Ionic liquid derived electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting

Hydrogen production from electrochemical water splitting is a promising strategy to generate green energy,which requires the development of efficient and stable electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction and the oxygen evolution reaction(HER and OER).Ionic liquids(ILs)or poly(ionic liquids)(PILs),containing heteroatoms,metal-based anions,and various structures,have been frequently involved as precursors to prepare electrocatalysts for water splitting.Moreover,ILs/PILs possess high conductivity,wide electrochemical windows,and high thermal and chemical stability,which can be directly applied in the electrocatalysis process with high durability.In this review,we focus on the studies of ILs/PILs-derived electrocatalysts for HER and OER,where ILs/PILs are applied as heteroatom dopants and metal precursors to prepare catalysts or are directly utilized as the electrocatalysts.Due to those attractive properties,IL/PIL-derived electrocatalysts exhibit excellent performance for electrochemical water splitting.All these accomplishments and developments are systematically summarized and thoughtfully discussed.Then,the overall perspectives for the current challenges and future developments of ILs/PILs-derived electrocatalysts are provided.

Aircraft Observation and Simulation of the Supercooled Liquid Water Layer in a Warm Conveyor Belt over North China

This paper studied a snow event over North China on 21 February 2017,using aircraft in-situ data,a Lagrangian analysis tool,and WRF simulations with different microphysical schemes to investigate the supercooled layer of warm conveyor belts(WCBs).Based on the aircraft data,we found a fine vertical structure within clouds in the WCB and highlighted a 1-2 km thin supercooled liquid water layer with a maximum Liquid Water Content(LWC) exceeding0.5 g kg^(-1) during the vertical aircraft observation.Although the main features of thermodynamic profiles were essentially captured by both modeling schemes,the microphysical quantities exhibited large diversity with different microphysics schemes.The conventional Morrison two-moment scheme showed remarkable agreement with in-situ observations,both in terms of the thermodynamic structure and the supercooled liquid water layer.However,the microphysical structure of the WCB clouds,in terms of LWC and IWC,was not apparent in HUJI fast bin scheme.To reduce such uncertainty,future work may focus on improving the representation of microphysics in bin schemes with in-situ data and using similar assumptions for all schemes to isolate the impact of physics.

Smart Cellulose‑Based Janus Fabrics with Switchable Liquid Transportation for Personal Moisture and Thermal Management

The Janus fabrics designed for personal moisture/thermal regulation have garnered significant attention for their potential to enhance human comfort.However,the development of smart and dynamic fabrics capable of managing personal moisture/thermal comfort in response to changing external environments remains a challenge.Herein,a smart cellulose-based Janus fabric was designed to dynamically manage personal moisture/heat.The cotton fabric was grafted with N-isopropylacrylamide to construct a temperature-stimulated transport channel.Subsequently,hydrophobic ethyl cellulose and hydrophilic cellulose nanofiber were sprayed on the bottom and top sides of the fabric to obtain wettability gradient.The fabric exhibits anti-gravity directional liquid transportation from hydrophobic side to hydrophilic side,and can dynamically and continuously control the transportation time in a wide range of 3–66 s as the temperature increases from 10 to 40℃.This smart fabric can quickly dissipate heat at high temperatures,while at low temperatures,it can slow down the heat dissipation rate and prevent the human from becoming too cold.In addition,the fabric has UV shielding and photodynamic antibacterial properties through depositing graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets on the hydrophilic side.This smart fabric offers an innovative approach to maximizing personal comfort in environments with significant temperature variations.

Layer Structure Analysis of Low-Carbon Steel Containing Rare Earth by High-Temperature Carburizing of Liquid Cast-Iron

The layer structure of low-carbon steel containing RE by high-temperature (T>1200 ℃) carburizing of liquid cast-iron was studied and the diffusion activation energy of carbon was calculated by metallographic microscpe, chemical analysis etc. The result shows that the technology of carburizing in liquid cast-iron can expedite caburization distinctly and changes the carburizing layer structure. The carburizing rate is 60～80 times of that of the traditional technology, and there is about 43% decrease in the activation energy compared with gas-carburization. In outer structure layer, cementite is formed simultaneously both on the crystal boundary reticularly and inside the crystal grains stripedly. In inner carburizing layer, there is undissolved blocky ferrite in reticular cementite. Besides, rare earth element can expedite carburization process.

