Electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia(NRA) can realize the green synthesis of ammonia(NH3) at ambient conditions, and also remove nitrate contamination in water. However, the current catalysts for NRA still fac...Electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia(NRA) can realize the green synthesis of ammonia(NH3) at ambient conditions, and also remove nitrate contamination in water. However, the current catalysts for NRA still face relatively low NH3yield rate and poor stability. We present here a core-shell heterostructure comprising cobalt oxide anchored on copper oxide nanowire arrays(CuO NWAs@Co_(3)O_(4)) for efficient NRA. The CuO NWAs@Co_(3)O_(4)demonstrates significantly enhanced NRA performance in alkaline media in comparison with plain CuO NWAs and Co_(3)O_(4)flocs. Especially, at-0.23 V vs. RHE, NH_(3) yield rate of the CuO NWAs@Co_(3)O_(4)reaches 1.915 mmol h^(-1)cm^(-2),much higher than those of CuO NWAs(1.472 mmol h^(-1)cm^(-2)), Co_(3)O_(4)flocs(1.222 mmol h^(-1)cm^(-2)) and recent reported Cu-based catalysts.It is proposed that the synergetic effects of the heterostructure combing atom hydrogen adsorption and nitrate reduction lead to the enhanced NRA performance.展开更多
Two-dimensional materials(2DMs) have attracted substantial attention due to their abundant active sites and their ultrahigh surface area for different catalytic applications due to the high lateral-longitudinal ratio....Two-dimensional materials(2DMs) have attracted substantial attention due to their abundant active sites and their ultrahigh surface area for different catalytic applications due to the high lateral-longitudinal ratio. Transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs), especially MoS2, as one of the 2DMs most often studied, have shown superior activity in electrochemical applications. Recently, combinations of different 2DMs have been widely studied, and they appear to be the most promising strategy available to develop state of the art catalysts for different reactions.In this article, we review the interactions between MoS2 and other materials as well as the novel assembly induced phase transitions of TMDs and their underlying mechanisms. Several methods for inducing the phase transition of TMDs by building MoS2-based heterostructures have been introduced. The electronic coupling between these counterparts has significantly enhanced their conductivity and optimized the energy states of the materials, thus introducing enhanced activity as compared to their original counterparts. The ideas summarized in this article may shed new light on and help to develop next-generation green energy materials by designing and constructing highly active two-dimensional catalysts for efficient water splitting.展开更多
Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries(AZIBs) are attracting tremendous attention because of their intrinsic merits such as high safety and low cost. Cathode plays a critical role in enhancing the electrochemical per...Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries(AZIBs) are attracting tremendous attention because of their intrinsic merits such as high safety and low cost. Cathode plays a critical role in enhancing the electrochemical performance of AZIBs. However, it is difficult to design a robust and high-efficiency cathode material and further implement the commercialization of AZIBs. Metal-organic frameworks(MOFs) electroactive compounds are attractive to serve as the cathode of AZIBs due to their unique porosity and crystal structures, resource renewability and structural diversity. In this work, a calcium-pure terephthalates acid framework(Ca-PTA·3H_(2)O) was synthesized by facile hydrolysis and cationic exchange method,then explored as a novel cathode for AZIBs. The results highlight a high specific capacity of 431 mAh/g(0.51 mAh/cm^(2)) at a current density of 50 mA/g, and excellent cycle performance with capacity retention of ~90% after 2700 cycles at 500 m A/g. The following up characterizations investigate the reversible zinc storage mechanism in detail. This experiment made a specific contribution to the exploration of the new MOF as a competitive cathode for AZIBs.展开更多
Wearable devices have received tremendous interests in human sweat analysis in the past few years.However,the widely used polymeric substrates and the layer-by-layer stacking structures greatly influence the cost-effi...Wearable devices have received tremendous interests in human sweat analysis in the past few years.However,the widely used polymeric substrates and the layer-by-layer stacking structures greatly influence the cost-efficiency,conformability and breathability of the devices,further hindering their practical applications.Herein,we report a facile and low-cost strategy for the fabrication of a skin-friendly thread/paper-based wearable system consisting of a sweat reservoir and a multi-sensing component for simultaneous in situ analysis of sweat pH and lactate.In the system,hydrophilic silk thread serves as the micro-channel to guide the liquid flow.Filter papers were functionalized to prepare colorimetric sensors for lactate and pH.The smartphone-based quantitative analysis shows that the sensors are sensitive and reliable.Although pH may interfere the lactate detection,the pH detected simultaneously could be employed to correct the measured data for the achievement of a precise lactate level.After being integrated with a hydrophobic arm guard,the system was successfully used for the on-body measurement of pH and lactate in the sweats secreted from the volunteers.This low-cost,easy-to-fabricate,light-weight and flexible thread/paper-based microfluidic sensing device may hold great potentials as a wearable system in human sweat analysis and point-of-care diagnostics.展开更多
