Ionization Engineering of Hydrogels Enables Highly Efficient Salt‑Impeded Solar Evaporation and Night‑Time Electricity Harvesting

Interfacial solar evaporation holds immense potential for brine desalination with low carbon footprints and high energy utilization.Hydrogels,as a tunable material platform from the molecular level to the macroscopic scale,have been considered the most promising candidate for solar evaporation.However,the simultaneous achievement of high evaporation efficiency and satisfactory tolerance to salt ions in brine remains a challenging scientific bottleneck,restricting the widespread application.Herein,we report ionization engineering,which endows polymer chains of hydrogels with electronegativity for impeding salt ions and activating water molecules,fundamentally overcoming the hydrogel salt-impeded challenge and dramatically expediting water evaporating in brine.The sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate-modified carbon black is chosen as the solar absorbers.The hydrogel reaches a ground-breaking evaporation rate of 2.9 kg m−2 h−1 in 20 wt%brine with 95.6%efficiency under one sun irradiation,surpassing most of the reported literature.More notably,such a hydrogel-based evaporator enables extracting clean water from oversaturated salt solutions and maintains durability under different high-strength deformation or a 15-day continuous operation.Meantime,on the basis of the cation selectivity induced by the electronegativity,we first propose an all-day system that evaporates during the day and generates salinity-gradient electricity using waste-evaporated brine at night,anticipating pioneer a new opportunity for all-day resource-generating systems in fields of freshwater and electricity.

Theoretical study of differential cross sections for the ionization of helium by fast proton impact

We present the angular distribution of the ejected electron for single ionization of He by fast proton impact.A fourbody formalism of the three-Coulomb wave is applied to calculate the triple differential cross sections at several impact energies in the scattering,perpendicular and azimuthal planes.Moreover,the three-body formalism of three-Coulomb,two-Coulomb and first Born approximation models has also been used to study the many-body effect on electron emission and the validity of the models.In the three-Coulomb wave model,the final state wave function incorporates distortion due to the three-body mutual Coulombic interaction.In this formalism,we use an uncorrelated and correlated Born initial state,which consists of a plane wave for the incoming projectile times a two-electron bound state wavefunction of the helium atom representing the 1s2(1S)state.But,in the case of the three-body formalism,the initial state wavefunction consists of a long-range Coulomb distortion for the incoming projectile and one active electron of the He atom described by the Roothaan–Hartree–Fock wavefunction.The structure with a single or two peaks with unequal intensity is observed in the angular distributions of the triple differential cross sections for the different kinematic conditions.In addition,the influence of static electron correlations is investigated using different bound state wavefunctions for the ground state of the He target.In the four-body formalism,the present computations are very fast by reducing a nine-dimensional integral to a two-dimensional real integral.Despite the simplicity and speed of the proposed quadrature,the comparison shows that the obtained results are in reasonable agreement with the experiment and are compatible with those of other theories.

Excitation and ionization of OCS molecules in strong UV and NIR laser fields

Rydberg state excitation(RSE) is a highly non-linear physical phenomenon that is induced by the ionization of atoms or molecules in strong femtosecond laser fields. Here we observe that both parent and fragments(S, C, OC) of the triatomic molecule carbonyl sulfide(OCS) can survive strong 800 nm or 400 nm laser fields in high Rydberg states. The dependence of parent and fragment RSE yields on laser intensity and ellipticity is investigated in both laser fields, and the results are compared with those for strong-field ionization. Distinctly different tendencies for laser intensity and ellipticity are observed for fragment RSE compared with the corresponding ions. The mechanisms of RSE and strong-field ionization of OCS molecules in different laser fields are discussed based on the experimental results. Our study sheds some light on the strong-field excitation and ionization of molecules irradiated by femtosecond NIR and UV laser fields.

