Hydrogen from wet air and sunlight in a tandem photoelectrochemical cell

A solid-state photoelectrochemical (SSPEC) cell is an attractive approach for solar water splitting, especially when it comes to monolithic device design. In a SSPEC cell the electrodes distance is minimized, while the use of polymer-based membranes alleviates the need for liquid electrolytes, and at the same time they can separate the anode from the cathode. In this work, we have made and tested, firstly, a SSPEC cell with a Pt/C electrocatalyst as the cathode electrode, under purely gaseous conditions. The anode was supplied with air of 80% relative humidity (RH) and the cathode with argon. Secondly, we replaced the Pt/C cathode with a photocathode consisting of 2D photocatalytic g-C₃N₄, which was placed in tandem with the photoanode (tandem-SSPEC). The tandem configuration showed a three-fold enhancement in the obtained photovoltage and a steady-state photocurrent density. The mechanism of operation is discussed in view of recent advances in surface proton conduction in absorbed water layers. The presented SSPEC cell is based on earth-abundant materials and provides a way towards systems of artificial photosynthesis, especially for areas where water sources are scarce and electrical grid infrastructure is limited or nonexistent. The only requirements to make hydrogen are humidity and sunlight.     

Reply to the discussion by Q. Zeng and S.L. Xu of the paper “Numerical simulation of moisture transport in concrete based on a pore size distribution model”

This paper presents a reply to the discussion of the paper “Numerical simulation of moisture transport in concrete based on a pore size distribution model” by Q. Zeng and S.L. Xu.     

调整工艺条件降低脲醛胶生产的操作成本

根据生成脲醛树脂的反应机理和反应特性,对生产周期的控制步骤——缩聚阶段的工艺条件进行调整,采用在不同反应阶段调整不同工艺条件的方法,使整个反应周期由原来的6．0h缩短到5．0h,从而提高设备利用率、降低生产的操作成本,同时因充分利用反应自身放出的热量,可降低生产能耗。     

α-Fe2O3/煤矸石复合光催化剂的制备及其降解五氯酚性能的研究

以Fe（NO₃）₃、煤矸石和NaOH为原料,采用沸腾回流法制得了一系列不同质量比的α-Fe₂O₃/煤矸石复合光催化剂。采用场发射扫描电子显微镜（FESEM）、X射线衍射仪（XRD）及紫外-可见漫反射光谱（UV-Vis DRS）等多种手段对产物做了表征。以五氯酚为目标降解物,考察了模拟太阳光照下样品的光催化效果。结果表明,将球形α-Fe₂O₃负载于改性煤矸石表面可有效提高其光催化活性,且α-Fe₂O₃/煤矸石复合光催化剂的性能与α-Fe₂O₃的含量有关,当α-Fe₂O₃与煤矸石的质量比为30∶100时,样品的光催化效果最佳,180 min内即可将五氯酚降解完全。此外,α-Fe₂O₃/煤矸石复合光催化剂还具有可重复使用的特点。     

新型醋酸乙烯聚合引发剂的研究

采用新型引发剂过氧化二月桂酰对醋酸乙烯聚合进行研究,通过研究它在聚合过程中的分解速率常数、半衰期等性能,得出过氧化二月桂酰的分解速率常数大,半衰期与偶氮二异丁腈相似,并且产物不含有毒物质,因此它的应用范围可以更加广泛。讨论了引发剂质量、甲醇质量、反应时间对醋酸乙烯转化率和聚合度的影响。建立正交试验得到醋酸乙烯聚合的最佳工艺条件。     

地铁直流牵引供电系统振荡机理分析

地铁直流牵引供电系统低频振荡电流是导致DDL保护误动的主要原因。从系统分析的角度,建立了计及电动车辆影响的直流牵引供电系统电磁暂态模型及系统振荡时的非线性二阶动态模型。在唯一平衡点邻域内,利用李亚普诺夫间接法将非线性动态系统转换为线性系统后,确定出系统振荡的结构条件。实例计算和仿真表明,牵引变流器和牵引电机的等效负电阻是系统不稳定的主要电气参量,系统振荡频率主要取决于车载滤波电容与滤波电感,且系统仿真波形在众多特征上与实际记录的电流波形基本一致。     

The preparation and gas sensitivity study of polypyrrole/zinc oxide

Polypyrrole (PPy) was prepared by chemical oxidation polymerization, analyzed by FT-IR, elemental analysis and HRTEM, and studied for gas sensitivity. It suggested that PPy had sensitivity to NH₃, H₂S and NO_x, and showed irreversibility to NO_x gas. The organic–inorganic hybrid materials PPy/ZnO with different PPy weight percents were prepared by mechanical mixing, and the sensitivity study of the materials to toxic gases NH₃, H₂S, NO_x was carried out at different operating temperatures 30, 60, and 90 °C. It was found that PPy/ZnO materials (PPy(1%)/ZnO, PPy(3%)/ZnO, PPy(5%)/ZnO, PPy(10%)/ZnO, PPy(20%)/ZnO) had better selectivity and reversibility to NO_x than pure PPy, and much lower working temperature than the reported working temperature of ZnO (about 350–450 °C). Their sensitivity increased with the increasing concentration of NO_x at particular working temperature, and among them PPy(10%)/ZnO had the maximum sensitivity to NO_x in the same condition. They showed no response to 1000, 1500, 2000 ppm NH₃ or H₂S. The response mechanism of PPy/ZnO materials to NO_x was discussed.     

席夫碱结构对Cu缓蚀作用的影响

用自组装技术使席夫碱在Cu表面自组装成膜,用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、交流阻抗方法及量子化学法研究了席夫碱结构对Cu缓蚀作用的影响.结果表明:席夫碱类化合物在发挥其活性时应以接受电子为主,此类化合物的亚胺或甲亚胺特性基团(-RC=N-)和苯环上的-OH是该类化合物的主要活性区,席夫碱苯环的-H被给电子基团取代会提高对Cu的缓蚀效率,且取代基团越靠进-C=N-,形成的螯合物越稳定,缓蚀效率越高.     

Improving pedestrians’ navigation safety at night by enhancing legibility of foreground and background information on the display

Traffic intersections are dangerous areas for pedestrians at night, primarily when people use their mobile phones while walking; pedestrians’ line of sight switches between their phones and the environment, which causes inattentional blindness during emergencies. The salience of the foreground and background information is different by the lightness conditions; therefore, identifying the lightness level of the foreground and background is critical. In this study, the brightness of urban traffic intersection scenes in the nighttime was analyzed, and improved color tones of the navigation interface for enhancing information recognition were identified. Moreover, identify the balance of visual attention by adjusting lightness and color treatment between foreground and background information. A glance legibility experiment indicated that a warm color tone with contrast and gamma correction under a lighting value of 65 in the LAB color mode is the optimal recognition combination. The results of this study indicated that low gamma under high lighting effectively reduced glare-related distractions and resulted in the lowest error rate in background information recognition. This paper proposes increasing the visual attention of urban pedestrians during nighttime navigation through the balancing of the lighting of the foreground interface and the color treatment of the background. Navigating at nighttime can be safer when their attention toward the environment increases and decreases attention distraction.