Search

In this study, a highly efficient peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activator, ZnO/ZnMn2O4, was synthesized using a simple one‐step hydrothermal method. The resulting bimetallic oxide catalyst demonstrated a homogenous and high‐purity composition, showcasing synergistic catalytic activity in activating PMS for degrading 2, 4‐dichlorophenol (2, 4‐DCP) in aqueous solution. This catalytic performance surpassed that of individual ZnO, Mn2O3, and ZnMn2O4 metal materials. Under the optimized conditions, the removal efficiency of 2, 4‐DCP reached approximately 86% within 60 min, and the catalytic ability remained almost constant even after four cycles of recycling. The developed degradation system proved effective in degrading other azo‐dye pollutants. Certain inorganic anions such as HPO4−, HCO3−, and NO3− significantly inhibited the degradation of 2, 4‐DCP, while Cl− and SO42− did not exhibit such interference. Results from electrochemical experiments indicated that the electron transfer ability of ZnO/ZnMn2O4 surpassed that of individual metals, and electron transfer occurred between ZnO/ZnMn2O4 and the oxidant. The primary active radicals responsible for degrading 2, 4‐DCP were identified as SO4•−, OH• and O2•−, generated through the oxidation and reduction of PMS catalyzed by Zn (II) and Mn (III). Furthermore, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of the fresh and used catalysts revealed that the exceptional electron transfer ability of ZnO facilitated the valence transfer of Mn (III) and the transfer of electrons to the catalyst's oxygen surface, thus enhancing the catalytic efficiency. The analysis of radicals and intermediates indicates that the two main pathways for degrading 2, 4‐DCP involve hydroxylation and radical attack on its aromatic ring. Practitioner Points: A bimetallic ZnO/ZnMn2O4 catalyst was synthesized and characterized.ZnO/ZnMn2O4 can synergistically activate PMS to degrade 2, 4‐DCP compared with single metal oxide.Three primary active radicals, O2•−, •OH, and SO4•−, were generated to promote the degradation.ZnO promoted electron transfer among the three species of Mn to facilitate oxidizing pollutants.Hydroxylation and radical attack on the aromatic ring of 2, 4‐DCP are the two degradation pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum teleportation is one of the fundamental primitives of quantum cryptography. In order to achieve a wider range of high-capacity information transfer, we propose a free-space quantum teleportation (QT) protocol with orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexed continuous variable (CV) entangled states. The preparation of the entangled states is accomplished by the spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) process occurring in a hot 85 Rb vapor cell, and the mode selection for the Bell-state measurement is achieved by employing the balanced homodyne detection technique. The fidelity of teleporting EPR entangled states carrying different topological charges via a Kolmogorov-type atmospheric turbulence channel is derived, and the superiority of enhancing the system channel capacity via OAM multiplexing is demonstrated. Our work provides a feasible scheme to implement high-capacity quantum communication in atmospheric environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase drift extremely limits the secure key rate and secure transmission distance, which is non-negligible in local oscillation continuous variable quantum key distribution (LLO CV-QKD). In order to eliminate the impact caused by phase drift, we analyze the phase noise of the system and propose a phase compensation method based on convolutional neural network (CNN). Moreover, the compensation is performed on the signal according to the estimated value of phase drift before coherent detection. In numerical simulation, we compare the performance of phase compensation methods based on CNN and Kalman filter (KF), and the results show that CNN-based phase compensation has higher accuracy and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a neural network-based framework to compensate for the nonlinear distortion of high-speed continuous variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) systems. In practice, the nonlinear impairment of imperfect devices could bring interference to the measured quadrature values and thus compromise the parameter estimation procedure and the secure key rate. Specifically, for a high-speed CV-QKD system, the balanced homodyne detector (BHD) and the following analog-to-digital converter are the primary sources of nonlinear impairment. The nonlinear distortion effect will be more pronounced as the pulse repetition rate increases. We propose an autoencoder-based network to learn the inner patterns of distorted data and then compensate the quadrature measurements in real-time at the receiver’s side. The numerical simulation demonstrates that the excess noise induced by nonlinear impairment is reduced to the $10^{-3}$ level in the shot noise unit. Consequently, such a software approach has the ability to significantly boost the bandwidth efficiency of the BHD and the secure key bit rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous variable quantum teleportation (CVQT) is one of the technologies currently explored to implement global quantum networks. Entanglement source is an indispensable resource to realize CVQT, and its distribution process has natural symmetry. Though there are many results for CVQT over optical fiber or atmospheric channel, little attention is paid to seawater channel. In this paper, a model based on seawater chlorophyll concentration is used to study the attenuation effect of seawater on light. In our scheme, a noiseless linear amplifier is utilized for enhancing the performance of CVQT under seawater channel. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme has an improvement in terms of fidelity and maximum transmission distance compared with the original scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite-based quantum key distribution (QKD) has lately received considerable attention due to its potential to establish a secure global network. Associated with its application is a turbulent atmosphere that sets a notable restriction to the transmission efficiency, which is especially challenging for ground-to-satellite uplink scenarios. Here, we propose a novel noiseless attenuation (NA) scheme involving a zero-photon catalysis operation for source preparation to improve the performance of continuous-variable (CV) QKD over uplink. Numerical analysis shows that the NA-based CV-QKD, under attenuation optimization, outperforms the traditional CV-QKD, which is embodied in extending the allowable zenith angle while improving the effective communication time. Attributing to characteristics of the attenuation optimization, we find that the NA-involved source preparation improves the security bound by relatively reducing the amount of information available to eavesdroppers. Taking the finite-size effect into account, we achieve a tighter bond of security, which is more practical compared with the asymptotic limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the optical absorption and scattering properties of four different kinds of seawater as the quantum channel. The models of discrete-modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) in free-space seawater channel are briefly described, and the performance of the four-state protocol and the eight-state protocol in asymptotic and finite-size cases is analyzed in detail. Simulation results illustrate that the more complex is the seawater composition, the worse is the performance of the protocol. For different types of seawater channels, we can improve the performance of the protocol by selecting different optimal modulation variances and controlling the extra noise on the channel. Besides, we can find that the performance of the eight-state protocol is better than that of the four-state protocol, and there is little difference between homodyne detection and heterodyne detection. Although the secret key rate of the protocol that we propose is still relatively low and the maximum transmission distance is only a few hundred meters, the research on CV-QKD over the seawater channel is of great significance, which provides a new idea for the construction of global secure communication network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban lakes in China, especially those with relatively small areas and closed watersheds, have suffered from serious pollution and are at a high risk of eutrophication due to the small amount of concern given to them. The temporal distribution profile, source apportionment and potential toxicity of parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and alkylated PAHs (APAHs) in a sediment core from an urban shallow lake with the above specifications, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China, were investigated in the present study. Parent PAHs, especially 4–6 ring ones, were dominant in the sediment core. The vertical profiles of 16 anthropogenic US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) priority PAHs increased from a depth of 50 cm to 30 cm, then slightly decreased to the surface. However, biogenic perylene content decreased from bottom to surface. Most of the APAHs increased in concentration from bottom to surface. Source apportionment of EPA PAHs indicated the pyrogenic source was dominant in the sediment core. The domestic combustion of bituminous coal, coal tar and biomass can be identified as the main factors responsible for this. Toxicity assessment of selected parent PAHs demonstrated that benzo(a)pyrene accounted for the largest part of the toxic equivalent quantity (TEQ), and PAHs in the studied area possibly imposed adverse biological effects, especially for benthic organisms. Therefore, action should be taken to prevent an increase in the contamination from PAHs in the studied area, as well as in similar urban lakes in China, based on the specificity of individual watersheds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secret key rate is one of the main obstacles to the practical application of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD). In this paper, we propose a multiplexing scheme to increase the secret key rate of the CVQKD system with orbital angular momentum (OAM). The propagation characteristics of a typical vortex beam, involving the Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beam, are analyzed in an atmospheric channel for the Kolmogorov turbulence