Solvatochromic Parameters and Preferential Solvation Behavior for Binary Mixtures of 1,3-Dialkylimidazolium Ionic Liquids with Water

Binary mixtures of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium based ionic liquids （ILs） and water were selected as solvent systems to investigate the solute-solvent and solvent-solvent interactions on the preferential solvation of solvatochromic indicators at 25 ℃. Empirical solvatochromic pa- rameters, dipolarity/polarizability （π^＊）, hydrogen-bond donor acidity （α）, hydrogen-bond acceptor basicity （β）, and Reichardt＇s polarity parameters （ET^N） were measured from the ultraviolet-visible spectral shifts of 4-nitroaniline, 4-nitroanisole, and Reichardt＇s dye. The solvent properties of the IL-water mixtures were found to be influenced by IL type and IL mole fraction （XIL）. All these studied systems showed the non-ideal behavior. The max- imum deviation to ideality for the solvatochromic parameters can be obtained in the XIL range from 0.i to 0.3. For most of the binary mixtures, the π^＊ values showed the synergistic effects instead of the ETN, α and β values. The observed synergy extent was dependent on the studied systems, such as the dye indicator and IL type. A preferential solvation model was utilized to gather information on the molecular interactions in the mixtures. The dye indicator was preferentially solvated on the following trend： IL〉IL-water complex〉water.

Performance analysis on a novel water chiller using liquid desiccant

A new type of liquid desiccant water chiller for applications on air-conditioning and refrigeration is introduced.The system can be driven by low-grade heat sources with temperatures of 60 to 80 ℃,which can be easily obtained by a flat plat solar collector,waste heat,etc.A numerical model is developed to study the system performance.The effects of different parameters on performance are discussed,including evaporating temperature,regenerating temperature,ambient condition,and mass flow rates of closed moist air and regenerating air.The results show that an acceptable performance of a cooling capacity of 2.5 kW and a coefficient of performance of 0.37 can be achieved in a reference case.The regenerating temperature and the humidity ratios of ambient air are two main factors affecting system performance,while the temperature of ambient air functions less.In addition,the mass flow rate of regenerating air and closed moist air should be carefully determined for economical operation.

Novel method for the determination of five carbamate pesticides in water samples by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction combined with high performance liquid chromatography

A novel method for the determination of five carbamate pesticides （metolcarb, carbofuran, carbaryl, isoprocard and diethofencard） in water samples was developed by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction （DLLME） coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector （HPLC-DAD）. Some experimental parameters that influence the extraction efficiency were studied and optimized to obtain the best extraction results. Under the optimum conditions for the method, the calibration curve was linear in the concentration range from 5 to 1000 ng mL^-1 for all the five carbamate pesticides, with the correlation coefficients （r^2） varying from 0.9984 to 0.9994. Good enrichment factors were achieved ranging from 80 to 177- fold, depending on the compound. The limits of detection （LODs） （S/N = 3） were ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 ng mL^-1. The method has been successfully applied to the analysis of the pesticide residues in environmental water samples.

Sensitivity of the Grid-point Atmospheric Model of IAP LASG(GAMILI.I.0)Climate Simulations to Cloud Droplet Effective Radius and Liquid Water Path

This paper documents a study to examine the sensitivity to cloud droplet effective radius and liquid water path and the alleviation the energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface in the latest version of the Grid-point Atmospheric Model of the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics （LASG）, Institute of Atmospheric Physics （IAP） （GAMIL1.1.0）. Considerable negative biases in all flux components, and thus an energy imbalance, are found in GAMIL1.1.0. In order to alleviate the energy imbalance, two modifications, namely an increase in cloud droplet effective radius and a decrease in cloud liquid water path, have been made to the cloud properties used in GAMIL. With the increased cloud droplet effective radius, the single scattering albedo of clouds is reduced, and thus the reflection of solar radiation into space by clouds is reduced and the net solar radiation flux at the top of the atmosphere is increased. With the reduced cloud optical depth, the net surface shortwave radiation flux is increased, causing a net warming over the land surface. This results in an increase in both sensible and latent heat fluxes over the land regions, which is largely balanced by the increased terrestrial radiation fluxes. Consequently, the energy balance at the top of atmosphere and at the surface is achieved with energy flux components consistent with available satellite observations.

