Mechanism study on UV-induced photodegradation of nonylphenol ethoxylates by intermediate products analysis

Photodegradation of nonylphenol ethoxylates （NPloEO） was investigated in laboratory scale under UV irradiation. The intermediate photodegradation products were analyzed by LC-ESI-MS. Three kinds of intermediate products including aldehydic compounds, carboxylic compounds and cyclohexanyl compounds were identified. Five main degradation routes involving the oxidation of the alkyl chain and ethoxylate unit, shortening of the alkyl chain and ethoxylate unit, hydrogenation of the benzene ring were proposed.

Core-shell mesoporous carbon hollow spheres as Se hosts for advanced Al-Se batteries

Incorporating a selenium(Se)positive electrode into aluminum(Al)-ion batteries is an effective strategy for improving the overall battery performance.However,the cycling stability of Se positive electrodes has challenges due to the dissolution of intermediate reaction products.In this work,we aim to harness the advantages of Se while reducing its limitations by preparing a core-shell mesoporous carbon hollow sphere with a titanium nitride(C@TiN)host to load 63.9wt%Se as the positive electrode material for Al-Se batteries.Using the physical and chemical confinement offered by the hollow mesoporous carbon and TiN,the obtained core-shell mesoporous carbon hollow spheres coated with Se(Se@C@TiN)display superior utilization of the active material and remarkable cycling stability.As a result,Al-Se batteries equipped with the as-prepared Se@C@TiN composite positive electrodes show an initial discharge specific capacity of 377 mAh·g^(-1)at a current density of 1000 mA·g^(-1)while maintaining a discharge specific capacity of 86.0 mAh·g^(-1)over 200 cycles.This improved cycling performance is ascribed to the high electrical conductivity of the core-shell mesoporous carbon hollow spheres and the unique three-dimensional hierarchical architecture of Se@C@TiN.

Analysis of Intermediate Product Price and Social Welfare in the Vertical Merger of Enterprises

According to the different products that two upper enterprises produce, this paper analyzes the transfer pricing of intermediate product and the effect of social welfare of vertical merger under imperfect competition market. The conclusions are: the transfer pricing of intermediate product is equal to marginal cost; the perfect outputs that upper enterprises sell to the market before and after the vertical merger of enterprises are the same; the product price in the integrated enterprises may be higher, lower or equal to the price in non-integrated enterprises.

Removal of a type of endocrine disruptors—di-n-butyl phthalate from water by ozonation

Ozonation of synthetic water containing a type of endocrine disruptor-di-n-butyl phthalate （DBP） was examined. Key impact factors such as pH, temperature, ionic strength, ozone dosage and initial DBP concentration were investigated. In addition, the activities of radicals on uncatalysed and catalysed ozonation were studied. The degradation intermediate products were followed and the kinetic of the ozonation were assessed as well. Results revealed that ozonation of DBP followed two mechanisms. Firstly, the reaction rate of direct ozonation was slower at lower pH, temperature, and ionic strength. Secondly, when these factors were increased for indirect radical reaction, higher percentage of DBP was removed with the increase of the initial ozone dosage and the decrease of the initial DBP concentration. In addition, tea-butanol, humic substances and Fe（Ⅱ） affected DBP ozonation through the radical pathway. It was determined that ozonation was restrained by adding tea-butanol for its radical inhibition effect. Furthermore, humic substances enhanced the reaction to some extent, but a slight negative effect would be encountered if the optimum dosage was exceeded. As a matter of fact, Mn（Ⅱ） affected the ozonation by ＂active sites＂ mechanism. In the experiment, three different kinds of intermediate products were produced during ozonation, but the amount of products for each one of them decreased as pH, temperature, ionic strength and initial ozone dosage increased. A kinetic equation of the reaction between ozone and DBP was obtained.

