Characterization of apparent sulfur oxidation activity of thermophilic archaea in bioleaching of chalcopyrite

The apparent sulfur oxidation activities of four pure thermophilic archaea, Acidianus brierleyi （JCM 8954）, Metallosphaera sedula （YN 23）, Acidianus manzaensis （YN 25） and Sulfolobus metallicus （YN 24） and their mixture in bioleaching chalcopyrite were compared, which were characterized indirectly by the evolution of the cells concentration, pH value and sulfate ions concentration in solution. The results show that the mixed culture contributed significantly to the raising of leaching rate, which suggests that the mixed culture had a higher sulfur oxidation activity than the pure culture. Meanwhile, the results also indicate that the changes of parameters characterizing the sulfur oxidation activity of thermophilic archaea are often influenced by many factors, so it is hard to reflect accurately the specific sulfur oxidation activities among the different sulfur-oxidizing microbes when bioleaching chalcopyrite at different conditions. Accordingly, an efficient method to characterize microbial sulfur oxidation activity appears to be desirable.

Effects of selenium and sulfur on antioxidants and physiological parameters of garlic plants during senescence

A hydroponic study was conducted to determine the effects of selenium（Se： 0, 3, 6 μmol L^-1） on senescence-related oxidative stress in garlic plants grown under two sulfur（S） levels. We evaluated the yields of plants harvested at 160 and 200 days after sowing. Plants grown under a low Se dose（0.3 μmol L^-1） at low S level showed higher yields（12.0% increase in fresh weight yield, 13.7% increase in dry weight yield） than the controls, despite a decrease in chlorophyll concentration. Compared with control plants, the Se-treated plants showed lower levels of lipid peroxidation. The Se-treated plants also showed higher activities of glut athione peroxidase and catalase, but lower superoxide dismutase activities. Changes in Fv/Fm values and proline contents were affected more strongly by S than by Se. On the basis of our results, we can conclude that Se plays a key role in the antioxidant systems in garlic seedlings. It delays senescence by alleviating the peroxide stress, but it can be toxic at high levels. A high S level may increase tolerance to high Se concentrations through reducing Se accumulation in plants.

Superfast and solvent-free core-shell assembly of sulfur/carbon active particles by hail-inspired nanostorm technology for high-energy-density Li-S batteries

The demand on low-carbon emission fabrication technologies for energy storage materials is increasing dramatically with the global interest on carbon neutrality.As a promising active material for metal-sulfur batteries,sulfur is of great interest due to its high-energy-density and abundance.However,there is a lack of industry-friendly and low-carbon fabrication strategies for high-performance sulfur-based active particles,which,however,is in critical need by their practical success.Herein,based on a hail-inspired sulfur nano-storm(HSN)technology developed in our lab,we report an energy-saving,solvent-free strategy for producing core-shell sulfur/carbon electrode particles(CNT@AC-S)in minutes.The fabrication of the CNT@AC-S electrode particles only involves low-cost sulfur blocks,commercial carbon nanotubes(CNT)and activated carbon(AC)micro-particles with high specific surface area.Based on the above core-shell CNT@AC-S particles,sulfur cathode with a high sulfur-loading of 9.2 mg cm^(-2) delivers a stable area capacity of 6.6 mAh cm^(-2) over 100 cycles.Furthermore,even for sulfur cathode with a super-high sulfur content(72 wt%over the whole electrode),it still delivers a high area capacity of 9 mAh cm^(-2) over50 cycles in a quasi-lean electrolyte condition.In a nutshell,this study brings a green and industryfriendly fabrication strategy for cost-effective production of rationally designed S-rich electrode particles.

Effect of Sulfurization Temperature on Thioetherification Performance of Mo-Ni/Al_2O_3 Catalyst

The Mo modified Ni/Al_2O_3 catalysts were prepared and sulfided at different temperatures, and their catalytic activity for thioetherification of mercaptans and olefins(or dienes), hydrogenation of dienes and olefins in the thioetherification process using fluidized catalytic cracking(FCC) naphtha as the feedstock was investigated. In order to disclose the correlation between the physicochemical characteristics of catalysts and their catalytic activity, the surface structures and properties of the catalysts sulfided at different temperatures were characterized by the high resolution transmission electronic microscopy(HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and H2-temperature programmed reduction(H_2-TPR) technique. The results showed that an increase of sulfurization temperature not only could promote the sulfurization degree of active metals on the catalysts, but also could adjust the micro-morphology of active species. These changes could improve the catalytic performance of thioetherification, and hydrogenation of dienes and olefins. However, an excess sulfurization temperature was more easily to upgrade the ability of the catalyst for hydrogenation of olefins, which could lead to a decrease of the octane number of the product. It was also showed that a moderate sulfurization temperature not only could improve the catalytic performance of thioetherification and hydrogenation of dienes but also could control hydrogenation of olefins.

Effects of SO2 on the low temperature selective catalytic reduction of NO by NH3 over CeO2-V2O5-WO3/TiO2 catalysts

The CeO2-V2O5-WO3/TiO2 （CeO2-VWT） catalysts were prepared by one-step and two-step impregnation methods. The effects of different loading of CeO2 and different preparation methods on De-NOx activity of catalysts had been investigated. CeO2 helped to improve the De-NOx activity and sulfur resistance. The optimal loading of CeO2 was 3% with the De-NOx efficiency reached 89.9% at 140℃. The results showed that the De-NOx activity of 3% CeO2-VWT catalysts by one-step method was the same as two-step method basically and reached the level of industrial applications, the N2 selectivity of catalysts was more than 99.2% between 110℃ and 320℃. In addition, CeO2 promoted the oxidation of NO to NO2, which adsorbed on the Lewis acid site （V5＋-O） to form V5＋-NO3 and inspired the fast SCR reaction. Not only the thermal stability but also the De-NOx activity of catalysts decreased with excess CeO2 competed with V2O5. Characterizations of catalysts were carried out by XRF, BET, XRD, TG and FT-IR. BET showed that the specific surface area of catalysts decreased with the loading of CeO2 increased, the active components content and specific surface area of catalysts decreased slightly after entering SO2. Ammonium sulfate species were formed in poisoned catalyst which had been investigated by XRF, BET, TG and FT-IR. The largest loss rate of weight fraction was 0.024%.℃-1 at 380℃ 390℃, which was in accordance with the decomposition temperature of NH4HSO4 and （NH4）2SO4,