Kinetics of Non-catalyzed Decomposition of D-xylose in High Temperature Liquid Water

The kinetics of non-catalyzed decompositions of xylose and its decomposition product furfural in high temperature liquid water （HTLW） was studied for temperature from 180 to 220℃ and under pressure of 10MPa. The main products of xylose decomposition were furfural and formic acid, and furfural further degraded to formic acid under HTLW condition. With the assumption of first order kinetics e.quation, the evaluated activation energy of xylose and furfural decomposition was 123.27kJ·mol^-1 and 58.84kJ·mol^-1, respectively.

Detection of 36 antibiotics in coastal waters using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Among pharmaceuticals and personal care products released into the aquatic environment, antibiotics are of particular concern, because of their ubiquity and health effects. Although scientists have recently paid more attention to the threat of antibiotics to coastal ecosystems, researchers have often focused on relatively few antibiotics, because of the absence of suitable analytical methods. We have therefore developed a method for the rapid detection of 36 antibiotic residues in coastal waters, including tetracyclines （TCs）, sulfanilamides （SAs）, and quinolones （QLs）. The method consists of solid-phase extraction （SPE） and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry （LC-MS/MS） analysis, using electrospray ionization （ESI） in positive mode. The SPE was performed with Oasis HLB and Oasis MCX cartridges. Chromatographic separation on a Cr8 column was achieved using a binary eluent containing methanol and water with 0.1% formic acid. Typical recoveries of the analytes ranged from 67.4% to 109.3% at a fortification level of 100 ng/L. The precision of the method, calculated as relative standard deviation （RSD）, was below 14.6% for all the compounds. The limits of detection （LODs） varied from 0.45 pg to 7.97 pg. The method was applied to detemaine the target analytes in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea in Liaoning, China. Among the tested antibiotics, 31 were found in coastal ＇waters, with their concentrations between the LOD and 212.5 ng/L. These data indicate that this method is valid for analysis of antibiotics in coastal waters. The study first reports such a large number of antibiotics along the Yellow Sea coast of Liaoning, and should facilitate future comprehensive evaluation of antibiotics in coastal ecosystems

Effect of an external electric field on liquid water using molecular dynamics simulation with a flexible potential

Molecular dynamics simulations of liquid water were performed at 258 K and density of 1.0 g/cm^3 under different strengths of an external electric field, ranging from 0 to 8.0×10^9V/m, to investigate the influence of an external field on structural and dynamic properties of water. The flexible simple point charge model is used for water molecules. An enhancement of the water hydrogen bond structure with increasing strength of the electric field has been deduced from the radial distribution functions and the analysis of hydrogen bond structure. With increasing field strength, water system has a more perfect structure, which is shnilar to ice structure. However, the electrofreezing phenomenon of liquid water has not been detected because of a too large self-diffusion coefficient. The self-diffusion coefficient decreases remarkably with increasing strength of electric field, and the self-diffusion coefficient is anisotropic.

Comparison of CloudSat Cloud Liquid Water Paths in Arctic Summer Using Ground-Based Microwave Radiometer

Arctic clouds strongly influence the regional radiation balance, temperature, melting of sea ice, and freezing of sea water. Despite their importance, there is a lack of systematic and reliabie observations of Arctic clouds. The CloudSat satellite launched in 2006 with a 94GHz Cloud Profiling Radar （CPR） may contribute to close this gap. Here we compare one of the key parameters, the cloud liquid water path （LWP） retrieved from CloudSat observations and from microwave radiometer （MWR） data taken during the ASCOS （Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study） cruise of the research vessel Oden from August to September 2008. Over the 45 days of the ASCOS cruise, collocations closer than 3 h and 100 km were found in only 9 d, and collocations closer than 1 h and 30 km in only 2 d. The poor correlations in the scatter plots of the two LWP retrievals can be explained by the patchiness of the cloud cover in these two days （August 5th and September 7th）, as confirmed by coincident MODIS （Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiome- ter） images. The averages of Oden-observed LWP values are systematically higher （40-70 g m-2） than the corresponding CloudSat observations （0-50 g m2）. These are cases of generally low LWP with presumably small droplets, and may be explained by the little sensitivity of the CPR to small droplets or by the surface clutter.

