Design Strategies for Aqueous Zinc Metal Batteries with High Zinc Utilization: From Metal Anodes to Anode-Free Structures

Aqueous zinc metal batteries(AZMBs)are promising candidates for next-generation energy storage due to the excellent safety, environmental friendliness, natural abundance, high theoretical specific capacity, and low redox potential of zinc(Zn) metal. However,several issues such as dendrite formation, hydrogen evolution, corrosion, and passivation of Zn metal anodes cause irreversible loss of the active materials. To solve these issues, researchers often use large amounts of excess Zn to ensure a continuous supply of active materials for Zn anodes. This leads to the ultralow utilization of Zn anodes and squanders the high energy density of AZMBs. Herein, the design strategies for AZMBs with high Zn utilization are discussed in depth, from utilizing thinner Zn foils to constructing anode-free structures with theoretical Zn utilization of 100%, which provides comprehensive guidelines for further research. Representative methods for calculating the depth of discharge of Zn anodes with different structures are first summarized. The reasonable modification strategies of Zn foil anodes, current collectors with pre-deposited Zn, and anode-free aqueous Zn metal batteries(AF-AZMBs) to improve Zn utilization are then detailed. In particular, the working mechanism of AF-AZMBs is systematically introduced. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for constructing high-utilization Zn anodes are presented.

Branched fibrous amidoxime adsorbent with ultrafast adsorption rate and high amidoxime utilization for uranium extraction from seawater

Direct collection of uranium from low uranium systems via adsorption remains challenging.Fibrous sorbent materials with amidoxime(AO)groups are promising adsorbents for uranium extraction from seawater.However,low AO adsorption group utilization remains an issue.We herein fabricated a branched structure containing AO groups on polypropylene/polyethylene spun-laced nonwoven(PP/PE SNW)fibers using grafting polymerization induced by radiation(RIGP)to improve AO utilization.The chemical structures,thermal properties,and surface morphologies of the raw and treated PP/PE SNW fibers were studied.The results show that an adsorptive functional layer with a branching structure was successfully anchored to the fiber surface.The adsorption properties were investigated using batch adsorption experiments in simulated seawater with an initial uranium concentration of 500μg·L^(−1)(pH 4,25℃).The maximum adsorption capacity of the adsorbent material was 137.3 mg·g^(−1)within 24 h;moreover,the uranyl removal reached 96%within 240 min.The adsorbent had an AO utilization rate of 1/3.5 and was stable over a pH range of 4–10,with good selectivity and reusability,demonstrating its potential for seawater uranium extraction.

PHUI-GA: GPU-based efficiency evolutionary algorithm for mining high utility itemsets

Evolutionary algorithms(EAs)have been used in high utility itemset mining(HUIM)to address the problem of discover-ing high utility itemsets(HUIs)in the exponential search space.EAs have good running and mining performance,but they still require huge computational resource and may miss many HUIs.Due to the good combination of EA and graphics processing unit(GPU),we propose a parallel genetic algorithm(GA)based on the platform of GPU for mining HUIM(PHUI-GA).The evolution steps with improvements are performed in central processing unit(CPU)and the CPU intensive steps are sent to GPU to eva-luate with multi-threaded processors.Experiments show that the mining performance of PHUI-GA outperforms the existing EAs.When mining 90%HUIs,the PHUI-GA is up to 188 times better than the existing EAs and up to 36 times better than the CPU parallel approach.

Healthy function and high valued utilization of edible fungi

Edible fungi are large fungi with high added value that can be utilized as resources.They are rich in high-quality protein,carbohydrate,various vitamins,mineral elements and other nutrients,and are characterized by high protein,low sugar,low fat and low cholesterol.In addition,edible fungi contain a variety of bioactive substances,such as polysaccharides,dietary fiber,steroids,polyphenols,and most of these compounds have antioxidant,anti-tumor and other physiological functions.This review comprehensively discusses the bioactive components and functional characteristics of edible fungi(such as antioxidant,anti-aging,hypolipidemic activities,etc.).Then the recent developments and prospect in the high-valued utilization of edible fungi are discussed and summarized.The objective of this review is to improve the understanding of health-promoting properties of edible fungi,and provide reference for the industrial production of edible fungi-based health products.

Rice with high K utilization efficiency

China is short of potassium resources, it only produces about 30 t of potash fertilizers per year. While China used about 650 t of potash fertilizer in 2000 by importing more than 95% of its potash fertilizers from Canada or Europe. So, using varieties with high K utilization efficiency was very important.