Polarization control of above-threshold ionization spectrum in elliptically polarized two-color laser fields

We study the above-threshold ionization(ATI)process of atoms exposed to fundamental and high-frequency lasers with arbitrary ellipticity by applying the frequency-domain theory.It is found that the angular-resolved ATI spectrum is sensitive to ellipticities of two lasers and emitted angles of the photoelectron.Particularly for the photon energy of the highfrequency laser more than atomic ionization potential,the width of plateau tends to a constant with increasing ellipticity of fundamental field,the dip structure disappears with increasing ellipticity of the high-frequency field.With the help of the quantum channel analysis,it is shown that the angular distribution depends mainly on the ellipticity of high-frequency field in the case that its frequency is high.Moreover,one can see that the maximal and minimal energies in quantum numerical results are in good agreement with the classical prediction.Our investigation may provide theoretical support for experimental research on polarization control of ionization in elliptically polarized two-color laser fields.

Theoretical investigation of electron-impact ionization of W8+ion

The electron-impact single ionization cross section for W8+ion has been calculated using flexible atomic code,employing the level-to-level distorted-wave approximation.This calculations takes into account contributions form both direct ionization(DI)and excitation autoionization(EA).However,the theoretical predictions,based solely on the ground state,tends to underestimate the experimental values.This discrepancy can be mitigated by incorporation contributions from excited states.We extended the theoretical analysis,including the contributions from the long-lived metastable states with lifetimes exceeding 1.5×10-5 s.We employed two statistical models to predict the fraction of ground state ions in the parent ion beam.Assuming a 79%fraction of parent ions in ground configuration,the experiment measurements align with the predictions.Furthermore we derived the theoretical cross-section for the ground state as correlated plasma rate coefficients,and compared it with existing data.Despite the uncertainty in our calculations,our results are still acceptable.

Ion acoustic solitary waves in an adiabatic dusty plasma:Roles of superthermal electrons,ion loss and ionization

We investigate propagation of dust ion acoustic solitary wave(DIASW)in a multicomponent dusty plasma with adiabatic ions,superthermal electrons,and stationary dust.The reductive perturbation method is employed to derive the damped Korteweg-de Vries(DKdV)equation which describes DIASW.The result reveals that the adiabaticity of ions significantly modifies the basic features of the DIASW.The ionization effect makes the solitary wave grow,while collisions reduce the growth rate and even lead to the damping.With the increases in ionization cross sectionΔσ/σ_(0),ion-to-electron density ratioδ_(ie)and superthermal electrons parameterκ,the effect of ionization on DIASW enhances.

Manipulating the electron dynamics in the non-sequential double ionization process of Ar atoms by an orthogonal two-color laser field

Electron dynamics during non-sequential double ionization(NSDI) is one of the most attractive areas of research in the field of laser–atom or laser–molecule interaction. Based on the classic two-dimensional model, we study the process of NSDI of argon atoms driven by a few-cycle orthogonal two-color laser field composed of 800 nm and 400 nm laser pulses. By changing the relative phase of the two laser pulses, a localized enhancement of NSDI yield is observed at 0.5πand 1.5π, which could be attributed to a rapid and substantial increase in the number of electrons returning to the parent ion within extremely short time intervals at these specific phases. Through the analysis of the electron–electron momentum correlations within different time windows of NSDI events and the angular distributions of emitted electrons in different channels, we observe a more pronounced electron–electron correlation phenomenon in the recollision-induced ionization(RII) channel. This is attributed to the shorter delay time in the RII channel.

Absolute partial and total ionization cross sections of carbon monoxide with electron collision from 350 eV to 8000 eV

The absolute partial and total cross sections for electron impact ionization of carbon monoxide are reported for electron energies from 350 eV to 8000 eV.The product ions(CO^(+),C^(+),O^(+),CO^(2+),C^(2+),and O^(2+))are measured by employing an ion imaging mass spectrometer and two ion-pair dissociation channels(C^(+)+O^(+)and C^(2+)+O^(+))are identified.The absolute cross sections for producing individual ions and their total,as well as for the ion-pair dissociation channels are obtained by normalizing the data of CO^(+)to that of Ar^(+)from CO-Ar mixture target with a fixed 1:1 ratio.The overall errors are evaluated by considering various kinds of uncertainties.A comprehensive comparison is made with the available data,which shows a good agreement with each other over the energy ranges that are overlapped.This work presents new cross-section data with electron energies above 1000 eV.