model. Discrete modulation is utilized to extend the maximal transmission distance. We show the effect of the transmittance of the beam over the turbulent channel on the secret key rate and the transmission distance. Numerical simulations indicate that the OAM multiplexing scheme can improve the performance of the CVQKD system and hence has potential use for practical high-rate quantum communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decolorization and degradation of C. I. Disperse Blue 56 (DB 56) in aqueous dispersion by the methods of UV, NaCIO, and UV/NaCIO, respectively, has been investigated in the present study. It was found that the combination of UV/NaCIO is most efficient, and the color and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate related to different methods decreased in the following order: UV/NaCIO > NaClO >>UV. The decolorization efficiency (99%) was always far higher than that of mineralization (49%) when the model dye solution was treated by UV/NaC1O for 60 mm. In order to address the possible formation of absorbable organic halides (AOX) arised from the use of NaCIO as an oxidant in the present study, DB-56 solution saturated with either O2 or N2 was treated by UV/NaCIO to explore the optimum conditions to minimize the generation of AOX species. The results revealed that AOX species were non-detectable in the UV/NaCIO/O2 system after 60 mm reaction, whereas for UV/NaCIO/N2 system, a fairly large number of AOX was detected by GC/MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphitic carbon nitride materials (g-C 3 N 4 ) were prepared from melamine hydrochloride under different calcination temperatures, and were investigated as metal-free catalysts for Acid Orange 7 degradation in the presence of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) under visible light. It was found that with the increase of calcination temperature, the morphological features of g-C 3 N 4 change from a typical flat layer structure with numerous mesopores to a thinner platelet-like structure, accompanied by the increase of BET surface area. The increase of heating temperature can also enlarge the band gap of g-C 3 N 4 . But under a higher temperature of 600 °C, the band gap is significantly reduced, probably due to the decrease of the structure defects. The obtained samples can effectively activate PMS under visible light irradiation to generate reactive species such as sulfate radicals, superoxides and photogenerated hole for dye degradation. Compared with the samples obtained from melamine, the activity is much higher, attributed to the dramatic enhancement of BET surface area. The catalysts also present a long-term stability during multiple runs. The effect of several reaction parameters and the formation of intermediates were also discussed. This study can improve our understanding of PMS activation on g-C 3 N 4 catalysts under visible light for pollutants removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a highly efficient peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activator, ZnO/ZnMn 2 O 4 , was synthesized using a simple one-step hydrothermal method. The resulting bimetallic oxide catalyst demonstrated a homogenous and high-purity composition, showcasing synergistic catalytic activity in activating PMS for degrading 2, 4-dichlorophenol (2, 4-DCP) in aqueous solution. This catalytic performance surpassed that of individual ZnO, Mn 2 O 3 , and ZnMn 2 O 4 metal materials. Under the optimized conditions, the removal efficiency of 2, 4-DCP reached approximately 86% within 60 min, and the catalytic ability remained almost constant even after four cycles of recycling. The developed degradation system proved effective in degrading other azo-dye pollutants. Certain inorganic anions such as HPO 4 - , HCO 3 - , and NO 3 - significantly inhibited the degradation of 2, 4-DCP, while Cl - and SO 4 2- did not exhibit such interference. Results from electrochemical experiments indicated that the electron transfer ability of ZnO/ZnMn 2 O 4 surpassed that of individual metals, and electron transfer occurred between ZnO/ZnMn 2 O 4 and the oxidant. The primary active radicals responsible for degrading 2, 4-DCP were identified as SO 4 •- , OH • and O 2 •- , generated through the oxidation and reduction of PMS catalyzed by Zn (II) and Mn (III). Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of the fresh and used catalysts revealed that the exceptional electron transfer ability of ZnO facilitated the valence transfer of Mn (III) and the transfer of electrons to the catalyst's oxygen surface, thus enhancing the catalytic efficiency. The analysis of radicals and intermediates indicates that the two main pathways for degrading 2, 4-DCP involve hydroxylation and radical attack on its aromatic ring. PRACTITIONER POINTS: A bimetallic ZnO/ZnMn 2 O 4 catalyst was synthesized and characterized. ZnO/ZnMn 2 O 4 can synergistically activate PMS to degrade 2, 4-DCP compared with single metal oxide. Three primary active radicals, O 2 •- , • OH, and SO 4 •- , were generated to promote the degradation. ZnO promoted electron transfer among the three species of Mn to facilitate oxidizing pollutants. Hydroxylation and radical attack on the aromatic ring of 2, 4-DCP are the two degradation pathways., (© 2024 Water Environment Federation.)