Development of sustainable and efficient recycling technology for spent Li-ion batteries: Traditional and transformation go hand in hand

Clean and efficient recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)has become an urgent need to promote sustainable and rapid development of human society.Therefore,we provide a critical and comprehensive overview of the various technologies for recycling spent LIBs,starting with lithium-ion power batteries.Recent research on raw material collection,metallurgical recovery,separation and purification is highlighted,particularly in terms of all aspects of economic efficiency,energy consumption,technology transformation and policy management.Mechanisms and pathways for transformative full-component recovery of spent LIBs are explored,revealing a clean and efficient closed-loop recovery mechanism.Optimization methods are proposed for future recycling technologies,with a focus on how future research directions can be industrialized.Ultimately,based on life-cycle assessment,the challenges of future recycling are revealed from the LIBs supply chain and stability of the supply chain of the new energy battery industry to provide an outlook on clean and efficient short process recycling technologies.This work is designed to support the sustainable development of the new energy power industry,to help meet the needs of global decarbonization strategies and to respond to the major needs of industrialized recycling.

A related degree-based frequent pattern mining algorithm for railway fault data

It is of great significance to improve the efficiency of railway production and operation by realizing the fault knowledge association through the efficient data mining algorithm.However,high utility quantitative frequent pattern mining algorithms in the field of data mining still suffer from the problems of low time-memory performance and are not easy to scale up.In the context of such needs,we propose a related degree-based frequent pattern mining algorithm,named Related High Utility Quantitative Item set Mining(RHUQI-Miner),to enable the effective mining of railway fault data.The algorithm constructs the item-related degree structure of fault data and gives a pruning optimization strategy to find frequent patterns with higher related degrees,reducing redundancy and invalid frequent patterns.Subsequently,it uses the fixed pattern length strategy to modify the utility information of the item in the mining process so that the algorithm can control the length of the output frequent pattern according to the actual data situation and further improve the performance and practicability of the algorithm.The experimental results on the real fault dataset show that RHUQI-Miner can effectively reduce the time and memory consumption in the mining process,thus providing data support for differentiated and precise maintenance strategies.

Strength Acquisition Mechanism of High Temperature Resistant Materials Prepared by Waste Architectural Ceramics

In order to realize the large-scale and high-value utilization of waste architectural ceramics,high-temperature resistant materials based on waste architectural ceramics were prepared with sodium silicate as the binder,clay/bauxite and metakaolin/bauxite as coating materials,and the cold strength obtaining mechanism was explored.The phase composition,the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the high temperature resistant materials based on waste architectural ceramics were tested and analyzed.The results showed that when the heat treatment temperature was between 110-1000℃,the strength of the samples mainly came from the physical adhesion of sodium silicate and fine powder.When the temperature rose to 1100℃,the strength of the sample was improved since the internal low-melting-point components melted and promoted sintering.The addition of clay and bauxite can effectively enhance the flexural strength of the samples when the heat treatment temperature is 1000℃.When the heat treatment temperature rises from 900 to 1000℃,the flexural strength of the samples will be enhanced owing to the formation of silica alumina spinel and mullite from metakaolin.

Molecular engineering of self-assembled monolayers for highly utilized Zn anodes

Stabilizing the Zn anode under high utilization rates is highly applauded yet very challenging in aqueous Zn batteries.Here,we rationally design a zincophilic short-chain aromatic molecule,4-mercaptopyridine(4Mpy),to construct self-assembled monolayers(SAMs)on a copper substrate to achieve highly utilized Zn anodes.We reveal that 4Mpy could be firmly bound on the Cu substrate via Cu–S bond to form compact and uniform SAMs,which could effectively isolate the water on the electrode surface and thus eliminate the water-related side reactions.In addition,the short-chain aromatic ring structure of 4Mpy could not only ensure the ordered arrangement of zincophilic pyridine N but also facilitate charge transfer,thus enabling uniform and rapid Zn deposition.Consequently,the Zn/4Mpy/Cu electrode not only enables the symmetric cell to stably cycle for over 180 h at 10 mA cm^(-2) under a high depth-of-discharge of 90%,but also allows the MnO_(2)-paired pouch cell to survive for 100 cycles under a high Zn utilization rate of 78.8%.An anode-free 4Mpy/Cu||graphite cell also operates for 150 cycles without obvious capacity fading at 0.1 A g^(-1).This control of interfacial chemistry via SAMs to achieve high utilization rates of metal anodes provides a new paradigm for developing high-energy metal-based batteries.

