Ambient Electrosynthesis of Ammonia: Electrode Porosity and Composition Engineering

Ammonia, a key precursor for fertilizer production, convenient hydrogen carrier, and emerging clean fuel, plays a pivotal role in sustaining life on Earth. Currently, the main route for NH₃ synthesis is by the heterogeneous catalytic Haber–Bosch process (N₂+3 H₂→2 NH₃), which proceeds under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure with a very large carbon footprint. Herein we report that a pristine nitrogen‐doped nanoporous graphitic carbon membrane (NCM) can electrochemically convert N₂ into NH₃ in an acidic aqueous solution under ambient conditions. The Faradaic efficiency and rate of production of NH₃ on the NCM electrode reach 5.2 % and 0.08 g m^?2 h^?1, respectively. Functionalization of the NCM with Au nanoparticles dramatically enhances these performance metrics to 22 % and 0.36 g m^?2 h^?1, respectively. As this system offers the potential to be scaled to industrial levels it is highly likely that it might displace the century‐old Haber–Bosch process.     

Supramolecular separation mechanism of pentafluorophenyl column using ibuprofen and omeprazole as markers: LC‐MS and simulation study

The pentafluorophenyl (PFP) column is emerging as a new advancement in separation science to analyze a wide range of analytes and, thus, its separation mechanism at supramolecular level is significant. We developed a mechanism for the separation of ibuprofen and omeprazole using different combinations (ranging from 50:50 to 60:40) of water–acetonitrile containing 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase. The column used was Waters Acquity UPLC HSS PFP (75 × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm). The reverse order of elution was observed in different combinations of the mobile phases. The docking study indicated hydrogen bonding between ibuprofen and PFP stationary phase (binding energy was −11.30 kJ/mol). Separation at PFP stationary phase is controlled by hydrogen bonding along with π–π interactions. This stationary phase may be used to analyze both aromatic and aliphatic analytes. The developed mechanism will be useful to separate various analytes by considering the possible interactions, leading to saving of energy, time and money. In addition, this work will be highly useful in preparative chromatography where separation is the major problem at a large scale. Moreover, the developed LC‐MS‐QTOF method may be used to analyze ibuprofen and omeprazole in an unknown sample owing to the low value of detection limits.     

CO2 Electroreduction in Ionic Liquids: A Review

The increasing emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) caused by the unrestrained consumption of fossil fuels in recent hundreds of years, has caused global environmental and social problems. Meanwhile, CO₂ is a cheap, abundant and renewable C1‐feedstock, which can be converted into alcohols, ethers, acids and other value‐added chemicals. Compared with the thermal reactions, electrochemical reduction of CO₂ is more attractive because of its advantages by using the seasonal, geographical and intermittent energy (tide, wind and solar) under mild conditions. In recent years, taking ionic liquids (ILs) as electrolytes in the CO₂ electrochemical reduction reaction has been paid much more attention due to the advantages of lowering the overpotential of CO₂ electroreduction and improving the Faradaic efficiency. In this paper, we summarized the recent progresses of electrochemical reduction of CO₂ in ILs electrolytes, and analyzed the reaction mechanism of CO₂ reaction in the electrode‐electrolyte interface region by experimental and simulation methods. Finally, the research which needs to be highlighted in this area was proposed.     

Smartphones & microfluidics: Marriage for the future

Smartphones have become widely recognized as a very interesting detection and controlling tool in microfluidics. They are portable devices with built‐in cameras and internal microprocessors which carry out image processing. In this case, the external computers are not needed and phones can provide fast and accurate results. Moreover, the connectivity of smartphones gives the possibility to share and provide real‐time results when needed, whether in health diagnostics, environmental monitoring, immunoassays or food safety. Undoubtedly, the marriage of smartphones and microfluidics has a brilliant future in building low cost and easily operable systems for analysis in the field, realizing the idea of people's “smartlife”. The aim of this review is to present and summarize the main advantages and disadvantages of the use of smartphones as well as to take a closer look at some novel achievements published during the last couple of years. In the next paragraphs, readers will find specific uses of a combination of smartphones and microfluidics such as water analysis, health analysis (virus and bacteria detection), and measurement of physical properties or smartphone liquid control in polymer devices.     

All‐electron relativistic computations on the low‐lying electronic states,bond length,and vibrational frequency of CeF diatomic molecule with spin–orbit coupling effects

Ab initio all‐electron computations have been carried out for Ce⁺ and CeF, including the electron correlation, scalar relativistic, and spin–orbit coupling effects in a quantitative manner. First, the n‐electron valence state second‐order multireference perturbation theory (NEVPT2) and spin–orbit configuration interaction (SOCI) based on the state‐averaged restricted active space multiconfigurational self‐consistent field (SA‐RASSCF) and state‐averaged complete active space multiconfigurational self‐consistent field (SA‐CASSCF) wavefunctions have been applied to evaluations of the low‐lying energy levels of Ce⁺ with [Xe]4f¹5d¹6s¹ and [Xe]4f¹5d² configurations, to test the accuracy of several all‐electron relativistic basis sets. It is shown that the mixing of quartet and doublet states is essential to reproduce the excitation energies. Then, SA‐RASSCF(CASSCF)/NEVPT2 + SOCI computations with the Sapporo(‐DKH3)‐2012‐QZP basis set were carried out to determine the energy levels of the low‐lying electronic states of CeF. The calculated excitation energies, bond length, and vibrational frequency are shown to be in good agreement with the available experimental data. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Improved detection sensitivity of elements in solids via laser postionization in laser desorption time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

