Namib desert beetle inspired special patterned fabric with programmable and gradient wettability for efficient fog harvesting

Efficient collection of water from fog provides a potential solution to solve the global freshwater shortage problem, particularly in the desert or arid regions. In this work, a flexible and highly efficient fog collector was prepared by mimicking the back exoskeleton structure of the Namib desert beetle. The improved fog collector was constructed by a superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic patterned fabric via a simple weaving method, followed by in-situ deposition of copper particles. Compared with the conventional fog collector with a plane structure, the fabric has shown a higher water-harvesting rate at 1432.7 mg/h/cm2,owing to the biomimetic three-dimensional structure, its enhanced condensation performance enabled by the copper coating and the rational distribution of wetting units. The device construction makes use of the widely available textile materials through mature manufacturing technology, which makes it highly suitable for large-scale industrial production.

TiO2 nanotube arrays decorated with Au and Bi2S3 nanoparticles for efficient Fe3+ ions detection and dye photocatalytic degradation

Due to increasingly serious environmental problems,many researchers are investigating green cleanenergy to solve the world’s energy supply issues.So the strategy that Au nanoparticles(Au NPs)and bismuth sulfide(Bi2S3)NPs are used to evenly decorate TiO2 nanotube arrays(TiO2 NTAs)was carried out.Composite materials demonstrated enhanced solar light absorption ability and excellent photoelectrochemical performance.This was attributed to the presence of Bi2S3 NPs with a narrow band gap and the decoration with noble metallic Au NPs which resulted in local surface plasmon resonance(LSPR)effects.The Au/Bi2S3@TiO2 NTAs composites exhibit improved photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue(MB)under irradiation of UV and visible light.Moreover,the Au/Bi2S3@TiO2 NTAs exhibits high fluorescence emission at 822 nm.Due to the better binding affinity between Bi2S3,TiO2 and Fe3+ions,the synthesized nanocomposites exhibit high selectivity to Fe3+ions.The number of binding sites for Au/Bi2S3@TiO2 NTAs was estimated to be 1.41 according to the double logarithmic regression method.The calculated value of"K"was 1862 M-1.Fluorescence emission intensity decreases with increasing concentration(30μM–5000μM).The detection limit of the synthesized sensor is 0.221μM.

Flexible and flame-retarding phosphorylated MXene/polypropylene composites for efficient electromagnetic interference shielding

Flame-retardant composites with high electromagnetic interference(EMI)shielding performance are desirable for electronic device packaging.Despite great potential of MXene for high EMI,it still remains a great challenge to develop high-performance flame-retardant polymer/MXene composites with excellent EMI shielding effectiveness because of the poor oxidative stability of MXene.Herein,phosphorylated MXene/polypropylene(PP)composites are prepared by coating phosphorylated MXene on PP fabric followed by spraying polyethylenimine(PEI)and hot-pressing.The phosphorylated MXene proves to be more durable against oxidation than pure MXene due to the protection effect of polyphosphates.Upon hot-pressing,melted PP fibers are fused together at their contact points and thus as-prepared composites are bi-continuous with two interpenetrating phases.The composites show significantly improved thermal stability and flame retardancy relative to pure PP,with a low total heat release(THR)of 3.7 kJ/g and a heat release rate(HRR)of 50.0 W/g,which are reduced by 78%and 87%,respectively.In addition,the composites exhibit a high electrical conductivity of~36,700 S/m and an EMI shielding performance of~90 d B over the whole frequency range of 8–12 GHz with a thickness of~400μm.The as-developed PP/MXene composites hold great promise for reliable protection of next-generation electronic devices working in complex environments.