The ultrafast monitoring of deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)dynamic structural changes is an emerging and rapidly growing research topic in biotechnology.The existing optical spectroscopy used to identify different dynamica...The ultrafast monitoring of deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)dynamic structural changes is an emerging and rapidly growing research topic in biotechnology.The existing optical spectroscopy used to identify different dynamical DNA structures lacks quick response while requiring large consumption of samples and bulky instrumental facilities.It is highly demanded to develop an ultrafast technique that monitors DNA structural changes with the external stimulus or cancer-related disease scenarios.Here,we demonstrate a novel photonic integrated graphene-optofluidic device to monitor DNA structural changes with the ultrafast response time.Our approach is featured with an effective and straightforward design of decoding the electronic structure change of graphene induced by its interactions with DNAs in different conformations using ultrafast nanosecond pulse laser and achieving refractive index sensitivity of~3×10^(−5) RIU.This innovative technique for the first time allows us to perform ultrafast monitoring of the conformational changes of special DNA molecules structures,including G-quadruplex formation by K+ions and i-motif formation by the low pH stimulus.The graphene-optofluidic device as presented here provides a new class of label-free,ultrafast,ultrasensitive,compact,and cost-effective optical biosensors for medical and healthcare applications.展开更多
基金the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21972102)National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFA0910400)+3 种基金Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20200991)Suzhou Science and Technology Planning Project (SS202016)the USTS starting fund (No.332012104)the Natural Science Foundation of Suzhou University of Science and Technology (No.342134401)。
文摘Electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia(NRA) can realize the green synthesis of ammonia(NH3) at ambient conditions, and also remove nitrate contamination in water. However, the current catalysts for NRA still face relatively low NH3yield rate and poor stability. We present here a core-shell heterostructure comprising cobalt oxide anchored on copper oxide nanowire arrays(CuO NWAs@Co_(3)O_(4)) for efficient NRA. The CuO NWAs@Co_(3)O_(4)demonstrates significantly enhanced NRA performance in alkaline media in comparison with plain CuO NWAs and Co_(3)O_(4)flocs. Especially, at-0.23 V vs. RHE, NH_(3) yield rate of the CuO NWAs@Co_(3)O_(4)reaches 1.915 mmol h^(-1)cm^(-2),much higher than those of CuO NWAs(1.472 mmol h^(-1)cm^(-2)), Co_(3)O_(4)flocs(1.222 mmol h^(-1)cm^(-2)) and recent reported Cu-based catalysts.It is proposed that the synergetic effects of the heterostructure combing atom hydrogen adsorption and nitrate reduction lead to the enhanced NRA performance.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFFA0200400)the Natural Science Foundation of China (51571100, 51872116, and 51602305)+3 种基金the Program for JLU Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (JLUSTIRT, 2017TD-09)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universitiessupport from the Australian Research Council (ARC, FT150100450 and IH150100006)the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET, CE170100039)
文摘Two-dimensional materials(2DMs) have attracted substantial attention due to their abundant active sites and their ultrahigh surface area for different catalytic applications due to the high lateral-longitudinal ratio. Transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs), especially MoS2, as one of the 2DMs most often studied, have shown superior activity in electrochemical applications. Recently, combinations of different 2DMs have been widely studied, and they appear to be the most promising strategy available to develop state of the art catalysts for different reactions.In this article, we review the interactions between MoS2 and other materials as well as the novel assembly induced phase transitions of TMDs and their underlying mechanisms. Several methods for inducing the phase transition of TMDs by building MoS2-based heterostructures have been introduced. The electronic coupling between these counterparts has significantly enhanced their conductivity and optimized the energy states of the materials, thus introducing enhanced activity as compared to their original counterparts. The ideas summarized in this article may shed new light on and help to develop next-generation green energy materials by designing and constructing highly active two-dimensional catalysts for efficient water splitting.
