Revealing the Reaction and Fading Mechanism of FeSe2 Cathodes for Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries

Rechargeable Mg batteries (RMBs) are advantageous large-scale energy-storage devices because of the high abundance and high safety, but exploring high-performance cathodes remains the largest difficulty for their development. Compared with oxides and sulfides, selenides show better Mg-storage performance because the weaker interaction with the Mg²⁺ cation favors fast kinetics. Herein, nanorod-like FeSe₂ was synthesized and investigated as a cathode for RMBs. Compared with microspheres and microparticles, nanorods exhibit higher capacity and better rate capability with a smaller particle size. The FeSe₂ nanorods show a high capacity of 191 mAh g⁻¹ at 50 mA g⁻¹ and a good rate performance of 39 mAh g⁻¹ at 1000 mA g⁻¹. Ex situ characterizations demonstrate the Mg²⁺ intercalation mechanism for FeSe₂, and a slight conversion reaction occurs on the surface of the particles. The capacity fading is mainly because of the dissolution of Fe²⁺, which is caused by the reaction between Fe²⁺ and Cl⁻ of the electrolyte during the charge process on the surface of the particles. The surface of FeSe₂ is mainly selenium after long cycling, which may also dissolve in the electrolyte during cycling. The present work develops a new type of Mg²⁺ intercalation cathode for RMBs. More importantly, the fading mechanism revealed herein has considered the specificity of Mg battery electrolyte and would assist a better understanding of selenide cathodes for RMBs.     

In vivo Toxicity Evaluation of a Nano-drug Delivery System Using a Caenorhabditis elegansModel System

Drug carrier materials need to possess good biological safety. Presently, most biosafety evaluation studies use rodent animal models, including rats and rabbits. However, the cost of raising these animals is relatively high and the experimental period is long. Caenorhabditis elegans(C. elegans) presents an ideal toxicological evaluation model due to its simple structure, easy cultivation, short life cycle, and evolutionary conservation. In this paper, we used C. elegans to test the biological safety of our pH-responsive carrier system(FFPFF self-assembling into a nanosphere structure, FFPFF Nps), which was designed for anti-tumor drug delivery. Our results showed that exposure to high doses of FFPFF Nps did not have a significant impact on the survival rate, growth, development, movement, and reproduction of C. elegans. The preliminary evaluation of the overall biological model of C. elegans shows that FFPFF Nps has good biological safety and warrants further study.     

Recent Progress on Highly Selective and Sensitive Electrochemical Aptamer-based Sensors

Highly selective, sensitive, and stable biosensors are essential for the molecular level understanding of many physiological activities and diseases. Electrochemical aptamer-based (E-AB) sensor is an appealing platform for measurement in biological system, attributing to the combined advantages of high selectivity of the aptamer and high sensitivity of electrochemical analysis. This review summarizes the latest development of E-AB sensors, focuses on the modification strategies used in the fabrication of sensors and the sensing strategies for analytes of different sizes in biological system, and then looks forward to the challenges and prospects of the future development of electrochemical aptamer-based sensors.     

Removal of Anionic Dyes from Aqueous Solution with Layered Cationic Aluminum Oxyhydroxide

It is highly desired yet challenged to find an adsorbent with low cost and excellent performance in the removal of organic dyes from aqueous solution. Here we reported that a layered cationic aluminum oxyhydroxide material hydrothermally synthesized from the low-cost source materials of AlCl₃∙6H₂O, CaO and H₂O, known as JU-111, can meet such criterion in removing methyl orange(MO) and Congo red(CR). JU-111 shows fast adsorption kinetics[especially for CR(15 s)] and high adsorption capacity(MO:>1000 mg/g; CR:>2900 mg/g), surpassing most of the reported adsorbents. Comprehensive characterizations of the adsorption process of MO and CR revealed that both adsorptions were achieved via the anion exchange process. The characteristics of extremely low cost and excellent performance render JU-111 great potential in the practical applications in the removal of anionic dyes.     

Utilization of photocatalysts in decarboxylative coupling of carboxylic N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) esters

Recently, the visible-light photoredox decarboxylative couplings of N-(acyloxy)phthalimides (NHPI esters) and its derivatives have become an efficient chemical transformation. Under visible light, the NHPI esters undergo a single-electron transfer (SET) process to afford the corresponding carbon or nitrogen radicals that participate in many chemical transformations. The photoredox decarboxylative couplings have been applied to achieve construction of an array of carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bonds as well as the synthesis of carbocycles and heterocycles. This review categorises photocatalysts, discusses the application and catalysis mechanisms of NHPI esters, and details recent progress in this field.     

Electronic structure theory investigation on the electrochemical properties of cyclohexanone derivatives as organic carbonyl-based cathode material for lithium-ion batteries

