表明,H2O2产率达到100mmol gcat?1 h?1,H2O2法拉第效率达到85％(0.3Vvs.RHE条件下2h).耐久性测试(在0.3Vvs.RHE条件下6h)表明,催化剂表现出相对稳定的性能,且在整个测试循环中,法拉第效率达到约85％,表明催化剂在实际应用中具有良好的耐久性.催化剂表现出较高的电催化合成H2O2活性和选择性可能是由于形成了Co-Nx活性位,以及酸性环境和应用电位等其它因素的影响.     

Description of 160Dy nucleus by partial dynamical SU(3) symmetry

We considered the characteristic features of SU(3) partial dynamical symmetry in the interacting boson model framework to show the relevance of such intermediate symmetry structure in the nuclear spectroscopy of the ¹⁶⁰Dy nucleus. The predictions of SU(3)-PDS for the energy spectrum and the transition probabilities were compared with the most recent experimental data and an acceptable degree of agreement was achieved.     

Inhibition of Cu-amyloid-β by using bifunctional peptides with β-sheet breaker and chelator moieties

Breaking the mold: Inhibition of toxic amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregates and disruption of Cu-Aβ with subsequent redox-silencing of Cu have been considered promising strategies against Alzheimer's disease. The design and proof of concept of simple peptides containing a Cu-chelating/redox-silencing unit and an Aβ-aggregation inhibition unit (β-sheet breaker) is described (see scheme).     

Emission properties of Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles prepared by mechanochemical processing

Mechanochemical processing was reported to introduce lot of crystal defects which can significantly influence emission properties. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, there are no reports on effect of mechanochemical processing on emission properties of transition metal ion doped ZnO. In this study, Zn_1?xMn_xO nanoparticles with different Mn content (x=0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.1) were prepared by mechanochemical processing to study the effect of Mn doping and processing on emission properties. Confirmation of nanoparticles size and nanocrystalline nature of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO structure is carried out using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED), respectively. The samples were also characterized using Fluorescence Spectroscope before and after heat-treatment. The emission studies revealed that blue emission intensity is stronger compared to UV and green emission in contrast to the earlier reports, where other synthesis routes were employed for the ZnO nanoparticles' preparation. The blue emission originates from the zinc interstitial (Zn_i) and oxygen interstitial (O_i) defects, which indicate that the mechanochemical route resulted in more interstitial defects compared to oxygen substitution (O_Zn) and oxygen vacancy (V_o) defects which otherwise would give green emission. Mn doping resulted in shifting of near-band-edge (NBE) emission and the reduction in the intensities of NBE, blue and green emissions. The initial red shift at lower Mn content could be due to s–d and p–d exchange interactions as well as band tailing effect where as the blue shift at higher Mn content can be attributed to the Burstein-Moss shift. The reduction in emission intensity could be due to non-radiative recombination processes promoted by Mn ions with increasing Mn content.     

Computing Alchemical Free Energy Differences with Hamiltonian Replica Exchange Molecular Dynamics (H-REMD) Simulations

Alchemical free energy calculations play a very important role in the field of molecular modeling. Efforts have been made to improve the accuracy and precision of those calculations. One of the efforts is to employ a Hamiltonian replica exchange molecular dynamics (H-REMD) method to enhance conformational sampling. In this paper, we demonstrated that HREMD method not only improves convergence in alchemical free energy calculations but also can be used to compute free energy differences directly via the Free Energy Perturbation (FEP)algorithm. We show a direct mapping between the H-REMD and the usual FEP equations, which are then used directly to compute free energies. The H-REMD alchemical free energy calculation (Replica exchange Free Energy Perturbation, REFEP) was tested on predicting the pK(a) value of the buried Asp26 in thioredoxin. We compare the results of REFEP with TI and regular FEP simulations. REFEP calculations converged faster than those from TI and regular FEP simulations. The final predicted pK(a) value from the H-REMD simulation was also very accurate, only 0.4 pK(a) unit above the experimental value. Utilizing the REFEP algorithm significantly improves conformational sampling, and this in turn improves the convergence of alchemical free energy simulations.     

Transient natural convection: scale analysis of dry cooling towers

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Transient free convection from a heated surface immersed in a cold ambient is investigated using scale analysis. The heated plate is our model for the...     

Electron irradiation induced nanocrystal formation in Cu-borosilicate glass

Nanoscale writing of Cu nanoparticles in glasses is introduced using focused electron irradiation by transmission electron microscopy. Two types of copper borosilicate glasses, one with high and another with low Cu loading, have been tested at energies of 200–300 keV, and formation of Cu nanoparticles in a variety of shapes and sizes using different irradiation conditions is achieved. Electron energy loss spectroscopy analysis, combined with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging, confirmed the irradiation-induced precipitated nanoparticles as metallic, while furnace annealing of the glass triggered dendrite-shaped particles of copper oxide. Unusual patterns of nanoparticle rings and chains under focused electron beam irradiation are also presented. Conclusively, electron beam patterning of Cu-loaded glasses is a promising alternative route to well-established femtosecond laser photoreduction of Cu ions in glass.