Latest ArticlesPhotocatalysis technology has been proved to be a potential strategy for removal of organic dyes, however high-power light sources are generally necessary to initiate photocatalytic reaction. In this work, we employed an excellent photocatalyst of Bi2WO6 with visible light harvest and meanwhile an intrinsic ferroelectricity, which realized the efficient degradation of organic dye via the synergetic photopiezocatalysis. Through coupling the illumination by a low-power (9 W) LED and the ultrasonic vibration (120 W) by an ultrasonic cleaner, the nanoflower-like Bi2WO6 composed of ultrathin nanosheets showed a much more enhanced photopiezocatalysis performance for purification of organic dye than the individual photocatalysis and piezocatalysis. Furthermore, the high mineralization efficiency and the good durability of the Bi2WO6 catalyst were demonstrated. The possible mechanism of photopiezocatalysis was finally proposed, where the ultrasound-induced piezoelectric field in Bi2WO6 drove photo-generated electrons and holes to diffuse along opposite directions, consequently promoting the separation efficiency of charge carriers. This work indicates that the synergetic photopiezocatalysis by coupling irradiation and ultrasonic vibration is a promising strategy to purify organic pollutants in wastewater.
Nanocomposites comprising flexible polymers and high dielectric constant inorganic nanoparticles are considered to be one of the promising candidates for electrostatic capacitor dielectrics. However, the effect of interfacial property on electrical energy storage of dielectric polymer nanocomposites is still not clear. Herein, the role of the polarity of the interfacial region is investigated. For this purpose, three polymers with different polarity, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polyglycidyl methacrylate, and polymethylsulfonyl ethyl methacrylate (PMSEMA) are attached onto BaTiO3 (BT) nanoparticle surface via surface-initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. It is found that the polarity of shell polymers shows an apparent effect on the dielectric and energy storage of dielectric polymer nanocomposites. For example, PMSEMA@BT (shell polymer possesses the highest polarity) increases dielectric loss and decreases the breakdown strength of the nanocomposites, leading to lower energy storage capability. However, PMMA@BT (shell polymer possesses the lowest polarity) can induce higher breakdown strength of the nanocomposites. As a result, the PMMA@BT nanocomposite exhibits the highest electrical energy storage capability among the three nanocomposites. This research provides new insight into the design of core-shell nanofillers for dielectric energy storage applications.
Water electrolysis technology holds the perfect promise of the hydrogen production, yet control of efficiency and rate of water electrolysis greatly relies on the availability of high-performance electrode materials for kinetic-sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Accordingly, substantial endeavors have been made to explore advanced electrode materials over the past decade. Recently, RuO2 and RuO2-based materials have been demonstrated to be promising for OER due to their remarkable electrocatalytic activity and pH-universal application. Herein, the great achievements and progresses of this flourishing spot are comprehensively reviewed, which are started by a general description of OER to understand the reaction mechanism in detail. Subsequently, the key advantages and issues of RuO2 towards OER are also introduced, followed by proposing many advanced strategies for further promoting the electrocatalytic OER performance of RuO2. Finally, the daunting challenges and future progresses of RuO2 electrocatalysts toward practical water oxidation are highlighted, aiming to provide guidance for the fabrication of desirable RuO2-based electrocatalysts toward OER.
Owing to the special formation of photopolymerized hydrogels, they can effectively control the formation of hydrogels in space and time. Moreover, the photopolymerized hydrogels have mild formation conditions and biocompatibility; therefore, they can be widely used in tissue engineering. With the development and application of manufacturing technology, photopolymerized hydrogels can be widely used in cell encapsulation, scaffold materials, and other tissue engineering fields through more elaborate manufacturing methods. This review covers the types of photoinitiators, manufacturing technologies for photopolymerized hydrogels as well as the materials used, and a summary of the applications of photopolymerized hydrogels in tissue engineering.
Carbon dots (Cdots) has been proved to possess the catalytic decomposition of H2O2 in the photocatalytic system. It is a potential photo-Fenton catalyst. Since multiple emissive Cdots have different light response range. There is rarely investigation on the performance of Cdots based photo-Fenton on the light wavelength. Herein, blue, green and red emissive carbon dots were synthesized from the different ratio of o-phenylenediamine and catechol by the solvothermal method. They exhibit different light adsorption range from UV to visible light. Furthermore, the photo-Fenton reactivity of Cdots was studied for catalyzing the decomposition of H2O2 to generate free hydroxyl radicals and consequently applying for the removal of methyl blue. The results exhibit that Cdots with the broader light adsorption rang possess the stronger catalytic activity for the photo-Fenton reaction. The H2O2 decomposition rate of red emissive Cdots is 0.074 min−1, which is 2.64 and 1.46 times than the blue and green emissive Cdots, respectively. And the radical detection results confirm that the photo-Fenton happens in the reaction. In addition, the Cdots photo-Fenton can be carried out in the broad pH range from acidic to basic solution, which has a great potential to treat wastewater in the neutral system.
