Latest ArticlesDual ion batteries (DIBs) exhibit broad application prospects in the field of electrical energy storage (EES) devices with excellent properties, such as high voltage, high energy density, and low cost. In the graphitebased DIBs, high voltage is needed to store enough anions with the formation of anion intercalation compound XCn (X = AlCl4-, PF6-, TFSI-, etc.). Hence, it is difficult for graphite-based DIBs to match proper anodes and electrolytes. Here, an Se/graphene composite is prepared via a convenient method, and assembled into a dual-ion full battery (DIFB) as anode with graphite cathode and 1 mol/L NaPF6 in EC: EMC (1:1, v:v). This DIFB has achieved a high discharge capacity of 75.9 mAh/g and high medium output voltage of 3.5 V at 0.1 A/g. Actually, the suitable anode materials, such as the present Se/graphene composite, are extremely important for the development and application of graphite-based DIBs. This study is enlightening for the design of future low-cost EES devices including graphite-based DIBs.
Furazan and furoxan represent fascinating explosophoric units with intriguing structures and unique properties. Compared with other nitrogen-rich heterocycles, most poly furazan and furoxan-based heterocycles demonstrate superior energetic performances due to the higher enthalpy of formation and density levels. A large variety of advanced energetic materials have been achieved based on the combination of furazan and furoxan moieties with different kinds of linkers and this review provides an overview of the development of energetic poly furazan and furoxan structures during the past decades, with their physical properties and detonation characteristics summarized and compared with traditional energetic materials. Various synthetic strategies towards these compact energetic structures are highlighted by covering the most important cyclization methods for construction of the hetercyclic scaffolds and the following modifications such as nitrations and oxidations. Given the synthetic availabilities and outstanding properties, energetic materials based on poly furazan and furoxan structures are undoubtedly listed as a promising candidate for the development of new-generation explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics.
Electrocatalytic N2 reduction to ammonia is a fascinating alternative to Haber-Bosch process and also considered as an energy storage method. This work, Fe doped MoS2/carbon cloth (CC) has been studied on the electro-catalysis fix nitrogen indicating the doped Fe can indeed enhance the MoS2 material ability. Compared with MoS2/CC, Fe-Mo-S-3/CC not only increases 10 times in the rate of production ammonia, but also 5 times in Faraday efficiency.
Sodium ion hybrid capacitors are of great concern in large-scale and cost-effective electrical energy storage owing to their high energy and power densities, as well as natural abundance and wide distribution of sodium. However, it is difficult to find a well-pleasing anode material that matches the high-performance cathode materials to achieve good energy and power output for sodium ion hybrid capacitors. In this paper, nitrogen and sulfur co-doped nanotube-like carbon prepared by a simple carbonization process of high sulfur-loaded polyaniline nanotubes is introduced as the anode. The assembled sodium ion half cell based on the optimal nanotube-like carbon delivers a high reversible capacity of ~304.8 mAh/g at 0.2 A/g and an excellent rate performance of ~124.8 mAh/g at 10 A/g in a voltage window of 0.01-2.5 V (versus sodium/sodium ion). For the hybrid capacitors assembled using the optimal nanotube-like carbon as the anode and high-capacity activated carbon as the cathode, high energy densities of ~100.2 Wh/kg at 250 W/kg and ~50.69 Wh/kg at 12, 500 W/kg are achieved.
A ternary complex combining dual-phase perovskites - Cs4PbBr6/CsPbBr3 (DP-CPB) with ZnSe micropsheres (ZnSe-DP-CPB) was successfully prepared using supersaturated recrystallization technique at room temperature. It was showed that the DP-CPB composites were partially embedded in ZnSe microsphere composed with ZnSe NCs. The light absorption range of ZnSe-DP-CPB composites was extended from visible to near infrared light. Highly enhanced luminescence from ZnSe-DP-CPB composite was observed and the excitation power-dependent photoluminescence showed that the recombination involves excitons. The recombination lifetimes of the ternary composites increased compared with DP-CPB composite, indicating that the non-radiative combination was suppressed which may be possibly due to the decrease of both bulk and surface defects, owing to the passivation of ZnSe, as well as the suitable band alignments of these three components. The ternary complex also showed improved stability of photoluminescence (PL), which opens a new avenue for enhancing the stability of PL and optoelectronic applications for semiconductor-perovskite composites.
The development of efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts toward anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for the commercial application of electrochemical water splitting. As the most promising electrocatalysts, the OER performances of nickel-iron-based materials can be further improved by introducing metalloid elements to modify their electron structures. Herein, we developed an efficient hybrid electrocatalyst with nickel-iron boride (NiFeB) as core and amorphous nickel-iron borate (NiFeBi) as shell (NiFeB@NiFeBi) via a simple aqueous reduction. The obtained NiFeB@NiFeBi exhibits a small overpotential of 237 mV at 10 mA/cm2 and Tafel slope of 57.65 mV/dec in 1.0 mol/L KOH, outperforming most of the documented precious-metal-free based electrocatalysts. Benefiting from the in situ formed amorphous NiFeBi layer, it shows excellent stability toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). These findings might provide a new way to design advanced precious-metal-free electrocatalysts for OER and the application of electrochemical water splitting.
