Effect of Water Vapor Absorption on Measurements of Atmospheric Nitrate Radical by LP-DOAS

During the measurement of atmospheric nitrate radical by long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy, water vapor strong absorption could affect the measurement of nitrate radical and detection limits of system. Under the tropospheric condition, the optical density of water vapor absorption is non-linearly dependent on column density. An effective method was developed to eliminate the effect of water vapor absorption. Reference spectra of water vapor based on the daytime atmospheric absorption spectra, when fitted together with change of cross section with water vapor column densities, gave a more accurate fitting of water vapor absorptions, thus its effect on the measurements of nitrate radical could be restricted to a minimum and detection limits of system reached 3.6 ppt. The modified method was applied during an intensive field campaign in the Pearl River Delta, China. The NO3 concentration in polluted air masses varied from 3.6 ppt to 82.5 ppt with an average level of 23.6±1.8 ppt.

Noninvasive blood glucose detection using a miniature wearable Raman spectroscopy system

Nowadays, there are about 415 million adults suffering from diabetesN. At present, the treatment for diabetes patients is monitoring their blood glucose level frequently and then taking the appropriate amount of oral hypogly- cemic drugs and insulin to control their blood glucose level.

CO and CO_2 dual-gas detection based on mid-infrared wideband absorption spectroscopy

A dual-gas sensor system is developed for CO and CO_2 detection using a single broadband light source, pyroelectric detectors and time-division multiplexing(TDM) technique. A stepper motor based rotating system and a single-reflection spherical optical mirror are designed and adopted for realizing and enhancing dual-gas detection. Detailed measurements under static detection mode(without rotation) and dynamic mode(with rotation) are performed to study the performance of the sensor system for the two gas samples. The detection period is 7.9 s in one round of detection by scanning the two detectors. Based on an Allan deviation analysis, the 1σ detection limits under static operation are 3.0 parts per million(ppm) in volume and 2.6 ppm for CO and CO_2, respectively, and those under dynamic operation are 9.4 ppm and 10.8 ppm for CO and CO_2, respectively. The reported sensor has potential applications in various fields requiring CO and CO_2 detection such as in the coal mine.

Anomalous self-optimization of sulfate ions for boosted oxygen evolution reaction

Broadly,the oxygen evolution reaction(OER)has been deeply understood as a significant part of energy conversion and storage.Nevertheless,the anions in the OER catalysts have been neglected for various reasons such as inactive sites,dissolution,and oxidation,amongst others.Herein,we applied a model catalyst s-Ni(OH)2 to track the anionic behavior in the catalyst during the electrochemical process to fill this gap.The advanced operando synchrotron radiation Fourier transform infrared(SR-FTIR)spectroscopy,synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy(SRPES)depth detection and differential X-ray absorption fine structure(D-XAFS)spectrum jointly point out that some oxidized sulfur species(SO_(4)^(2-))will selfoptimize new Ni–S bonds during OER process.Such amazing anionic self-optimization(ASO)behavior has never been observed in the OER process.Subsequently,the optimization-derived component shows a significantly improved electrocatalytic performance(activity,stability,etc.)compared to reference catalyst Ni(OH)_(2).Theoretical calculation further suggests that the ASO process indeed derives a thermodynamically stable structure of the OER catalyst,and then gives its superb catalytic performance by optimizing the thermodynamic and kinetic processes in the OER,respectively.This work demonstrates the vital role of anions in the electrochemical process,which will open up new perspectives for understanding OER and provide some new ideas in related fields(especially catalysis and chemistry).