Search

A coordination polymer with dual functions of high proton conductivity and highly sensitive fluorescent sensors demonstrates a great application potential. In this work, a cadmium-based coordination polymer (denoted as CP 1) with hydrothermal stability was synthesized. The abundant coordination water, lattice water, and amino groups make an extended hydrogen-bonding pathway for efficient proton migration, which endows CP 1 with the highest proton conductivity of 2.41 × 10-3 S·cm-1 at 353 K and 98% RH. Especially, the proton conductivity of the chitosan (CS) hybrid membrane containing CP 1 reaches a maximum value of 2.62 × 10-2 S·cm-1 under 343 K and 98% RH, which increases almost 7 times higher than that of the pure CS membrane due to the host-guest collaboration. Furthermore, luminescence studies revealed that CP 1 is a high-sensitivity and good-selectivity fluorescent probe for the detection of trace amounts of l-histidine with a lowest detection limit of 1.0 × 10-8 M.

A new analytical approach for the species discrimination of Ganodermataceae mushroom was developed by using data fusion strategy based on attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared ATR-FTIR and ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy, and applying the chemometric tools. The optimization for determination of UV–vis spectra was described. The multivariate discrimination ways used were t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), and Random Forest (RF). The data fusion levels used were low- and mid-data fusion. The performance of the model was assessed by several parameters as root mean square error of estimation (RMSEE), root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV), R2Y(cum), and Q2(cum). The discrimination results were evaluated by accuracy from the test set, which was composed of samples with unknown origin. The new proposed method took shorter time and lower cost, and the results showed good discrimination power among various species. PLS-DA and RF models based on mid-level fusion data were able to classify mushrooms according to real origin, confirming the potential of data fusion and chemometrics in mushrooms species discrimination.

Indium-based chalcogenide semiconductors have been served as the promising candidates for solar H2 evolution reaction, however, the related studies are still in its infancy and the enhancement of efficiency remains a grand challenge. Here, we report that the photocatalytic H2 evolution activity of quantized indium chalcogenide semiconductors could be dramatically aroused by the co-decoration of transition metal Zn and Cu. Different from the traditional metal ion doping strategies which only focus on narrowing bandgap for robust visible light harvesting, the conduction and valence band are coordinately regulated to realize the bandgap narrowing and the raising of thermodynamic driving force for proton reduction, simultaneously. Therefore, the as-prepared noble metal-free Cu0.4-ZnIn2S4 quantum dots (QDs) exhibits extraordinary activity for photocatalytic H2 evolution. Under optimal conditions, the Cu0.4-ZnIn2S4 QDs could produce H2 with the rate of 144.4 μmol h−1 mg−1, 480-fold and 6-fold higher than that of pristine In2S3 QDs and Cu-doped In2S3 QDs counterparts respectively, which is even comparable with the state-of-the-art cadmium chalcogenides QDs.

The electronic and magnetic states as well as the structural and elastic properties of the equiatomic UZr alloy are investigated by first-principles calculations based on the density-functional theory with generalized gradient approximation (+U) approach. The strong correlation effects of the 5f electrons are studied. Results show that the orthorhombic structure with ferromagnetic configuration is the most stable state. The elastic constants show that the orthorhombic phase is mechanically stable while the γ(U,Zr) phase is unstable under ambient condition.

Air quenched basic oxygen furnace steel slag (BOF-SS) is processed at very high cooling rate, which is expected to have different cementitious properties from conventional slowly cooled BOF-SS. For this purpose, the strength activity indexes of air quenched and slowly cooled BOF-SS are investigated. The results reveal that, under the specific surface area (S) of 490 m 2 /kg, the compressive strength activity index reaches 1. 24 after 28 days with replacement of 15% air quenched BOF-SS and reaches 1.05 after 28 days with replacement of 20% air quenched BOF-SS and 30% granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS). The cementitious activity of air quenched BOF-SS is obviously higher than that of slowly cooled BOF-SS, mainly because it contains more C 3 S and glassy phases.

Here, we propose a new two-dimensional (2D) monolayer YS2 and investigate its properties as electrode material for Li-ion and Na-ion batteries (LIBs and NIBs), by combining the density functional theory (DFT) and the crystal structure prediction techniques. The results of phonon dispersion and ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations confirm that it is dynamically and thermally stable. The adsorption energies of Li and Na on YS2 are −2.038 and −1.939 eV, respectively. Besides, the superior electrical conductivity is maintained during the whole lithiation/sodiumation process. The calculated diffusion energy barriers for Li and Na on this YS2 monolayer are 0.33 and 0.24 eV, respectively, demonstrating a fast ion transfer rate. The theoretical specific capacities for Li and Na adatoms on YS2 are both 350 mA h g−1, comparable to the graphite electrode. These features indicate that 2D YS2 monolayer could be considered as a promising electrode material for both LIBs and NIBs.

With abscibe acid as combustion agent, Zn (NO3)27H2O and Ce (NO3)36H2O as raw material, the CeO2-ZnO composite oxide was synthesized by an novel combustion method. The experiment investaged the effect of molar ratio of combustion agents, Zn and Ce on composite oxides. The samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, IR, UV. The molar ratio of Ce, Zn and combustion agents is different, the composite oxides possess various morphology and properities. The photocatalytic experiment of composite oxide showed that under the optimal photocatalytic condition Methylene blue solution is completely degradated to need 240 min and under the optimal decoloring condition Methylene blue solution is completely decolorized to need 180 min.

Zirconium diboride nano-powders were synthesized by novel sol-gel technology using zirconium oxychloride, boric acid and sucrose as row materials. Different sol network modifiers, such as propylene oxide (PO) and citric acid (CA), were used to control the formation of zirconia precursor sol, respectively. PO could stabilize the sol by protonation and ring-opening reactions, and CA could form the sol network by chelation, then transformed to gel network. Gel was dried, ground, and exposed to carbonthermal reduction heat treatment (1500°C, 2h, flowing 95%argon mix with 5% hydrogen) to prepare ZrB2 nano-powders. In this study, effects of sol network modifiers on preparation procedure, powder characteristics were performed by using Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The purity of ZrB2 will improve by increasing the molar ratio of B/Zr, the photomicrograph revealed nearly pure ZrB2 nano-powders with spherical shape of 50-200nm and well dispersed were obtained with a molar ratio of B/Zr of 3.0 at 1500°C for 2h using PO as chemical modifier.

The microencapsulated phase change material is a kind of functional material with latent heat. It may be used applied heat storage and energy transport systems. Methods of the microcapsule production and four kinds of production process are introduced.