The superhydrophobic sponge decorated with Ni-Co double layered oxides with thiol modification for continuous oil/water separation

In this paper, the superhydrophobic polyurethane sponge(SS-PU) was facilely fabricated by etching with Jones reagent to bind the nanoparticles of Ni-Co double layered oxides(LDOs) on the surface, and following modification with n-dodecyl mercaptan(DDT). This method provides a new strategy to fabricate superhydrophobic PU sponge with a water contact angle of 157° for absorbing oil with low cost and in large scale. It exhibits the strong absorption capacity and highly selective characteristic for various kinds of oils which can be recycled by simple squeezing. Besides, the as-prepared sponge can deal with the floating and underwater oils, indicating its application value in handling oil spills and domestic oily wastewater. The good self-cleaning ability shows the potential to clear the pollutants due to the ultralow adhesion to water. Especially, the most important point is that the superhydrophobic sponge can continuously and effectively separate the oil/water mixture against the condition of turbulent disturbance by using our designed device system, which exhibit its good superhydrophobicity, strong stability.Furthermore, the SS-PU still maintained stable absorption performance after 150 cycle tests without losing capacity obviously, showing excellent durability in long-term operation and significant potential as an efficient absorbent in large-scale dispose of oily water.

Numerical Study on Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics for Laminar Flow in a Circular Tube with Swirl Generators

This study investigated the heat transfer and flow characteristics of one kind of swirlgenerator in a circular heat exchanger tube through a numericalsimulation. The swirlflow induced by this type of swirlgenerator can obtain a high heat transfer rate with minimalpressure drop penalty. The simulations were carried out to understand the physicalbehavior of this kind of mesoscale heat enhancement component. By visualizing the heat transfer and flow characteristics, it is found that the swirlflow is induced by swirlgenerator in the circular tube couples with the impinging jet effect. After passing through the swirlgenerator, the localfriction factor of liquid can quickly return to lower levelmore quickly, while the localNusselt number maintains higher values for a distance; thus, the evaluation criterion of localperformance is improved. Single-factor optimization is used for three geometric parameters, i.e., the angle of swirlgenerator(25o, 45o, and 60o), the length of swirlgenerator(0.005, 0.01, and 0.02 m), and the center rod radius(1, 2, and 3 mm). The optimum parameters of the swirlgenerator for laminar flow of air in a circular tube are obtained, which should be 60o, 0.005 m, and 3 mm, respectively.

Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Flower-Like Mg–Al Layered Double Hydroxides with Excellent Adsorption Performance for Organic Anionic Dyes

In this work,a facile and effective strategy to prepare three-dimensional(3D)hierarchical flower-like Mg–Al layered double hydroxides(3D-LDH)was developed via a one-step double-drop coprecipitation method usingγ-Al 2O 3particles as a template.The characterization and experimental results showed that the calcined product,3D-LDO,features a large specific surface area of 204.2 m^(2)/g,abundant active sites,and excellent adsorption performance for Congo red(CR),methyl orange(MO),and methyl blue(MB).The maximum adsorption capacities of 3D-LDO for CR,MO,and MB were 1428.6,476.2,and 1666.7 mg/g,respectively;such performance is superior to that of most reported adsorbents.The adsorption mechanism of organic anionic dyes by 3D-LDO was extensively investigated and attributed to surface adsorption,the memory effect of 3D-LDO,and the unique 3D hierarchical flower-like structure of the adsorbent.Recycling performance tests revealed that3D-LDO has satisfactory reusability for the three organic anionic dyes.

Carbonized waste milk powders as cathodes for stable lithium-sulfur batteries with ultra-large capacity and high initial coulombic efficiency

To explore the natural resources as sustainable precursors offers a family of green materials.The use of bio-waste precursors especially the remaining from food processing is a scalable,highly abundant,and cost-effective strategy.Exploring waste materials is highly important especially for new materials discovery in emerging energy storage technologies such as lithium sulfur batteries(LSBs).Herein,waste milk powder is carbonized and constructed as the sulfur host with the hollow micro-/mesoporous framework,and the resulting carbonized milk powder and sulfur(CMP/S) composites are employed as cathodes for LSBs.It is revealed that the hollow micro-/mesoporous CMP/S framework can not only accommodate the volume expansion but also endow smooth pathways for the fast diffusion of electrons and Li-ions,leading to both high capacity and long cycling stability.The CMP/S composite electrode with 56 wt% loaded sulfur exhibits a remarkable initial capacity of 1596 mAh g^(-1) at 0.1 C,corresponding to 95% of the theoretical capacity.Even at a rate of 1 C,it maintains a high capacity of 730 mAh g^(-1) with a capacity retention of 72.6% after 500 cycles,demonstrating a very low capacity fading of only 0.05% per cycle.Importantly,the Coulombic efficiency is always higher than 96%during all the cycles.The only used source material is expired waste milk powders in our proposal.We believe that this "trash to treasure" approach will open up a new way for the utilization of waste material as environmentally safe and high performance electrodes for advanced LSBs.

Synergistic effects of non-thermal plasma-assisted catalyst and ultrasound on toluene removal

A wire-mesh catalyst coated by La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 was combined with a dielectric barrier discharge （DBD） reactor for toluene removal at atmospheric pressure. It was found that toluene removal efficiency and carbon dioxide selectivity were enhanced in the catalytic packed-bed reactor. In addition, ozone and nitrogen monoxide from the gas effluent byproducts decreased. This is the first time that ultrasound combined with plasma has been used for toluene removal. A synergistic effect on toluene removal was observed in the plasma-assisted ultrasound system. At the same time, the system increased toluene conversion and reduced ozone emission.