Influence of Ring Structures on Optical Properties of Trivalent Bismuth in Bi-Doped Silica Optical Fiber

We report silica fiber with trivalent bismuth (Bi³⁺) in first-principles calculations. The influences of members of “Si–O–Si” rings are considered to study atomic structures, frontier molecular orbital and optical properties of Bi-doped optical fiber. Our results reveal that the luminescence of Bi³⁺-doped optical fiber is the result of a combination of Bi³⁺ ions and silica matrix. Different ring structures affect the luminescence properties, which explained why Bi³⁺-doped silica fiber usually cover a broad spectral range from the UV to visible light.     

Stereodivergent Synthesis of Tetrahydrofuroindoles through Pd‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Dearomative Formal [3+2] Cycloaddition

A stereodivergent synthesis of tetrahydrofuroindoles through palladium‐catalyzed asymmetric dearomative formal [3+2] cycloaddition of nitroindoles with epoxybutenes was developed. The polarity of the solvent was found to play a key role in the diastereoselectivity. In toluene, good to excellent yields (70–99 %), diastereoselectivity (87/13‐>95/5 d.r.), and enantioselectivity (85/15–94/6 e.r.) were obtained, regardless of the properties of the substituents on nitroindoles. In acetonitrile, tetrahydrofuroindoles of a different diastereoisomer were produced with good to excellent yields (75–98 %) and stereoselectivity (78/22–93/7 d.r., 93/7–99/1 e.r.). Mechanistic studies were conducted to illustrate the origin of the diastereodivergency. The kinetic experiments indicate that the rate‐determining step of this reaction is different in different solvents. ESI‐MS experiments also support the existence of key palladium complex intermediates and the catalytic cycle of the reaction.     

Fuel‐Free Bio‐photoelectrochemical Cells Based on a Water/Oxygen Circulation System with a Ni:FeOOH/BiVO4 Photoanode

A bio‐photoelectrochemical cell (BPEC) based on a fuel‐free self‐circulation water–oxygen–water system was fabricated. It consists of Ni:FeOOH modified n‐type bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) photoanode and laccase catalyzed biocathode. In this BPEC, irradiation of the photoanode generates photocurrent for photo‐oxidation of water to oxygen, which is reduced to water again at the laccase biocathode. Of note, the by‐products of two electrode reactions could continue to be reacted, which means the H₂O and O₂ molecules are retained in an infinite loop of water–oxygen–water without any sacrificial chemical components. As a result, the assembled fuel‐free BPEC exhibits good performance with an open‐circuit potential of 0.97 V and a maximum power density of 205 μW cm^?2 at 0.44 V. This BPEC based on a self‐circulation system offers a fuel‐free model to enhance multiple energy conversion and application in reality.     

Mesoporous Co3O4 Nanobundle Electrocatalysts

Tailoring metal oxide nanostructures with mesoporous architectures is vital to improve their electrocatalytic performance. Herein, we demonstrate the synthesis of 2D mesoporous Co₃O₄ (meso‐Co₃O₄) nanobundles with uniform shape and size by employing a hard‐template method. In this study, the incipient wetness impregnation technique has been chosen for loading metal precursor into the silica hard template (SBA‐15). The results reveal that the concentration of a saturated precursor solution plays a vital role in mesostructured ordering, as well as the size and shape of the final meso‐Co₃O₄ product. The optimized precursor concentration allows us to synthesize ordered meso‐Co₃O₄ with four to seven nanowires in each particle. The meso‐Co₃O₄ structure exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity for both glucose and water oxidation reactions.     

