In situ confined vertical growth of Co_(2.5)Ni_(0.5)Si_(2)O_(5)(OH)_(4)nanoarrays on rGO for an efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Rational design of oxygen evolution reaction(OER)catalysts at low cost would greatly benefit the economy.Taking advantage of earth-abundant elements Si,Co and Ni,we produce a unique-structure where cobalt-nickel silicate hydroxide[Co_(2.5)Ni_(0.5)Si_(2)O_(5)(OH)_(4)]is vertically grown on a reduced graphene oxide(rGO)support(CNS@rGO).This is developed as a low-cost and prospective OER catalyst.Compared to cobalt or nickel silicate hydroxide@rGO(CS@rGO and NS@rGO,respectively)nanoarrays,the bimetal CNS@rGO nanoarray exhibits impressive OER performance with an overpotential of 307 mV@10 mA cm^(-2).This value is higher than that of CS@rGO and NS@rGO.The CNS@rGO nanoarray has an overpotential of 446 mV@100 mA cm^(-2),about 1.4 times that of the commercial RuO_(2)electrocatalyst.The achieved OER activity is superior to the state-of-the-art metal oxides/hydroxides and their derivatives.The vertically grown nanostructure and optimized metal-support electronic interactions play an indispensable role for OER performance improvement,including a fast electron transfer pathway,short proton/electron diffusion distance,more active metal centers,as well as optimized dualatomic electron density.Taking advantage of interlay chemical regulation and the in-situ growth method,the advanced-structural CNS@rGO nanoarrays provide a new horizon to the rational and flexible design of efficient and promising OER electrocatalysts.

High-Performance and Flexible Co-Planar Integrated Microsystem of Carbon-Based All-Solid-State Micro-Supercapacitor and Real-Time Temperature Sensor

With the rapid development of flexible and portable microelectronics,the extreme demand for miniaturized,mechanically flexible,and integrated microsystems are strongly stimulated.Here,biomass-derived carbons(BDCs)are prepared by KOH activation using Qamgur precursor,exhibiting three-dimensional(3D)hierarchical porous structure.Benefiting from unobstructed 3D hierarchical porous structure,BDCs provide an excellent specific capacitance of 433 F g^(-1)and prominent cyclability without capacitance degradation after 50000 cycles at 50 A g^(-1).Furthermore,BDC-based planar micro-supercapacitors(MSCs)without metal collector,prepared by mask-assisted coating,exhibit outstanding areal-specific capacitance of 84 mF cm^(-2)and areal energy density of 10.6μWh cm^(-2),exceeding most of the previous carbon-based MSCs.Impressively,the MSCs disclose extraordinary flexibility with capacitance retention of almost 100%under extreme bending state.More importantly,a flexible planar integrated system composed of the MSC and temperature sensor is assembled to efficiently monitor the temperature variation,providing a feasible route for flexible MSC-based functional micro-devices.

Solubility of iron(Ⅲ) and nickel(Ⅱ) acetylacetonates in supercritical carbon dioxide

As a common precursor for supercritical CO_(2)(scCO_(2))deposition techniques,solubility data of organometallic complexes in scCO_(2)is crucial for the preparation of nanocomposites.Recently,metal acetylacetonates have shown great potential for the preparation of single-atom catalytic materials.In this study,the solubilities of iron(Ⅲ)acetylacetonate(Fe(acac)3)and nickel(Ⅱ)acetylacetonate(Ni(acac)2)were measured at the temperature from 313.15 to 333.15 K and in the pressure range of 9.5–25.2 MPa to accumulate new solubility data.Solubility was measured using a static weight loss method.The semi-empirical models proposed by Chrastil and Sung et al.were used to correlate the solubility data of Fe(acac)3 and Ni(acac)2.The equations obtained can be used to predict the solubility of the same system in the experimental range.

Influence of O-O formation pathways and charge transfer mediator on lipid bilayer membrane-like photoanodes for water oxidation

Inspired by the function of crucial components in photosystemⅡ(PSⅡ),electrochemical and dyesensitized photoelectrochemical(DSPEC)water oxidation devices were constructed by the selfassembly of well-designed amphipathic Ru(bda)-based catalysts(bda=2,2'-bipyrdine-6,6'-dicarbonoxyl acid)and aliphatic chain decorated electrode surfaces,forming lipid bilayer membrane(LBM)-like structures.The Ru(bda)catalysts on electrode-supported LBM films demonstrated remarkable water oxidation performance with different O-O formation mechanisms.However,compared to the slow charge transfer process,the O-O formation pathways did not determine the PEC water oxidation efficiency of the dyesensitized photoanodes,and the different reaction rates for similar catalysts with different catalytic paths did not determine the PEC performance of the DSPECs.Instead,charge transfer plays a decisive role in the PEC water oxidation rate.When an indolo[3,2-b]carbazole derivative was introduced between the Ru(bda)catalysts and aliphatic chain-modified photosensitizer in LBM films,serving as a charge transfer mediator for the tyrosine-histidine pair in PSⅡ,the PEC water oxidation performance of the corresponding photoanodes was dramatically enhanced.