Liquid holdup measurement with double helix capacitance sensor in horizontal oil-water two-phase flow pipes

This paper presents the characteristics of a double helix capacitance sensor for measurement of the liquid holdup in horizontal oil–water two-phase flow. The finite element method is used to calculate the sensitivity field of the sensor in a pipe with 20 mm inner diameter and the effect of sensor geometry on the distribution of sensitivity field is presented. Then, a horizontal oil–water two-phase flow experiment is carried out to measure the response of the double helix capacitance sensor, in which a novel method is proposed to calibrate the liquid holdup based on three pairs of parallel-wire capacitance probes. The performance of the sensor is analyzed in terms of the flow structures detected by mini-conductance array probes.

Rapid determination of atrazine in environmental water samples by a novel liquid phase microextraction

A novel method was described for the rapid determination of atrazine using dispersive liquid phase microextraction in combination with high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC）. Possible impact parameters such as sample pH, extraction and disperser solvents, salting-out effect, and extraction time were investigated. The experimental results indicated that proposed method possessed an excellent analytical performance, The linear range, detection limit, and precision （R.S.D.） were 0.1- 50 ng mL- 1 （R2 = 0.9955）, 0.601 ng mL- 1 and 6,4%, respectively. The proposed method was validated with the real water samples, and the spiked recoveries were in the range of 69.9-89.8%, respectively. These results indicated that the established method with high enrichment factor, short extraction time was an excellent alternative for the routine analysis of atrazine in environmental samples. 2007 Qing Xiang Zhou. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

Salting-Out Assisted Liquid-Liquid Extraction Combined with HPLC for Quantitative Extraction of Trace Multiclass Pesticide Residues from Environmental Waters

In this study, salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction combined with high performance liquid chromatography diode array detector (SALLE-HPLC-DAD) method was developed and validated for simultaneous analysis of carbaryl, atrazine, propazine, chlorothalonil, dimethametryn and terbutryn in environmental water samples. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency such as type and volume of extraction solvent, sample volume, salt type and amount, centrifugation speed and time, and sample pH were optimized. Under the optimum extraction conditions the method was linear over the range of 10 - 100 μg/L (carbaryl), 8 - 100 μg/L (atarzine), 7 - 100 μg/L (propazine) and 9 - 100 μg/L (chlorothalonil, terbutryn and dimethametryn) with correlation coefficients (R2) between 0.99 and 0.999. Limits of detection and quantification ranged from 2.0 to 2.8 μg/L and 6.7 to 9.5 μg/L, respectively. The extraction recoveries obtained for ground, lake and river waters were in a range of 75.5% to 106.6%, with the intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviation lower than 3.4% for all the target analytes. All of the target analytes were not detected in these samples. Therefore, the proposed SALLE-HPLC-DAD method is simple, rapid, cheap and environmentally friendly for the determination of the aforementioned herbicides, insecticide and fungicide residues in environmental water samples.

Kinetics of non-catalyzed hydrolysis of tannin in high temperature liquid water

High temperature liquid water(HTLW) has drawn increasing attention as an environmentally benign medium for organic chemical reactions,especially acid-/base-catalyzed reactions. Non-catalyzed hydrolyses of gallotannin and tara tannin in HTLW for the simultaneous preparation of gallic acid(GA) and pyrogallol(PY) are under investigation in our laboratory. In this study,the hydrolysis kinetics of gallotannin and tara tannin were determined. The reaction is indicated to be a typical consecutive first-order one in which GA has formed as a main intermediate and PY as the final product. Selective decomposition of tannin in HTLW was proved to be possible by adjusting reaction temperature and time. The present results provide an important basic data and reference for the green preparation of GA and PY.

