Carbon black supported PtCu nanoparticles derived from mix-phased Cu precursor for high-performanced oxygen reduction reaction in acid medium

Alloying high-cost Pt with transition metals has been considered as an effective route to synthesize the electrocatalysts with low Pt loading and excellent activity towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) under acid solution. The galvanic replacement method, as featured with efficiency and simplicity, is widely reported to produce Pt-based bimetallic alloys and thereby declare the significance of reductive transition metal precursor on the enhancement of ORR performance. Herein, mix-phased Cu−Cu₂O precursor was applied to prepare carbon black supported highly dispersed PtCu alloy nanoparticles (PtCu/C). The proper Cu−Cu₂O ratios can exactly facilitate the generation of small sized PtCu alloy nanoparticles with regulated bimetallic content. Meanwhile, the Cu₂O phase is revealed to benefit the electron transfer from Pt to Cu and thus improve the intrinsic activity of Pt active sites. And the metallic Cu can favor the promotion of electrochemical active surface area. Consequently, the as-prepared PtCu/C behaves impressive ORR activity with half-wave potential of 0.88 V (vs. RHE) and mass activity of 0.49 A cm⁻² mg_Pt⁻¹ at 0.8 V, which is 9.8 times of commercial Pt/C catalysts. Our work will offer helpful advices for the development and regulation of novel Pt-based alloy materials towards diverse electrocatalysis.     

Polylactic acid/silk fibroin composite hollow fibers as excellent controlled drug release systems

Polylactic acid (PLA) and silk fibroin (SF) have been widely used in biomedical applications because of their excellent biocompatibility and degradability. In this study, PLA and SF were used as raw materials to prepare hollow fibers with a skin-core structure by wet spinning technology. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that the structure of hollow fibers became increasingly uniform with increasing silk fibroin mass fraction. Tensile test results showed that with the increase of silk fibroin content, the elastic modulus of hollow fibers decreased and their tensile properties improved. The results of hollow fibers degradation experiments revealed that increasing the content of silk fibroin can effectively shorten the degradation time of hollow fibers. Ultraviolet spectrophotometry was used to measure the absorbance of tetracycline hydrochloride in phosphate buffer saline and calculate its release rate in hollow fibers with different silk fibroin contents, the result is HFs-9 > HFs-7 > HFs-0 > HFs-5 > HFs-3. The PLA/SF controlled drug release system has precise controlled release of the drug, realizes the separation of the drug from the controlled release system, and solves the problem of sudden drug release. In addition, the controlled release system is non-toxic, degradable, and has excellent mechanical properties.     

微波热冲快速制备二维多孔La0.2Sr0.8CoO3钙钛矿用于高效电催化析氧反应

析氧反应(OER)被认为是电解水的关键限制步骤,已被广泛作为清洁能源方式用于解决能源和环境问题。钙钛矿氧化物(ABO₃)具有可调的电子结构、高灵活性的元素组成,能在OER中表现出良好的催化活性。然而,钙钛矿氧化物的合成通常需要经历长时间的高温,极易导致金属的聚集和影响材料的本征活性。气相微波技术可以显著缩短热处理时间,从而减少相关的碳排放。这项技术不仅解决了对碳中性过程日益增长的需求,而且还增加了对合成的控制,以避免产品的不良团聚。本文采用微波热冲法快速制备了二维(2D)多孔La_0.2Sr_0.8CoO₃钙钛矿。伴随微波过程的快速熵增可以有效地暴露La_0.2Sr_0.8CoO₃结构中丰富的活性位点。此外,高能微波冲击过程可以精准地将Sr²⁺引入到LaCoO₃的晶格中,通过增加Co的氧化态来增加氧空位量。这种锶元素取代镧引入的氧空位能极大提高催化剂的本征催化活性。对于碱性电解液中的OER应用,制备的La_0.2Sr_0.8CoO₃在10 mA∙cm⁻²下展现出了360 mV的过电位,Tafel斜率为76.6 mV∙dec⁻¹。且在经历30000秒的长时间循环测试后仍能维持初始电流密度的97%。这项研究为高活性二维钙钛矿的合成提供了一种简便、快速的策略。     

Supplement to the theory of normal pulse voltammetry and its application to the kinetic study of methanol oxidation on a polycrystalline platinum electrode

The theory of normal pulse voltammetry (NPV) for complex multistep multielectron transfer processes on a plane electrode was advanced and applied to the completely irreversible process of methanol oxidation to formic acid in the potential range from 0.3 to 0.8 V versus Ag/AgCl. The kinetic parameters for this process, such as the standard rate constant (k0) and anodic transfer coefficient (alpha) for this irreversible heterogeneous electron transfer process at the electrode/solution interface and apparent diffusion coefficient (D(app)) for the homogeneous charge transfer process within liquid film near the electrode surface, were obtained with NPV theory from analyzing the dependence of current-potential curves upon the sampling times. The results showed that this process is truly a very slow, completely irreversible kinetic process, as k0 is in the order of 10(-9) cm/s for the rate-determining step. The values of k0 and D(app) decreased with the increase of methanol concentration, while alpha was independent of the concentration of methanol and its value was 0.35 +/- 0.05. Theoretical fitting is very consistent with the experimental data.     

