Facile synthesis of high electrical conductive CoP via solid-state synthetic routes for supercapacitors

Co-P precursor was prepared by a mechanical alloying method and then is controlled to synthesis of CoP phase through an annealing method. The optimal conditions of ball milling and annealing temperature are investigated. The CoP exhibits higher electrical conductivity than graphite and cobalt oxide, showing excellent pseudocapacitive properties due its high electrical conductivity which can result in a fast electron transfer in high rate charge-discharge possess. The as-obtained CoP electrode achieves a high specific capacitance of 447.5 Fig at 1 Aug, and displays an excellent rate capability as well as good cycling stability. Besides, the asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) based on the CoP as the positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as the negative electrode was assembled and displayed a high rate capability (60% of the capacitance is retained when the current density increased from 1 Aug to 12 Aug), excellent cycling stability (96.7% of the initial capacitance is retained after 5000 cycles), and a superior specific energy of 19 Wh/kg at a power density of 350.8 W/kg. The results, suggest that the CoP electrode materials have a great potential for developing high-performance electrochemical energy storage devices. (C) 2016 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.

Facile synthesis of MoS_2/graphite intercalated composite with enhanced electrochemical performance for sodium ion battery

MoS2 is a promising anode material for sodium ion batteries owing to its two-dimensional layered structure and high specific capacity. But it still exhibits a poor cycle stability and limited rate capability for Na＋ storage because of its poor electrical conductivity and structural instability. In this work, MoS2/graphite composite is fabricated by mechanically delaminated and restacked MoS2 and graphite to form two-dimensional composite layers. The graphite sheets will improve electrical conductivity and prevent the aggregation as well as structure collapse of the MoS2 layers during charge-discharge process. The MoS2/graphite composite exhibits excellent Na＋ storage properties. It delivers a high discharge specific capacity of 358.2 mAh/g at a current density of 100 mA]g in the first discharge process and with capacity retention of 68.1% after 800 cycles （retains 244 mAh/g）. The average discharge specific capacities retain 250.9 and 225.4 mAh/g corresponding to the current densities of 100 and 1000 mA]g, showing excellent rate capability. The improved electrochemical performance is attributed to the improved electrical conductivity and structural stability after composition of graphite sheets. The study demonstrates a new research strategy for improving sodium ion storage properties of Mo52.

Identification of traits and genes associated with lodging resistance in maize

Lodging is a major problem limiting maize yield worldwide. However, the mechanisms of lodging resistance remain incompletely understood for maize. Here, we evaluated 443 maize accessions for lodging resistance in the field. Five lodging-resistant accessions and five lodging-sensitive accessions were selected for further research. The leaf number, plant height, stem diameter, and rind penetrometer resistance were similar between lodging-resistant and-sensitive inbred lines. The average thickness of sclerenchymatous hypodermis layer was thicker and the vascular area was larger in the lodging-resistant lines compared with lodging-sensitive lines. Although total lignin content in stem tissue did not significantly differ between lodging-resistant and-sensitive lines, phloroglucinol staining revealed that the lignin content of the cell wall in the stem cortex and in the stem vascular tissue near the cortex was higher in the lodging-resistant lines than in the lodging-sensitive lines. Analysis of strand-specific RNA-seq transcriptome showed that a total of 793 genes were up-regulated and 713 genes were down-regulated in lodging-resistant lines relative to lodging-sensitive lines. The up-regulated genes in lodging-resistant lines were enriched in cell wall biogenesis. These results indicated that modification of cell wall biosynthesis would contribute to lodging resistance of maize.