Organic carbonyl-based compounds with redox-active site have recently gained full attention as organic cathode material in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) owing to its high cyclability, low cost, high abundance, tunability of their chemical structure compared to traditionally used inorganic material. However, the utilization of organic carbonyl-based compounds in LIBs is limited to its poor charge capacity and dissolution of lower molecular weight species in electrolytes. In this study, we theoretically investigated five set of cyclohexanone derivatives (denoted as: H₁, H₂, H₃, H₄, and H₅) and influence of functional groups (-F and -NH₂) on their electrochemical properties using advanced level density functional theory (DFT) with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzenhof hybrid functional (PBE0) at 6-31+G(d,p) basis set. In line with the result gotten, the HOMO-LUMO results revealed that compound H₅ is the most reactive among the studied cyclohexanone derivatives exhibiting energy gap values of 0.552, 0.532, 0.772 eV for free optimized structures and structurally engineered structures with electron withdrawing group (EWG) and electron donating group (EDG) respectively. Also, results from electrochemical properties of the studied compounds lithiated with only one lithium atom displayed that compound H₂ exhibited interesting redox potential and energy density for all the studied structures in free optimized state (1108.28 W h kg^?1, 4.92 V vs Li/Li⁺), with EWG (648.22 W h kg^?1, 3.313 V Li/Li⁺), and with EDG (1002.4 W h kg^?1, 5.011 V vs Li/Li⁺). From our result, we can infer that compound H₂ and H₃ with corresponding redox potential, energy density and theoretical charge capacity value of 4.92 V vs Li/Li⁺, 1108.28 W h kg^?1, 225.26 mA h g^?1 and 5.168 V, 1041.61 W h kg^?1, 201.55 mA h g^?1 lithiated with only one lithium atom in free optimized state are the most suitable compounds to be employed as organic cathode material in lithium-ion batteries among all the investigated cyclohexanone derivatives.     

MIL-101(Cr) Microporous Nanocrystals Intercalating Graphene Oxide Membrane for Efficient Hydrogen Purification

Graphene oxide (GO) is a promising two-dimensional building block for fabricating high-performance gas separation membranes. Whereas the tortuous transport pathway may increase the transport distance and lead to a low gas permeation rate, introducing spacers into GO laminates is an effective strategy to enlarge the interlayer channel for enhanced gas permeance. Herein, we propose to intercalate CO₂-philic MIL-101(Cr) metal-organic framework nanocrystals into the GO laminates to construct a 2D/3D hybrid structure for gas separation. The interlayer channels were partially opened up to accelerate gas permeation. Meanwhile, the intrinsic pores of MIL-101 provided additional transport pathways, and the affinity of MIL-101 to CO₂ molecules resulted in higher H₂/CO₂ diffusion selectivity, leading to a simultaneous enhancement in gas permeance and separation selectivity. The MIL-101(Cr)/GO membrane with optimal structures exhibited outstanding and stable mixed-gas separation performance with H₂ permeance of 67.5 GPU and H₂/CO₂ selectivity of 30.3 during the 120-h continuous test, demonstrating its potential in H₂ purification application.     

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy interference system modelling for chlorpyrifos removal with walnut shell biochar

Accumulation of chlorpyrifos (CP), a pesticide, causes a significant environmental problem in food, surface/ground waters further to human health. The removal of the CP pollutant in surface/wastewater could be achieved by biochar due to the improved physical and chemical properties. In this work, the CP removal capacities of biochar samples derived from walnut shells at various temperatures from 450 to 900 °C were investigated. The experiments were performed as laboratory batch type study and the adsorption efficiency was determined at various conditions such as adsorbent dosage (10–500 mg/L), sorbate concentrations (100–1500 µg/L), contact time (0–300 min), initial pH (3–10), and the number of recycle.By subtracting the pyrolysis temperature from 450 °C to 900 °C, the surface areas were found to increase from 12.9 m²/g to 353.3 m²/g, respectively.The 143 experimental data were evaluated by a pair of kinetics and isotherm models and the Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). The developed ANFIS model was 98.56% successful in predicting the CP removal efficiency depending on the adsorption conditions. Walnut Shell Biochar (WSBC) can be applied for CP adsorption with 86.64% removal efficiency under optimum adsorption conditions (adsorbent = 250 µg/L, sorbate = 1000 µg/L, pH = 7.07 and contact time 15 min) thanks to its improved porosity. It was determined that the biochar samples could be reused 5 times. Equilibrium adsorption was observed to conform to the Langmuir isotherm, and the maximum adsorption capacity for WSBC@900 was 3.536 mg/g.     

Applications of single-drop microextraction in analytical chemistry: A review

Single-drop microextraction (SDME) has been recognized as one of the simple miniaturized sample preparation tools for the isolation and preconcentration of several analytes from a complex sample matrix. In this review, we explored the applications of SDME coupled with various analytical techniques (spectroscopy, chromatography, and mass spectrometry) for the analysis of organic molecules, inorganic ions, and biomolecules from various sample matrices including food, environmental, clinical, pharmaceutical, and industrial samples. Also, it summarizes the use of nanoparticles in SDME combined with various analytical tools for the rapid analysis of several trace-level target analytes. An overview of ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents, and SUPRAS, which improved the selectivity and sensitivity of various analytical techniques toward several analytes, as promising extracting solvent systems in SDME is also included. Finally, discussed the impressive analytical features and future perspectives of SDME in this review article.     

Recent advancement in inorganic-organic electron transport layers in perovskite solar cell: current status and future outlook

Organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells have captured significant attention in recent years due to low processing costs and unprecedented development in power conversion efficiency (PCE). It has appeared from 2009 with PCE of 3.8% to being claimed more than 25.2% PCE in a very short span of time, showing their future prospective toward the fabrication of less expensive and stable solar cells. The incredible advancement in this technology encourages at one end, whereas several hurdles restricting its complete utilization for commercial purposes at another end. Although the selection of perovskite structure is limited with planar and mesoporous electron transport layers (ETLs), but identification of appropriate ETLs necessitates excellent effort to improve the surface morphology of absorber and obtain enhanced PCE with higher stability. In the present review, we have investigated various inorganic-organic ETLs with different device configurations of PSCs, primarily focusing on crystallization and morphology control techniques of ETL thin films. Numerous strategies such as surface functionalization, doping, and addition of interfacial layer are adopted for ETLs, and their effect on device efficiency, performance, and hysteresis is also discussed in detail. Additionally, designs of PSCs with different device configurations are discussed as well, providing future guidelines for significant progress in PSCs structure with different ETLs.