Mixed-phase WO3 Cocatalysts on Hierarchical Si-based Photocathode for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Li Extraction

Photoelectrochemical lithium (Li) extraction can be expected to provide a useful recycle of Li⁺ from waste Li-containing battery, but the process is limited by the photocathodes with poor Li⁺ absorption and low yield rate. Here, we have designed a hierarchical silicon (Si)-based photocathode with mixed-phase tungsten oxide (WO₃) cocatalysts for photoelectrochemical Li extraction under 1 sun illumination, achieving a high Li yield rate of ≈223.0 μg cm⁻² h⁻¹ and an excellent faradaic efficiency of 91.9 % at 0.0817 V versus Li^0/+ redox couple. The WO₃ cocatalysts with the mixture of amorphous and crystalline phase accelerates the Li⁺ insertion and precipitation and enriches the concentration of Li⁺ at the photocathode surface. This robust photoelectrochemical Li extraction system provides a new insight on designing green and efficient route for cyclic utilization of Li resources in the sustainable energy field.     

Proton Shuttling by Polyaniline of High Brønsted Basicity for Improved Electrocatalytic Ethylene Production from CO2

Hybrid organic/inorganic composites with the organic phase tailored to modulate local chemical environment at the Cu surface arise as an enchanting category of catalysts for electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR). A fundamental understanding on how the organics of different functionality, polarity, and hydrophobicity affect the reaction path is, however, still lacking to guide rational catalyst design. Herein, polypyrrole (PPy) and polyaniline (PANI) manifesting different Brønsted basicity are compared for their regulatory roles on the CO₂RR pathways regarding *CO coverage, proton source and interfacial polarity. Concerted efforts from in situ IR, Raman and operando modelling unveil that at the PPy/Cu interface with limited *CO coverage, hydridic *H produced by the Volmer step favors the carbon hydrogenation of *CO to form *CHO through a Tafel process; Whereas at the PANI/Cu interface with concentrated CO₂ and high *CO coverage, protonic H⁺ shuttled through the benzenoid -NH- protonates the oxygen of *CO, yielding *COH for asymmetric coupling with nearby *CO to form *OCCOH under favored energetics. As a result of the tailored chemical environment, the restructured PANI/Cu composite demonstrates a high partial current density of 0.41 A cm⁻² at a maximal Faraday efficiency of 67.5 % for ethylene production, ranking among states of the art.     

Ligand Dilution Analysis Facilitates Aptamer Binding Characterization at the Single-Molecule Level

Cell-specific aptamers offer a powerful tool to study membrane receptors at the single-molecule level. Most target receptors of aptamers are highly expressed on the cell surface, but difficult to analyze in situ because of dense distribution and fast velocity. Therefore, we herein propose a random sampling-based analysis strategy termed ligand dilution analysis (LDA) for easily implemented aptamer-based receptor study. Receptor density on the cell surface can be calculated based on a regression model. By using a synergistic ligand dilution design, colocalization and differentiation of aptamer and monoclonal antibody (mAb) binding on a single receptor can be realized. Once this is accomplished, precise binding site and detailed aptamer-receptor binding mode can be further determined using molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation. The ligand dilution strategy also sets the stage for an aptamer-based dynamics analysis of two- and three-dimensional motion and fluctuation of highly expressed receptors on the live cell membrane.     

High order finite difference method for time-space fractional differential equations with Caputo and Riemann-Liouville derivatives

We consider high order finite difference methods for two-dimensional fractional differential equations with temporal Caputo and spatial Riemann-Liouville derivatives in this paper. We propose a scheme and show that it converges with second order in time and fourth order in space. The accuracy of our proposed method can be improved by Richardson extrapolation. Approximate solution is obtained by the generalized minimal residual (GMRES) method. A preconditioner is proposed to improve the efficiency for the implementation of the GMRES method.     

Yield Stress Measurement of Dense Pastes with Pipe Transport and Vane

Yield stress is a key rheological parameter of dense paste. Considering practical utility and to estimate the possible slipping flow, yield stress measurements were carried out using the curve extrapolation method and vane method with rheometer in both controlled shear stress (CSS) and controlled shear rate (CSR) model. All measured yield stresses show to increase exponentially with concentration in different scale. The vane method yield stresses are both higher than the extrapolation curve yield stress. For the coal slurry used in this paper, the extrapolation curve yield stress is lower by 17–30% than the dynamic yield stress that obtained under test model CSR. It indicates that wall slip exists in pipeline transportation; meanwhile wall slip can reduce transportation resistance of dense paste to some extent.     

Preparation and Characterization of Size-Controlled Lignin Nanoparticles with Deep Eutectic Solvents by Nanoprecipitation

Lignin nanomaterials have wide application prospects in the fields of cosmetics delivery, energy storage, and environmental governance. In this study, we developed a simple and sustainable synthesis approach to produce uniform lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) by dissolving industrial lignin in deep eutectic solvents (DESs) followed by a self-assembling process. LNPs with high yield could be obtained through nanoprecipitation. The LNPs were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Distinct LNPs could be produced by changing the type of DES, lignin sources, pre-dropping lignin concentration, and the pH of the system. Their diameter is in the range of 20–200 nm and they show excellent dispersibility and superior long-term stability. The method of preparing LNPs from lignin–DES with water as an anti-solvent is simple, rapid, and environmentally friendly. The outcome aids to further the advancement of lignin-based nanotechnology.     

