The pseudocapacitance mechanism of graphene/CoAl LDH and its derivatives:Are all the modifications beneficial?

Cobalt-Aluminum layered double hydroxide(CoAl LDH) is a hopeful electrode material due to the advantage of easy modifiability for preparing LDH-based derivatives.However,there is short of modification methods to prepare the Co-based derivatives from CoAl LDH and also short of an intuitive perspective to analyze the pseudocapacitance mechanism of CoAl LDH and its derivatives.Herein,Graphene/CoAl LDH and its derivatives including Graphene/CoS,Graphene/CoS-1,Graphene/CoOOH,Graphene/CoP were prepared by reasonably using alkali etching treatment,sulfofication and phosphorization.The specific capacitance of Graphene/CoAl LDH,Graphene/CoS,Graphene/CoS-1,Graphene/CoOOH,Graphene/CoP at1 A g^(-1) are 260.7,371.3,440.8,61.4 and 122.2 F g^(-1),especially.The pseudocapacitance mechanism of Graphene/CoAl LDH and its derivatives was analyzed.Due to the positive effect of sulfofication on the electrical conductivity of GO and cobalt sulfide,the Graphene/CoS and Graphene/CoS-1 exhibit the optimal electrochemical performance and superior rate capability.In addition,due to the repulsion effect between Graphene and OH-,the Graphene/CoAl LDH exhibits optimal cycling stability of 224.1% capacitance retention after 20000 cycles.Besides,the reason of terrible specific capacitance of Graphene/CoOOH is that the presence of H bond in interlayer of CoOOH inhibits the interaction between Co3+ and OHspecies.Hence,not all modifications will increase the specific capacitance of the electrode materials.Overall,this work provides us with a detailed analysis of the electrochemical mechanism and correlation of CoAl LDH and its derivatives from the perspective of crystal structure and composition.

The influence of particle size on the thermal performance of coal and its derived char in a Union stove

For low-income communities in South Africa,coal is the most common solid fuel which is burnt in a variety of devices,including imbaulas and cast-iron stoves.The present work was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of the fuel particle size on the performance of coal,typically sourced in low-income households in townships in South Africa,and to subsequently compare the performance with a feed char of a common cast iron stove.Four fuel particle sizes of 15,20,30,and 40 mm,as well as a composite of the sizes were tested at 550C,against their untreated coal analogues to evaluate the thermal performance of each fuel.The thermal performance assessment metrics are ignition time,water boiling time,heat transfer and combustion efficiencies,while CO and CO_(2)emissions were measured for the calculations of CO/CO_(2)ratios.Ignition times were found to decrease from coals to chars and to decrease with increasing particle size.The effects of fuel type on the water boiling time were only observed in the later stages of the burn cycle,with the char boiling a 2 L batch of water in an average 24 min,while the coals reported an average boiling time of 20 min.Heat transfer efficiencies showed no significant variation with fuel type or particle size,with the average efficiency for the coals and that of the chars being around 66%.The fuels’performance was better gauged by the combustion efficiency,which was found to improve marginally from the coal fuels to the chars,and to increase with increasing particle size.Results from this testwork could contribute to the performance inventories from the combustion of domestic coal mined in South Africa in a typical cast iron stove which is used in informal settlements.