Rational design of a hierarchical candied-haws-like NiCo2O4Ni,Co-(HCO3)2 heterostructure for the electrochemical performance enhancement of supercapacitors. - In: ACS applied energy materials, ISSN 2574-0962, Bd. 6 (2023), 19, S. 9905-9914
Designing core-shell heterostructures with multicomponents, more electroactive sites, hierarchical structures, and stable geometrical configurations is an effective approach to enhance the electrochemical properties of supercapacitors. Herein, we report the fabrication of a hierarchical candied-haws-like NiCo2O4NiCo-hydrocarbonate heterostructure on Ni foam (NiCo2O4@NiCo-HCs), which consists of NiCo2O4 nanowires acting as “rebars” that are tightly strung with NiCo-HC nanoparticles. The strong interfacial reaction between the NiCo2O4 “core” and the NiCo-HC “shell” accelerates the charge transfer within the heterostructure, while the hierarchical structure containing quantities of paths and pores provides fast ion diffusion throughout the whole electrode, hence remarkably boosting the electrochemical performance of a NiCo2O4@NiCo-HC electrode. As expected, the NiCo2O4@NiCo-HC electrode shows a high specific capacitance of 3216.4 F g-1 at a current density of 1 A g-1 and 2259.9 F g-1 even at 20 A g-1 (1.6-fold that of the NiCo2O4 electrode and 5.5-fold that of NiCo-HCs). In addition, an assembled asymmetric supercapacitor NiCo2O4@NiCo-HCs//AC delivers a high energy density of 47.46 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 708.94 W kg-1, together with 96.2% capacitance retention after 6000 cycles, surpassing most of the reported analogues. These results suggest that our hierarchical candied-haws-like heterostructure design is potential for the performance enhancement of supercapacitors.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.3c01421
Novel bipolar membrane electrolyzer for CO2 reduction to CO in organic electrolyte with Cl2 and NaOH produced as byproducts. - In: Journal of CO2 utilization, ISSN 2212-9839, Bd. 77 (2023), 102595, S. 1-10
Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to valuable products, powered by renewable energy, provides a promising strategy for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. But up to now, no technology has been implemented for large-scale industrial applications. Without massive utilization of CO2, many vital practical problems, such as reducing CO2 emissions, storing renewable energy, and alleviating environmental pollution, cannot be resolved through this route. Herein, we propose a novel electrolyzer for CO2 electro-reduction, which is separated into three chambers by a bipolar membrane and a cation exchange membrane. In the cathodic chamber, CO2 is reduced to CO in organic electrolytes. In the anodic chamber, Cl- is oxidized to Cl2 in NaCl aqueous solution. In the central chamber, NaOH is obtained. The generated CO and Cl2 can be used as feedstock to produce phosgene (CO+Cl2 =COCl2). Through this route, phosgene can be produced from CO2 and NaCl, with NaOH generated as a byproduct. By substantially increasing the product value, we can promote CO2 electro-reduction technology to industrial applications.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2023.102595
Effects of salt precipitation in the topmost soil layer investigated by NMR. - In: Applied magnetic resonance, ISSN 1613-7507, Bd. 54 (2023), 11/12, S. 1607-1631
The drying of highly concentrated aqueous salt solutions in sand and soil has been investigated by one-dimensional spatially resolved low-field relaxation measurements of 1H nuclei in water as well as high-field MRI of 1H and 23Na nuclei of water and sodium ions. Water evaporates until the solutions in the solid matrix reach saturation conditions, when salt begins to crystallize. Depending on salt type and conditions, such as actual soil water content and air humidity, this crystallization can occur above (efflorescent) or below (subflorescent) the soil surface. Both effects occur in nature and affect the evaporation behavior of water. The formation of salt precipitate domains is demonstrated by MRI, where the precipitate domains remain penetrable to water. Complete drying is achieved in the top 2 mm of soil with the exception of strongly hygroscopic perchlorates which maintain a constant amount of liquid water under ambient laboratory conditions and dry air. This situation is considered similar to the co-existence of perchlorates and water in strongly eutectic mixtures on Mars.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00723-023-01568-1
The effect of C60 fullerene on the mechanokinetics of muscle gastrocnemius contraction in chronically alcoholized rats. - In: Heliyon, ISSN 2405-8440, Bd. 9 (2023), 8, e18745, S. 1-10
