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Objectives/purpose High-touch surfaces are a critical reservoir in the spread of nosocomial infections. Although disinfection and infection control protocols are well developed, they lack the ability to passively reduce the pathogenic load of high-touch surfaces. Copper and its alloys have been suggested as a surface that exhibit continuous biocidal effects. Antimicrobial studies on these surfaces are prevalent, while virucidal studies are not as well explored. The goal of this study was to first determine the virucidal activity of a copper–nickel–zinc alloy and to then examine the effect of soiling and virus preparation on virucidal activity. Methods A baculovirus vector was used as an easily quantifiable model of an infectious enveloped animal cell virus. Droplets containing virus were deposited on surfaces and allowed to stay wet using humidity control or were dried onto the surface. Virus was then recovered from the surface and assayed for infectivity. To examine how the composition of the droplet affected the survival of the virus, 3 different soiling conditions were tested. The first two were recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the third consisted of cell debris resulting from virus amplification. Results A copper–nickel–zinc alloy was shown to have strong virucidal effects for an enveloped virus. Copper, nickel, and zinc ions were all shown to leach from the alloy surface and are the likely cause of virucidal activity by this surface. Virucidal activity was achieved under moderate soiling but lost under high soiling generated by routine virus amplification procedures. The surface was able to repeatably inactivate dried virus droplets under moderate soiling conditions, but unable to do so for virus droplets kept wet using high humidity. Conclusion Ion leaching was associated with virucidal activity in both wet and dried virus conditions. Soiling protected the virus by quenching metal ions, and not by inhibiting leaching. The composition of the solution containing virus plays a critical role in evaluating the virucidal activity of surfaces and surface coatings.

Zinc-based batteries are gaining attention as a promising candidate for large-scale energy storage systems due to their safety, abundance of elemental zinc, low cost, and ease of handling in air. H...

Rechargeable aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) have been researched widely because of some special strengths of high safety, low cost, and high energy density. Nevertheless, aqueous zinc ion batter...

Zinc has been widely utilized as an antimicrobial material, often in the form of complexes or zinc oxide nanoparticles. The efficacy of zinc complexes are often due to the synergistic effect of both the zinc ions and the attached organic ligands. In contrast, the nanoparticle effect of ZnO, and the photocatalytic generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been postulated to be the effective mechanism of ZnO as a biocide. Recently, new forms of zinc-based biocidal materials have been reported with distinct antimicrobial mechanisms. This minireview summarizes these recent advances, including zinc-based nano-arrays, MOF-based ROS release and zinc composites that can self-generate ROS.

The growing demand for energy storage has inspired researchers’ exploration of advanced batteries. Aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) are promising secondary chemical battery system that can be selected and pursued. Rechargeable ZIBs possess merits of high security, low cost, environmental friendliness, and competitive performance, and they are received a lot of attention. However, the development of suitable zinc ion intercalation-type cathode materials is still a big challenge, resulting in failing to meet the commercial needs of ZIBs. Both vanadium-based and manganese-based compounds are representative of the most advanced and most widely used rechargeable ZIBs electrodes. The valence state of vanadium is +2 ~ +5, which can realize multi-electron transfer in the redox reaction and has a high specific capacity. Most of the manganese-based compounds have tunnel structure or three-dimensional space frame, with enough space to accommodate zinc ions. In order to understand the energy storage mechanism and electrochemical performance of these two materials, a specialized review focusing on state-of-the-art developments is needed. This review offers access for researchers to keep abreast of the research progress of cathode materials for ZIBs. The latest advanced researches in vanadium-based and manganese-based cathode materials applied in aqueous ZIBs are highlighted. This article will provide useful guidance for future studies on cathode materials and aqueous ZIBs.

As sorption process in porous materials is mainly controlled by the diffusional effects; this research aims at defining the rate-controlling steps in the sorption process of lead, Pb(II), and zinc,...

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are receiving a continuously increasing attention for mobile devices, especially for the flexible and wearable electronics, due to their non-toxicity, non-flammability, and low-cost features. Despite the significant progress in achieving higher capacities for electrode materials of ZIBs, to endow them with high flexibility and economic feasibility is, however, still a significant challenge remaining unsolved. Herein, we present a highly flexible composite film composed of carbon nanotube film and V2O5 (CNTF@V2O5) with high strength and high conductivity, which is prepared by simply impregnating a porous CNT film with an aqueous V2O5 sol under vacuum. For this material, intimate incorporation between V2O5 and CNTs has been achieved, successfully integrating the high zinc ion storage capability with high mechanical flexibility. As a result, this CNTF@V2O5 film delivers a high capacity of 356.6 mAh g−1 at 0.4 A g−1 and excellent cycling stability with 80.1% capacity retention after 500 cycles at 2.0 A g−1. The novel strategy and the outstanding battery performance presented in this work should shed light on the development of high-performance and flexible ZIBs.

