Revealing the Effect of Surface Composition on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Supported Pt-Fe Alloy Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation Performance

The designs of efficient and inexpensive Pt-based catalysts for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) are essential to boost the commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells. Here, the highly catalytic performance PtFe alloys supported on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) decorating nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) have been successfully prepared via co-engineering of the surface composition and electronic structure. The Pt₁Fe₃@NC/MWCNTs catalyst with moderate Fe³⁺ feeding content (0.86 mA/mg_Pt) exhibits 2.26-fold enhancement in MOR mass activity compared to pristine Pt/C catalyst (0.38 mA/mg_Pt). Furthermore, the CO oxidation initial potential of Pt₁Fe₃@NC/MWCNTs catalyst is lower relative to Pt/C catalyst (0.71 V and 0.80 V). Benefited from the optimal surface compositions, the anti-corrosion ability of MWCNT, strong electron interaction between PtFe alloys and MWCNTs and the N-doped carbon (NC) layer, the Pt₁Fe₃@NC/MWCNTs catalyst presents an improved MOR performance and anti-CO poisoning ability. This study would open up new perspective for designing efficient electrocatalysts for the DMFCs field.     

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.     

Phase Transitions in Ferroelectric KNO3/Al2O3 Nanocomposites

Russian Physics Journal - The temperature dependences of the linear dielectric permittivity ε′ and the third harmonic coefficient γ3ω for nanocomposites obtained by embedding a...     

Simulation of Dampers Made of Viscoelastic Materials

Technical Physics - Taking damping into account in the problems of structural dynamics is an important and nontrivial problem. Its complexity is primarily determined by the required specification...     

Behavior of Andreev states for topological phase transition

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics - We consider three one-dimensional superconducting structures: 1) the one with $$p$$ -wave superconductivity; 2) the main experimental model of a nanowire with...     

基于不确定控制理论的最优策略研究

本文在不确定理论的框架下,研究一类带背景状态变量的最优控制模型.在乐观值准则下,利用不确定动态规划的方法,证明了不确定最优性原则,得到最优性方程.作为应用,求解一个固定缴费(DC)型养老金的最优投资策略问题,在乐观值准则下,以工资变量为背景状态变量,建立养老金模型.通过求解不确定最优性方程得到最优投资策略和最优支付率.     

Equation for Condensed Matter Phase Transitions

Russian Physics Journal - A unified equation for the pressure drop in the apparatus with the stationary and fluidized granular layers is derived. The resulting recurrent equation is used to...     

The Interference of Magnetoelastic Waves in an Yttrium Iron Garnet Film

Physics of the Solid State - The interference of excited and received by current antennae magnetoelastic waves counterpropagating in an yttrium iron garnet film is experimentally studied. It is...