Latest ArticlesMonitoring of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was conducted within typical residential-commercial area in the city of Xi'an in northwest China during typical ozone (O3) episodes, to investigate the major contributors to the characteristic of ambient VOCs and their impact on O3 production. In the residential-commercial area, diurnal variation of VOCs was highly impacted by vehicle exhaust, fuel evaporation, and local solvent use. Relative higher contributions (up to 60%) of VOCs from solvent use to the ozone formation potential were found. The present findings highlight the urgent need for restrictions on the emission of VOCs from solvent use and non-vehicle-traffic-related sources, such as oil storage.
The temperature of waste gas in refuse transfer station, airport smoking area, and RTO terminal is low, which needs deep oxidation. Catalytic ozonation is one of the most effective treatment techniques in these scenarios. In this study, we reported that catalysts were modified under the condition of magnetic field to simulate the low temperature dynamic conditions of low concentration toluene for catalytic ozonation. This paper aims to explore the relationship between oxygen vacancy and active oxygen species, and the specific pathways of toluene oxidation. The study found that citric acid can enhance the synergistic effect between Mn and Ce, and promote the generation of oxygen vacancies. The surface molecule adsorption oxygen is more conducive to catalytic oxidation than subsurface atom adsorption oxygen. Finally, we proposed the main pathways of toluene in this reaction system, which runs through the whole process of the reaction.
Zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs), in particular quasi-solid-state ZIBs, occupy a crucial position in the field of energy storage devices owing to the superiorities of abundant zinc reserve, low cost, high safety and high theoretical capacity of zinc anode. However, as divalent Zn2+ ions experience strong electrostatic interactions when intercalating into the cathode materials, which poses challenges to the structural stability and higher demand in Zn2+ ions diffusion kinetics of the cathode materials. Here, a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method is adopted to prepare pre-potassiated hydrated vanadium pentoxide (K0.52V2O5·0.29H2O, abbreviated as KHVO) cathode material, in which the potassium ions pre-inserted into the interlayers can act as "pillars" to stabilize the lamellar structure, and crystal water can act as "lubricant" to improve the diffusion efficiency of Zn2+ ions. Consequently, the KHVO displays high electrochemical properties with high capacity (~300 mAh/g), superior rate capability (69 mAh/g at 5 A/g) and ultralong cycling performance (> 1500 cycles at 2 A/g) in quasi-solid-state ZIBs. These superior Zn storage properties result from the large diffusion coefficient and highly stable and reversible Zn2+ (de)intercalation reaction of KHVO.
Biomedicine is one of the fastest growing areas of additive manufacturing. Especially, in the field of in vitro diagnostics (IVD), contributions of 3D printing include ⅰ) rapid prototyping and iterative IVD proof-of-concept designing ranging from materials, devices to system integration; ⅱ) conceptual design simplification and improved practicality of IVD products; ⅲ) shifting the IVD applications from centralized labs to point-of-care testing (POCT). In this review, the latest developments of 3D printing and its advantages in IVD applications are summarized. A series of 3D-printed objects for IVD applications, including single-function modules, multi-function devices which integrate several single-function modules for specific analytical applications such as sample pre-treatment and chemo-/bio-sensing, and all-in-one systems which integrate multi-function devices and the instrument operating them, are analyzed from the perspective of functional integration. The current and potential commercial applications of 3D-printed objects in the IVD field are highlighted. The features of 3D printing, especially rapid prototyping and low start-up, enable the easy fabrication of bespoke modules, devices and systems for a range of analytical applications, and broadens the commercial IVD prospects.
