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Solar‐driven interfacial evaporation is an emerging desalination technology that can potentially relieve the freshwater scarcity issue. To obtain high and continuous evaporation rates for all‐weather, chemically engineered structural materials have been widely explored for simultaneous photothermal and electrothermal conversion. However, many previously reported fabrication processes involve poor integration and considerable energy loss. Herein, a scalable photo‐electro‐thermal textile is proposed to enable high efficiency, long‐term salt rejection, and solar‐driven desalination. Specifically, the photo‐electro‐thermal yarns with a core (commercial electric wire)‐shell (polypyrrole‐decorated Tencel) structure realize the integration of electrothermal and photothermal conversion. The wrapping eccentricity of 1.53 mm and pitch of 3 T cm−1 for the electric wire are rationally regulated to achieve a high surface temperature of over 52 °C at a 3 V DC input. As a result, exceptional and stable evaporation rates of 5.57 kg m−2 h−1 (pure water) and 4.89 kg m−2 h−1 (3.5 wt.% brine) under 1 kW m−2·radiation with a 3 V input voltage are realized. Practical application shows that the textiles can achieve high water collection of over 46 kg m−2 d−1 over the whole day of operation. The constructed photo‐electro‐thermal textile‐based evaporator provides an effective method for commercial and scalable photo‐electro‐thermal conversion to achieve high‐performance and salt‐resistant solar‐driven desalination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy generation systems based on FC (fuel cell) are viewed as a viable substitute for those that simply rely on thermodynamic cycles in the power production field. In this paper, a 10-stack SOFC systems performance and optimization of that utilizing a newly improved optimizer known as the Fractional-order Kho-Kho optimization method will be presented in this paper. The multi-objective optimization approach is applied in the optimization phase to achieve the desired performance goals for the SOFC system. With the help of this technique, the desired system can be optimized in accordance with two objective functions: first, the electric power of the system can be maximized, while the equalized price of the electricity produced is minimized. Then, the electrical efficiency of the system can be maximized, while the equalized price of the electricity produced is minimized. The results show that, by reducing the coefficient and increasing efficiency, optimal solutions were achieved with higher electricity prices. It is observed that an increase in energy prices led to a 9% increase in productivity, whereas a 15% increase resulted in only a 2% increase. The findings demonstrate that multi-objective optimization may be used as a sophisticated analytical tool as well as a guiding element for decision-makers utilizing such a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large-scale survey for offshore aggregates is carried out on the northern shelf of the East China Sea. Results show that most of them are directly exposed in the Yangtze Shoal and the linear sand ridges system at water depths 25-55 m and 60-120 m, respectively. The components of these deposits belong to fine aggregates in terms of the fineness modulus. The potential resources are as high as 147.8 × 1012 kg for the Yangtze Shoal yet only 36.68 × 1012 kg for the sand ridges area, respectively. A preliminary feasibility analysis suggests that the Yangtze Shoal is suitable for dredging under the present conditions of technology and economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In carbon allotropes, a series of topological semi-metals have been predicted, but both novel electronic properties and mechanical characteristics, e.g. , a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR), are rarely discovered in the same sp 2 type system. Here, a new three-dimensional carbon network, named WZGN, constructed from distorted one-dimensional zigzag graphene nanoribbons is proposed. The stability of the system is fully ensured by the phonon dispersion, AIMD simulation, and binding energy calculations. Besides, it is found that the system holds both topologically protected nodal line semi-metal properties together with an NPR property. Especially, the value of the NPR can exceed -0.36 when 21% uniaxial tensile strain along the c '-direction is applied. Our findings point out that nodal line semi-metals can be compatible with intrinsic NPR properties in a wide strain range in carbon systems with sp 2 hybridization, suggesting possible applications in mechanical and electronics fields.

The second near-infrared window emission (1.0-1.7 μm, NIR-II) has received extensive attention with the advantages of negligible tissue scattering, reduced autofluorescence, and less background noise. Here a novel analysis platform based on quantum dots (QDs) for highly selective detection of Zn 2+ and Cd 2+ with an enhanced NIR-II fluorescence is reported for the first time. We have developed a facile two-step route to synthesize the water-soluble Ag 2 S QDs, constituting of a green hydrothermal process and followed surface ligands exchange. Surface passivation was proposed to be the mechanism for the enhanced fluorescence. The added Zn 2+ or Cd 2+ could react with the surface thioglycollic acid to form Zn-thiol or Cd-thiol complex passivation shell, which restored surface defects and suppressed nonradiative recombination pathway. The detection platform exhibited a linear relationship between the ion concentrations and enhanced fluorescence and had a detection limit as low as 760 nM for Zn 2+ and 546 nM for Cd 2+ at pH = 7.4. Furthermore, the as-synthesized Ag 2 S QDs showed good robustness in real sample matrix and were demonstrated to be able to detect exogenous Zn(II) in cells. These properties suggest potential applications of detection of Zn 2+ in biology and Cd 2+ in environment via the NIR-II fluorescent Ag 2 S QDs.