Aerobic degradation of methyl tert-butyl ether by a Proteobacteria strain in a closed culture system

The contamination of methyl ten-butyl ether （MTBE） in underground waters has become a widely concerned problem all over the world. In this study, a novel dosed culture system with oxygen supplied by H2O2 was introduced for MTBE aerobic biodegradation. After 7 d, almost all MTBE was degraded by a pure culture, a member of β-Proteobacteria named as PMI, in a closed system with oxygen supply, while only 40% MTBE was degraded in one without oxygen supply. Dissolved oxygen （DO） levels of the broth in closed systems respectively with and without H2O2 were about 5-6 and 4 mg/L. Higher DO may improve the activity of monooxygemase, which is the key enzyme of metabolic pathway from MTBE to tert-butyl alcohol and finally to CO2, and may result in the increase of the degrading activity of PM1 cell. The purge and trap GC-MS result of the broth in closed systems showed that tea-butyl alcohol, isopronol and acetone were the main intermediate products.

Degradation Pathway of Benzothiazole and Microbial Community Structure in Microbial Electrolysis Cells

In this study, benzothiazole was entirely mineralized by an up-flow internal circulation microbial electrolysis reactor. The bioelectrochemical system was operated at ambient temperature under continuous-flow mode. The analysis of metabolite which was extracted by HPLC-MS from the bioreactor indicated that benzothiazole derivative ( BTH ) was firstly converted into 2-hydroxybenzothiazole in the microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) and then mineralized within three steps, i.e., the fracture of thiazole-ring through a series of oxidation and hydrolysis, the deamination and hydroxylation of 2-aminobenzenesulfonic acid, and the mineralization of various carboxylic acids to CO2 and H2O. Bacterial community analysis indicated that the applied electric field could selectively enrich certain species and the dominate bacteria on the electrodes belonged to Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes. Results show that MEC can improve the degradation efficiency of BTH in wastewater, enable the microbiological reactor to satisfy the requirements of high loading rate, thereby fulfilling the scale-up of whole process in the future.

A synchronous nucleation and passivation strategy for controllable synthesis of Au36(PA)24: unveiling the formation process and the role of Au22(PA)18 intermediate

Despite the recent progress on controllable synthesis of alkynyl-protected Au nanoclusters,the effective synthetic means are very limited and the cluster formation process still remains puzzling.Here,we develop a novel synchronous nucleation and passivation strategy to fabricate Au36(PA)24(PA=phenylacetylenyl) nanoclusters with high yield.In Au36(PA)24formation process,Au22(PA)18as key intermediate was identified.Meanwhile,Au22(PA)18can be synthesized under a low amount of reductant,and by employing more reductants,Au22(PA)18can turn into Au36(PA)24eventually.Moreover,the structure evolution from Au22(PA)18to Au36(PA)24is proposed,where four Au13cuboctahedra can yield one Au28kernel.Finally,the ratiocination is verified by the good accordance between the predicted intermediate/product ratio and the experimental value.This study not only offers a novel synthetic strategy,but also sheds light on understanding the structural evolution process of alkynyl-protected Au nanoclusters at atomic level.

Remediation of soil heavily polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls using a low-temperature plasma technique

Polychlorinated biphenyls （PCBs） were removed by low-temperature plasma technique （dielectric barrier discharge） from heavily polluted soil and their intermediate products were analyzed. The removal rate ranged from 40.1 to 84.6% by different treatments, and they were also influenced significantly （P 〈 0.01） by soil particle-size, electric power, gas flow rate and reaction time. The optimal reaction conditions of PCB removal from the soil were obtained experimentally when soil particle-size, electrical power, flow rate and reaction time were 5-10mm, 21w, 120mL. rain and 90rain, respectively. However, decreasing electrical power, flow rate and reaction time to 18 w, 60 mL. min- and 60 min respectively were also acceptable in view of the cost of remediation. This technique was characterized by the additional advantage of thorough oxidation of PCBs in the soil, with no formation of intermediate products after reaction. The technique therefore shows some promise for application in the remediation of soils contaminated with persistent organic pollutants in brown field sites in urban areas.