Spatiotemporal optical properties of dissolved organic matter in a sluice-controlled coastal plain river with both salinity and trophic gradients

Due to the combined effect of sluices and sea tide,the sluice-controlled coastal plain river would be characterized by both trophic state and salinity gradients,affecting the spatiotemporal optical properties of dissolved organicmatter(DOM).In this study,we investigated the spatiotemporal variation of water quality parameters and optical properties of DOM in the Haihe River,a representative sluice-controlled coastal plain river in Tianjin,China.A significant salinity gradient and four trophic states were observed in the water body of the Haihe River.Two humic-and one protein-like substances were identified from the DOM by the three-dimensional fluorescence spectra combined with the parallel factor(PARAFAC)analysis.Pearson’s correlation analysis and redundancy analysis(RDA)showed that the salinity significantly affected the abundance of chromophoric DOM(CDOM)but did not cause significant changes in the fluorescence optical characteristics.In addition,the effect of Trophic state index(TSI)on the CDOM abundance was greater than that on the fluorescence intensity of fluorescent dissolved organic matter(FDOM).In the water body with both salinity and trophic state gradients,TSI posed a greater influence than salinity on the CDOM abundance.Our results fill the research gap in spatiotemporal DOM characteristics and water quality variation in water bodies with both salinity and trophic state gradients.These results are beneficial for clarifying the joint influence of saline intrusion and sluices on the DOM characteristics and water quality in sluice-controlled coastal plain rivers.

Water quality characteristics and assessment of Yongding New River by improved comprehensive water quality identification index based on game theory

The Yongding New River is essential for the water supplies of Tianjin.To date,there is no comprehensive report that assesses the year-round water quality of the Yongding New River Main stream.Moreover,little attention has been given to determining a combined weight for improving the traditional comprehensive water quality identification index(ICWQII)by the game theory.Seven water quality parameters were investigated monthly along the main stream of the Yongding New River from May 2018 to April 2019.Organic contaminants and nitrogen pollution were mainly caused by point sources pollution,and the total phosphorus mainly by non-point source pollution.Dramatic spatio-temporal variations of water quality parameters were jointly caused by different pollutant sources and hydrometeorological factors.In terms of this study,an improved comprehensive water quality identification index(ICWQII)based on entropy weight or variation coefficient and traditional CWQII underestimated the water qualities,and an ICWQII based on the superstandard multiple method overvalued the assessments.By contrast,water qualities assessments done with an ICWQII based on the game theory matched perfectly with the practical situation.The ICWQII based on game theory proposed in this study takes into account not only the degree of disorder and variation of water quality data,but also the influence of standard-exceeded pollution indicators,whose results are relatively reasonable.All findings and the ICWQII based on game theory can provide scientific support for decisions related to the water environment management of the Yongding New River and other waters.

Crystal structures of D-psicose 3-epimerase from Clostridium cellulolyticum H10 and its complex with ketohexose sugars

D-Psicose 3-epimerase(DPEase)is demonstrated to be useful in the bioproduction of D-psicose,a rare hexose sugar,from D-fructose,found plenty in nature.Clostridium cellulolyticum H10 has recently been identified as a DPEase that can epimerize D-fructose to yield D-psicose with a much higher conversion rate when compared with the conventionally used DTEase.In this study,the crystal structure of the C.cellulolyticum DPEase was determined.The enzyme assembles into a tetramer and each subunit shows a(β/α)8 TIM barrel fold with a Mn2+metal ion in the active site.Additional crystal structures of the enzyme in complex with substrates/products(D-psicose,D-fructose,D-tagatose and D-sorbose)were also determined.From the complex structures of C.cellulolyticum DPEase with D-psicose and D-fructose,the enzyme has much more interactions with D-psicose than D-fructose by forming more hydrogen bonds between the substrate and the active site residues.Accordingly,based on these ketohexosebound complex structures,a C3-O3 proton-exchange mechanism for the conversion between D-psicose and D-fructose is proposed here.These results provide a clear idea for the deprotonation/protonation roles of E150 and E244 in catalysis.

Variational Bayesian Kalman filter using natural gradient

We propose a technique based on the natural gradient method for variational lower bound maximization for a variational Bayesian Kalman filter.The natural gradient approach is applied to the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the parameterized variational distribution and the posterior density of interest.Using a Gaussian assumption for the parametrized variational distribution,we obtain a closed-form iterative procedure for the Kullback-Leibler divergence minimization,producing estimates of the variational hyper-parameters of state estimation and the associated error covariance.Simulation results in both a Doppler radar tracking scenario and a bearing-only tracking scenario are presented,showing that the proposed natural gradient method outperforms existing methods which are based on other linearization techniques in terms of tracking accuracy.