Recent Advances in the Research of Photo-Assisted Lithium-Based Rechargeable Batteries

The application of solar energy is crucial for alleviating the energy crisis and achieving sustainable development. In recent years, photo-assisted rechargeable batteries have attracted researchers because they can directly convert and store solar energy in the batteries. And it also can be used like a normal battery without light illumination. Photo-assisted lithium-based batteries have received more attention than other energy storage systems due to their higher energy density and relatively mature development. This Review focuses on the design of various photo-assisted lithium-based batteries including Li-ion, Li-S, Li-O₂, Li-CO₂ and Li-I batteries, as well as the working mechanism of photoelectrodes in these battery systems. The basic understanding and challenge of photo-assisted lithium-based batteries are also discussed. At last, perspectives for the photoelectrode development are provided in the summary to advance photo-assisted energy storage systems.     

pH responsive Janus polymeric nanosheets

pH responsive polymeric Janus nanosheets with poly(maleic acid) moiety and crosslinked PS onto the corresponding sides have been synthesized by free radical polymerization. The Janus nanosheets can serve as solid emulsifier to stabilize an oil/water emulsion, whose stability is easily triggered by changing pH across pKa of the poly(maleic acid).     

Photovoltaic properties of graphene oxide sheets beaded with ZnO nanoparticles

A hybrid material of graphene oxide (GO) sheets beaded with ZnO nanoparticles was prepared. The material extends over a few hundred square nanometers, in which the ZnO nanoparticles (average diameter (∼5 nm)) are dispersed evenly on the GO sheet. Both the surface photovoltage or surface photocurrent intensity for the material are much stronger than for pure ZnO nanoparticles, meaning that the free charge carriers can effectively be transferred from ZnO nanoparticles to GO sheets, which can serve as a probe to monitor the electron transfer from excited ZnO to GO. Anchoring ZnO nanoparticles on two dimensional carbon nanostructures such as GO can pave a way towards the design of ordered nanostructure assemblies that can harvest light energy efficiently.     

Generalized conditional symmetries of nonlinear differential-difference equations

Generalized conditional symmetry method for tackling nonlinear partial differential equations is extended to differential-difference equations. As the applications, some exact solutions to several nonlinear differential-difference equations are obtained.     

Simultaneous Determination of Seven Active Compounds in Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae by Temperature-Controlled Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction and HPLC

A simple and effective high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed for simultaneous quantification of three phenolic acids (3,4-dihydroxyphenyllactic acid (Chinese name danshensu), protocatechuic aldehyde, and salvianolic acid B) and four diterpenes (dihydrotanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, and tanshinone II_A) in radix salviae miltiorrhizae. Chromatography was performed on a 250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5-μm particle size, C₁₈ column. The mobile phase was a linear gradient prepared from 0.1% (v/v) aqueous formic acid and acetonitrile at a flow-rate of 1.0 mL min⁻¹. All the target components were well separated with high resolution and without interference. Good linearity (R ² > 0.999) was observed over the concentration ranges investigated, and intra-day and inter-day precision were high. Temperature-controlled ultrasound-assisted extraction was used to prevent hydrolysis of thermally unstable components during the sample-extraction procedure, and the extraction conditions were carefully optimized. Recovery of the seven components was from 98.45 to 100.63% and relative standard deviations were always <1.5%. The validated method was successfully used for simultaneous quantification of the three phenolic acids and the four diterpenes in radix salviae miltiorrhizae of different geographic origins.     

A nonmonotone trust-region method of conic model for unconstrained optimization

In this paper, we present a nonmonotone trust-region method of conic model for unconstrained optimization. The new method combines a new trust-region subproblem of conic model proposed in [Y. Ji, S.J. Qu, Y.J. Wang, H.M. Li, A conic trust-region method for optimization with nonlinear equality and inequality 4 constrains via active-set strategy, Appl. Math. Comput. 183 (2006) 217–231] with a nonmonotone technique for solving unconstrained optimization. The local and global convergence properties are proved under reasonable assumptions. Numerical experiments are conducted to compare this method with the method of [Y. Ji, S.J. Qu, Y.J. Wang, H.M. Li, A conic trust-region method for optimization with nonlinear equality and inequality 4 constrains via active-set strategy, Appl. Math. Comput. 183 (2006) 217–231].     

An analytical model for reverse automotive production planning and pricing

Automotive shredders need a reverse production planning strategy that includes determining at what price to purchase vehicle hulks from different sources. In this paper, we formulate the automotive reverse production planning and pricing problem in a nonlinear programming model, develop an approximate supply function for hulks when adjacent shredders price independently, and compare two hulk pricing strategies in three trends for ferrous metal and hulk prices: constant, increasing and decreasing. The case study results indicate that adjusting purchase price based on hulk composition in coordination with planning for purchasing, storing and processing can increase net revenue by 7–15%.