Zn(CF3SO3)2 as an electrolyte has been widely used to improve the electrochemical performance for ZIBs due to that the bulky CF3SO3− can reduce the solvation effect of Zn2+ and promote the ionic diffusion. Herein, we found that Zn(CF3SO3)2 electrolyte can induce different electrochemical mechanisms from ZnSO4 electrolyte. Compared to the ZnSO4 electrolyte, the HNaV6O16·4H2O electrode with Zn(CF3SO3)2 electrolyte exhibits a high capacity of 444 mAh·g−1 at 500 mA·g−1 with a capacity retention of 92.3% after 80 cycles. Even, at a high rate of 5 A·g−1, the HNaV6O16·4H2O electrode delivers an initial discharge capacity of 328 mAh·g−1 with a capacity retention of 93.7% after 1000 cycles. Differing from the mechanism with ZnSO4 electrolyte, the excellent cycle stability of HNaV6O16·4H2O electrode can be attributed to the in-situ phase transformation to ZnxV2O5·nH2O based on the co-intercalation of Zn2+/H+.

This paper reports the unusual ion sorption of zinc ions to the structure of solution-precursor plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite coatings studied via X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopy techniq...

Sodium superionic conductor (NASICON)‐type materials are getting more and more attention due to their high capacity and good cycling ability compared with other cathode materials in aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIB). The present paper was to study the synthesis and electrochemical properties of two NASICON compounds of Na3V2(PO4)3 and Na3V2(PO4)2F3 and to understand the impacts of fluorine. Both Na3V2(PO4)3 and Na3V2(PO4)2F3 are synthesized by hydrothermal growth followed with annealing at 800°C in inert gas. With 3 mol/L Zn(CF3SO3)2 in water as electrolyte, Na3V2(PO4)3 offered a high storage capacity, while Na3V2(PO4)2F3 demonstrated a high discharge voltage though low storage capacity. It was also found that the storage capacity of Na3V2(PO4)2F3 increases with increased cycles; however, the compound undergoes a gradual phase transition. It is discussed possible approaches to attain both high discharge voltage and large capacity with good cycling stability.

Benefiting from their high safety, low cost, and excellent performance, aqueous zinc-ion batteries are regarded as a promising candidate for next-generation commercial energy storage devices. High-performance cathodes are urgently needed to accelerate practical application of zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs). Among various cathodes reported previously, vanadium-based materials attract a great deal of attention since they hold high capacity and good cycling stability. Though fruitful achievements have been made, there are amounts of crystal structures and energy storage mechanisms are still unclear, which will significantly affect performance of full batteries. This review presents a comprehensive overview of structure characteristics, relevant electrochemical behavior, and proposed energy storage mechanisms of reported vanadium-based materials which provide effective Zn-storage performance. Meanwhile,recent developments of vanadium-based materials for ZIBs are systematically summarized. Last but not least, the future perspectives are also discussed. We hope that this review can provide suggestions to design high-performance electrode materials and promote the development of ZIBs.

Rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are promising alternatives for large-scale energy storage systems. However, instability of the cathode during operation leads to rapid capacity fading and poo...

Simple and low environmental impact methods for producing chemically-stable nanoparticles of metallic zinc (Zn) are asked to be developed, because metallic Zn nanoparticles are easily oxidized in air, and organic solvents, which can be used for the fabrication of metallic Zn particles, give a great environmental impact. The present work focuses on the chemical reaction in protonic solvents containing aqueous solvents, of which the use will give a smaller environmental load, and proposes a method for producing metallic Zn nanoparticles by reduction of Zn ions in the protonic solvent. Two kinds of hydrophilic solvents were examined: water and ethylene glycol (EG). The use of water and EG as the solvents produced Zn oxide. Though the addition of aluminum salt to EG also produced Zn oxide, the crystallinity of Zn oxide was lower than that for with no addition of aluminum salt. In the case of the aluminum salt addition, nanoparticles with a size of 27. 5±13.3 nm were fabricated, and not only bonds of Zn-O-Zn and Zn-OH but also a bond of Zn-Zn were confirmed to be formed, which indicated the production of low crystallinity metallic Zn nanoparticles.

Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries (RZIBs) have attracted wide attention due to their advantages of high safety, low cost, low toxicity, and high energy density of the zinc anode. However, due...

Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have captured a surge of interest in recent years as a promising alternative for scalable energy storage applications owing to the intrinsic safety, affordability, environmental benignity, and impressive electrochemical performance. Despite the facilitated development of this technology by many investigations, however, its smooth implementation is still plagued by inadequate energy density and undesirable life span, which calls for an efficient and controllable cathode storage chemistry. Here, this review focuses on the key bottlenecks by offering a comprehensive summary of representative cathode materials and comparatively analyzing their structural features and electrochemical properties. Then, we critically present several feasible electrode design strategies to guide future research activities from a fundamental perspective for high-energy-density and durable cathode materials mainly in terms of interlayer regulation, defect engineering, multiple redox reactions, activated two-electron reactions, and electrochemical activation and conversion. Finally, we outline the remaining challenges and future perspectives of developing high-performance AZIBs.

