Scaled‐Up Synthesis of Amorphous NiFeMo Oxides and Their Rapid Surface Reconstruction for Superior Oxygen Evolution Catalysis

The anode oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is known to largely limit the efficiency of electrolyzers owing to its sluggish kinetics. While crystalline metal oxides are promising as OER catalysts, their amorphous phases also show high activities. Efforts to produce amorphous metal oxides have progressed slowly, and how an amorphous structure benefits the catalytic performances remains elusive. Now the first scalable synthesis of amorphous NiFeMo oxide (up to 515 g in one batch) is presented with homogeneous elemental distribution via a facile supersaturated co‐precipitation method. In contrast to its crystalline counterpart, amorphous NiFeMo oxide undergoes a faster surface self‐reconstruction process during OER, forming a metal oxy(hydroxide) active layer with rich oxygen vacancies, leading to superior OER activity (280 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm^?2 in 0.1 m KOH). This opens up the potential of fast, facile, and scale‐up production of amorphous metal oxides for high‐performance OER catalysts.     

Development and application of a dispersive solid-phase extraction method for the simultaneous determination of chloroacetamide herbicide residues in soil by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)

In this study, a convenient and sensitive analytical method based on dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE) and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in tandem was developed for the simultaneous determination of six chloroacetamide herbicides (acetochlor, alachlor, metolachlor, metazachlor, butachlor and pretilachlor) in soil. Parameters that could influence the extraction efficiency such as the varieties of solvents, the amount of solvents and sorbents were investigated. The optimized extractions were performed by mixing 5.0 g of dried soil with 10.0 mL acetonitrile, 10.0 mL deionized water and 4.0 g sodium chloride, and then the extract was purified with 50.0 mg N-propyl ethylenediamine (PSA), 50.0 mg C18, 10.0 mg graphitized carbon black (GCB) and 100.0 mg MgSO₄ (5:5:1:10). At 5.0, 25.0 and 100.0 ng g^?1 fortification levels for each analyte, the average obtained recoveries ranged from 87.7% to 108.0% with relative standard deviation (RSD) between 3.8% and 10.9%. The soil matrix effect of the six compounds were lower than 11.0%. The linear relation was observed in the range of 5.0–500.0 ng g^?1 and the correlation coefficient (R²) of these compounds were higher than 0.998. The detection limits (LODs) were in the range of 0.2–1.0 ng g^?1, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were between 0.8 and 2.2 ng g^?1. Comparing with the gas chromatography-electron capture detector (GC-ECD), the GC-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) method can improve the anti-interference ability and thus get better separation of the chloroacetamide herbicides. Additionally, this method was verified to fit for soil samples with broad organic matter range (16.2 to 83.0 g kg^?1). The developed method was successfully applied for analysing 26 field soil samples collected from Dianchi lake basin in the southeast of China. About 42.0% soil samples were detected with these herbicides, of which butachlor was the most frequently detected and the highest concentration was up to 137.0 ng g^?1 in rape soil.     

贵金属多孔纳米结构的模板法制备及生物检测应用

贵金属多孔纳米材料是一类非常重要的新型多功能纳米材料,其具有独特的空心内部、多孔的外壁以及可调的形貌等,表现出优异的光、电、催化等特性。调制贵金属多孔纳米材料的尺寸、形状、排列和空间取向等对促进其在拉曼光谱、生物传感等方面的应用至关重要。模板法是利用与目标产物的纳米尺度特征相匹配的预制结构来指导纳米材料的合成,可以制备出其他方法难以制备的新型多孔纳米结构材料。基于模板的多样性,能够便捷的调节多孔贵金属的孔径、尺寸和组分,充分的开发贵金属纳米结构的特性。本文着重介绍了贵金属多孔纳米材料的类型和调控这些纳米结构的各种模板方法,分析了各种制备方法的优势和不足,并简要综述了贵金属多孔纳米结构在生物检测方面的一些应用进展。     