A newly constructed laser desorption (532 nm, 5 ns) and laser postionization (266 nm, 5 ns) time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer (LD‐LPI‐TOFMS) has been applied for improving the detection sensitivity of elements in solid samples. This method affords to acquire the information of the elemental impurities in solid standards as well as limit of detection (LOD) down to 10⁻⁸ g/g for some elements. Neutral atoms of solids are generated by low‐irradiance laser desorption (< 10⁸ W/cm²), followed by high‐irradiance laser postionization (~ 10⁹ W/cm²) of the desorbed atoms, facilitating to decouple the desorption and ionization processes in spatial and temporal domain. This non‐interacting feature overcomes the discrimination between deteriorating spectral resolution at high irradiance (10⁹–10¹¹ W/cm²) and limited detectable elemental species and high LOD at low or medium irradiance (below 10⁹ W/cm²). The utilization of originally “wasted” neutral atoms by laser postionization will help improve atom utilization and instrumental sensitivity. In this work, getting the utmost out of the consumed neutral atoms instead of an increment in sampling amounts is given attention with high priority for achieving high sensitivity and low LOD, which is especially useful on the occasions where very low sample consumption is desired.     

激光刻蚀模板中电沉积特殊结构CIGS薄膜

本文利用激光刻蚀模板,在水溶液中电沉积制备金属铜薄膜,讨论了温度、电流、硫酸铜浓度对薄膜形貌的影响. 采用SEM对制备的铜薄膜进行表征,结果表明在沉积温度为30 ℃,沉积电流为4 A·dm^-2(表观工作电流密度),硫酸铜浓度在20 ~ 50 g·L^-1的水溶液中电沉积可以得到中空馒头状和开口碗状结构的铜薄膜. 利用激光刻蚀模板,在离子液体1-丁基-3-甲基咪唑三氟甲磺酸盐([BMI][TfO]) - 30 Vol%丙醇混合电解质中电沉积CIGS薄膜,研究了沉积电势、沉积时间对薄膜形貌的影响. SEM观察发现,在沉积电势为-1.8 V,沉积时间为1.5 h条件下电沉积可以得到近似柱状的簇状花束样的CIGS薄膜, 电沉积铜后再进一步电沉积CIGS,得到了均匀有序的鼓包柱状结构的Cu/CIGS复合薄膜. 用恒电势方波法对制备的薄膜真实表面积进行测试,计算结果表明,与无模板电沉积制备的CIGS薄膜相比,激光刻蚀模板法制备的Cu/CIGS复合薄膜的表面积提高了约8倍.     

原子荧光光谱法测定玩具材料中可迁移砷

玩具材料和玩具部件按《玩具安全》(GB6675—2014)规定的程序制样和用盐酸提取后,加入硫脲-抗坏血酸将提取溶液中砷预还原为适合氢化物发生的价态As(Ⅲ),再加入硼氢化钾使其还原成砷氢化物,建立了原子荧光光谱法测定玩具材料中可迁移砷含量的方法。方法的检出限为0.017mg/kg,多种代表性玩具材料的砷元素加标回收率在94.4%~104%。方法适用于各种玩具材料中可迁移砷的分析。     

土壤中易解析硫化物的解析条件研究

探索了在以磷酸为酸化剂条件下的实验条件,包括还原剂的添加、酸浓度选择的计算、系统的精密度、准确度的统计,目的是为土壤中硫化物的检出提供借鉴和参考。在以三种土壤为实验样本的实验中,对比磷酸、盐酸、硫酸为酸化剂的检出结果,添加20mL磷酸、1.5g乙二胺四乙酸二钠、0.25g抗坏血酸的检出结果和以硫酸为酸化剂的检出结果比较接近,同样酸度条件下添加抗氧化剂后的检出值和实际样品加标回收率都有提高。三种土壤的相对标准偏差分别是5.6%、6.1%、10.1%,样品加标回收率分别是77.8%、81.9%、64.4%。系统可以完成对部分金属硫化物、易溶硫化物完全解析,且不会因为氧化还原反应造成对S2-的正负误差。     

用恒温热重法测定1-己基-3-甲基咪唑苏氨酸离子液体[C6mim][Thr]蒸汽压和蒸发焓

用中和法合成了氨基酸离子液体(AAIL)1-己基-3-甲基苏氨酸盐[C₆mim][Thr],并用核磁共振氢谱(¹H NMR)和核磁共振碳谱(¹³C NMR)进行了表征。以苯甲酸为参考物质,用恒温热重法确定了AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]的蒸汽压和在平均温度下(T_av= 438.15 K)的蒸发焓(Δ^g_lH_m^? (T_av) =128.5 ± 6.0 kJ·mol^-1)。利用Verevkin等人提出的方法计算得到AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]气态和液态的恒压热容差(Δ^g_lC_pm^? = -70.8 J·K^-1·mol^-1),进而计算了不同温度的蒸发焓,其中参考温度(298.15 K)下的蒸发焓Δ^g_lH_m^? (298.15 K) = 138.4 kJ·mol^-1,只比应用我们提出的蒸发焓理论模型估算值大1.6 kJ·mol^-1,小于恒温热重法的实验误差3.0 kJ·mol^-1,说明这个蒸发焓的理论模型有一定的合理性。借助Clausius-Clapeyron方程估算了AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]的假想的正常沸点T_b= 522.07 K,以及沸点的蒸发熵Δ^g_lS_m^? (T_b) = 228.5 J·K^-1·mol^-1,进一步得到了不同温度的蒸发熵和蒸发自由能Δ^g_lG_m^? (T),其结果表明蒸发自由能随着温度的上升而减小,达到沸点温度T_b时变为零,而蒸发熵则随着温度上升而增大,是AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]蒸发过程的驱动力。