Flame-retardant ammonium polyphosphate/MXene decorated carbon foam materials as polysulfide traps for fire-safe and stable lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries are one of the most promising modern-day energy supply systems because of their high theoretical energy density and low cost.However,the development of high-energy density Li-S batteries with high loading of flammable sulfur faces the challenges of electrochemical performance degradation owing to the shuttle effect and safety issues related to fire or explosion accidents.In this work,we report a three-dimensional(3D)conductive nitrogen-doped carbon foam supported electrostatic self-assembled MXene-ammonium polyphosphate(NCF-MXene-APP)layer as a heat-resistant,thermally-insulated,flame-retardant,and freestanding host for Li-S batteries with a facile and costeffective synthesis method.Consequently,through the use of NCF-MXene-APP hosts that strongly anchor polysulfides,the Li-S batteries demonstrate outstanding electrochemical properties,including a high initial discharge capacity of 1191.6 mA h g^(-1),excellent rate capacity of 755.0 mA h g^(-1)at 1 C,and long-term cycling stability with an extremely low-capacity decay rate of 0.12%per cycle at 2 C.More importantly,these batteries can continue to operate reliably under high temperature or flame attack conditions.Thus,this study provides valuable insights into the design of safe high-performance Li-S batteries.

Leakage Proof,Flame-Retardant,and Electromagnetic Shield Wood Morphology Genetic Composite Phase Change Materials for Solar Thermal Energy Harvesting

Phase change materials(PCMs)offer a promising solution to address the challenges posed by intermittency and fluctuations in solar thermal utilization.However,for organic solid-liquid PCMs,issues such as leakage,low thermal conductivity,lack of efficient solar-thermal media,and flamma-bility have constrained their broad applications.Herein,we present an innova-tive class of versatile composite phase change materials(CPCMs)developed through a facile and environmentally friendly synthesis approach,leveraging the inherent anisotropy and unidirectional porosity of wood aerogel(nanowood)to support polyethylene glycol(PEG).The wood modification process involves the incorporation of phytic acid(PA)and MXene hybrid structure through an evaporation-induced assembly method,which could impart non-leaking PEG filling while concurrently facilitating thermal conduction,light absorption,and flame-retardant.Consequently,the as-prepared wood-based CPCMs showcase enhanced thermal conductivity(0.82 W m^(-1)K^(-1),about 4.6 times than PEG)as well as high latent heat of 135.5 kJ kg^(-1)(91.5%encapsula-tion)with thermal durability and stability throughout at least 200 heating and cooling cycles,featuring dramatic solar-thermal conversion efficiency up to 98.58%.In addition,with the synergistic effect of phytic acid and MXene,the flame-retardant performance of the CPCMs has been significantly enhanced,showing a self-extinguishing behavior.Moreover,the excellent electromagnetic shielding of 44.45 dB was endowed to the CPCMs,relieving contemporary health hazards associated with electromagnetic waves.Overall,we capitalize on the exquisite wood cell structure with unidirectional transport inherent in the development of multifunctional CPCMs,showcasing the operational principle through a proof-of-concept prototype system.

Flame-retardant oligomeric electrolyte additive for self-extinguishing and highly-stable lithium-ion batteries:Beyond small molecules

Preparing both safe and high-performance lithium-ion batteries(LIBs) based on commonly used commercial electrolytes is highly desirable,yet challenging.To overcome the poor compatibility of conventional small-molecular flame-retardants as electrolyte additives for safe LIBs with graphite anodes,in this study,we propose and design a novel low-cost flame-retardant oligomer that achieves an accurate and complete reconciliation of fire safety and electrochemical performance in LIBs.Owing to the integration of phosphonate units and polyethylene glycol(PEG) chains,this oligomer,which is a phosphonatecontaining PEG-based oligomer(PPO),not only endows commercial electrolytes with excellent flame retardancy but also helps stabilize the electrodes and Li-ion migration.Specifically,adding 15 wt% of PPO can reduce 70% of the self-extinguishing time and 54% of total heat release for commercial electrolytes.Moreover,LiFePO_(4)/lithium and graphite/lithium cells as well as LiFePO_(4)/graphite pouch full cells exhibit good long-term cycling stability.

Conformational dynamics as an intrinsic determinant of prion protein misfolding and neurotoxicity

The prion protein(PrP) is the key molecular and pathological mediator of prion diseases,a heterogeneous group of brain disorders with fatal outcomes.Prion diseases are rare but deserve special attention because of their unique familial,sporadic,and transmissible etiologies,all caused by a single agent:misfolded conformations of PrP.

