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Electroplating sludge (ES), the inevitable by‐product of electroplating wastewater treatment processes, has been conventionally managed via solidification landfilling or thermal processing; these methods may engender secondary environmental pollutants. This study proposes an innovative approach using iron ore sintering for effective ES treatment. The study reveals that incorporating 1.0% ES reduces the yield quality of the sintered ore, yet it remains within acceptable thresholds. It is noteworthy that when the addition of ES is 0.5%, it not only increases the sinter yield from 68.57% to 69.23% but also enhances the productivity from 1.19 to 1.32 t (m2 h)−1. Furthermore, the consumption of solid fuel decreases to 48.01 kg t−1. Additionally, the treatment method significantly reduced the emissions of CO and NOx in the sintering flue gas, with the average concentrations decreasing from 12681.32 to 9744.51 ppm for CO and from 244.81 to 161.11 ppm for NOx. This study investigates the migration and transformation mechanisms of nickel and chlorine elements in ES by conducting inductively coupled plasma analysis on the sintered raw materials and their products, as well as scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy analysis on the sinter ash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional anti‐impact armors and shields are normally made of stiff and hard materials and therefore deficient in flexibility. This greatly limits their applications in protecting objects with complex geometries or significant deformability. Flexible armors can be developed with the application of hard platelets and soft materials, but the lower rigidity of the flexible armors renders them incapable of providing sufficient resistance against impact attacks. To address the inherent conflict between flexibility and impact resistance in traditional armors, here, a composite is developed by hybridizing a shear‐stiffening gel as the matrix and chemically‐strengthened ultrathin glass sheets (CSGS) as the reinforcement. The resulting laminate, termed PCCL, exhibits both high flexibility and high impact resistance. Specifically, at low strain rates, the high ductility of the gel combined with the high flexural strength of the CSGS enables the PCCL to undergo considerable deformation; at high strain rates, on the other hand, the shear stiffening behavior of the gel matrix endows the PCCL with excellent impact resistance manifested by its high performance in energy absorption and high rigidity. With the combination of high flexibility and high impact resistance, the PCCL is demonstrated to be an ideal armor for protecting curved vulnerable objects from impact attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: An asymmetric isomerization/intramolecular coupling reaction of allylic alcohols to synthesize chiral dihydrocoumarins was successfully accomplished through ruthenium catalysis. This method demonstrates a wide substrate applicability, excellent tolerance for various functional groups, and good enantioselectivities (up to 90% ee). It provides a convenient pathway to produce a diverse range of structurally distinct chiral dihydrocoumarins in good efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiwall carbon nanotubes/nitrogen-doped carbon-coated regenerated LiFePO4 composites (referred as MCNTs/N-DC@LFP) with the excellent lithium storage properties have been successfully designed and synthesized by combining a facile spray-drying and high-temperature calcination process. The raw materials were spent LiFePO4, chitin and carbon nanotubes, in which the spent LiFePO4 were recycled using a novel low-temperature freezing/thawing technology. The three-dimensional network structure from chitin-derived N-doped carbon coating and CNTs network in MCNTs/N-DC@LFP composites is capable of enhancing the electrical conductivity of the composites and providing short diffusion paths for lithium ions. Upon utilization as cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the obtained MCNTs/N-DC@LFP composites displayed a 157.0 mAh g−1 high initial specific discharge capacity at 0.2 C of the elevated current rate, representing high initial coulombic efficiency of 95.2%. After 500 cycles, a remarkable specific discharge capacity was observed which was 146.9 mAh g−1. The electrode retains a substantial discharge capacity of 111.4 mAh g−1 even when subjected to a peak current of 5 C. The superior electrochemical performances of the MCNTs/N-DC@LFP composites are mainly ascribed to advantageous combination of regenerated LiFePO4 structure, highly conductive chitin-derived nitrogen-doped carbon coating and CNTs network with efficient electron and Li-ion transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional biomacromolecular luminophores have attracted increasing interest. Based on the concept of aggregation-induced emission (AIE), the restricted intramolecular rotation (RIR) strategy is widely used to design dyes, which generally focuses on the luminous molecular structures and their stacking modes. However, little effort has been made to reveal the interactions between the embedded fluorophores and their microenvironments. Herein, a series of polysaccharide macromolecules with multicolor emissions were obtained by crosslinking oxidized sodium alginate (OSA) with aminopyridine (Apy). Based on the para- and ortho-substituent OSA chains in the Apy units, their varying steric hindrances resulted in an enhanced fluorescence quantum yield (QY) of 0.98% for OSA-5-Apy and 15.62% for OSA-3-Apy after grafting the Apy units. With further increase in the Apy content, the rigidity of the polysaccharide matrix was improved by the covalently cross-linked bonds and hydrogen bonds, which further enhanced the fluorescence QY of OSA-5-Apy from 0.98% to 5.25%. The corresponding contributions of the restrictions to the emission intensities were elaborately examined by introducing Ca2+. Moreover, based on their complexation with Ca2+, colorful photoluminescent gels in different forms, such as Rubik's cube and fiber, were prepared using OSA-3-Apy fluorescence macromolecules, which is promising in the biomedical and engineering fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]