The C60 fullerene effect (oral administration at a dose of 1 mg kg−1) on the selected biomechanical parameters of muscle gastrocnemius contraction, biochemical indicators of blood and muscle tissue as well as histological changes in rat muscle tissue after chronic alcoholization for 3, 6 and 9 months was studied in detail. Water-soluble C60 fullerenes were shown to reduce the pathological processes development in the muscle apparatus by an average of (35-40)%. In particular, they reduced the time occurrence of fatigue processes in muscle during the long-term development of alcoholic myopathy and inhibited oxidative processes in muscle, thereby preventing its degradation. These findings open up the possibility of using C60 fullerenes as potent antioxidants for the correction of the pathological conditions of the muscle system arising from alcohol intoxication.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18745
Suppressing the intrinsic photoelectric response of organic semiconductors for highly-photostable organic transistors. - In: Small, ISSN 1613-6829, Bd. 19 (2023), 50, 2304634, S. 1-8
Suppressing the photoelectric response of organic semiconductors (OSs) is of great significance for improving the operational stability of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) in light environments, but it is quite challenging because of the great difficulty in precisely modulating exciton dynamics. In this work, photostable OFETs are demonstrated by designing the micro-structure of OSs and introducing an electrical double layer at the OS/polyelectrolyte dielectric interface, in which multiple exciton dynamic processes can be modulated. The generation and dissociation of excitons are depressed due to the small light-absorption area of the microstripe structure and the excellent crystallinity of OSs. At the same time, a highly efficient exciton quenching process is activated by the electrical double layer at the OS/polyelectrolyte dielectric interface. As a result, the OFETs show outstanding tolerance to the light irradiation of up to 306 mW&hahog;cm−2, which far surpasses the solar irradiance value in the atmosphere (≈138 mW&hahog;cm−2) and achieves the highest photostability ever reported in the literature. The findings promise a general and practicable strategy for the realization of photostable OFETs and organic circuits.
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202304634
Homogeneity for control systems in discrete time. - In: IFAC-PapersOnLine, ISSN 2405-8963, Bd. 56 (2023), 1, S. 385-390
Homogeneity, as a generalization of linearity to nonlinear systems, has proven to be a very powerful in systems and control. Nevertheless, only recently a notion of homogeneity was proposed for discrete-time control systems. However, this so-called D-Homogeneity directly couples the stability behaviour with the degree of homogeneity - in contrast to the continuous-time case. As an alternative, we propose the notion of S-Homogeneity, which avoids this coupling. S-Homogeneity uses a state-dependent time step that is compatible with sampling and discretization in time. We show that this concept preserves a contraction property and null-controllability for state-dependent sampling. For fixed sampling time, it yields (practical/semi-global) null controllability for sufficiently fast sampling, depending on the degree of homogeneity.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2023.02.065
Water-soluble pristine C60 fullerenes attenuate isometric muscle force reduction in a rat acute inflammatory pain model. - In: BMC musculoskeletal disorders, ISSN 1471-2474, Bd. 24 (2023), 606, S. 1-8
Background: Being a scavenger of free radicals, C60 fullerenes can influence on the physiological processes in skeletal muscles, however, the effect of such carbon nanoparticles on muscle contractility under acute muscle inflammation remains unclear. Thus, the aim of the study was to reveal the effect of the C60 fullerene aqueous solution (C60FAS) on the muscle contractile properties under acute inflammatory pain. Methods: To induce inflammation a 2.5% formalin solution was injected into the rat triceps surae (TS) muscle. High-frequency electrical stimulation has been used to induce tetanic muscle contraction. A linear motor under servo-control with embedded semi-conductor strain gauge resistors was used to measure the muscle tension. Results: In response to formalin administration, the strength of TS muscle contractions in untreated animals was recorded at 23% of control values, whereas the muscle tension in the C60FAS-treated rats reached 48%. Thus, the treated muscle could generate 2-fold more muscle strength than the muscle in untreated rats. Conclusions: The attenuation of muscle contraction force reduction caused by preliminary injection of C60FAS is presumably associated with a decrease in the concentration of free radicals in the inflamed muscle tissue, which leads to a decrease in the intensity of nociceptive information transmission from the inflamed muscle to the CNS and thereby promotes the improvement of the functional state of the skeletal muscle.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-023-06719-w