Electrochemically Grown Ultrathin Platinum Nanosheet Electrodes with Ultralow Loadings for Energy-Saving and Industrial-Level Hydrogen Evolution

Nanostructured catalyst-integrated electrodes with remarkably reduced catalyst loadings,high catalyst utilization and facile fabrication are urgently needed to enable cost-effective,green hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells(PEMECs).Herein,benefitting from a thin seeding layer,bottom-up grown ultrathin Pt nanosheets(Pt-NSs)were first deposited on thin Ti substrates for PEMECs via a fast,template-and surfactant-free electrochemical growth process at room temperature,showing highly uniform Pt surface coverage with ultralow loadings and vertically well-aligned nanosheet morphologies.Combined with an anode-only Nafion 117 catalyst-coated membrane(CCM),the Pt-NS electrode with an ultralow loading of 0.015 mgPt cm−2 demonstrates superior cell performance to the commercial CCM(3.0 mgPt cm^(−2)),achieving 99.5%catalyst savings and more than 237-fold higher catalyst utilization.The remarkable performance with high catalyst utilization is mainly due to the vertically well-aligned ultrathin nanosheets with good surface coverage exposing abundant active sites for the electrochemical reaction.Overall,this study not only paves a new way for optimizing the catalyst uniformity and surface coverage with ultralow loadings but also provides new insights into nanostructured electrode design and facile fabrication for highly efficient and low-cost PEMECs and other energy storage/conversion devices.

Bioresource Upgrade for Sustainable Energy,Environment,and Biomedicine

We conceptualize bioresource upgrade for sustainable energy,environment,and biomedicine with a focus on circular economy,sustainability,and carbon neutrality using high availability and low utilization biomass(HALUB).We acme energy-efficient technologies for sustainable energy and material recovery and applications.The technologies of thermochemical conversion(TC),biochemical conversion(BC),electrochemical conversion(EC),and photochemical conversion(PTC)are summarized for HALUB.Microalgal biomass could contribute to a biofuel HHV of 35.72 MJ Kg^(-1)and total benefit of 749$/ton biomass via TC.Specific surface area of biochar reached 3000 m^(2)g^(-1)via pyrolytic carbonization of waste bean dregs.Lignocellulosic biomass can be effectively converted into bio-stimulants and biofertilizers via BC with a high conversion efficiency of more than 90%.Besides,lignocellulosic biomass can contribute to a current density of 672 mA m^(-2)via EC.Bioresource can be 100%selectively synthesized via electrocatalysis through EC and PTC.Machine learning,techno-economic analysis,and life cycle analysis are essential to various upgrading approaches of HALUB.Sustainable biomaterials,sustainable living materials and technologies for biomedical and multifunctional applications like nano-catalysis,microfluidic and micro/nanomotors beyond are also highlighted.New techniques and systems for the complete conversion and utilization of HALUB for new energy and materials are further discussed.

Efficient and Fast X-Ray Luminescence in Organic Phosphors Through High-Level Triplet-Singlet Reverse Intersystem Crossing

Organic scintillators that efficiently generate bright triplet excitons are of critical importance for highperformance X-ray-excited luminescence in radiation detection.However,the nature of triplet-singlet spinforbidden transitions in these materials often result in long-lived phosphorescence,which is undesirable for ultrafast X-ray detection and imaging.Here we demonstrate that the effect of hybridized local and charge-transfer(HLCT)excited states enables organic scintillators to exhibit highly efficient and fast radioluminescence(RL)in response to X-ray irradiation.Our experimental and theoretical investigation shows that the oxidized 1,8-naphthalimide-phenothiazine dyad(OMNI-PTZ 2)with HLCT-excited states has an enhanced overlap integral of the highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO)and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO)on MNIπ-orbitals,and moderate donor–acceptor electron interactions.As a result,the RL of these crystals exhibits a 61-fold increase and its monoexponential decay lifetime is three orders of magnitude faster compared to its corresponding thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF)molecule MNI-PTZ 1.We further demonstrate the practical utility of the OMNI-PTZ 2(G)in high-performance X-ray detection and imaging,achieving an X-ray dose sensitivity of 97 nGy s−1 and an exceptional spatial resolution of 20 lp/mm.Our study provides a promising molecular design principle for utilizing triplet excitons to develop high-efficiency and fast X-ray scintillators for the development of next-generation flexible and stretchable X-ray imaging detectors.

