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Carbonaceous and alternative supporting materials for platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) have been explored for the cathodic electrocatalysis in low-temperature fuel cells. Pd and Pt are widely used for catalysis owing to their remarkable electrocatalytic activity toward water splitting and fuel cell reactions. Supporting materials play a paramount role in defining electrocatalytic properties such as durability, selectivity, and activity. The conventional supporting material such as carbon black is unable to fit all the requirements under the severe operating conditions of fuel cells due to its poor corrosion resistance and limited mass transport of fuels to active catalyst sites. Nowadays the scientific research is being concentrated on devising different altered carbonic and carbon-free supporting materials for catalysts to improve the catalytic activity, stability, and selectivity of noble metal electrocatalysts. Lately, Pt, Pd and their alloy catalysts supported on modified carbonaceous and carbon-free materials have attracted solid interest owing to their prominent characteristics contributing to the remarkable fuel cell efficacy. Therefore, it is reasonable to explore this theme, regarding a variety of supporting materials, their advantages, drawbacks and future perspectives. In this mini-review, we selectively summarize recent advancements on several types of key supporting materials: carbon (graphene, carbon nanotubes, mesoporous carbon, and doped carbon nanostructures), non-carbon (transition metals oxides, borides, nitrides, and carbides) and hybrid nanocomposites. Image 1 • Effect of supports on performances has been reviewed both experimentally and theoretically. • Non-carbonaceous stable and multifunctional support has been emphasized and expected. • SMSI including mechanical strain, chemical electron transfer, faceted match is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we report the facile fabrication and performance evaluation of flexible heat pipes that have integrated bioinspired wick structures and flexible polyurethane polymer connector design between the copper condenser and evaporator. Inside the heat pipe, a bioinspired superhydrophilic strong-base-oxidized copper mesh with multi-scale micro/nano-structures was used as the wicking material and deionized water was selected as working fluid. Thermal resistances of the fabricated flexible heat pipes charged with different filling ratios were measured under thermal power inputs ranging from 2 W to 12 W while the device was bent at different angles. The fabricated heat pipes with a 30% filling ratio demonstrated a low thermal resistance less than 0.01 K/W. Compared with the vertically oriented straight heat pipes, bending from 30° up to 120° has negligible influence on the heat-transfer performance. Furthermore, repeated heating tests indicated that the fabricated flexible heat pipes have consistent and reliable heat-transfer performance, thus would have important applications for advanced thermal management in three dimensional and flexible electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates a facile solar steam generator for the generation of high-temperature steam at ambient pressure. The steam generator consists of a coiled copper tube (CCT) that serves as both solar collector and vapor heater. Both the inner and outer surfaces of the CCT are coated with black superhydrophobic copper oxide layer to improve the solar absorption, and such superhydrophobic layer prevents the condensation and clogging of water vapor during the heating process. Solar vapor is generated at the inlet of CCT through interfacial evaporation and subsequently heated inside the CCT as the vapor travels from the inlet to the outlet. By employing this approach, steam temperature that exceeds 100 °C under 1-sun illumination is demonstrated. Furthermore, steam temperature could reach as high as 250 °C under 10-sun illumination at ambient pressure. Successful sterilization experiment was also performed in this work to demonstrate the potential application of the high temperature steam generated. Such demonstrated approach helps open up the potential usage of solar-driven interfacial evaporation in applications that involve high-temperature steam, including medical sterilization, chemical manufacturing and food processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Lithium-ion batteries, with high energy density (up to 705 Wh/L) and power density (up to 10,000 W/L), exhibit high capacity and great working performance. As rechargeable batteries, lithium-ion batteries serve as power sources in various application systems. Temperature, as a critical factor, significantly impacts on the performance of lithium-ion batteries and also limits the application of lithium-ion batteries. Moreover, different temperature conditions result in different adverse effects. Accurate measurement of temperature inside lithium-ion batteries and understanding the temperature effects are important for the proper battery management. In this review, we discuss the effects of temperature to lithium-ion batteries at both low and high temperature ranges. The current approaches in monitoring the internal temperature of lithium-ion batteries via both contact and contactless processes are also discussed in the review. Graphical abstract Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), with high energy density and power density, exhibit good performance in many different areas. The performance of LIBs, however, is still limited by the impact of temperature. The acceptable temperature region for LIBs normally is −20 °C ~ 60 °C. Both low temperature and high temperature that are outside of this region will lead to degradation of performance and irreversible damages, such as lithium plating and thermal runaway. Therefore, understanding the temperature effects and accurate measurement of temperature inside lithium-ion batteries are important for the proper battery management. The state-of-art achievements in monitoring the temperature inside the LIBs can be divided into contact measurement and contactless measurement. This review overviews recent development in both the understanding of the temperature effects and the temperature monitoring, and discusses the challenges and possible future directions in achieving optimum battery performance. fx1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With the increased need for clean water and decreased supply of fresh water, purification of contaminated water can provide clean water that supplements the fresh water from nature. Physical adsorption, photo-degradation and solar-driven evaporation processes are promising ways to generate clean water with minimum environmental impact. However, different purification process requires different dispersion state of the treating agent to maximize its performance. Herein, we demonstrate that Fe 3 O 4 -reduced graphene oxide (MrGO) particles with switchable dispersion can be used as the multifunctional water treating agents to efficiently purify contaminated water through different processes. Under homogenously dispersed nanofluid mode, the MrGO particles have large exposed surface areas and can efficiently remove organic dye pollutants through physical adsorption. The uniform dispersion state also favors high contact efficiency facilitating decontamination of high concentration of organic compounds through solar-driven photocatalytic degradation by the MrGO particles. The excellent magnetic response of MrGO particles not only allows for easy collection of the treating agent from water but also enables assembly of MrGO at the air-water interface with external magnets. Under such interfacial assembled mode, clean water can be distilled out of the contaminated solution with high evaporation efficiency of 74.7% under simulated natural solar radiation. This work demonstrates that dispersion state can be used as another important means to optimize water purification performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]