Internal collision double ionization of molecules driven by co-rotating two-color circularly polarized laser pulses

The double ionization process of molecules driven by co-rotating two-color circularly polarized fields is investigated with a three-dimensional classical ensemble model. Numerical results indicate that a considerable part of the sequential double ionization(DI) events of molecules occur through internal collision double ionization(ICD), and the ICD recollision mechanism is significantly different from that in non-sequential double ionization(NSDI). By analyzing the results of internuclear distances R = 5 a.u. and 2 a.u., these two recollision mechanisms are studied in depth. It is found that the dynamic behaviors of the recollision mechanisms of NSDI and ICD are similar. For NSDI, the motion range of electrons after the ionization is relatively large, and the electrons will return to the core after a period of time. In the ICD process,electrons will rotate around the parent ion before ionization, and the distance of the electron motion is relatively small. After a period of time, the electrons will come back to the core and collide with another electron. Furthermore, the molecular internuclear distance has a significant effect on the electron dynamic behavior of the two ionization mechanisms. This study will help to understand the multi-electron ionization process of complex systems.

First Born Double Differential Cross-Section for Ionization of H (3d) by Incident Electron Impact

Double differential cross section (DDCS) of First-Born approximation is calcu-lated for the ionization of metastable 3d-state hydrogen atoms by electron impact energy at 150 eV and 250 eV. A multiple scattering theory is applied in the present study. The present results are compared with the other related the-oretical results for the ionization of hydrogen atoms from different metastable states and ground-state experimental results. The findings demonstrate a strong qualitative agreement with the existing results. The obtained results have an extensive scope for further study of such an ionization process.

Steering the energy sharing of electrons in nonsequential double ionization with orthogonally polarized two-color field

Using the semiclassical ensemble model,the dependence of relative amplitude for the recollision dynamics in nonsequential double ionization(NSDI)of neon atom driven by the orthogonally polarized two-color field(OTC)laser field is theoretically studied.And the dynamics in two typical collision pathways,recollision-impact-ionization(RII)and recollisionexcitation with subsequent ionization(RESI),is systematically explored.Our results reveal that the V-shaped structure in the correlated momentum distribution is mainly caused by the RII mechanism when the relative amplitude of the OTC laser field is zero,and the first ionized electrons will quickly skim through the nucleus and share few energy with the second electron.As the relative amplitude increases,the V-shaped structure gradually disappears and electrons are concentrated on the diagonal in the electron correlation spectrum,indicating that the energy sharing after electrons collision is symmetric for OTC laser fields with large relative amplitudes.Our studies show that changing the relative amplitude of the OTC laser field can efficiently control the electron–electron collisions and energy exchange efficiency in the NSDI process.

Attosecond ionization time delays in strong-field physics

Electronic processes within atoms and molecules reside on the timescale of attoseconds. Recent advances in the laserbased pump-probe interrogation techniques have made possible the temporal resolution of ultrafast electronic processes on the attosecond timescale, including photoionization and tunneling ionization. These interrogation techniques include the attosecond streak camera, the reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transitions, and the attoclock. While the former two are usually employed to study photoionization processes, the latter is typically used to investigate tunneling ionization. In this review, we briefly overview these timing techniques towards an attosecond temporal resolution of ionization processes in atoms and molecules under intense laser fields. In particular, we review the backpropagation method, which is a novel hybrid quantum-classical approach towards the full characterization of tunneling ionization dynamics. Continued advances in the interrogation techniques promise to pave the pathway towards the exploration of ever faster dynamical processes on an ever shorter timescale.