The continuous-variable quantum digital signature (CV-QDS) scheme relies on the components of quantum key generation protocol (KGP) to negotiate classical signature, which is more compatible with optical fibers. Nevertheless, the measurement angular error of heterodyne detection or homodyne detection will cause security issues when performing KGP in the distribution stage. For that, we propose to utilize unidimensional modulation in KGP components, which only requires to modulate single quadrature and without the process of basis choice. Numerical simulation results show that the security under collective attack, repudiation attack and forgery attack can be guaranteed. We expect that the unidimensional modulation of KGP components could further simplify the implementation of CV-QDS and circumvent the security issues caused by the measurement angular error.

A key challenge for quantum information science is to realize large-scale, precisely controllable, practical systems for multiparty secure communications. Recently, Guidry etal. [Nat. Photonics16, 52 (2022)10.1038/s41566-021-00901-z] have investigated the quantum optics of a Kerr-based optical frequency comb (OFC), which lays out the way for OFC acting as a quantum resource to realize a low-cost and stable multiparty continuous-variable quantum information processing. In this work, we propose a distributed quantum anonymous voting (DQAV) protocol based on discrete modulated coherent states, in which a Kerr-based OFC serves as the resource to generate multi-frequency quantum signals for multiparty voting. We consider both the single-selection and multiple-selection ballot scenarios, and design the phase compensation method for the OFC-based protocol. Voting security is ensured by the basic laws of quantum mechanics, while voting anonymity is achieved by the random assignment of different frequency sources and the homogeneity of the quantum operations taken on the same voting choice. Numerical analysis calculates the secure voting distance over the thermal-lossy channel, showing the advancement of the proposed protocol under multiparty and multivalued voting tasks.

Factors affecting the degradation of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) were evaluated and optimized when ferrous was used to catalyze percarbonate in the present study. The optimized conditions included the initial pH values ranging from 3 to 11 for AO7 solution, the initial level of AO7, sodium percarbonate (SPC), and Fe 2+ . Some ions and natural organic materials, which commonly exist in natural water, were also tested to evaluate their potential impacts on the degradation of AO7. The degradation efficiency of AO7 was up to 95% under the optimized test conditions, where the ferrous/percarbonate/AO7 molar ratio was 15/10/1 in the 0.285 mmol/l AO7 aqueous solution. The presence of Cl - , SO 4 2- , NO 3 - , Na + , and Mg 2+ did not affect the removal of AO7. The addition of HCO 3 - significantly inhibited its removal, even when the concentration of HCO 3 - was low to 0.6 mmol/l. A slight inhibition effect was observed when the added concentration of humic acid ranged from 0.5 to 5 mg/l, whereas the residue of AO7 was significantly enhanced when the level of humic acid was continually increased from 50 to 100 mg/l. Hydroxyl radicals (•OH) were the main reactive intermediates controlling the oxidation of AO7 in the present Fe 2+ /SPC system. The produced intermediates through the degradation of AO7 were identified to include 2-coumaranone, 2-naphthol, phthalic acid, phthalimide, N-methylnaphthylamine, and 2-methylphenol. The proposed degradation pathways are consistent with the radical formation and the identified intermediates. PRACTITIONER POINTS: The ferrous/percarbonate system can remove 95% of AO7 under the optimized conditions. AO7 removal was inhibited by adding HCO 3 - and humic acid, but not affected by Cl - , SO 4 2- , NO 3 - , Na + , and Mg 2+ . Hydroxylation, ring opening, and mineralization driven by the generated hydroxyl radicals were derived as the major processes for degrading AO7., (© 2022 Water Environment Federation.)