Photolysis of a mixture of anthracene and benzo[a] pyrene at ultra-trace levels in natural water with disinfection purposes

The photodegradation of anthracene(AN)and benzo[a]pyrene(BaP),two priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs),was examined at ultra-trace levels in surface water to elucidate their behaviour under several irradiance values and types of radiation.The emitting flux and the spectrum of the lamps were found to develop a crucial role in AN and BaP degradation since removal efficiencies of the target contaminants higher than 99%were found after 15 min of irradiation under an ultraviolet C(UVC)irradiance of 0.63 mW/cm^2,corresponding to a fluence of 560.25 mJ/cm^2.On the other hand,although ultraviolet A(UVA)lamps exhibited a higher irradiance compared to that of UVC lamps,they were not efficient for degrading the target PAHs.The removal kinetic studies corroborated these findings,being the AN elimination rate in surface water higher than that in deionized water at optimal operating conditions.Disinfection potential was also measured.A rapid microbial load inactivation,in terms of total coliforms naturally contained in the water matrix studied,was evidenced within 15 min of treatment for the fluence referred.However,after 24 hr in the dark,a regrowth was observed.Additionally,photolysis products more toxic than the parent compounds were found,which were not removed even by extending the treatment time.In this regard,it can be concluded that the individual action of UVC light for removing AN and BaP with disinfection purposes is not an efficient treatment;therefore,the use of radiation in combination with other kinds of treatments is required.

Embedding wasted hairs in Ti/PbO_(2) anode for efficient and sustainable electrochemical oxidation of organic wastewater

Despite of the hazardous risk of Pb^(2+) leakage, lead dioxide has been attributed as a quasi-ideal anode material with high oxygen evolution potential, excellent conductivity, good stability and low cost in electrochemical oxidation wastewater treatment technique. In this study, a novel Ti/PbO_(2) anode was fabricated by embedding raw materials that are readily and cheaply available, i.e., hairs. The structure-activity relationship of the new electrode was firstly revealed by material and electrochemical characterizations. Then different levels of pollutants (azo dye, phenol and maleic acid) were used to investigate the electrochemical oxidation performance of the new electrode. Finally, the accelerated electrode lifetime and Pb^(2+) leakage tests were carried out. Results showed that the embedded hairs changed the preferential crystallographic orientation of PbO_(2) and decreased the grain size. Hairs introduced additional roughness and active sites, and decreased the electrode impedance, especially under 5 mg/cm^(2) of embedding amount. The removal efficiencies of different target pollutants were enhanced more or less by embedding appropriate amount of hairs, depending on the current density, but loading excessive hairs had a negative effect. The accumulation of intermediate products during phenol degradation was also changed by the hairs. The new electrode could undergo ~550 h of harsh electrolysis. It is also relieved that the Pb^(2+) leakage was found to be suppressed during this long-term electrolysis process.

Synthesis and formation mechanism of nanocrystalline ZrB_(2)-Al_(2)O_(3)composite powders via an amorphous precursor

ZrB_(2)-Al_(2)O_(3)composite powders were synthesized at 1100℃using a novel ZrB_(2)precursor and Al powders as raw materials.The final ZrB_(2)-Al_(2)O_(3)composite powders consisted of submicron Al_(2)O_(3)and nanosize ZrB_(2)(50-100 nm)particles,which were homogeneously mixed in microscale.Combined with thermodynamic calculation and experiment results,the formation mechanism of ZrB_(2)-Al_(2)O_(3)composite powders was proposed as follows:ZrB_(2)precursor first decomposed into ZrO_(2)and amorphousB2O3.Aluminothermic reduction of ZrO_(2) and B_(2)O_(3) generated Zr and B atoms and the coproducts Al_(2)O_(3),and then,a series of reactions between Zr atoms,B atoms and Al took place to form ZrB_(2)and Al_(3)Zr.Then,ZrB_(2),Al_(2)O_(3)and Al were obtained through a liquid-solid reaction between Al_(3)Zr andB2O3,which is the limiting step in the conversion process.When the Al_(3)Zr was exhausted,the reaction between Al,ZrO_(2)and B became the main reaction to obtain ZrB_(2)and Al_(2)O_(3).