用新显色剂1,1′-[2,2′-(4,4′-双噻唑基)-双偶氮]-2,2′-双萘酚与TritonX-100体系析相光度法测定微量铀

将新显色剂1,1′-[2,2′-(4,4′-双噻唑基)-双偶氮]-2,2′-双萘酚(简称4,4′-bi-TAN),用作为测定铀的高选择性的试剂。析相体系为UO_2~(2+)-4,4′-bi-TAN-TritonX-100,在580nm波长下测定UO_2~(2+),许多共存离子不干扰测定,用此法测定了铀矿废水中UO_2~(2+)的含量,结果令人满意。     

浸渍型Cu/Cr基甲醇裂解催化剂的研究(英文)

制备了Ｃｕ／Ｃｒ为基础的浸渍型甲醇裂解催化剂并考察它们的催化性能,研究了Ｋ、Ｍｇ、Ｎｉ、Ｙ等助剂对催化剂性能和结构的影响。利用ＸＲＤ、ＴＰＲ等技术对浸渍型甲醇裂解Ｃｕ／Ｃｒ基催化剂的结构与性能进行了研究．结果表明,虽然Ｃｕ含量明显低于沉淀型Ｃｕ／Ｚｎ／Ａｌ催化剂,Ｃｕ／Ｃｒ基浸渍型催化剂具有更好的活性和稳定性。助剂Ｋ、Ｍｇ、Ｎｉ、Ｙ等能明显提高催化剂的稳定性,但使催化剂的初活性不同程度地降低。Ｋ、Ｍｇ和Ｎｉ能较好地提高催化剂的选择性,而稀土Ｙ对选择性影一不大。     

Substituent Effect on the π Linkers in Triphenylamine Dyes for Sensitized Solar Cells: A DFT/TDDFT Study

A series of metal‐free organic donor–π bridge–acceptor dyes are studied computationally using density functional theory (DFT) and time‐dependent DFT (TDDFT) approaches to explore their potential performances in dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Taking triphenylamine (TPA) and cyanoacrylic acid moieties as donor and acceptor units, respectively, the effects of different substituents of the π linkers in the TPA‐based dyes on the energy conversion efficiency of the DSSCs are theoretically evaluated through optimized geometries, charge distributions, electronic structures, simulated absorption spectra, and free energies of injection. The results show that the molecular orbital energy levels and electron‐injection driving forces of the TPA dyes can be tuned by the introduction of substituents with different electron‐withdrawing or ‐donating abilities. The electron‐withdrawing substituent always lowers the energies of both frontier orbitals, while the electron‐donating one heightens them simultaneously. The efficiency trend of these TPA derivatives as sensitizers in DSSCs is also predicted by analyzing the light‐harvesting efficiencies and the free energies of injection. The following substituents are shown to increase the efficiency of the dye: OMe, OEt, OHe, and OH.     

Photocrosslinked methacrylated poly(vinyl alcohol)/hydroxyapatite nanocomposite hydrogels with enhanced mechanical strength and cell adhesion

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels with high water content, good load‐bearing property, low frictional behavior as well as excellent biocompatibility have been considered as promising cartilage replacement materials. However, the lack of sufficient mechanical properties and cell adhesion are two critical barriers for their application as cartilage substitutes. To address these problems, herein, methacrylated PVA with low degree of substitution of methacryloyl group has been synthesized first. Then, methacrylated PVA‐glycidyl methacrylate/hydroxyapatite (PVA‐GMA/Hap) nanocomposite hydrogels have been developed by the photopolymerization approach subsequently. Markedly, both pure PVA‐GMA hydrogel and PVA‐GMA/Hap nanocomposite hydrogels exhibit excellent performance in compressive tests, and they are undamaged during compressive stress–strain tests. Moreover, compared to pure PVA‐GMA hydrogels, 8.5‐fold, 7.4‐fold, and 14.2‐fold increase in fracture stress, Young's modulus and toughness, respectively, can be obtained for PVA‐GMA/Hap nanocomposite hydrogels with 10 wt % Hap nanoparticles. These enhancements can be ascribed to the intrinsic property of PVA‐GMA and strong hydrogen bonding interactions between PVA‐GMA chain and Hap nanoparticles. More interestingly, significant improvement in the cell adhesion can also be successfully achieved by incorporation of Hap nanoparticles. These biocompatible nanocomposite hydrogels have great potential to be used as cartilage substitutes. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019, 57, 1882–1889     

Parameter estimation for fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes at discrete observation

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the parameters for fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes from discrete observations when the Hurst parameter H is known. Both the drift and the diffusion coefficient estimators of discrete form are obtained based on approximating integrals via Riemann sums with Hurst parameter H ∈ (1/2, 3/4). By adapting the stochastic integral representation to the fractional Brownian motion, these two estimators can be efficiently computed by the use of computer software. Numerical examples are presented to examine the performance of our method. An application to real data is also presented to show how to apply this method in practice.     

BPU/PLLA/DO体系的热力学性质对成膜过程及共混膜结构的影响

利用浸沉凝胶相转化法制备医用聚氨酯(BPU)/聚乳酸(PLLA)微孔膜,讨论了BPU/PLLA不同配比时聚合物/1,4-二氧六环/水三元体系的凝胶特性及其对共混膜结构和性能的影响,并初步探讨成膜机理.研究结果表明,随着BPU/PLLA质量比例由90/10变为75/25、50/50、25/75、10/90,聚合物/溶剂/非溶剂三元体系的热力学稳定性增强,凝胶值增大,但是共混溶液的黏度增大;并且,共混膜的孔隙率、膜厚、平均孔径、水蒸汽透过速率及吸水率先增加后降低.这主要是由于随着BPU/PLLA质量比例的变化,动力学扩散过程控制成膜速度转变为成膜体系热力学性质控制成膜速度;成膜过程由延时分相转变为瞬时分相,后又转变为延时分相.