This study was to investigate the optimal additions of the cellulose decomposition reaction to obtain the most yield of 5-HMF and other furan derivatives in various biphasic systems with FeCl3-CuCl2 mixed catalysts, and explore its depolymerization kinetics. A series of controllable reactions have been performed under mild environmentally friendly atmosphere. The experiment results showed that 49.13 wt% of 5-HMF was the maximum production along with 2.98 wt% other furan derivatives catalyzed by mixed Lewis acid FeCl3-CuCl2 under the two phases which included high concentration NaCl aqueous phase and n-butanol organic phase at 190 ℃ for 45 min. The conclusion suggested that two-phase systems benefited the yield of 5-HMF, furan derivatives via extracting the target products from reaction phase to organic phase to avoid rehydration of 5-HMF. The kinetic calculation revealed the conversion with mixed catalysts had lower reaction apparent activation energy (21.65 kJ/mol, 190-230 ℃) and the reaction rate was faster than that with acid-based catalysts. Based on experiment exploration, the probable mechanism of cellulose decomposition with FeCl3-CuCl2 was proposed.
The development of active, low-cost and durable bifunctional electrocatalysts toward both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are important for overall water splitting. Here, well-defined arrays of vanadium-iron bimetal organic frameworks (VFe-MOF) with controllable stoichiometry have been successfully prepared on nickel foam (NF). The as-fabricated VFe-MOF@NF electrode exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity and durability for OER and HER in alkaline medium. The material's overpotentials of 10 mA/cm2 are 246 mV for OER and 147 mV for HER, respectively. The electrolyzer made from the VFe-MOF@NF electrodes as both the cathode and anode in 1 mol/L KOH needs only a voltage of 1.61 V to reach a current density of 10 mA/cm2. The superior performance of VFe-MOF@NF can be attributed to the morphological control and electronic regulation of the bimetals, that is, 1) the exposure of the active sites at electrocatalyst/electrolyte interfaces due to the array structure; 2) the synergistic effect of vanadium and iron metals on electro-catalyzing the overall water splitting.
Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) play an increasingly important role in the field of medicine and affects public health in the world. Although more and more strict has been employed to ensure the quality and safety of CHMs, pesticide residues in CHMs remain a serious issue and are the bottleneck for the global development of CHMs. In this work, we applied molecularly imprinted membrane electrospray mass spectrometry (MIM-ESI MS) for rapid detecting 4 classes of pesticide residues in CHMs, including organophosphorus (OPP), carbamates, pyrethroids and neonicotinoids in CHMs. Compared with our previous ambient ionization method MESI, MIM-ESI is capable of achieving a ~50-fold increase in the detection limit of conventional analytical methods owing to the specificity recognition and unique enrichment of MIM. The optimal experimental conditions were determined, and the method was further validated for its sensitivity and specificity. Our data showed that MIM-ESI MS is applicable for the direct quantitation of pesticide residues in CHMs. This detection technology may help to ensure the quality of CHMs in the future.
Lithium-sulfur battery is strongly considered as the most promising next-generation energy storage system because of the high theoretical specific capacity. The serious "shuttle effect" and sluggish reaction kinetic limited the commercial application of lithium-sulfur battery. Many heterostructures were applied to accelerate polysulfides conversion and suppress their migration in lithium-sulfur batteries. Nevertheless, the effect of the interface in heterostructure was not clear. Here, the Co2B@MXene heterostructure is synthesized through chemical reactions at room temperature and employed as the interlayer material for Li-S batteries. The theoretical calculations and experimental results indicate that the interfacial electronic interaction of Co2B@MXene induce the transfer of electrons from Co2B to MXene, enhancing the catalytic ability and favoring fast redox kinetics of the polysulfides, and the theoretical calculations also reveal the underlying mechanisms for the electron transfer is that the two materials have different Fermi energy levels. The cell with Co2B@MXene exhibits a high initial capacity of 1577 mAh/g at 0.1 C and an ultralow capacity decay of 0.0088% per cycle over 2000 cycles at 2 C. Even at 5.1 mg/cm2 of sulfur loading, the cell with Co2B@MXene delivers 5.2 mAh/cm2 at 0.2 C.
The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPARδ) agonists are reported to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce glucose levels, and alleviate dysfunctional lipid metabolism in animal models of type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Metabolism plays an essential role in the biological system. Monitoring of metabolic changes in response to disease conditions or drug treatment is critical for better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms. In this study, metabolic profiling analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry integrated with targeted analysis by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was carried out in plasma samples of db/db diabetic mice after six-week treatment of PPARδ agonist GW501516. GW501516 treatment significantly altered levels of metabolites, such as branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), BCAA metabolites (3-hydroxyisobutyric acid and 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid), long-chain fatty acids, uric acid and ketone bodies (3-hydroxybutyric acid and 2-hydroxybutyric acid) which are all associated with the impaired systemic insulin sensitivity. The present results indicate the beneficial effect of PPARδ agonist in alleviating insulin resistance of diabetic mice by favorably modulating metabolic profile, thus providing valuable information in understanding the therapeutic potential of PPARδ agonists in correcting metabolic dysfunction in diabetes.
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