Monovalent cation perm-selective membrane (MCPMs) allow fast and selective transport of monovalent cations, and they are promisingly required for extraction of special ions, such as lithium extraction, acid recovery and sea salt production. Herein, we report a novel strategy to design the critical functional layers of MCPMs with both space charge repulsion and cross-linked dense screenability. The in-situ deposition polymerization of pyrrole was carried out on the surface of sulfonated polyphenyl sulfone (SPPSU) substrate membrane followed by cross-linking quaternization of the polypyrrole (PPy) layer with diiodinated functional molecules, thus, the membrane obtained more excellent selective permeability and stable transport properties of monovalent cations. It confirms that the designed PPy layers with charged surface and cross-linking structure improved the hydrophilicity, facilitated cation transport and increased ion flux. Meanwhile, for the dense PPy layer, the charged cross-linked structure endowed the functional layer with the synergistic characteristics of Donnan exclusion and pore size sieving for positively charged ions, which improved the monovalent cation perm-selectivity of the membranes. At a constant current density of 5.1 mA/cm2, the optimal membrane exhibited superior perm-selectivity (PMgNa) and monovalent cation flux (JNa+ = 2.80×10 -8 mol cm-2 s-1) during electrodialysis.
Arnequinol A (1), featuring an unprecedented 6/6/3 tricyclic carbon skeleton fused with a heptatomic oxo-bridge, together with arnequinone A (2) bearing a highly conjugated methyl-shifting benzogeijerene skeleton, were isolated from Arnebia euchroma. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods and quantum chemical calculations of the 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. The plausible biosynthetic pathways for 1 and 2 were presented. In in vitro test, compound 2 showed potent neuroprotective activity against serum-deprivation induced PC12 cell damage at a concentration of 10 µmol/L.
As a two-dimensional carbon based semiconductor, C3N acts as a promising material in many application areas. However, the basic physical properties such as Raman spectrum properties of C3N is still not clear. In this paper, we clarify the Raman spectrum properties of multilayer C3N. Moreover, the stacking driven Raman spectra change of multilayer C3N is also discussed.
We herein proposed a sample introduction technique based on solution cathode glow discharge (SCGD) of a portable design for inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and its application in sensitive determination of mercury. The products from SCGD containing mercury vapor, were transported by an Ar flow to ICP spectrometer for detection. A gas liquid separator (GLS) and a dryer were used to condense and remove most of the accompanying moisture, which greatly improved both the stability and sensitivity of the signal. The detection limit (DL) acquired by this developed method was 0.22 µg/L (194.1 nm), which was nearly 82 times lower than that obtained by pneumatic nebulization (PN). The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 1.4% (n = 14) for a 50 µg/L standard. Blank solution (HNO3, pH 1) can effectively elute mercury residue. Its accuracy and practicality were also demonstrated by the determination of GBW10029 (fish) certified reference material, shrimp, crawfish, soil and human hair samples. The results showed good consistency with the certified values and the values obtained using inductively coupled plasma−mass spectrometry.
Aqueous rechargeable Ni−Zn batteries are considered as a new generation of safe and reliable electrochemical energy storage system. However, low electronic conductivity of Ni-based cathodes hinders the practical application of Ni-Zn batteries. This problem can be overcome by compositing the Ni-based cathode with highly conductive carbon substrates. A chemical oxidation pre-treatment is popularly applied to the carbon substrates to increase their hydrophilicity and thus facilitate the growth of active materials in aqueous systems. However, the anodic stability of the oxidized carbon substrates is greatly challenged, which has never been addressed in previous reports. In this work, we first compared the anodic stability of carbon fiber paper with and without oxidation treatment and find that carbon substrate with the chemical treatment caused remarkable oxidization current in the required voltage range. To take both anodic stability and fine growth of active materials into account, here we demonstrated a facile physical surface-treatment method of ethanol wetting to replace the chemical treatment. The ethanol infiltration removes gas adsorption on carbon substrates and thus promotes their hydrophilicity. This cost-effective strategy simultaneously achieves a high anodic stability and a fine growth and uniform distribution of nickel-cobalt hydroxide on the carbon microfibers. The resulting Ni-Zn battery provides a high discharge capacity of 219 mAh/g with an operation cell voltage of 1.75 V.
The Beckmann rearrangement has been predominantly studied for the synthesis of amide and lactam. By strategically using the in situ generated Appel's salt or Mitsunobu's zwitterionic adduct as the dehydrating agent, a series of Beckmann rearrangement and following cascade reactions have been developed herein. The protocol allows the conversion of various ketoximes into amide, thioamide, tetrazole and imide products in modular procedures. The generality and tolerance of functionalities of this method have been demonstrated.