Immobilization of carbonic anhydrase for facilitated CO2 capture and separation

Carbonic anhydrase(CA)as a typical metalloenzyme in biological system can accelerate the hydration/dehydration of carbon dioxide(CO2,the major components of greenhouse gases),which performer with high selectivity,environmental friendliness and superior efficiency.However,the free form of CA is quite expensive(~RMB 3000/100 mg),unstable,and non-reusable as the free form of CA is not easy for recovery from the reaction environment,which severely limits its large-scale industrial applications.The immobilization may solve these problems at the same time.In this context,many efforts have been devoted to improving the chemical and thermal stabilities of CA through immobilization strategy.Very recently,a wide range of available inorganic,organic and hybrid compounds have been explored as carrier materials for CA immobilization,which could not only improve the tolerance of CA in hazardous environments,but also improve the efficiency and recovery to reduce the cost of large-scale application of CA.Several excellent reviews about immobilization methods and application potential of CA have been published.By contrast,in our review,we stressed on the way to better retain the biocatalytic activity of immobilized CA system based on different carrier materials and to solve the problems facing in practical operations well.The concluding remarks are presented with a perspective on constructing efficient CO2 conversion systems through rational combining CA and advanced carrier materials.

A Mini Review: Can Graphene Be a Novel Material for Perovskite Solar Cell Applications?

Perovskite solar cells(PSCs) have raised research interest in scientific community because their power conversion efficiency is comparable to that of traditional commercial solar cells(i.e., amorphous Si, GaAs,and CdTe). Apart from that, PSCs are lightweight, are flexible, and have low production costs. Recently, graphene has been used as a novel material for PSC applications due to its excellent optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. The hydrophobic nature of graphene surface can provide protection against air moisture from the surrounding medium, which can improve the lifetime of devices. Herein, we review recent developments in the use of graphene for PSC applications as a conductive electrode,carrier transporting material, and stabilizer material. By exploring the application of graphene in PSCs, a new class of strategies can be developed to improve the device performance and stability before it can be commercialized in the photovoltaic market in the near future.

Few-layer Tellurium:one-dimensional-like layered elementary semiconductor with striking physical properties

Few-layer Tellurium, an elementary semiconductor, succeeds most of striking physical properties that black phosphorus(BP) offers and could be feasibly synthesized by simple solution-based methods. It is comprised of non-covalently bound parallel Te chains, among which covalent-like feature appears.This feature is, we believe, another demonstration of the previously found covalent-like quasi-bonding(CLQB) where wavefunction hybridization does occur. The strength of this inter-chain CLQB is comparable with that of intra-chain covalent bonding, leading to closed stability of several Te allotropes. It also introduces a tunable bandgap varying from nearly direct 0.31 eV(bulk) to indirect 1.17 eV(2L) and four(two) complex, highly anisotropic and layer-dependent hole(electron) pockets in the first Brillouin zone.It also exhibits an extraordinarily high hole mobility(~10~5 cm^2/Vs) and strong optical absorption along the non-covalently bound direction, nearly isotropic and layer-dependent optical properties, large ideal strength over 20%, better environmental stability than BP and unusual crossover of force constants for interlayer shear and breathing modes. All these results manifest that the few-layer Te is an extraordinary-high-mobility, high optical absorption, intrinsic-anisotropy, low-cost-fabrication, tunable bandgap, better environmental stability and nearly direct bandgap semiconductor. This ‘‘one-dimen sion-like" few-layer Te, together with other geometrically similar layered materials, may promote the emergence of a new family of layered materials.