Intrinsic and scattering attenuations of the Sichuan-Yunnan region in China from S coda waves

Seismic attenuation is a fundamental property of the Earth's media.Attenuation structure for the complicated geological structures with strong seismicity in the Sichuan-Yunnan region is poorly studied.In this study,we collected 108,399 waveforms of 11,517 local small earthquakes with magnitudes between 1.5 and 3.5 from January 2014 to September 2021 in the Sichuan-Yunnan region and its adjacent areas.We employed an envelope inversion technique for separating the intrinsic and scattering attenuations of the S coda wave,and obtained the intrinsic and scattering attenuation structures for frequencies between 0.25 and 8.00 Hz.The attenuation structures correlate well with the geological units,and some major faults mark the attenuation variations where historic large earthquakes have occurred.The regional average attenuation shows a negative frequency dependence.The average scattering attenuation has a faster descending rate than the average intrinsic attenuation,and is dominant at low frequencies,while at high frequencies the average intrinsic attenuation is stronger.The lateral variation in the intrinsic attenuation is consistent with the variation in heat flow,the scattering attenuation may be related to the scatter distribution and size.The total attenuation is consistent with the previous studies in this region,and the separate intrinsic and scattering attenuation may be useful in understanding regional tectonics and important in earthquake prevention and disaster reduction.

Experimental Study of the Influence of Intrinsic Parameters on the Thermal Reactivity of Sawdust, Polyethylene Terephthalate and Composite

Several works have been based on the study of thermal variations in biomass to derive more valuable products such as fuels capable of replacing oil in the event of a crisis or activated carbon used as an adsorbent material, widely used in industry for the elimination of unwanted materials, both in liquid and gaseous environments. A study of thermal parameters such as: heating speed, retention time, drying temperature, carbonization temperature, particle size, was carried out with the aim of determining the characteristic factors of the carbonization of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), sawdust (SC) and sawdust/polyethylene terephthalate (CPS) mixture. The results of the immediate analysis revealed a very low level of ash in PET (0.013%) compared to the level of ash in sawdust (2.9%), as well as a high level of fixed carbon (82.960%), which suggests the presence of mineral oxides and a significant carbon matrix unlike PET, which indicates a very significant organic matrix (essentially made up of organic matter) with the absence of mineral oxides. The study of thermal parameters showed the water loss from Sawdust (SC) and the Sawdust/Polyethylene terephthalate (CPS) mixture, an increase with temperature, unlike that of PET whose variation is essentially zero. Without heat treatment, sawdust alone contains approximately 7% water. The optimal drying temperature for this study is 110˚C for a stay of 24 hours. It appears that the largest mass losses for the PET samples are between 87.19% and 96.05%, followed by that of the mixture, between 47.33% and 64.37%. And the lowest are observed, those of sawdust (from 24.02% to 62.6%). However, here we can say that the influence of the mass is not great, given the slight difference between the losses by temperature. The results of the study of the influence of grain size showed that the differences are insignificant, even if we vary the diameter of the grains from simple to triple. To better minimize physical constraints such as the intragranular diffusibility of the volatile matter and the homogeneity of the temperature in the grains, 75 μm particles are found to be optimal for our study. It can be noted when studying the heating rate that the mass loss at the end of the reaction is approximately the same depending on each precursor material. However, it has been demonstrated that the heating rate strongly influences the nature of the reaction products both for volatile materials and for the solid residue as well as on the kinetic parameters of the chemical reaction. Furthermore, the variation in apparent density shows a decrease as a function of the increase in the residence time of the materials in the reactor. As the carbonization time increases, the apparent density decreases. We note, for the lignocellulosic material, that the apparent density stabilizes after 60 minutes.

A novel DPSS filter optimization scheme to reduce the intrinsic interference of FBMC-QAM systems

In order to reduce the intrinsic interference of the filter bank multicarrier-quadrature amplitude modulation(FBMC-QAM)system,a novel filter optimization scheme based on discrete prolate spheroidal sequences(DPSS)is proposed.Firstly,a prototype filter function based on DPSS is designed,since the eigenvalue can be used as an indicator of the energy concentration of DPSS,so a threshold is set,and the sequence with the most concentrated energy is selected under the threshold,that is,the sequence with the eigenvalue higher than the threshold,and the prototype filter function is rewritten as a weighted sum function of multiple eigenvectors.Under the energy constraints of the filter,the relationship between the eigenvectors and the intrinsic interference function is established,and the function problem is transformed into an optimization problem for the weighted coefficients.Through the interior point method,the most suitable weight is found to obtain the minimum intrinsic interference result.Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that compared with the prototype filters such as Type1 and CaseC,the DPSS filter applying the proposed optimization algorithm can effectively suppress the intrinsic interference of the system and obtain a better bit error rate(BER)performance.