基金supported by the discipline construction funds from Qingdao Municipal Science and Technology Commission and Qingdao University (Nos. DC1900013623 and DC2000003363)Youth Project of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Provincial (No. ZR2021QB175)+2 种基金supported by Natural Science Foundation of ShandongNational Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51877045)the Foundation from State Key Laboratory of Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering (No. KL19-09) the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities。
文摘Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries(AZIBs) are attracting tremendous attention because of their intrinsic merits such as high safety and low cost. Cathode plays a critical role in enhancing the electrochemical performance of AZIBs. However, it is difficult to design a robust and high-efficiency cathode material and further implement the commercialization of AZIBs. Metal-organic frameworks(MOFs) electroactive compounds are attractive to serve as the cathode of AZIBs due to their unique porosity and crystal structures, resource renewability and structural diversity. In this work, a calcium-pure terephthalates acid framework(Ca-PTA·3H_(2)O) was synthesized by facile hydrolysis and cationic exchange method,then explored as a novel cathode for AZIBs. The results highlight a high specific capacity of 431 mAh/g(0.51 mAh/cm^(2)) at a current density of 50 mA/g, and excellent cycle performance with capacity retention of ~90% after 2700 cycles at 500 m A/g. The following up characterizations investigate the reversible zinc storage mechanism in detail. This experiment made a specific contribution to the exploration of the new MOF as a competitive cathode for AZIBs.
基金supported by Chongqing Natural Science Foundation(cstc2019jcyj-msxmX0314)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(XDJK2019B002)Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Micro-Nano Biomedical Materials and Devices.
文摘Wearable devices have received tremendous interests in human sweat analysis in the past few years.However,the widely used polymeric substrates and the layer-by-layer stacking structures greatly influence the cost-efficiency,conformability and breathability of the devices,further hindering their practical applications.Herein,we report a facile and low-cost strategy for the fabrication of a skin-friendly thread/paper-based wearable system consisting of a sweat reservoir and a multi-sensing component for simultaneous in situ analysis of sweat pH and lactate.In the system,hydrophilic silk thread serves as the micro-channel to guide the liquid flow.Filter papers were functionalized to prepare colorimetric sensors for lactate and pH.The smartphone-based quantitative analysis shows that the sensors are sensitive and reliable.Although pH may interfere the lactate detection,the pH detected simultaneously could be employed to correct the measured data for the achievement of a precise lactate level.After being integrated with a hydrophobic arm guard,the system was successfully used for the on-body measurement of pH and lactate in the sweats secreted from the volunteers.This low-cost,easy-to-fabricate,light-weight and flexible thread/paper-based microfluidic sensing device may hold great potentials as a wearable system in human sweat analysis and point-of-care diagnostics.
基金from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21874096,21575095,51602305,61604102 and 61875139)the 111 Project,and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions(PAPD)+2 种基金the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2018M633118)Shenzhen Nanshan District Pilotage Team Program(LHTD20170006)Australian Research Council(ARC,FT150100450,IH150100006 and CE170100039).Q.Bao acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council(ARC)Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies(FLEET).
文摘The ultrafast monitoring of deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)dynamic structural changes is an emerging and rapidly growing research topic in biotechnology.The existing optical spectroscopy used to identify different dynamical DNA structures lacks quick response while requiring large consumption of samples and bulky instrumental facilities.It is highly demanded to develop an ultrafast technique that monitors DNA structural changes with the external stimulus or cancer-related disease scenarios.Here,we demonstrate a novel photonic integrated graphene-optofluidic device to monitor DNA structural changes with the ultrafast response time.Our approach is featured with an effective and straightforward design of decoding the electronic structure change of graphene induced by its interactions with DNAs in different conformations using ultrafast nanosecond pulse laser and achieving refractive index sensitivity of~3×10^(−5) RIU.This innovative technique for the first time allows us to perform ultrafast monitoring of the conformational changes of special DNA molecules structures,including G-quadruplex formation by K+ions and i-motif formation by the low pH stimulus.The graphene-optofluidic device as presented here provides a new class of label-free,ultrafast,ultrasensitive,compact,and cost-effective optical biosensors for medical and healthcare applications.