In addition to the theoretical research, direct ethanol fuel cells have great potential in practical applications. The performance of direct ethanol fuel cells largely depends on the electrocatalysts. Pt-based electrocatalysts have been promising candidates for advancing direct ethanol fuel cells for its high catalytic activity and great durability. Here, a PtSn catalyst with unique three-dimensional porous nanostructure has been designed and synthesized via a two-step liquid phase reduction reaction. Sn formed a self-supporting framework in PtSn alloy particles (~3.5 nm). In ethanol electro-oxidation reaction, the PtSn catalyst exhibited high mass activity and excellent recycling time compared with that of Pt/C. After the morphology characterization before and after potential cycling, the PtSn alloy-based nano-catalyst showed good stability. The PtSn catalysts effectively avoid structural instability due to the external carriers, and prolong the leaching time of Sn. In addition, the introduction of a certain amount of Sn can also solve the poisoning phenomenon of active sites on Pt surface. The design strategy of porous alloy nano-catalyst sheds light on its applications in direct ethanol fuel cells.
Discrimination of different types of sulfur-containing species not only helps us to deeply understand how sulfur affects cellular signaling, but also contribute to the early diagnosis of diseases. However, the current investigation about sulfur-containing species discrimination is mainly concentrated in biothiols, which is relatively limited for practical application. Toward circumventing this limitation, herein, a convenient sensor array consisting of three kinds of Au NCs-Cu2+ for simultaneous and rapid identification of different types of sulfur-containing species is reported. Based on the fingerprint-like fluorescence responses generated by competitive binding between Au NCs-Cu2+ and different sulfur-containing species, not only ten different types of sulfur-containing species separately but also their binary or ternary randomly selected mixtures can be well discriminated even in human urine and serum samples. It is worth noting that it only takes 2 min to obtain the best response signals for sulfur-containing species discrimination. Most importantly, serums from cancer patients (such as liver cancer and breast cancer) and healthy people as well as sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) and sulfur-free bacteria can be both effectively and rapidly identified within 2 min, respectively, making it a promising approach for point-of-care disease diagnostic.
Developing a fast, sensitive and convenient method for the detection of hydroxyl radicals (·OH) in the atmosphere could help us know the precursor levels of atmospheric species and control air pollution. In this work, the carbon fiber paper (CFP) functionalizing with a kind of covalent organic frameworks (COFs), formed from 1, 3, 5-triformylphloroglucinol (Tp) and benzidine (BD) (COF(TpBD)), was firstly used a new platform for ·OH trapping and detection. The COF(TpBD) modified CFP was acted as a filter to impregnate salicylic acid (SA) and a detector to detect 2, 5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2, 5-DHBA) which was produced from the reaction between the impregnated SA and ·OH in the atmosphere. This method provided a linearity for 2, 5-DHBA from 5.0×10-14 mol/L 1.0×10-9 mol/L with a detection limit of 6.9×10-15 mol/L, which is corresponding to the amount of ·OH from 3.0×107 to 6.0×1011 molecules/cm3 with the detection limit of 4.1×106 molecules/cm3. This COF(TpBD)-CFP platform has been successfully applied for the detection of ·OH concentration under different conditions of Yangzhou when the sampling time was shortened to 30 min. This work has provided a new method for atmospheric ·OH detection with excellent sensitivity, simplicity, and high speed.
The realization of good aqueous dispersibility of commercial graphene products composed of exfoliated graphene sheets is of significance for downstream applications. However, the tap density of commercial graphene powder is quite low (0.03-0.1 kg/m3), meaning that 1 kg graphene powder occupies about 10-30 m3 in volume during transportation. And, the available content of commercial graphene dispersion/slurry in aqueous medium cannot exceed 5 wt%, although the density is high (≈1050 kg/m3). In this work, a graphene monolith was prepared by oven-drying of graphene sheets prefunctionalized with poloxamer surfactants. Our graphene monoliths not only have a high density (1500 kg/m3) and high graphene content (≈10 wt%), but also a full capability to be completely redispersed (≈100%) in water by bath sonication to obtain solubilized graphene sheets, whose lateral size and thickness are unchanged compared to as-exfoliated ones. Moreover, a simple empirical method was proposed to predict the redispersion capability of graphene monoliths using different poloxamers by contact angle measurements. Our results provide a universal approach to make exfoliated graphene-based products with better downstream availability and lower transportation cost.
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