Flame-retardant Mechanism of Magnesium Oxychloride in Epoxy Resin

Flame-retardant mechanism of magnesium oxychloride （M OC） in EP was in-vestigated by limiting oxygen index （LOI）, XRD, SEM, TG-DTG and DSC. The results show that MOC performed well as an inorganic flame-retardant in EP. When the content of MOC is 50%, the LOI of EP reaches 29.6% and mass of residual char reaches 9.6%. The flame retarde mechanism of MOC is due to the synergies of diluting, cooling, catalyzing char forming and obstructing effects.

Comparison of Flame-retardancy Property and Mechanism between a Phosphate Ester and a Phosphoramine Flame-retardants

A halogen-free flame-retardant (hydroquinone bis (N,N’-diarylphosphoramidate),4N-HDP) containing phosphorus-nitrogen was synthesized.Its structure was characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR),nuclear magnetic resonance (^(1)H-NMR and^(31)P-NMR).Thermogravimetric analysis (TG),limiting oxygen index (LOI),UL-94 vertical burning test (UL-94),thermogravimetric-infrared instrument (TG-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to compare the flame-retarding performance and mechanism of hydroquinone bis (diphenyl phosphate) (HDP) and 4N-HDP.TG,IR and TG-IR were used for comparative analysis,indicating that both HDP and 4N-HDP are flame-retardants,and the gas phase and condensed phase act synergistically.In the pyrolysis process,it is divided into two steps:the first step is the breakage of large molecules to small molecules;the second step is the gasification and carbonization of small molecules,and eventually produces phosphate ester and non-flammable gases.Through the comparison of various results,it could be found that 4N-HDP has better flame-retarding performance compared to HDP in the composite with polycarbonate (PC).

Recent advances in soft electronic materials for intrinsically stretchable optoelectronic systems

In recent years,significant progress has been achieved in the design and fabrication of stretchable optoelectronic devices.In general,stretchability has been achieved through geometrical modifications of device components,such as with serpentine interconnects or buckled substrates.However,the local stiffness of individual pixels and the limited pixel density of the array have impeded further advancements in stretchable optoelectronics.Therefore,intrinsically stretch-able optoelectronics have been proposed as an alternative approach.Herein,we review the recent advances in soft elec-tronic materials for application in intrinsically stretchable optoelectronic devices.First,we introduce various intrinsically stretchable electronic materials,comprised of electronic fillers,elastomers,and surfactants,and exemplify different in-trinsically stretchable conducting and semiconducting composites.We also describe the processing methods used to fabricate the electrodes,interconnections,charge transport layers,and optically active layers used in intrinsically stretch-able optoelectronic devices.Subsequently,we review representative examples of intrinsically stretchable optoelectronic devices,including light-emitting capacitors,light-emitting diodes,photodetectors,and photovoltaics.Finally,we briefly discuss intrinsically stretchable integrated optoelectronic systems.

3D flame-retardant skeleton reinforced polymer electrolyte for solid-state dendrite-free lithium metal batteries

For solid polymer electrolytes(SPEs),improving their mechanical and electrochemical properties is the key to obtaining batteries with higher safety and higher energy density.Herein,a novel synergistic strategy proposed is preparing a 3D flame-retardant skeleton(3DPA)and adding nano-multifunctional fillers(Li-ILs@ZIF-8).In addition to providing mechanical support for the polyethylene oxide(PEO)matrix,3DPA also has further contributed to the system’s flame retardancy and further improved the safety.Simultaneously,the electrochemical performance is fully guaranteed by rigid Li-ILs@ZIF-8,which provides fast migration channels forLi^(+),reduces the crystallinity of PEO and effectively inhibits lithium dendrites.The limiting oxygen index of the optimal sample(PL3Z/PA)is as high as 20.5%,and the ionic conductivity reaches 2.89×10^(-4) and 0.91×10^(-3) S cm^(-1) at 25 and 55°C,respectively.The assembled Li|PL3Z/PA|Li battery can be cycled stably for more than 1000 h at a current density of 0.1 m A cm^(-2) without short circuit being pierced by lithium dendrites.The specific capacity of the LFP|PL3Z/PA|Li battery was 160.5 m Ah g^(-1) under a current density of 0.5 C,and the capacity retention rate was 90.0%after 300 cycles.