A comparison between repeating bursts of FRB 121102 and giant pulses from Crab pulsar and its applications

There are some similarities between bursts of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) and giant pulses (GPs) of pulsars. To explore possible relations between them, we study the cumulative energy distributions of these two phenomena using the observations of repeating FRB 121102 and the GPs of Crab pulsar. We find that the power-law slope of GPs (with fluence≥130 Jy·ms) is 2.85±0.10. The energy distribution of FRB 121102 can be well fitted by a smooth broken power-law function. For the bursts of FRB 121102 above the break energy (1.22 ×10³⁷ erg), the best-fitting slope is {2.90}_{-0.44}^{+0.55}, similar to the index of GPs at the same observing frequency (∼1.4 GHz). We further discuss the physical origin of the repeating FRB 121102 in the framework of the super GPs model. And we find that the super GPs model involving a millisecond pulsar is workable and favored for explaining FRB 121102 despite that the magnetar burst model is more popular.     

Self-organized criticality in multi-pulse gamma-ray bursts

The variability in multi-pulse gamma-ray bursts(GRBs)may help to reveal the mechanism of underlying processes from the central engine.To investigate whether the self-organized criticality(SOC)phenomena exist in the prompt phase of GRBs,we statistically study the proper ties of GRBs with more than 3 pulses in each burst by fitting the distributions of several observed physical variables with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach,including the isotropic energy E_iso,the duration time T,and the peak count rate P of each pulse.Our sample consists of 454 pulses in 93 GRBs observed by the CGRO/BATSE satellite.The best-fitting values and uncertainties for these power-law indices of the differential frequency distributions are:α_E^d=1.54±0.09,α_T^d=1.82_-0.15^+0.14andα_P^d=2.09_-0.19^0.18,while the power-law indices in the cumulative frequency distributions are:α_E^c=1.44_-0.10^+0.08,α_T^c=1.75_-0.13^0.11andα_P^c=1.99_-0.19^+0.16.We find that these distributions are roughly consistent with the physical framework of a Fractal-Diffusive,Self^Organized Criticality(FD-SOC)system with the spatial dimension S=3 and the classical diffusionβ=1.Our results support that the jet responsible for the GRBs should be magnetically dominated and magnetic instabilities(e.g.,kink model,or tearing-model instability)lead the GRB emission region into the SOC state.     

多孔有机含BINAP聚合物负载Rh催化剂在苯乙烯不对称氢甲酰化中的应用:柔性手性口袋对产物对映体选择性的提高作用

不对称氢甲酰化是合成具有单一光学活性物质(如光学活性的醛、α-氨基酸和醇等)最为重要的反应之一.尽管不对称氢甲酰化反应的研究超过40年,但仍然是催化体系中具有挑战性的课题.该反应涉及到产物的化学选择性、立体选择性和对映体选择性的优化.目前,在Rh催化体系中,使用磷-亚磷酸酯手性配体或双亚磷酸酯配体可以在不对称氢甲酰化反应中取得优异的催化性能.然而在Rh/手性双膦配体催化体系中,不对称氢甲酰化反应性能通常很低.以BINAP配体为例,负载Rh金属后,在催化苯乙烯不对称氢甲酰化反应中,产物的ee值只有25％.同时,由于均相催化体系存在催化剂回收和产物提纯等问题,因此有必要研究多相不对称氢甲酰化反应催化剂.本文使用乙烯基修饰的BINAP配体5,5'-divinyl-BINAP与具有不同结构的共聚单体二乙烯基苯或1,3,5-三乙烯基苯基苯共聚,得到具有不同孔结构的聚合物Poly-1和Poly-2.为了比较,利用线性共聚单体乙二醇二甲基丙烯酸甲酯与乙烯基BINAP共聚得到聚合物Poly-3.上述三种聚合物材料负载金属Rh后,用作苯乙烯不对称氢甲酰化反应的催化剂.固体13C核磁分析表明,三种聚合物材料负载金属后仍然保持较为稳定的C骨架结构.通过31p核磁可以看到,嵌入在材料骨架中的BIANP仍然保持未被氧化的状态.N2物理吸附结果发现Poly-1和Poly-2具有较大的比表面积和孔体积,而Poly-3的比表面积最小.热重分析显示,这些材料具有较高的热稳定性.在不同反应溶剂中催化剂活性差异较大.通过优化反应温度和合成气压力后,催化剂Rh/Poly-1在80℃和0.2 MPa下产物的对映体选择性可高达58.9％,支链醛与直链醛的比值为8.5;而在相同反应条件下,均相催化剂Rh-BINAP的ee值仅为35.3％,但高于Rh/Poly-3.这是由于三个多相催化剂骨架中BINAP周围环境不同所致.前两个催化剂中,BINAP与空间位阻较大的单体相连接,使得反应底物按照特定方向与催化活性位点接触,形成了类似于手性口袋的结构.而Rh/Poly-3中,BIANP周围是线性的共聚单体,不能形成有效的手性口袋结构.Rh/Poly-1重复使用7次后,催化活性没有显著下降.拓展X射线吸收精细结构表征结果表明,Rh/Poly-1催化剂使用前没有Rh-Rh键存在,但经重复使用后,Rh金属部分聚集,生成了Rh-Rh键.球差电镜照片也证实了这一点.