Design of Pd{111}-TiO_2 interface for enhanced catalytic efficiency towards formic acid decomposition

Supports are commonly implemented in the industrial application of heterogeneous catalysts to improve the stability and recyclability of catalysts.The supported catalysts often show the enhanced activity and selectivity in various catalytic reactions.However,the specific contributions of electronic and steric effects to a catalytic system often remain elusive due to the lack of well-defined model systems.In this work,two types of uniform Pd nanocrystals covered by{111}facets in tetrahedral and octahedral shapes,respectively,are synthesized with identical chemical environment and loaded on Ti O_2supports to form hybrid structures(Pd{111}-Ti O_2)towards the application of formic acid decomposition.Our observation suggests that the polarization effect at the interface of Pd-Ti O_2enhances its activity in formic acid decomposition.Moreover,the Pd tetrahedrons-Ti O_2hybrid structure whose Pd{111}-Ti O_2interface possesses a larger angle shows higher catalytic activity,owing to the reduced steric effect as compared to Pd octahedrons-Ti O_2.This study reveals the nature of interface effects in formic acid decomposition,and provides a guidance for the related catalyst design.     

Cell alignment guided by nano/micro oriented collagen fibers and the synergistic vascularization for nervous cell functional expression

The majority of tissues within human body are constituted of designated structures to enable specific functions. Much effort has been done to engineer artificial fabric cell-laden scaffolds which are widely used for a great diversity of linear tissue constructs. For this purpose, collagen microfibers are of great concern among diverse materials while the control of cell-laden fiber formation and orientated structure is still unsolvable. Here, we developed a novel microfluidic-based strategy for continuous fabrication and assembly of three-dimensional (3D) cell-laden oriented collagen hydrogel microfibers. Inspired by the flow-introduced shear force in a microfluidic chip, collagen hydrogel microfibers obtained the oriented fabric structure which could guide rat pheochromocytoma cells (PC12) oriented spreading and enhance relative cellular functional expression. Rat aortic endothelial cells (RAOECs) were introduced to construct a co-cultured microfiber model, which further facilitated the functional expression of neural cells due to the synergistic effect of both vascularized-like cells and neural-like cells. Moreover, the ability of assembling collagen microfibers into larger constructs will benefit a variety of applications in tissue engineering and biomedical research.     

Cu-like Pd and Ag inner-shell photoionization phenomena

We have obtained results for converting focused laser radiation to X-ray line emissions in laser-heated NaF and Cu plasmas. These plasmas were used as the pump source for studying the phenomena of inner-shell photoionization of Zn-like ionic states. Soft X-ray emissions from transitions of 3d ⁹4s ² 3d ¹⁰4p in Cu-like Pd and Ag ions were observed.     

Equivalence of Two Gyrogroup Structures on Unit Balls

In special relativity all possible velocities form an open ball, R_c ³, of radius c in R³ with a binary operation, ⊕, given by Einstein’s velocity composition law. The concept of gyrogroups arose in the study of the algebraic structure underlying the resulting groupoid, (R_c ³, ⊕), giving rise to a generalization of the usual abelian group theory. Two different gyrogroup structures were defined on the unit ball of the Euclidean space resulting in the so-called standard and nonstandard Lorentzian groups [14]. The aim of this paper is (i) to define gyrogroup isomorphism and hence (ii) to show that the two structures are isomorphic in the gyrogroup sense; and (iii) to show that the resulting two Lorentzian groups are isomorphic, in the ordinary group sense, as pointed out by Urbantke [23]. Our results also include determining the group of all continuous automorphisms of the unit ball, when the latter is considered as a gyrogroup.     

间氯苯胺的乳液聚合及聚合物链结构表征

聚苯胺以其良好的电化学稳定性和掺杂可逆性 ,成为一类优良的电活性聚合物 [1,2 ] ,但其溶解性差 ,限制了它的加工及应用 .用取代基对聚苯胺的结构进行修饰 ,可有效地提高其加工性能 [3,4 ] ,但有关含吸电子取代基的苯胺衍生物聚合的报道尚少 .Ranger等 [5]指出 ,含强吸电子取代基团的聚苯胺不易用化学氧化聚合方法制备 ,并提出被氧化单体中的 N7和 C4位置必须具有相近的电子自旋密度 ,才能进行“头 -尾”偶联 ,而含强吸电子取代基团的苯胺单体中这两个位置的反应能力是不等价的 ,但可采用与母体共聚的方法可制备含强吸电子取代基 (如— C…