Phosphorous,nitrogen, and molybdenum ternary co-doped TiO2: preparation and photocatalytic activities under visible light

P, N, and Mo ternary co-doped nano TiO₂ photocatalysts ((P, N, Mo)-TiO₂) were prepared by a single step sol–gel method, which show much enhanced photocatalytic activities over Mo-TiO₂, (P, N)-TiO₂, un-doped TiO₂ and Degussa P25 under visible light irradiation. The degradation rate of 0.72Mo–P-TiO₂ is as high as 65.3%, which is about 6.7 times of that of Degussa P25. Possible reasons for the improvement of photocatalytic activities were analyzed.     

Mesoporous inorganic salts with crystal defects: unusual catalysts and catalyst supports

We proposed a strategy to synthesize mesoporous inorganic salt particles using the special properties of ionic liquid (IL) mixtures, and hollow mesoporous LaF₃, NdF₃, and YF₃ particles were synthesized and characterized using different techniques. The size of the mesopores in the salt particles was about 4 nm, and the materials were full of crystal defects. The LaF₃, NdF₃ and YF₃ particles were used as the catalysts for the cyanosilylation reaction of benzaldehyde using trimethylsilyl cyanide, and Ru/LaF₃ and Ru/NdF₃, in which Ru nanocatalysts were supported on the LaF₃ and NdF₃ particles with mesopores, were used to catalyze hydrogenations of benzene to cyclohexane and levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL). It was discovered that the activities of these catalysts were unprecedentedly high for these reactions. Detailed study showed that both the crystal defects and the mesopores in the salt particles played crucial roles for the extremely high catalytic activity.     

Dynamics of ice nucleation on water repellent surfaces

Prevention of ice accretion and adhesion on surfaces is relevant to many applications, leading to improved operation safety, increased energy efficiency, and cost reduction. Development of passive nonicing coatings is highly desirable, since current antiicing strategies are energy and cost intensive. Superhydrophobicity has been proposed as a lead passive nonicing strategy, yet the exact mechanism of delayed icing on these surfaces is not clearly understood. In this work, we present an in-depth analysis of ice formation dynamics upon water droplet impact on surfaces with different wettabilities. We experimentally demonstrate that ice nucleation under low-humidity conditions can be delayed through control of surface chemistry and texture. Combining infrared (IR) thermometry and high-speed photography, we observe that the reduction of water-surface contact area on superhydrophobic surfaces plays a dual role in delaying nucleation: first by reducing heat transfer and second by reducing the probability of heterogeneous nucleation at the water-substrate interface. This work also includes an analysis (based on classical nucleation theory) to estimate various homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation rates in icing situations. The key finding is that ice nucleation delay on superhydrophobic surfaces is more prominent at moderate degrees of supercooling, while closer to the homogeneous nucleation temperature, bulk and air-water interface nucleation effects become equally important. The study presented here offers a comprehensive perspective on the efficacy of textured surfaces for nonicing applications.     

Traveling wave magnetophoresis for high resolution chip based separations

A new mode of magnetophoresis is described that is capable of separating micron-sized superparamagnetic beads from complex mixtures with high sensitivity to their size and magnetic moment. This separation technique employs a translating periodic potential energy landscape to transport magnetic beads horizontally across a substrate. The potential energy landscape is created by superimposing an external, rotating magnetic field on top of the local fixed magnetic field distribution near a periodic arrangement of micro-magnets. At low driving frequencies of the external field rotation, the beads become locked into the potential energy landscape and move at the same velocity as the traveling magnetic field wave. At frequencies above a critical threshold, defined by the bead's hydrodynamic drag and magnetic moment, the motion of a specific population of magnetic beads becomes uncoupled from the potential energy landscape and its magnetophoretic mobility is dramatically reduced. By exploiting this frequency dependence, highly efficient separation of magnetic beads has been achieved, based on fractional differences in bead diameter and/or their specific attachment to two microorganisms, i.e., B. globigii and S. cerevisiae.     

