Advanced Current Collectors for Alkali Metal Anodes

High-energy-density batteries are in urgent need to solve the ever-increasing energy storage demand for portable electronic devices, electric vehicles, and renewable solar and wind energy systems. Alkali metals, typically lithium(Li), sodium(Na) and potassium(K), are considered as the promising anode materials owing to their low electrochemical potential, low density, and high theoretical gravimetric capacities. However, the problem of dendrite growth of alkali metals during their plating/stripping process will lead to low Coulombic efficiencies, a short lifespan and huge volume expansion, eventually hindering their practical commercialization. To resolve this issue, a very effective approach is engineering the anodes on structured current collectors. This review summarizes the development of the alkali metal batteries and discusses the recent advances in rational design of anode current collectors. First, the challenges and strategies of suppressing alkali-metal dendrite growth are presented. Then the special attention is paid to the novel current collector design for dendrite-free alkali metal anodes. Finally, we give conclusions and perspective on the current challenges and future research directions toward advanced anode current collectors for alkali metal batteries.     

Zeolite NaY-mediated oxidation of dyes with H2O2: unique heterogeneous non-transition metal center cleavage of H2O2 under visible light irradiation

This study investigated the visible-light catalysis mediated by zeolite NaY on the oxidation of dyes with H₂O₂. The results demonstrated that zeolite NaY acts as a sink for the electron from the photo-excited dye in the heterogeneous catalysis. Furthermore, the electron can effectively activate H₂O₂ to produce ^·OH radical that is a powerful oxidant for the oxidation of dye at room temperature. The effects of the framework topology, Si/Al ratio, and exchangeable cation of the zeolite on the oxidation of various dyes were also shown.     

微区X射线荧光光谱成像法分析历史文物建筑混凝土材料成分及工艺

历史文物建筑修复与保护的首要步骤是对建材构件进行成分解析。但成型的混凝土构件成分复杂,传统技术难以直接分析。微区X射线荧光光谱具有速度快、无需前处理、可获得大面积高分辨的元素成像等优势,可用于此类混合物的原位分析。本文采用束斑为20μm的微区X射线荧光光谱仪,扫描成型混凝土构件以获得混合成分的元素分布图,结合基本参数定量法,对上海地区典型历史建筑混泥土构件进行元素定量。分析结果有效地解析了混凝土构建中骨料和凝胶材料的成分和含量,鉴别了涂层成分,解析了拌混工艺,鉴别了局部污染元素和致劣元素并分析致劣原因,为历史建筑修复材料选配、拌混工艺选择、除污及保护性预防劣化提供了科学的数据支撑。     

Thermo-Responsive ZnPc-g-TiO2-g-PNIPAM Photocatalysts Sensitized with Phthalocyanines for Water Purification under Visible Light

A novel thermo-responsive 2,9(10),16(17),23(24)-tetrakis[(3-carboxyacrylamide) phthalocyaninato] zinc (ZnPc)-g-TiO₂-g-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) photocatalyst modified with phthalocyanines was prepared. The photocatalyst exhibited thermo-responsive properties due to the introduction of PNIPAM, which performed recovery for reuse above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST, about 26 °C). ZnPc-g-TiO₂-g-PNIPAM effectively expanded the light response range to the visible light region and inhibited the recombination of electron–hole pairs, which enhanced the performance of the photocatalyst. As expected, ZnPc-g-TiO₂-g-PNIPAM (0.3 g/L) exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB, 1.0 × 10⁻⁵ mol/L) and methylene blue (MB, 1.0 × 10⁻⁵ mol/L) under visible light, which reached 97.2% and 88.6% at 20 °C within 40 min, respectively. Furthermore, the influence of temperature upon photocatalytic performance was also investigated. When the temperature increased from 20 °C to 45 °C, the removal of RhB decreased by approximately 53.8%. The stability of the photocatalyst demonstrated that the photocatalytic activity was still above 80% for the removal of RhB after 3 cycles. Above all, this work provided an intelligent thermally responsive photocatalyst based on phthalocyanine for water purification under visible light.     

