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Abstract Environmental rules and regulations are essential instruments the government administration uses to control environmental problems in this era of advanced technologies and smooth economic growth. This paper aims to examine how environmental regulations, both mandatory and incentive-based, impact on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the presence of urbanization, foreign trade, economic growth and energy efficiency (EE) in logistics transportation. The influence of explicating factors on dependent variables, such as the highest, lowest, and mean, is estimated using the quantile regression model. We applied a number of econometric techniques like unit root test, panel co-integration, quantiles regression (CO2), quantiles regression (Energy efficiency), endogeneity test, and finally, we applied the robustness test to verify the results. This research uses quantile regression to estimate the influence of environmental regulations on releasing carbon dioxide and energy efficiency, using panel data of China’s thirty provinces from 2005 to 2019. Environmental policies in the Ningxia, Qinghai, and Hainan provinces impose higher pollution penalties, which significantly impact reducing CO2 emissions. These regions release more environmental regulations, and in the provinces that fall between the 25th and 50th percentiles, mandatory environmental regulations significantly lower CO2 emissions. Incentive environmental regulations regarding the environment have a more significant effect on energy efficiency in the 50th–75th, 75th–90th, and higher 90th percentile groups since these groups have made more significant investments in research and development. Meanwhile, the Yunnan, Heilongjiang, and Xinjiang provinces have higher energy efficiency levels due to mandatory environmental legislation. The results provide the correct information to the government to implement effective environmental regulations to achieve sustainable development goals.

A novel azobenzene-derived amphiphile with a melamine head, 2Azo-2C12H2-melamine, has been synthesized. pi-A isotherm measurements displayed that this amphiphile is able to form a stable Langmuir monolayer on both pure water and barbituric acid (BA)- or thymine (T)-containing subphases. The collapse surface pressure and limiting molecular area of its Langmuir monolayer on pure water are 40 mN/m and 0.56 nm2, respectively. However, when barbituric acid or thymine was introduced into the subphase, the corresponding pi-A isotherms of the monolayers exhibited a lower collapse surface pressure (22 mN/m for BA, 21 mN/m for T) and smaller limiting molecular area (0.54 nm2 for BA and 0.52 nm2 for T). UV-vis and FT-IR studies of the LB films formed by 2Azo-2C12H25-melamine have also been carried out. The results indicated that the LB films of 2Azo-2C12H25-melamine deposited from pure water undergo distinct collapse of the H-aggregate upon UV irradiation, while the LB films deposited from a BA- or T-containing subphase retain the H-aggregate. The host-guest-interaction-induced blockage of azobenzene photoisomerization should be responsible for the stabilized H-aggregate. A 1:1 host/guest binding mode to form a linear supramolecular polymeric chain has been proposed in the Langmuir monolayers formed on a BA- or T-containing subphase. The current results suggest that the host-guest interaction should be an effective means to manipulate the interfacial assembly of azobenzene-derived amphiphiles.