High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Bilobalide and Ginkgolides in Ginkgo biloba L. Leaves

The ginkgo terpenoids including bilobalide and ginkgolides are the main pharmaceutical components in the leaves or extracts of Ginkgo biloba L. In this paper, the analysis of bilobalide and ginkgolides in leaves of Ginkgo biloba L. by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-electrospray ionization (ESI)-mass spectrometry (MS) was carried out. The separation was performed on Inertsil ODS3 column with methanol-water (36:64) as mobile phase, with 1 mL·min -1 of flow rate at 35℃. Then the mass spectrum analysis was conducted by ZMD micromass electrospray ionization (ESI)-mass spectrometer (MS). The HPLC total ion chromatogram and selected ion chromatogram (with 325, 407, 423, 439 of m/z) of the sample and ESI-/MS mass spectra of the peaks in the chromatograms were obtained. So bilobalide, ginkgolide A, B, C and J in Ginkgo biloba L. leaves were identified. The method is easy and rapid, with a good accuracy.

Influence Factors on Particle Growth for On-line Aerosol Matrix-assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry

An evaporation/condensation flow cell was developed and interfaced with the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization （MALDI） time-of-flight mass spectrometer for on-line bioaerosol detection and characterization, which allows matrix addition by condensation onto the laboratory-generated bioaerosol particles. The final coated particle exiting from the con- denser is then introduced into the aerodynamic particle sizer spectrometer or home-built aerosol laser time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and its aerodynamic size directly effects on the matrix-to-analyte molar ratio, which is very important for MALDI technique. In order to observe the protonated analyte molecular ion, and then determine the classification of bi- ological aerosols, the matrix-to-analyte molar ratio must be appropriate. Four experimental parameters, including the temperature of the heated reservoir, the initial particle size, its number concentration, and the matrix material, were tested experimentally to analyze their influences on the final particle size. This technique represents an on-line system of detection that has the potential to provide rapid and reliable identification of airborne biological aerosols.

Ionization Energies and Dyson Orbials of Allyl Alcohol and Allyl Mercaptan Conformers

The conformers of allyl alcohol and allyl mercaptan were studied with B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ method. Their relative energies were calculated at MP3, MP4（SDQ）, and CCSD（T） levels. The most stable conformers for these two molecules are Gauche-gauche＇ （Gg＇）. The theo-retical photoelectron spectra simulated with the calculated ionization energies demonstrate that there are at least four conformers in allyl alcohol and four conformers in allyl mercaptan in the gas-phase experiments. The Dyson orbitals of the highest occupied molecular orbital （HOMO） and the next HOMO （HOMO-1） of allyl mercaptan Ggt conformer show strongly mixing ns and πc=c characteristics, which may be due to the resonance and inductive effects between πc=c and ns in HOMO-1 and HOMO.

Determination of penehyclidine hydrochloride in beagle dog plasma by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and the pharmacokinetic study

To develop a fast and sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method for the determination of penehyclidine hydrochloride （PH） in beagle dog plasma. PH and diphenhydramine hydrochloride （internal standard, IS） were extracted with a solvent mixture of petroleum ether-ethyl ether （7：3）. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a reversed-phase Eclipse XDB-C18 column （4.6 mm × 150 mm, 5 um） using the eluent of methanol-water （5 mmol/L ammonium acetate） （90：10, v/v, pH 5.8） as mobile phase. The electrospray ionization source was set at the positive multiple reaction monitoring （MRM） mode. This method involved the use of the [M＋H]^＋ ions of PH and diphenhydramine hydrochloride at m/z 316.4- 128.2 and m/z 256.4-167.2. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 1-1000 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.9988. The lower limit of quantification was 0.05 ng/mL. The precision, accuracy and recovery of the method were acceptable. Following intravenous injection admires＇ tration at doses of 0.5, 1 and 5 mg/kg PH, the main pharmacokinetic parameters were as the followings, t1/2a 0.33 h, t1/2β 2.44 1% tmax 0.058 1% AUC and Cmax exhibited a linear increase along with the increase of dose. The two-compartment model fit the three dose groups. This method was sensitive, accurate and fast for the determination of concentration of PH in beagle dog plasma. It could be used in pharmacokinetic studies of PH.