Prediction of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins Based on Deep Neural Network-ResNet18

Accurately,reliably and rapidly identifying intrinsically disordered(IDPs)proteins is essential as they often play important roles in various human diseases;moreover,they are related to numerous important biological activities.However,current computational methods have yet to develop a network that is sufficiently deep tomake predictions about IDPs and demonstrate an improvement in performance.During this study,we constructed a deep neural network that consisted of five identical variant models,ResNet18,combined with an MLP network,for classification.Resnet18 was applied for the first time as a deep model for predicting IDPs,which allowed the extraction of information fromIDP residues in greater detail and depth,and this information was then passed through the MLP network for the final identification process.Two well-known datasets,MXD494 and R80,were used as the blind independent datasets to compare their performance with that of our method.The simulation results showed that Matthew’s correlation coefficient obtained using our deep network model was 0.517 on the blind R80 dataset and 0.450 on the MXD494 dataset;thus,our method outperformed existing methods.

Prediction of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins with a Low Computational Complexity Method

The prediction of intrinsically disordered proteins is a hot research area in bio-information.Due to the high cost of experimental methods to evaluate disordered regions of protein sequences,it is becoming increasingly important to predict those regions through computational methods.In this paper,we developed a novel scheme by employing sequence complexity to calculate six features for each residue of a protein sequence,which includes the Shannon entropy,the topological entropy,the sample entropy and three amino acid preferences including Remark 465,Deleage/Roux,and Bfactor(2STD).Particularly,we introduced the sample entropy for calculating time series complexity by mapping the amino acid sequence to a time series of 0-9.To our knowledge,the sample entropy has not been previously used for predicting IDPs and hence is being used for the first time in our study.In addition,the scheme used a properly sized sliding window in every protein sequence which greatly improved the prediction performance.Finally,we used seven machine learning algorithms and tested with 10-fold cross-validation to get the results on the dataset R80 collected by Yang et al.and of the dataset DIS1556 from the Database of Protein Disorder(DisProt)(https://www.disprot.org)containing experimentally determined intrinsically disordered proteins(IDPs).The results showed that k-Nearest Neighbor was more appropriate and an overall prediction accuracy of 92%.Furthermore,our method just used six features and hence required lower computational complexity.

Intrinsic Self-Healing Chemistry for Next-Generation Flexible Energy Storage Devices

The booming wearable/portable electronic devices industry has stimulated the progress of supporting flexible energy storage devices.Excellent performance of flexible devices not only requires the component units of each device to maintain the original performance under external forces,but also demands the overall device to be flexible in response to external fields.However,flexible energy storage devices inevitably occur mechanical damages(extrusion,impact,vibration)/electrical damages(overcharge,over-discharge,external short circuit)during longterm complex deformation conditions,causing serious performance degradation and safety risks.Inspired by the healing phenomenon of nature,endowing energy storage devices with self-healing capability has become a promising strategy to effectively improve the durability and functionality of devices.Herein,this review systematically summarizes the latest progress in intrinsic self-healing chemistry for energy storage devices.Firstly,the main intrinsic self-healing mechanism is introduced.Then,the research situation of electrodes,electrolytes,artificial interface layers and integrated devices based on intrinsic self-healing and advanced characterization technology is reviewed.Finally,the current challenges and perspective are provided.We believe this critical review will contribute to the development of intrinsic self-healing chemistry in the flexible energy storage field.

Stretching instability of intrinsically curved semiflexible biopolymers:A lattice model approach

We apply a Monte Carlo simulation method to lattice systems to study the effect of an intrinsic curvature on the mechanical property of a semiflexible biopolymer.We find that when the intrinsic curvature is sufficiently large,the extension of a semiflexible biopolymer can undergo a first-order transition at finite temperature.The critical force increases with increasing intrinsic curvature.However,the relationship between the critical force and the bending rigidity is structuredependent.In a triangle lattice system,when the intrinsic curvature is smaller than a critical value,the critical force increases with the increasing bending rigidity first,and then decreases with the increasing bending rigidity.In a square lattice system,however,the critical force always decreases with the increasing bending rigidity.In contrast,when the intrinsic curvature is greater than the critical value,the larger bending rigidity always results in a larger critical force in both lattice systems.