Comparative analysis of nucleosides,nucleobases, and amino acids in different parts of Angelicae Sinensis Radix by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid and sensitive ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry method was established and employed to determine 21 nucleosides, nucleobases, and amino acids in 60 samples from different parts of Angelicae Sinensis Radix. The established methods were validated by good linearity (r² > 0.9937), limits of detection (0.12–77.75 ng/mL), limits of quantitation (0.31–272.13 ng/mL), intra‐ and interday precisions (RSD ≤ 4.84%, RSD ≤ 6.26%), stability (RSD ≤ 5.92%), repeatability (RSD ≤ 7.14%), recovery (91.4–103.4%), and matrix effects (0.92–1.03). Chemical comparative analysis revealed that the content of total analytes in four parts of Angelicae Sinensis Radix were different, and exhibited the order: Head (14.89 mg/g) > Body (10.15 mg/g) > All (8.22 mg/g) > Tail (6.23 mg/g). Principal component analysis showed that the samples could be classified into four groups in accord with four different parts of Angelicae Sinensis Radix. The results could provide a scientific basis and reference for the quality control of Angelicae Sinensis Radix, and may be conducive to further research on the pharmacological activities of Angelicae Sinensis Radix.     

A simple two‐stage column chromatographic separation scheme for strontium,lead, neodymium and hafnium isotope analyses in geological samples by thermal ionization mass spectrometry or multi‐collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Here, a two‐stage column separation scheme is developed for the concomitant isolation of Sr, Pb, Nd, and Hf from geological samples. The first column, which consists of three resin layers (AG50W‐X8 ion exchange resin + Ln specific resin + Sr specific resin), separates the high field strength element + rare earth element, Sr and Pb from the matrices. Subsequently, Nd and Hf are further separated from the high field strength element + rare earth element fraction on the second column using 1 mL of Ln specific resin. The two‐stage column process can be completed within about seven and a half hours for a batch of samples (20–30). The separated Sr fraction was ready for isotope ratio measurements by thermal ionization mass spectrometry. The Pb, Nd, and Hf fractions were converted to nitrate prior to isotopic analyses by multi‐collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The feasibility of this new procedure is confirmed by the analyses of four international rock standards (BCR‐2, AGV‐2, BHVO‐2, and JB‐3), which yielded isotope ratios that were in good agreement with other published data.     

Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic activity of multi-walled carbon nanotube-supported tungsten trioxide composites

Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-supported tungsten trioxide (WO₃) composite catalysts were prepared by liquid-phase process. WO₃ nanoparticles grew on the inner and outer surface of MWCNTs. Their photocatalytic activities in the degradation of the Rhodamine B Dye were studied. The effects of mass ratio of MWCNTs to WO₃ were discussed. X-ray diffraction, field emission transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis and ultraviolet-visible light absorption spectra were carried out to characterize the composite catalysts. The results indicated that the optimum mass ratio of MWCNTs to WO₃ is 5:100.     

Novel optical orthogonally modulation scheme for superimposing DPSK signals on dark RZ signals

A configuration of transmitter for superimposing DPSK signals on dark RZ signals was proposed. The transmitter comprises two optical phase modulators and a delayed line Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A new orthogonally modulation format with tunable duty cycle and extinction ratio in the optical domain was generated and discussed. The results show that the proposed modulation format offers significant advantages in offering high spectral efficiency values, high extinction ratio, and requiring electronics with reduced bandwidth.     

Role of interference between localized and propagating surface waves on the extraordinary optical transmission through a subwavelength-aperture array

We report in this Letter that when radiation is incident on a metal surface perforated with an array of ring-shaped subwavelength apertures, the phase difference between the propagating surface Bloch wave and the localized surface wave can be tailored by the geometrical parameters of the array so as to affect the shape of the transmission spectrum. Above the resonant frequency of the aperture, interference between the two kinds of surface waves leads to a minimum in the transmission spectrum, whereas below it, the interference leads to a maximum. We suggest that this feature provides flexibility in engineering surface-wave-based all-optical devices.     

Calculation of Metric for Gaussian Weave State

Using the recoupling theorem and graph calculation in loop quantum gravity, it is demonstrated that the action of metric matrix operator on Gaussian weave state is an eigenaction, the representation matrix elements of the metric operator and their expectation values are calculated. The values of length of tangent vectors of edges adjacent to the vertex of Gaussian weave state, as well as the angles between them are also obtained in the cases of k=0 and k=2.