Coordination of distinctive pesticide adjuvants and atomization nozzles on droplet spectrum evolution for spatial drift reduction

Pesticide adjuvants,as crop protection products,have been widely used to reduce drift loss and improve utilization efficiency by regulating droplet spectrum.However,the coordinated regulation mechanisms of adjuvants and nozzles on droplet spectrum remain unclear.Here,we established the relationship between droplet spectrum evolution and liquid atomization by investigating the typical characteristics of droplet diameter distribution near the nozzle.Based on this,the regulation mechanisms of distinctive pesticide adjuvants on droplet spectrum were clarified,and the corresponding drift reduction performances were quantitively evaluated by wind tunnel experiments.It shows that the droplet diameter firstly shifts to the smaller due to the liquid sheet breakup and then prefers to increase caused by droplet interactions.Reducing the surface tension of sprayed liquid facilitates the uniform liquid breakup and increasing the viscosity inhibits the liquid deformation,which prolong the atomization process and effectively improve the droplet spectrum.As a result,the drift losses of flat-fan and hollow cone nozzles are reduced by about 50%after adding organosilicon and vegetable oil adjuvants.By contrast,the air induction nozzle shows a superior anti-drift ability,regardless of distinctive adjuvants.Our findings provide insights into rational adjuvant design and nozzle selection in the field application.

Triple the steady-state reaction rate by decorating the In_(2)O_(3)surface with SiO_(x)for CO_(2)hydrogenation

Indium oxide(In_(2)O_(3)),as a promising candidate for CO_(2)hydrogenation to C_(1) products,often suffers from sintering and activity decline,closely related to the undesirable structural evolution under reaction conditions.Based on the comprehension of the dynamic evolution,this study presents an efficient strategy to alleviate the agglomeration of In_(2)O_(3)nanoparticles by the surface decoration with highly dispersed silica species(SiO_(x)).Various structural characterizations combined with density functional theory calculations demonstrated that the sintering resulted from the over-reduction,while the enhanced stability originated from the anchoring effect of highly stable In-OSi bonds,which hinders the substantial formation of metallic In(In^(0))and the subsequent agglomeration.0.6Si/In_(2)O_(3)exhibited CO_(2)conversion rate of10.0 mmol g^(-1)h^(-1)at steady state vs.3.5 mmol g^(-1)h^(-1)on In_(2)O_(3)in CO_(2)hydrogenation.Enhanced steady-state activity was also achieved on Pd-modified catalysts.Compared to the traditional Pd/In_(2)O_(3)catalyst,the methanol production rate of Pd catalyst supported on 0.6Si/In_(2)O_(3)was enhanced by 23%,showing the potential of In_(2)O_(3)modified by SiO_(x)in serving as a platform material.This work provides a promising method to design new In_(2)O_(3)-based catalysts with improved activity and stability in CO_(2)hydrogenation.

Solution-based Chemical Strategies to Purposely Control the Microstructure of Functional Materials

Micro/nanostructured crystals with controlled architectures are desirable for many applications in optics, electronics, biology, medicine, and energy conversions. Low-temperature, aqueous chemical routes have been widely investigated for the synthesis of particles, and arrays of oriented nanorods and nanotubes. In this paper, based on the ideal crystal shapes predicted by the chemical bonding theory, we have developed some potential chemical strategies to tune the microstructure of functional materials, ZnS and Nb205 nanotube arrays, MgO wiskers and nestlike spheres, and cubic phase Cu2O microcrystals were synthesized here to elucidate these strategies. We describe their controlled crystallization processes and illustrate the detailed key factors controlling their growth by examining various reaction parameters. Current results demonstrate that our designed chemical strategies for tuning microstructure of functional materials are applicable to several technologically important materials, and therefore may be used as a versatile and effective route to the controllable synthesis of other inorganic functional materials.