Bimetallic-based composites for potassium-ion storage: challenges and perspectives. - In: Inorganic chemistry frontiers, ISSN 2052-1553, Bd. 10 (2023), 16, S. 4668-4694
Potassium ion batteries (PIBs) are important for the development of energy storage systems as an effective complement to lithium ion batteries (LIBs) owing to the abundance of potassium resources in the earth's crust to meet the needs of large-scale energy storage systems. To this end, numerous studies have focused on anode materials, which can provide high capacity for PIBs. Bimetallic-based compounds (ABXs) achieve higher capacity and structural diversity due to their different chemical compositions and rich spatial structures. Moreover, the synergistic effect of the two metals makes the structure of ABXs more stable. Hence, ABXs are one of the most promising anode materials. This review focuses on performance optimization strategies (such as metal base selection, structural design, voltage regulation, and electrolyte optimization) and the electrochemical properties of ABXs. Finally, the current challenges and research prospectives of ABXs are presented. This review is expected to provide new perspectives and deeper insights into the study of ABXs as anode materials for PIBs and large-scale energy storage devices.
https://doi.org/10.1039/D3QI00585B
Ultrathin metal Ni layer on ZnO/TiO2 photoelectrodes with excellent photoeletrochemical performance in multiple electrolyte solutions. - In: Fuel, ISSN 1873-7153, Bd. 351 (2023), 128774
It is well known that the oxygen vacancy (Ovac) as the electron-donor dopant in semiconductor can increase the electron-holes separation in photoeletrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Furthermore, the metal Ni can promote the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on the surface of semiconductor. In this paper, the ZnO/TiO2 photoelectrodes with rich Ovac was synthesized by electrostatic adsorption through using ZIF-8 as the precursor. Then the ultrathin Ni layer with about 7 nm was deposited on the surface of ZnO/TiO2 (Ni/ZnO/TiO2) by vacuum thermal evaporation method. The Ni/ZnO/TiO2 photoelectrodes showed the highest photocurrent than ZnO/TiO2, Ni/ TiO2 and pure TiO2 photoelectrodes. The durability of Ni/ZnO/TiO2 photoelectrodes was keeping for 10 h in multiple electrolyte solutions under AM 1.5 G illumination and the photocurrent decline can be ignored. The UV-vis absorption spectra demonstrated that the ultrathin Ni layer showed plasma with ZnO/TiO2 for enhancing the water splitting performance. Furthermore, the ultrathin Ni layer enhanced the photogenerated charges transfer for improving the PEC performance. This work provides a new method for ultrathin metal Ni layer with Ovac semiconductor photoelectrode to improve the PEC performance in multiple electrolyte solutions.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2023.128774
Visible-light-assisted donor-acceptor-Stenhouse-adduct-based reversible photoswitching on a laser-structurable OrmoComp substrate. - In: ACS applied polymer materials, ISSN 2637-6105, Bd. 5 (2023), 10, S. 8631-8640
Laser-assisted nanolithography of commercially available photoresists is offering a limitless designing opportunity in the micro- and nanostructuring of 3D organotypic cell culture scaffolds. Among them, chemically functionalized OrmoComp has shown promising improvement in cell adhesion that paves the way to assemble cellular entities on a desirable geometry. Establishing a photoswitchable chemistry on the OrmoComp surface may offer an additional degree of freedom to manipulate the surface chemistry locally and selectively. We have established the methods for functionalization of the photopolymerized OrmoComp surface with visible-light-switchable donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts. Unlike other polymers, a photopolymerized OrmoComp surface appears to be optimal for reversible photothermal switching, offering the possibility to influence surface properties like absorption and hydrophilicity tremendously. Light-assisted chemical modulation between colored triene-2-ol and colorless cyclopentenone can be achieved to a size region as narrow as 20 μm. Thermal reversion to the original triene-2-ol state can be analyzed spectroscopically and observed with the naked eye.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.3c01766