Mechanically Strong Janus Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/Graphene Oxide Hydrogels as Thermo-responsive Soft Robots

Simple preparation of stimuli-responsive hydrogels with good mechanical properties and mild stimuliresponsiveness is essential for their applications as smart soft robots.Mechanically strong Janus poly(Nisopropylacrylamide)/graphene oxide (PNIPAM/GO) nanocomposite hydrogels with stimuli-responsive bending behaviors are prepared through a simple one-step method by using molds made of a Teflon plate and a glass plate.Residual oxygen in the air bubbles on the Teflon plate surface affects the polymerization and hence the cross-linking density,leading to the different swelling/deswelling rates of the two sides of the gels.Therefore,the hydrogels exhibit bending/unbending behaviors upon heating/cooling in water.The incorporation of GO nanosheets dramatically enhances the mechanical properties of Janus hydrogels.Meanwhile,the photo-responsive property of the GO nanosheets also imparts the hydrogels with remotecontrollable deformation under IR irradiation.The application of the Janus PNIPAM/GO hydrogels as thermo-responsive grippers is demonstrated.     

An “<Emphasis Type="Italic">In Vivo</Emphasis> Self-assembly” Strategy for Constructing Superstructures for Biomedical Applications

The interfacing study of biopolymer and supramolecular chemistry enables a better understanding of fundamental biochemical processes and the creating of new high-performance biomaterials. In this review, we introduced an “in vivo self-assembly” strategy which means in situ construction of functional self-assembled superstructures in specific physiological or pathological conditions in cell, tissue or animal levels that exhibit diverse biomedical effects. By using this strategy, unexpected phenomena and insights, e.g, assembly/aggregation induced retention (AIR) effect have been demonstrated where the self-assembled nanostructures showed extraordinary enhanced accumulation and retention of therapeutics in targeted sites.     

Silver-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-coupling of α-keto acids with alkenes giving approach to chalcones

A silver-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-coupling of α-keto acids with alkenes is reported. The method, with a wide range of substrate tolerance and mild operational conditions, can produce various chalcone derivatives in moderate to high yields from easily available starting materials.     

Recommendation in evolving online networks

Recommender system is an effective tool to find the most relevant information for onlineusers. By analyzing the historical selection records of users, recommender system predictsthe most likely future links in the user-item network and accordingly constructs apersonalized recommendation list for each user. So far, the recommendation process ismostly investigated in static user-item networks. In this paper, we propose a model whichallows us to examine the performance of the state-of-the-art recommendation algorithms inevolving networks. We find that the recommendation accuracy in general decreases with timeif the evolution of the online network fully depends on the recommendation. Interestingly,some randomness in users’ choice can significantly improve the long-term accuracy of therecommendation algorithm. When a hybrid recommendation algorithm is applied, we find thatthe optimal parameter gradually shifts towards the diversity-favoring recommendationalgorithm, indicating that recommendation diversity is essential to keep a high long-termrecommendation accuracy. Finally, we confirm our conclusions by studying therecommendation on networks with the real evolution data.     

气固相法合成的Ti-ZSM-5催化剂上苯乙烯氧化反应的宏观动力学

 采用TiCl4气固相同晶取代法制得的Ti－ZSM－5作催化剂,对H2O2氧化苯乙烯反应的宏观动力学进行了研究,考察了催化剂、苯乙烯和H2O2用量及反应温度对苯乙烯氧化反应速率的影响．结果表明,催化剂Ti－ZSM－5和底物苯乙烯对苯乙烯氧化反应速率的贡献均为一级,而H2O2为1／2级;苯乙烯氧化反应的表观活化能Ea＝48．14kJ／mol．当以丙酮为溶剂,在n（PhCH∶CH2）／n（H2O2）＝7．91,催化剂用量为20g／L,反应温度为343K的条件下,反应360min时,苯乙醛选择性和H2O2利用率分别可达91．9％和88．6％．