Chemical Bond Calculations of Crystal Growth of KDP and ADP

A novel method was proposed to calculate the crystal morphology (or growth habit) on the basis of chemical bond analysis. All constituent chemical bonds were distinguished as relevant and independent bonds according to their variations during the crystallization process. By employing the current method, the influence of specific growth conditions on the crystal morphology can be considered in the structure analysis process. The ideal morphologies of both KDP (KH2PO4) and ADP (NH4H2PO4) crystals were calculated and compared with our obtained crystallites at room temperature, which validates the present calculation method very well.

Catalytic hydrogenation performance of ZIF-8 carbide for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide

The conversion of CO_(2) electrocatalytic hydrogenation into energy-rich fuel is considered to be the most effective way to carbon recycle.Nitrogen-doping carbonized ZIF-8 is proposed as carrier of the earth-rich Sn catalyst to overcome the limit of electron transfer and CO_(2) adsorption capacity of Sn.Hierarchically porous structure of Sn doped carbonized ZIF-8 is controlled by hydrothermal and carbonization conditions,which induces much higher specific surface area than that of the commercial Sn nanoparticle(1003.174 vs.7.410 m^(2)·g^(-1)).The shift of nitrogen peaks in X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy spectra indicates interaction between ZIF-8 and Sn,which induces the shift of electron cloud from Sn to the chemical nitrogen to enhance conductivity and regulate electron transfer from catalyst to CO_(2).Lower mass transfer resistance and Warburg resistance are investigated through EIS,which significantly improves the catalytic activity for CO_(2) reduction reaction(CO_(2)RR).Onset potential of the reaction is reduced from-0.74 V to less than-0.54 V vs.RHE.The total Faraday efficiency of HCOOH and CO reaches 68.9%at-1.14 V vs.RHE,which is much higher than that of the commercial Sn(45.0%)and some other Sn-based catalyst reported in the literature.

Direct synthesis of propylene carbonate from propylene and carbon dioxide catalyzed by quaternary ammonium heteropolyphosphatotungstate–TBAB system

In this paper,we have developed a highly efficient method for the direct preparation of propylene carbonate from propylene and carbon dioxide（CO2） using quaternary ammonium heteropolyphosphatotungstate–quaternary ammonium halide catalytic system with anhydrous hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant through one-pot two-step process.The effects of the amount of tetrabutylammonium bromide（TBAB）,the concentration of hydrogen peroxide and other reaction conditions were investigated.The catalyst system gave an optimum propylene oxide yield（91%） at75°C in oxidation step and the highest propylene carbonate yield（99%） at 140°C and 3.0 MPa in cycloaddition step.Based on the results,a reaction mechanism has been proposed.

Active phase morphology engineering of NiMo/Al2O3 through La introduction for boosting hydrodesulfurization of 4,6-DMDBT

Herein,we designed and constructed a mesoporous LaAlOx via a solvent evaporation induced self-assembly protocol.The structure and physicochemical property of the corresponding NiMo supported catalyst was analyzed by a set of characterizations,and its catalytic activity was investigated for hydrodesulfurization(HDS)of 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene.It has confirmed that the incorporation of La profoundly facilitate the generation of“Type II”NiMoS phase by weakening the interaction of Mo–O–Al leakage and promoting the sulfidation of both Ni and Mo oxides as well as changing the morphology of Ni promoted MoS2 slabs,thereafter boosting the HDS performance substantially.The finding here may contribute to the fundamental understanding of structure-activity in ultra-deep desulfurization and inspire the advancement of highly-efficient HDS catalyst in future.

Explosion characteristics of aluminum-based activated fuels containing fluorine

Measuring the dust explosion characteristics of aluminum-based activated fuels was a prerequisite for developing effective prevention and control measures.In this paper,ignition sensitivity,flame propagation behaviors and explosion severity of aluminum/polytetrafluoroethylene(Al/PTFE)compositions including 2 PT(2.80 wt.%F),4 PT(7.18 wt.%F)and 8 PT(11.90 wt.%F)were studied.When the content of F increased from 2.80 wt.%to 11.90 wt.%,the minimum explosive concentration MEC decreased from380 g/m^(3)to 140 g/m^(3),due to the dual effects of increased internal active aluminum and enhanced reactivity.The average flame propagation velocities increased as the percentage of F increased.The maximum explosion pressure Pmof 500 g/m3aluminum-based activated fuels increased from 247 k Pa to299 kPa.Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that with the increase of PTFE content,the reaction was more complete.On this basis,the explosion mechanism of aluminum-based activated fuels was revealed.

