Oxygen functionalization-assisted anionic exchange toward unique construction of flower-like transition metal chalcogenide embedded carbon fabric for ultra-long life flexible energy storage and conversion

The metal-organic framework(MOF)derived Ni–Co–C–N composite alloys(NiCCZ)were“embedded”inside the carbon cloth(CC)strands as opposed to the popular idea of growing them upward to realize ultrastable energy storage and conversion application.The NiCCZ was then oxygen functionalized,facilitating the next step of stoichiometric sulfur anion diffusion during hydrothermal sulfurization,generating a flower-like metal hydroxysulfide structure(NiCCZOS)with strong partial implantation inside CC.Thus obtained NiCCZOS shows an excellent capacity when tested as a supercapacitor electrode in a three-electrode configuration.Moreover,when paired with the biomass-derived nitrogen-rich activated carbon,the asymmetric supercapacitor device shows almost 100%capacity retention even after 45,000 charge–discharge cycles with remarkable energy density(59.4 Wh kg^(-1)/263.8μWh cm^(–2))owing to a uniquely designed cathode.Furthermore,the same electrode performed as an excellent bifunctional water-splitting electrocatalyst with an overpotential of 271 mV for oxygen evolution reaction(OER)and 168.4 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)at 10 mA cm−2 current density along with 30 h of unhinged chronopotentiometric stability performance for both HER and OER.Hence,a unique metal chalcogenide composite electrode/substrate configuration has been proposed as a highly stable electrode material for flexible energy storage and conversion applications.

Direct and Indirect Applications of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma to Catalytic Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides from Exhaust Gas

Dielectric barrier discharge （DBD） plasma was utilized to oxidize NO contained in the exhaust gas to NO2, ultimately improve the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides （NOx）. In the one case, DBD was created directly in the exhaust gas （direct application）, and in the an other case, ozone produced by DBD was injected into the exhaust gas （indirect application）. A comparative study between such direct and indirect applications of DBD plasma was made in terms of the NOx removal efficiency and the energy consumption. The NO2 content in the exhaust gas was changed by the voltage applied to the DBD device （for direct application） or by the amount of ozone added to the exhaust gas （for indirect application）. In both cases, NO was easily oxidized to NO2, and the change in NO2 content largely affected the NOx removal performance of the catalytic reactor placed downstream, where both NO and NO2 were reduced to N2 in the presence of ammonia as the reducing agent. The experiments were primarily concerned with the effect of reaction temperature on the catalytic NOx reduction at various NO2 contents. The direct and indirect applications of DBD were found to remarkably improve the catalytic NOx reduction, especially at low temperatures.

Studies on Nitrogen Oxides Removal Using Plasma Assisted Catalytic Reactor

An electric discharge plasma reactor combined with a catalytic reactor wasstudied for removing nitrogen oxides. To understand the combined process thoroughly, dischargeplasma and catalytic process were separately studied first, and then the two processes were combinedfor the study. The plasma reactor was able to oxidize NO to NO_2 well although the oxidation ratedecreased with temperature. The plasma reactor alone did not reduce the NO_x (NO+NO_2) leveleffectively, but the increase in the ratio of NO_2 to NO as a result of plasma discharge led to theenhancement of NO_x removal efficiency even at lower temperatures over the catalyst surface(V_2O_5-WO_3/TiO_2). At a gas temperature of 100℃, the NO_x removal efficiency obtained using thecombined plasma catalytic process was 88% for an energy input of 36 eV/molecule or 30 J/l.

Treatment of Dyeing Wastewater by Using Positive Pulsed Corona Discharge to Water Surface

This study investigated the treatment of textile-dyeing wastewater by using an electrical discharge technique （positive pulsed corona discharge）. The high-voltage electrode was placed above the surface Of the wastewater while the ground electrode was submerged in the wastewater. The electrical discharge starting at the tip of the high voltage electrode propagated toward the surface of the wastewater, producing various oxidative radicals and ozone. Oxygen was used as the working gas instead of air to prevent nitrogen oxides from forming. The simulated wastewater was made up with amaranth, which is a kind of azo dye. The results obtained showed that the chromaticity of the wastewater was almost completely removed within an hour. The ultraviolet/visible spectra of the wastewater treated by the electrical discharge revealed that the total hydrocarbon level also decreased significantly.

Analysis of an Ar plasma jet in a dielectric barrier discharge conjugated with a microsecond pulse

In this work, an Ar plasma jet generated by an AC-microsecond-pulse-driven dielectric barrier discharge reactor, which had two ring-shaped electrodes isolated from the ambient atmosphere by transformer oil, was investigated. By special design of the oil insulation, a chemically active Ar plasma jet along with a safe and stable plasma process as well as low emission of CO and NOxwere successfully achieved. The results indicated that applied voltage and frequency were basic factors influencing the jet temperature, discharge power, and jet length, which increased significantly with the two operating parameters. Meanwhile, gas velocity affected the jet temperature in a reverse direction. In comparison with a He plasma jet, the Ar plasma jet had relatively low jet temperature under the same level of the input parameters, being preferable for bio-applications. The Ar plasma jet has been tested to interact with human skin within 5 min without the perception of burnt skin and electrical shock.

Behaviour of Trichloroethylene Decomposition in a Plasma-Catalytic Combined Process

A nonthermal plasma processing combined with Cr2O3/TiO2 catalyst was applied to the decomposition of trichloroethylene （TCE）. A dielectric barrier discharge reactor was used as the nonthermal plasma reactor. The effects of the reaction temperature and input power on the decomposition of TCE and the formation of byproducts including HCl, Cl2, CO, NO, NO2 and O3 were examined. With an identical input power, the increase in the reactor temperature lowered the decomposition of TCE. The presence of the catalyst downstream the plasma reactor not only enhanced the decomposition of TCE but also affected the distribution of byproducts significantly. However any synergetic effect as a result of the combination of the nonthermal plasma with the catalyst was not observed, i.e., the TCE decomposition ei^ciency in the plasma- catalyst combined system was almost similar to the sum of those obtained with each process. To improve the decomposition of TCE argon as a plasma-assisting gas was added to the feeding gas and a large enhancement in the TCE decomposition was achieved.