Impacts of Pig Manure-Based Liquid Fertilizer Agricultural Application on the Water Quality of Agricultural Catchment

This study was conducted to understand the effect of the livestock liquid fertilizer treatment at field-scale up to catchment-scale on the water quality properties. Cultivated paddy rice and upland plots located in Gyeonggi province, Korea were treated with two different liquid fertilizers, SP (Liquid fertilizer with storage process) and SCB (Liquid fertilizer with slurry composting and bio-filtration process). Plots with no fertilizer (control A) and chemical fertilizer (control B) were also prepared for comparison. Water quantity and quality were monitored at the catchment outlet for assessing the effect on water quality of stream water. As a result, the losses of N and P and the values of EC (Electronic Conductivity) in the surface drainage water from paddy rice plots treated with SP and SCB were higher than those from the control plots (A and B). In addition, the losses of N and P by the runoff water from upland plots with SP and SCB treatment were higher than those from control plots (A and B). The nutrient outflow from paddy rice fields and uplands with application of liquid pig manure was higher than those from the control plots (A and B). Particularly, the outflow from uplands may directly affect the water quality in neighboring streams. This caused the major eutrophication problem in stream water. In conclusion, it is necessary to establish the proper management practices to prevent the nutrient losses from agricultural fields and the pollutants against water environments.

Enhanced Acid/Base Catalysis in High Temperature Liquid Water

Two novel and environmentally benign solvent systems, organic acids-ennchea high temperature liquid water （HTLW） and NH3-enriched HTLW, were developed, which can enhance the reaction rate of acid/base-catalyzed organic reactions in HTLW. We investigated the decomposition of fructose in organic acids-enriched HTLW, hydrolysis of cinnamaldehyde and aldol condensation of phenylaldehyde with acetaldehyde in NH3-enriched HTLW. The experimental results demonstrated that organic acids-enriched or NH3-enriched HTLW can greatly accelerate acid/base-catalyzed organic reactions in HTLW.

Simultaneous Determination of Bisphenols and Alkylphenols in Water by Solid Phase Extraction and Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry

To establish an analytical method for determination of four bisphenols （BPA, BPB, BPF, and BPS） and two alkylphenols （4-n-OP, 4-n-NP） in water by ultra performance liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry （UPLC/MS/MS）. The water samples were extracted and condensed with solid-phase extraction （SPE） using C18 cartridges and eluted by acetonitrile. Separation was carried out with Acquity BEH C8 column and detection were performed by UPLC/MS/MS. Quantification was calculated by using the internal standard BPA-d16 and 4-n-NP-d8. The linear correlation coefficients of these compounds in the range of 1.0-100.0μg/L were all over 0.999. The minimum detectable concentrations were 0.75-1.0 ng/L, and the recoveries ranged from 87.0% to 106.9%.

EVOLUTION OF LIQUID WATER CONTENT IN A SEA FOG CONTROLLED BY A HIGH-PRESSURE PATTERN

On March 16–17, 2008, a sea fog occurred in Dianbai in the west of Guangdong Province and was accompanied by a high-pressure synoptic system. Using comprehensive observation datasets, this study analyzes the evolution of liquid water content during this sea fog and investigates the relationships between liquid water content and the average diameters and count densities of fog droplets, air temperature, wind speed and turbulence exchanges. The main results are presented as follows. (1) The sea fog showed a quasi-periodic oscillation characteristic, i.e., it developed, disappeared and then developed again. (2) During the sea fog, the number of fog droplets changed significantly while the changes in average diameter of the fog droplets were relatively small. The development and disappearance of the sea fog correlated significantly with the fog droplet numbers. (3) The air-cooling mechanism played a significant role in sea fog formation and development. However, the influences of this mechanism were not evident during fog persistence. (4) During sea fog formation, weak turbulence exchanges were helpful for fog formation. During sea fog development and persistence, liquid water content increased when turbulence exchanges weakened, and vice versa. The changes in turbulence exchanges were closely related to the quasi-periodic oscillations observed in sea fog presence.