Ab initio Study on Ionization Energies of 3-Amino-1-propanol

Fourteen conformers of 3-amino-1-propanol as the minima on the potential energy surface are examined at the MP2/6-311＋＋G＊＊ level. Their relative energies calculated at B3LYP, MP3 and MP4 levels of theory indicated that two most stable conformers display the intramolecular OH - N hydrogen bonds. The vertical ionization energies of these conformers calculated with ab initio electron propagator theory in the P3/aug-cc-pVTZ approximation are in agreement with experimental data from photoelectron spectroscopy. Natural bond orbital analyses were used to explain the differences of IEs of the highest occupied molecular ortibal of conformers. Combined with statistical mechanics principles, conformational distributions at various temperatures are obtained and the temperature dependence of photoelectron spectra is interpreted.

The effective ionization coefficients and electron drift velocities in gas mixtures of CF_3I with N_2 and CO_2 obtained from Boltzmann equation analysis

The electron swarm parameters including the density-normalized effective ionization coefficients（α-η）/N and the electron drift velocities V e are calculated for a gas mixture of CF3I with N2 and CO2 by solving the Boltzmann equation in the condition of a steady-state Townsend（SST） experiment.The overall density-reduced electric field strength is from 100 Td to 1000 Td（1 Td = 10-17V·cm2）,while the CF3I content k in the gas mixture can be varied over the range from 0% to 100%.From the variation of（αη）/N with the CF3I mixture ratio k,the limiting field strength（E/N） lim for each CF3I concentration is derived.It is found that for the mixtures with 70% CF3I,the values of（E/N） lim are essentially the same as that for pure SF 6.Additionally,the global warming potential（GWP） and the liquefaction temperature of the gas mixtures are also taken into account to evaluate the possibility of application in the gas insulation of power equipment.

Collection efficiency of a monitor parallel plate ionization chamber for pencil beam scanning proton therapy

The collection efficiency of monitor parallel plate ionization chambers is the main uncertainty in the beam control of pencil beam scanning systems.Existing calculation methods for collection efficiency in photon or passive scattering proton systems have not considered the characteristics of non-uniform charge density in pencil beam scanning systems.In this study,Boag’s theory was applied to a proton pencil beam scanning system.The transverse distribution of charge density in the ionization chamber was considered to be a Gaussian function and an analytical solution was derived to calculate collection efficiency in the beam spot area.This calculation method is called the integral method and it was used to investigate the effects of beam parameters on collection efficiency.It was determined that collection efficiency is positively correlated with applied voltage,beam size,and beam energy,but negatively correlated with beam current intensity.Additionally,it was confirmed that collection efficiency is improved when the air filling the monitor parallel plate ionization chamber is replaced with nitrogen.

Detection of Tocopherol in Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) Using Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector

The variation among Chinese genotypes of Brassica napus L. for seed tocopherols content and their analysis using gas chromatography has not been comprehensively reported till to date. In the present study, the tocopherol contents of four Chinese genotypes of Brassica napus L., namely, Gaoyou 605, Zhejiang 619, Zheshuang 758, and Zheshuang 72, were evaluated using three modified sample preparation protocols （P1, P2, and P3） for tocopherol extraction. These methods were distinguished as follows. Protocol one （P1） included the evaporation of solvent after extraction without silylation. Protocol two （P2） followed the direct supernatant collection after overnight extraction without drying and silylation. Protocol three （P3） included trimethylsilylation with N,O-bis（trimethylsilyl） trifluoroacetamide. Genotypic comparison of tocopherol and its isoforms revealed that Gaoyou 605 was dominant over the other genotypes with （140.5＋ 10.5）, （316.2＋ 9.2）, and （559.1＋ 24.3） ~tg g-~ of seed meal ct-, 7-, and total （T-） tocopherol, respectively, and a 0.44＋0.04 ^- to 7-tocopherol ratio. The comparison of the sample preparation protocols, on the other hand, suggests that P3 is the most suitable method for the tocopherol extraction from Brassica oilseeds and for the analysis of tocopherols using gas chromatography flame ionization detector （GC-FID）. Trimethylsilylation is the key step differentiating P3 from P1 and P2. Variations detected in tocopherol contents among the Chinese rapeseed （B. napus） genotypes signify the need to quantify a wide range of rapeseed germplasm for seed tocopherol dynamics in short and crop improvement in long.