With the increasing demands for electrical energy storage technologies, rechargeable zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) have been rapidly developed in recent years owing to their high safety, low cost and high energy storage capability. The cathode is an essential part of ZIBs, which hosts zinc ions and determines the capacity, rate and cycling performance of the battery. The mainstream cathodes for ZIBs are oxide-based materials with tunnel, layer or 3D crystal structures. In this review, we mainly focus on the latest advanced oxide-based cathode materials in ZIBs, including manganese oxides, vanadium oxides, spinel compounds, and other metal oxide based cathodes. In addition, the mechanisms of zinc storage and recent development in cathode design have been discussed in detail. Finally, current challenges and perspectives for the future research directions of oxide-based cathodes in ZIBs are presented.

The booming market of portable and wearable electronics has aroused the requests for advanced flexible self-powered energy systems featuring both excellent performance and high safety. Herein, we report a safe, flexible, self-powered wristband system by integrating high-performance zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) with perovskite solar cells (PSCs). ZIBs were first fabricated on the basis of a defective MnO2-x nanosheet-grown carbon cloth (MnO2-x@CC), which was obtained via the simple lithium treatment of the MnO2 nanosheets to slightly expand the interlayer spacing and generate rich oxygen vacancies. When used as a ZIB cathode, the MnO2-x@CC with a ultrahigh mass loading (up to 25.5 mg cm-2) exhibits a much enhanced specific capacity (3.63 mAh cm-2 at current density of 3.93 mA cm-2), rate performance, and long cycle stability (no obvious degradation after 5000 cycles) than those of the MnO2@CC. Importantly, the MnO2-x@CC-based quasi-solid-state ZIB not only achieves excellent flexibility and an ultrahigh energy density of 5.11 mWh cm-2 (59.42 mWh cm-3) but also presents a high safety under a wide temperature range and various severe conditions. More importantly, the flexible ZIBs can be integrated with flexible PSCs to construct a safe, self-powered wristband, which is able to harvest light energy and power a commercial smart bracelet. This work sheds light on the development of high-performance ZIB cathodes and thus offers a good strategy to construct wearable self-powered energy systems for wearable electronics.

The reaction of 19-phenoxybilinones with Zn2+ caused ring-closure to afford the 5-oxaporphyrin zinc complex under ambient conditions. While bilinones are non-fluorescent, the 5-oxaporphyrin zinc co...

The fibrillation mechanism of insulin in acid solution has been studied by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). It was observed that insulin monomer unfolded in both conditions. Furthermore, in zinc free solution, insulin tend to aggregate on heating start in the first 5 min. The fibrillation through aggregation process continues until 30 min on heating. The similar phenomenon occurs in the presence of zinc ions. The SAXS data suggest that the presence of zinc ions prevent the long cylindrical fibril at the beginning of heating. However, after 20 min heating, the large cylindrical fibril of insulin formed in both conditions.

A zinc foil or sheet is the most common form of anode for aqueous zinc ion batteries since it is massively manufactured and readily accessible. Short circuits from dendrites grown on zinc foil anod...

Zinc-ion batteries have drawn tremendous attention in the electrochemical energy storage market because of their merits of high safety and low cost, however, the dendrites issue of zinc anodes rema...

Zinc ion hybrid capacitors have emerged as promising energy storage devices due to the attributes of high energy density and superb power output. The current electrode materials applied to zinc ion...

Free-standing films based on MnO2@multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)@Polypyrrole (PPy) have been fabricated for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. A simple hydrothermal method was adopted to synthesize ß-MnO2 nanowires. PPy coated the ß-MnO2 nanowires@MWCNTs composite by an in-situ polymerization process. Free-standing films of ß-MnO2@MWCNTs@PPy composite were prepared by a convenient vacuum-assisted filtration. A zinc-ion battery is fabricated with a zinc foil anode and a ß-MnO2@MWCNTs@PPy composite cathode. The Zn//ß-MnO2@ MWCNTs@PPy system in ZnSO4@MnSO4 aqueous electrolyte exhibits high electrochemical performances, such as an initial capacity of 258.5 mAh g-1 at 0.2 A g-1, and about 74.6% retention after 100 cycles with near 100% Coulombic efficiency. The strategy of conductive polymer coating makes the technology of rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) very promising and provides opportunities of organic-inorganic composite materials for energy storage applications.

Microbial-induced degradation of aromatic organic compounds and mineralization of zinc ions have attracted much attention because of its low cost, simple operation and quick response. This research, toluene was decomposed and made the concentration of carbonate ions increased accordingly by the enzymatic pressing of microorganisms, meanwhile carbonate ions mineralized zinc ions into carbonate precipitations. The composition and microstructure were analyzed systematically. The analysis results indicated that carbonate precipitations, basic zinc carbonate, could be successfully prepared by microbial method. The particle size of basic zinc carbonate was nanometer, and its shape was near-spherical. Furthermore, the phase composition, functional groups and surface morphology of the precipitations prepared by different methods were basically the same. This work provided a new method for remediation of zinc ion pollution based on the degradation of toluene.