Mixed State and High Effective Utilization of Pilbara Blending Iron Ore Powder

Pilbara blending iron ore powder （PB powder） is blending ores with good and poor quality iron ores, so how to use PB power effectively is a problem. The self-characteristics of PB powder and its single-components were studied respectively such as the macroscopic properties, microscopic properties, and high-temperature properties the behavior and effect in the sintering were mastered. Then based on the new ore-proportioning idea of iron ores sintering characteristics complementary, the principles on the effective use of PB powder were discussed, and was fur ther validated through the sintering pot test and industrial production. The results show that PB powder is composed of three kinds of iron ore, and the sintering characteristics of different iron ores are obviously discrepant. With the ore-proportioning optimization based on the iron ores sintering characteristics complementary, the proportion of PB iron ore powder can be increased to more than 45 %.

Utilization of Coal Fly Ash for the Production of Glass-ceramics With Unique Performances: A Brief Review

Coal fly ash is an industrial by-product generated during the combustion of coal for energy production. Due to the increasing annual consumption of coal power and the serious potential environmental threats of coal fly ash, a considerable amount of research on the utilization of coal fly ash has been undertaken worldwide. Vitrification seems to be one of the most promising options for reusing this industrial waste. This paper presents a short overview of the production of unique high performance glass-ceramics using coal fly ash as a raw material. A detailed description of the methodologies for the synthesis of glass-ceramics from coal fly ash and the principal crystal phases, corresponding property and possible usage of those materials are introduced. Investigations revealed that converting coal fly ash into high performance glass-ceramic materials is a promising new approach to improve the utilization of this industrial by-product. This conversion not only alleviates the problems with disposal but also converts a waste material into a high value-added marketable commodity.

1D PtCo nanowires as catalysts for PEMFCs with low Pt loading

The high cost of platinum(Pt)-group metal(PGM)-based catalysts used in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs)poses a critical roadblock to their widespread adoption.Although using low PGM loading PEMFCs can largely address this challenge,high current density performance will be severely compromised consequently.To overcome this dilemma,we report the development of ultrathin platinum-cobalt nanowires(PtCoNWs)as the cathode catalysts for ultralow Pt loading and high-performance membrane electrode assembly(MEA).The Pt Co NWs delivered a record-high mass activity(MA)of 1.06±0.14 A mg_(Pt)^(-1) of Pt-alloy catalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)in MEA,yielding an impressive total Pt utilization of 5.14 W_(rate)mg_(Pt)^(-1).The PtCoNWs retained a respectable endof-life MA of 0.45 Amg_(Pt)^(-1) after the 30,000 cycles square-wave accelerated stability test,which is still above the Department of Energy 2020 beginning-of-life target for catalysts.In-situ Xray absorption spectroscopy studies suggest that the high degree of alloying in the Pt Co NWs stabilizes the ultrathin structure and may contribute to the high ORR activity and power density performance in PEMFC.

Single-atomic Fe anchored on hierarchically porous carbon frame for efficient oxygen reduction performance

Exploring platinum group metal-free electrocatalysts with superior catalytic performance and favorable durability for oxygen reduction reaction is a remaining bottleneck in process of developing sustainable techniques in energy storage and conversion. Herein, a hierarchical porous single atomic Fe electrocatalyst(Fe/Z8-E-C) is rationally designed and synthesized via acid etching, calcination, adsorption of Fe precursor and recalcination processes. This unique electrocatalyst Fe/Z8-E-C shows excellent oxygen reduction performance with a half-wave potential of 0.89 V in 0.1 mol/L KOH, 30 m V superior to that of commercial Pt/C(0.86 V), which is also significantly higher than that of typical Fe-doped ZIF-8 derived carbon nanoparticles(Fe/Z8-C) with a half-wave potential of 0.84 V. Furthermore, Fe/Z8-E-C-based Zn-air battery exhibits greatly enhanced peak power density and specific capacity than those of original Fe/Z8-C,verifying the remarkable performance and practicability of this specially designed hierarchical structure due to its efficient utilization of the active sites and rapid mass transfer. This present work proposes a new method to rationally synthesize single atom electrocatalysts loaded on hierarchical porous frame materials for catalysis and energy conversion.