Search

Evaluation on the carbon emissions of large public buildings and carbon reduction measures are very important to help reach carbon peak demand and carbon neutral. The purpose of this study is to conduct energy audits and energy-saving assessments on large public and commercial buildings to find out the impact of various behavioural activities related to buildings on carbon emissions and energy consumption, and to explore the carbon reduction potential of buildings. In China, the energy structure based on fossil fuels will not change in a short term, and energy consumption will inevitably increase with economic development; however, the energy efficiency is the main factor that affects the building carbon emissions. And changing energy efficiency will reduce emissions by 9.29%, while improving the energy structure will reduce emissions by only 0.46%; it is the key work to slow down greenhouse gas emissions in buildings that is reducing power consumption of electrical equipment, especially the air-conditioning system, which can result in 49.72% energy saving after reforming.

Oily fine particles are an important air pollutant in industrial environments. Workers exposed to oil mist for a long time face great health risks. Particle growth pretreatment is a technical principle to increase particle size and improve purification efficiency. Acoustic waves are commonly used to acheive particle growth, and a large number of acoustic wave agglomeration experiments have been carried out on non-oil fog. However, studies on oily particles are few. On the basis of previous studies on acoustic agglomeration of non-oily particles, this experiment designed a set of experimental equipment to compare the agglomeration effect of oily and non-oily particles. It was found that the agglomeration effect ratio of oily and non-oily particles to φ1oiliness/φ1non-oily particles was greater than 1. Therefore, the agglomeration effect of oily particles under stationary acoustic waves was more obvious. Results clearly show that oily particles have a higher agglomeration ability. In this study, a traditional ventilation and purification technology was expanded to include sound agglomeration technology into the pretreatment stage of purification and dust removal, thereby demonstrating feasibility of improved purification efficiency of an oily fine particle purification system, and laying a foundation for engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New functional materials are of significance for the industry development of coal and tungsten. Here, we reported a novel earth‐abundant W‐WC heterojunction on CdS as an efficient and cheap co‐catalyst for photocatalytic H2 evolution on CdS under visible light irradiation. The W‐WC is simply synthesized from industrial raw material of coal and ammonium tungstate by a simple one‐step calcination strategy. The photocatalytic activities tests show that W‐WC heterojunction has better co‐catalytic performance than W or WC alone, and the optimal photocatalytic activity of W‐WC/CdS reaches 3314 μmol/h/g, which are17.4 and 2.6 times larger than that of CdS and Pt/CdS alone, respectively. Electrochemical tests demonstrate the WC has large specific capacitance and acts as electron reservoir storing the photo‐excited electron from CdS, whereas W mainly acts as the catalytic center. The heterojunction formed between W and WC is favorable for the electron transferring. The different functions of W and WC along with the heterojunction between W and WC account for the superiority of W‐WC. The design and fabrication strategy of the W‐WC heterojunction co‐catalyst benefits for the industrial development of new material and photocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, we tried to study the expression of LGALS3 and LGALS3BP, their potential as prognostic markers and the possible genetic/epigenetic mechanisms underlying their dysregulation in different subtypes of glioblastoma (GBM). An in silico retrospective study was performed using large online databases. Results showed that LGALS3 and LGALS3BP were upregulated at both RNA and protein levels in GBM tissue and were generally associated with shorter overall survival (OS) in GBM patients. However, in subgroup analysis, we only found the association in proneural subtype. The copy number alterations did not necessarily lead to LGALS3/LGALS3BP dysregulation. In the proneural subtype of GBM patients, hypermethylation of the two CpG sites (cg19099850 and cg17403875) was associated with significantly lower expression of LGALS3. In univariate and multivariate analysis, LGALS3 expression independently predicted shorter OS in the proneural subtype of GBM (HR: 1.487, 95% CI: 1.229‐1.798, P < 0.001), after adjustment of age, gender, IDH1 mutations, temozolomide chemotherapy, radiotherapy and LGALS3BP expression. In comparison, LGALS3BP lost the prognostic value in multivariate analysis. Based on these findings, we infer that LGALS3 expression serves as an independent biomarker of shorter OS in the proneural subtype of GBM, the expression of which might be regulated in an epigenetic manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu-based catalysts are the most intensively studied in the field of electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), demonstrating the capacity to yield diverse C 1 and C 2+ products albeit with unsatisfactory selectivity. Manipulation of the oxidation state of Cu sites during CO 2 RR process proves advantageous in modulating the selectivity of productions, but poses a formidable challenge. Here, an oxygen spillover strategy is proposed to enhance the oxidation state of Cu during CO 2 RR by incorporating the oxygen donor Sb 2 O 4 . The Cu-Sb bimetallic oxide catalyst attains a remarkable CO 2 -to-CO selectivity approaching unity, in stark contrast to the diverse product distribution observed with bare CuO. The exceptional Faradaic efficiency of CO can be maintained across a wide range of potential windows of ≈700 mV in 1 m KOH, and remains independent of the Cu/Sb ratio (ranging from 0.1:1 to 10:1). Correlative calculations and experimental results reveal that oxygen spillover from Sb 2 O 4 to Cu sites maintains the relatively high valence state of Cu during CO 2 RR, which diminishes the binding strength of * CO, thereby achieving heightened selectivity in CO production. These findings propose the role of oxygen spillover in CO 2 RR over Cu-based catalysts, and shed light on the rational design of highly selective CO 2 reduction catalysts., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Here, we reported a new method for fast and safe synthesis of a micron germanium (Ge) semiconductor. The Ge was successfully prepared from mixed GeO 2 with a low amount of MoO 3 by the NH 3 reduction method at 800 °C for an ultra-short time of 10 min. XRD patterns show that the Ge has a tetragonal structure. SEM images show that the size of the Ge particles is from 5 μm to 10 μm, and so it is on the micron scale. UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy shows that the Ge has good light absorption both in the ultraviolet and visible regions. The formation of Ge mainly goes through a two-step conversion in the NH 3 flow. Firstly, GeO 2 is converted to Ge 3 N 4 , and then Ge 3 N 4 is decomposed to generate Ge. The comparison experiments of MoO 3 and Mo 2 N demonstrate that Mo 2 N is the catalyst for the Ge synthesis which improves the Ge 3 N 4 decomposition. The presented fast and safe synthesis method of Ge has great potential for industrialization and the proposed Mo 2 N boosting the Ge 3 N 4 decomposition has provided significant guidance for other nitride decomposition systems., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)