Tungsten incorporated mobil-type eleven zeolite membranes: Facile synthesis and tuneable wettability for highly efficient separation of oil/water mixtures

Tungsten (W) incorporated mobil-type eleven (MEL) zeolite membrane (referred to as W-MEL membrane) with high separation performance was firstly explored for the separation of oil/water mixtures under the influence of gravity.W-MEL membranes were grown on stainless steel (SS) meshes through in-situ hydrothermal growth method facilitated with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) modification of stainless steel meshes,which promote the heterogeneous nucleation and crystal growth of W-MEL zeolites onto the mesh surface.W-MEL membranes were grown on different mesh size supports to investigate the effect of mesh size on the separation performance of the membrane.The assynthesized W-MEL membrane supported on 500 mesh (25μm)(W-MEL-500) exhibit the hydrophilic nature with a water contact angle of 11.8°and delivers the best hexane/water mixture separation with a water flux and separation efficiency of 46247 L·m^(-2)·h^(-1)and 99.5%,respectively.The wettability of W-MEL membranes was manipulated from hydrophilic to hydrophobic nature by chemically modifying with the fluorine-free compounds (hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) and dodecyltrimethoxysilane(DDTMS)) to achieve efficient oil-permselective separation of heavy oils from water.Among the hydrophobically modified W-MEL membranes,W-MEL-500-HDTMS having a water contact angle of146.4°delivers the best separation performance for dichloromethane/water mixtures with a constant oil flux and separation efficiency of 61490 L·m^(-2)·h^(-1)and 99.2%,respectively along with the stability tested up to 20 cycles.Both W-MEL-500-HDTMS and W-MEL-500-DDTMS membranes also exhibit similar separation performances for the separation of heavy oil from sea water along with a 20-fold lower corrosion rate in comparison with the bare stainless-steel mesh,indicating their excellent stability in seawater.Compared to the reported zeolite membranes for oil/water separation,the as-synthesized and hydrophobically modified W-MEL membranes shows competitive separation performances in terms of flux and separation efficiency,demonstrating the good potentiality for oil/water separation.

Chemical Bond Analysis of Single Crystal Growth of Magnesium Oxide

Starting from the crystallographic structure of magnesium oxide (MgO), both the chemical bond model of solids and Pauling's third rule (polyhedral sharing rule) were employed to quantitatively analyze the chemical bonding structure of constituent atoms and single crystal growth. Our analytical results show that MgO single crystals prefer to grow along the <100> direction and the growth rate of the {100} plane is the slowest one. Therefore, the results show that the {100} plane of MgO crystals can be the ultimate morphology face, which is in a good agreement with our previous experimental results. The study indicate that the structure analysis is an effective tool to control the single-crystal growth.

Insights into electrolyte effects on photoactivities of dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells for water splitting

Dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cell（DS-PEC） is an especially attractive method to generate hydrogen via visible light driven water splitting. Electrolyte, an essential component of DS-PEC, plays a great role in determining the photoactivities of devices for water splitting. When using phosphate buffer（pH = 6.4）as electrolyte, the DS-PEC displayed much higher photoactivity than using 0.1 M Na;SO;（pH = 6.4） as electrolyte. The insight is phosphate anion gathers together to form a negative electrostatic field on TiO;surface, which increases the resistance in the TiO;/catalyst and electrolyte interface and validly reduces the charge recombination from TiO;to the oxidized catalyst.

Crystal Structure and Electrochemical Behavior of Copper Complex with 6-Hydroxymethyl-substituted Tris(2-pyridylmethyl) Amine, [CuCl(C_(19)H_(20)N_4O)]ClO_4

A Cu(II) complex [CuCl(C19H20N4O)]ClO4 1 containing hydroxymethyl substituted TPA (TPA = tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine) was prepared. It crystallizes in monoclinic, space group P21/c with a = 11.7628(2), b = 13.0083(3), c = 15.11280(10) ?, β = 108.724(2)°, V = 2190.09(7) ?3, Mr = 518.83, Z = 4, T = 293(2) K, Dc = 1.574 g/cm3, μ = 1.280 mm-1, F(000) = 1060 and S = 1.085. The final R = 0.0543 and wR = 0.1433 for 2693 observed reflections with I >2σ(I). The penta- coordinated copper (II) complex assumes an approximate square pyramidal geometry. Cyclic volta- mmetry measurement of the complex showed a quasi-reversible CuII/CuI redox couple with E1/2 = –0.467 v and ?E = 68 mv.

