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In this study, experiments and molecular dynamics simulations were combined to get insights into the role of solvent during the process of xylose conversion under catalyst-free conditions. Solvents used for furfural production were comparatively discussed, including traditional and emerging biomass-derived solvents – water, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethyl formamide (DMF), isopropanol (ISO), γ-butyrolactone (GBL) and γ-valerolactone (GVL). The degradation behavior of solvents, the solubility and α/β ratio of xylose, the distribution of the solvent around xylose/furfural and the hydrogen bonding between them were also studied. The results showed that in pure solvents, the different hydrogen bonding between xylose and the solvent resulted in different products. Water was a favourable solvent for xylose to form furfural among these pure solvents because less formic acid was produced from xylose in water under catalyst-free conditions. Furfural could be produced in mixed solvents if there was more water around xylose, which was similar to the case in pure water. Otherwise, the situation in mixed solvents was similar to that in the corresponding pure organic solvents. GBL and GVL, as green solvents, had weaker affinities with xylose than DMSO, DMF and ISO, but were intensively attracted by furfural, thus they could provide protective shells for furfural, which played a positive role during the production of furfural. The highest furfural yield of 46.4% was achieved in GBL–H2O at 180 °C – 150 min in the absence of catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and template-free method for the fabrication of modified pulp fiber (PF)–polyacrylamide (PAM)–graphene (RGO) composite electrodes was developed. The pulp fiber–graphene electrodes decorated with polyacrylamide were synthesized via a facile vacuum-filtration process, and further optimized through different mass ratios. Benefiting from the porous structure and large amounts of hydrophilic groups in the paper fiber, the PF–PAM–RGO composite electrode demonstrated good hydrophilic property and ion transport capacity within the electrode. After adding the polyacrylamide molecule (PF–RGO), the PF–PAM–RGO composite electrode exhibited good mechanical properties and capacitance performance due to PF–RGO hydrogen bonding. Moreover, the PF–PAM–RGO composite electrode displayed a high area specific capacitance of 498.4 mF cm−2 with a mass of 2.32 mg cm−2 (specific capacitance of 214.8 F g−1) at 0.2 mA cm−2. The assembled PF–PAM–RGO composite electrode showed a good cycling stability (92.36% capacitance retention after 8000 charging/discharging cycles) and mechanical flexibility (87.65% capacitance retention after 500 bending/unbending cycles). Remarkably, the flexible device could achieve superior energy density of 80.59 μWh cm−2 and high power density of 2549.83 μW cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]