Spider Silk-Improved Quartz-Enhanced Conductance Spectroscopy for Medical Mask Humidity Sensing

Spider silk is one of the hottest biomaterials researched currently, due to its excellent mechanical properties. This work reports a novel humidity sensing platform based on a spider silk-modified quartz tuning fork (SSM-QTF). Since spider silk is a kind of natural moisture-sensitive material, it does not demand additional sensitization. Quartz-enhanced conductance spectroscopy (QECS) was combined with the SSM-QTF to access humidity sensing sensitively. The results indicate that the resonance frequency of the SSM-QTF decreased monotonously with the ambient humidity. The detection sensitivity of the proposed SSM-QTF sensor was 12.7 ppm at 1 min. The SSM-QTF sensor showed good linearity of ~0.99. Using this sensor, we successfully measured the humidity of disposable medical masks for different periods of wearing time. The results showed that even a 20 min wearing time can lead to a >70% humidity in the mask enclosed space. It is suggested that a disposable medical mask should be changed <2 h.     

Compositions and Biological Activities of Pomegranate Peel Polyphenols Extracted by Different Solvents

Pomegranate peel extract (PPE), which is abundant in polyphenols, holds immerse prospects for the treatment of airway infection. In this study, water and ethanol of 30%, 50%, and 80% were used to prepare PPE. A total of 18 phenols belonging to 8 categories of polyphenols were identified in PPE by HPLC-MS/MS. The PPE from the four extraction solvents possessed different antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities. Principal component analysis revealed that though total flavonoids (TFs), total polyphenols (TPs), and total tannins (TTs) were responsible for the reducing power of PPE, only TFs contributed to the effect of PPE in inhibiting lipid membrane peroxidation. TPs, TTs, and punicalagin were positively correlated with the antibacterial strength against S. aureus while TTs alone contributed to the inhibition of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, implying the crucial role of TT in suppressing bacteria. Meanwhile, TTs was associated with the prevention of IL-6 release. The PPE with higher contents of TPs, TTs, and punicalagin had a weaker capacity to decrease nitric oxide secretion. PPE of 30% ethanol gained the highest integrated score due to its stronger antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities. It is a suitable candidate for the therapy of respiratory tract infection.     

2,2-双(4-氯-2-氟苄基)丙二酸二乙酯的晶体结构和密度泛函理论研究

标题化合物是一个重要的精细化工中间体,可用于制备嘧啶类、吡唑类等产品.本文利用红外光谱(IR)、质谱(MS)、核磁共振氢谱(1 H NMR)、核磁共振碳谱(13 C NMR)和X-射线单晶衍射对此化合物进行了表征,并在B3LYP/6-311G(d,p)模式下使用密度泛函理论(DFT)计算了此化合物的最稳定晶体结构以及最...     

Tolman length of simple droplet: Theoretical study and molecular dynamics simulation

In 1949, Tolman found the relation between the surface tension and Tolman length, which determines the dimensional effect of the surface tension. Tolman length is the difference between the equimolar surface and the surface of tension. In recent years, the magnitude, expression, and sign of the Tolman length remain an open question. An incompressible and homogeneous liquid droplet model is proposed and the approximate expression and sign for Tolman length are derived in this paper. We obtain the relation between Tolman length and the radius of the surface of tension(R_s) and found that they increase with the Rs decreasing. The Tolman length of plane surface tends to zero. Taking argon for example, molecular dynamics simulation is carried out by using the Lennard–Jones(LJ) potential between atoms at a temperature of 90 K. Five simulated systems are used, with numbers of argon atoms being 10140, 10935, 11760, 13500, and 15360, respectively. By methods of theoretical study and molecular dynamics simulation, we find that the calculated value of Tolman length is more than zero, and it decreases as the size is increased among the whole size range. The value of surface tension increases with the radius of the surface of tension increasing, which is consistent with Tolman’s theory. These conclusions are significant for studying the size dependence of the surface tension.     

DNA Interaction,DNA Photocleavage,Photocytotoxicity In Vitro,and Molecular Docking of Naphthyl-Appended Ruthenium Complexes

With the development of metal-based drugs, Ru(II) compounds present potential applications of PDT (photodynamic therapy) and anticancer reagents. We herein synthesized two naphthyl-appended ruthenium complexes by the combination of the ligand with naphthyl and bipyridyl. The DNA affinities, photocleavage abilities, and photocytotoxicity were studied by various spectral methods, viscosity measurement, theoretical computation method, gel electrophoresis, and MTT method. Two complexes exhibited strong interaction with calf thymus DNA by intercalation. Production of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) led to obvious DNA photocleavage activities of two complexes under 365 nm light. Furthermore, two complexes displayed obvious photocytotoxicity and low dark cytotoxicity towards Hela, A549, and A375 cells.