Electrochemical Behavior of Antimierobial Stainless Steel Bearing Copper in Sulfate Reducing Bacterial Medium

The electrochemical characteristic of antimicrobial stainless steel bearing copper NSSAM3 in sulfate reducing bacterial （SRB） was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS） and potentiodynamic polarization. The results show that inoculation of SRB into the culture medium significantly affects the anodic polarization behavior of NSSAM3 and accelerates anodic depolarization process, however, it has little effect on cathodic polarization curves of NSSAM3. Under the same exposure time, the anodic polarization curves of NSSAM3 in culture medium with SRB are in anodic active dissolution state when anodic polarization potential value is below 0 V（SCE）, whose anodic polarization current density is bigger than that of in culture medium without SRB. Moreover, when the concentration of Cu^2＋ in SRB medium increases, anodic polarization current density of NSSAM3 decreases and polarization resistance increases with increasing time. Scanning electron microscope （SEM） observations indicate that SRB unevenly attaches on the surface of NSSAM3, and induces the sensitivity to local corrosion.

Influences of the adsorption state of catalyst on the performance of DS-PEC for visible light driven water splitting

Adsorption state of catalyst on photoanode is an important factor on influencing the performance of dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells (DS-PECs) for water splitting. Photoanode TiO2(1 + 2) was assembled with Ru(bpy)(3) phosphoric acid derivative (complex 1) as photosensitizer and complex 2 as water oxidation catalyst to compare with photoanode TiO2(1 + 3). The photocurrent density of photoanode TiO2(1 + 3) with catalyst 3 synthesized with only one end fixing on the surface of TiO2 is about four-fold of the photoanode assembled with catalyst 2 fixing with two claws on the surface of TiO2. The phenomenon should be caused by the littery arrangement and shorter distance of catalyst 2 from the active center of catalyst to TiO2 on the surface of semiconductor which led to lowly efficient electron transfer. (C) 2016 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved

Constructing a hollow core-shell structure of RuO_(2) wrapped by hierarchical porous carbon shell with Ru NPs loading for supercapacitor

Hollow core-shell structure nanomaterials have been broadly used in energy storage, catalysis, reactor,and other fields due to their unique characteristics, including the synergy between different materials,a large specific surface area, small density, large charge carrying capacity and so on. However, their synthesis processes were mostly complicated, and few researches reported one-step encapsulation of different valence states of precious metals in carbon-based materials. Hence, a novel hollow core-shell nanostructure electrode material, RuO_(2)@Ru/HCs, with a lower mass of ruthenium to reduce costs was constructed by one-step hydrothermal method with hard template and co-assembled strategy, consisting of RuO_(2) core and ruthenium nanoparticles(Ru NPs) in carbon shell. The Ru NPs were uniformly assembled in the carbon layer, which not only improved the electronic conductivity but also provided more active centers to enhance the pseudocapacitance. The RuO_(2) core further enhanced the material’s energy storage capacity. Excellent capacitance storage(318.5 F·g^(-1)at 0.5 A·g^(-1)), rate performance(64.4%) from 0.5 A·g^(-1)to 20 A·g^(-1), and cycling stability(92.3% retention after 5000 cycles) were obtained by adjusting Ru loading to 0.92%(mass). It could be attributed to the wider pore size distribution in the micropores which increased the transfer of electrons and protons. The symmetrical supercapacitor device based on RuO_(2)@Ru/HCs could successfully light up the LED lamp. Therefore, our work verified that interfacial modification of RuO_(2) and carbon could bring attractive insights into energy density for nextgeneration supercapacitors.

Numerical investigation of film forming characteristics and mass transfer enhancement in horizontal polycondensation kettle

The process of producing high viscosity polyester by transesterification polycondensation needs to adjust the operating conditions and equipment structure of pre-polycondensation kettle and final polycondensation kettle to realize process intensification.In view of this,the fluid volume function method of computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation was used to investigate the film formation and surface renewal characteristics of horizontal polycondensation kettle under different operating conditions,including viscosity,rotating speed and liquid height.The results show that the viscosity and rotating speed were positively correlated with the film area and surface renewal in the pre-polycondensation stage.However,increasing the viscosity by several orders of magnitude in the final polycondensation kettle,the larger the film area and film thickness,but the overall surface renewal of the disk decreased.Therefore,a hexagonal hole disk is designed.By comparison,it is found that the film is more uniform,the surface update frequency is higher,and the power consumption can be reduced by more than 20%.