Thermal properties of a two-dimensional intrinsically curved semiflexible biopolymer

We study the behaviors of mean end-to-end distance and specific heat of a two-dimensional intrinsically curved semiflexible biopolymer with a hard-core excluded volume interaction. We find the mean square end-to-end distance R2 N∝ Nβ at large N, with N being the number of monomers. Bothβ and proportional constant are dependent on the reduced bending rigidity κ and intrinsic curvature c. The larger the c, the smaller the proportional constant, and 1.5 ≥β ≥ 1. Up to a moderate κ = κc, or down to a moderate temperature T = Tc, β = 1.5, the same as that of a self-avoiding random walk, and the larger the intrinsic curvature, the smaller the κc. However, at a large κ or a low temperature,β is close to 1, and the conformation of the biopolymer can be more compact than that of a random walk. There is an intermediate regime with 1.5 〉β 〉 1 and the transition fromβ = 1.5 toβ= 1 is smooth. The specific heat of the system increases smoothly with increasing κ or there is no peak in the specific heat. Therefore, a nonvanishing intrinsic curvature seriously affects the thermal properties of a semiflexible biopolymer, but there is no phase transition in the system.

Property of Polyimide/Flame-Retardant Viscose Blended Fabrics

Although polyimide fibers are excellent intrinsic flame-retardant fibers, their price is so high that they are rarely used in clothing. To expand their application, the polyimide fibers were blended with flame-retardant viscose fibers at a ratio of 30∶70, and the blended yarns were woven with flame-retardant polyester filaments. Fabrics with different parameters, including fabric weaves, warp yarn densities, and fabric layers, were designed, and the effects of those fabric parameters on mechanical properties and flame-retardant properties were tested and analyzed. The results show that the tearing load of the fabrics is affected by fabric weaves, warp yarn densities, and fabric layers, and the tearing load of the weft mountain weave fabric and the twill weave fabric is higher than that of the plain weave fabric. The bursting load of the fabric increases with the increase of warp yarn densities and layers. Among the tested fabric samples, the triple-layer twill fabric has the best flame-retardant performance, which meets the standard of flame-retardant protective fabric Grade B1 level. The research of this paper would provide guidance for the development and production of polyimide blended fabrics.

SYNTHESES AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CYCLIC ORGANIC BORONATE ESTERS AS FLAME-RETARDANTS

Some organoboron compounds as flame-retardants for fiber materials were prepared.Flame-retarding properties of these compounds determined by the Oxygen-Index Method weregood.These new compounds were characterized by IR,~1H NMR spectrum and elementalanalysis.

A new flame-retardant polymer electrolyte with enhanced Li-ion conductivity for safe lithium-sulfur batteries

Flame-retardant polymer electrolytes(FRSPEs)are attractive due to their potential for fundamentally settling the safety issues of liquid electrolytes.However,the current FRSPEs have introduced large quantity of flame-retardant composition which cannot conduct lithium ions,thus decreasing the Li-ion conductivity.Here,we synthesize a novel liquid monomer 2-((bis((2-oxo-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)methoxy)phosphoryl)oxy)ethyl acrylate(BDPA)for preparing FRSPE by in-situ polymerization,in which PBDPA polymer can not only conduct lithium ions,but also prevent burning.The prepared FRSPE demonstrated outstanding flame-retardant property,favorable lithium-ion conductivity of 5.65×10^(-4) S cm^(-1) at ambient temperature,and a wide electrochemical window up to 4.5 V.Moreover,the Li/in-situ FRSPE/S@pPAN cell exhibited favorable electrochemical performances.We believe that this work provides an effective strategy for establishing high-performance fireproof quasi-solid-state battery system.

Construction of Vector for Functional Analysis of the Intrinsically Bent DNA in the ACE3 Replicator from <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>

DNA replication is a crucial process for species survival, nevertheless it is not clear which factors define origin selection in multicellular eukaryotes. Developmental gene amplification systems, such as the one described during ovarian follicles development in Drosophila melanogaster, are useful tools for studying of DNA replication process in these organisms. We previously described that the well characterized third chromosome amplified domain of D. melanogater displays three intrinsically bent DNA sites: b1, localized at an amplification control element (ACE3), b2 and b3, both localized at the preferential origin ori-β. This proposal aimed to construct a Drosophila transformation vector, which contains a short deletion at the ACE3, in order to reduce the intrinsically bent DNA site b1, and analyze the functional role of this site in the gene amplification process. Through a series of cloning steps, we obtained a Big Parent vector derivative, containing a deletion at the positions 176-180 bp, inside the ACE3. The generation of a Drosophila transformation vector displays a reduced intrinsically bent DNA site in the third chromosome amplified domain, it will allow the analysis of the functional role of this curvature in developmental gene amplification, providing new insights on replication initiation in D. melanogaster and the function of intrinsically bent DNA sites.