Nano fibrillated cellulose-based foam by Pickering emulsion: Preparation,characterizations, and application as dye adsorbent

An ecofriendly and biodegradable porous structure was prepared from drying aqueous foams based on nano fibrillated cellulose (NFC), extracted from softwood pulp by subcritical water/CO₂ treatment (SC-NFC). The primary aim of this work was to use the modified SC-NFC as stabilizer for a water-based Pickering emulsion which upon drying, yielded porous cellulosic materials, a good dye adsorbent. In order to exploit the carboxymethylated SC-NFC (CMSC-NFC, with a degree of substitution of 0.35 and a charge density of 649 μeqv/g) as a stabilizer for water-based Pickering emulsion in subsequent step, an optimized quantity of octyl amine (30 mg/g of SC-NFC) was added to make them partially hydrophobic. A series of dry foam structures were prepared by varying the concentrations of treated CMSC-NFCs and 4 wt% was found to be the optimum concentration to yield foam with high porosity (99%) and low density (0.038 g/cc) along with high compression strength (0.24 MPa), superior to the conventionally extracted NFC. The foams were applied to capture as high as 98% of methylene blue dyes, making them a potential green candidate for treating industrial effluent. In addition, the dye adsorption kinetics and isotherms were found to be well suited with second order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm models.     

突发疫情对染料行业影响及对策

一场新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情的爆发给染料行业的发展带来了影响,既有负面消极,也有积极影响。疫情将促进染料行业绿色发展,推动染料行业走向信息化、智能化时代,走向高质量发展,指出只要坚持绿色、创新和智能化,就能战胜疫情,推动中国染料行业稳健发展。     

Mg0.5NixZn0.5-xFe2O4 spinel as a sustainable magnetic nano-photocatalyst with dopant driven band shifting and reduced recombination for visible and solar degradation of Reactive Blue-19

Focussing on visible light active ferrites for high performance removal of noxious pollutants, we report the synthesis of Mg_0.5Ni_xZn_0.5-xFe₂O₄ (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, & 0.5) ferrite nanoparticle for degradation of reactive blue-19 (RB-19). Lattice parameters calculated using intense X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks and Nelson-Riley plots (N-R plot) are in well agreement with each other. The sample Mg_0.5Ni_0.4Zn_0.1Fe₂O₄ (M5N4) exhibits best performance with 99.5% RB-19 degradation in 90 min under visible light. Photoluminescence (PL) results confirm that recombination of charge carriers is highly reduced in the photocatalyst. Scavenging experiments suggest that O₂⁻ radicals were the dominant species responsible for photocatalytic performance. The photocatalytic mechanism was explained in terms of dopant driven shifting of conduction bands and valence bands (calculated by Mott-Schottky plots). The thermodynamic probability of radical generation along with role of redox cycles of metal ions has been discussed in the mechanism. The dye degradation was ascertained by detection of intermediates via mass spectrometry analysis and a possible degradation route was also predicted. The findings in this work provide intriguing opportunities to modify the electronic band structure of spinel ferrites for visible and solar light photocatalytic activity for environmental detoxification.     

Novel organic dyes containing N-bridged oligothiophene coplanar cores for dye-sensitized solar cells

Three novel organic dyes adopting fully-fused coplanar heteroarene as the donor moieties end-capped with two cyanoacrylic acids as acceptors and anchoring groups have been synthesized, characterized, and used as the sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The photophysical and electrochemical properties of the novel dyes and the characteristics of the DSSCs based on the novel organic dyes were investigated. The incorporation of the coplanar cores with electron-donating N-bridges are beneficial for the better intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), giving these new dyes good light-harvesting capability. The LUMO energy levels of these coplanar heteroacene-based dyes are sufficiently high for the efficient electron injection to TiO₂ upon photo-excitation, while the suitable HOMOs allow the regeneration of oxidized dyes with the electrolyte redox (I⁻/I₃⁻). The structural features of the coplanar cores (penta vs. hexa heteroarene) as well as the alkyl substitutions play crucial roles in governing the physical properties and device performance. Among these three novel organic sensitizers, the EHTt dye composed of a fully fused hexa-arene core and less bulky N-alkyl groups caused the DSSC to show the best photovoltaic performance with an open-circuit voltage (V_OC) of 0.58 V, a short-circuit photocurrent density (J_SC) of 13.72 mA/cm², and a fill factor (FF) of 0.69, yielding an overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.52% under AM 1.5G solar irradiation.     

Carbon-based TiO2-x heterostructure nanocomposites for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of dye molecules

Application of brown titanium dioxide (TiO_2-x) and its modified composite forms in the photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants in the environment is a promising way to provide solutions for environmental redemption. Herein, we report the synthesis of effective and stable TiO_2-x nanoparticles with g-C₃N₄, RGO, and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using a simple hydrothermal method. Among all the as-synthesized samples, excellent photocatalytic degradation activity was observed for RGO-TiO_2-x nanocomposite with high rate constants of 0.075 min^?1_, 0.083 min^?1 and 0.093 min^?1 for methylene blue, rhodamine-B, and rosebengal dyes under UV–Visible light irradiation, respectively. The altered bandgap (1.8 eV) and the large surface area of RGO-TiO_2-x nanocomposite impacts on both absorption of visible light and efficiency of photogenerated charge electron (e^?)/hole (h⁺) pair separation. This resulted in enhanced photocatalytic property of carbon-based TiO_2-x nanocomposites. A systematic study on the influence of different carbon nanostructures on the photocatalytic activity of brown TiO_2-x is carried out.     

液相色谱法快速检测染色梅鱼中日落黄、柠檬黄的含量

目的建立一种快速、低成本检测染色梅鱼中日落黄、柠檬黄的方法。方法将染色梅鱼剥皮,鱼皮经70%甲醇氨水提取液提取,经EclipseXDB-C_(18)色谱柱分离,以甲醇和乙酸铵水溶液为流动相,进行梯度洗脱,流速为1.0 mL/min,柱温35℃,利用紫外检测器检测日落黄、柠檬黄的含量。结果日落黄、柠檬黄在1.25、2.5、12.5、25 mg/kg添加水平的加标回收率为80%～90%,相对标准偏差小于10%(n=6),柠檬黄检出限为0.05 mg/kg,日落黄检出限为0.025 mg/kg。结论该方法快速、准确、成本低,适合染色梅鱼中日落黄、柠檬黄的快速检测。     

An ideal host-guest system to accomplish high-performance greenish yellow and hybrid white organic light-emitting diodes

Greenish yellow organic light-emitting diodes (GYOLEDs) have steadily attracted researcher's attention since they are important to our life. However, their performance significantly lags behind compared with the three primary colors based OLEDs. Herein, for the first time, an ideal host-guest system has been demonstrated to accomplish high-performance phosphorescent GYOLEDs, where the guest concentration is as low as 2%. The GYOLED exhibits a forward-viewing power efficiency of 57.0 lm/W at 1000 cd/m², which is the highest among GYOLEDs. Besides, extremely low efficiency roll-off and voltages are achieved. The origin of the high performance is unveiled and it is found that the combined mechanisms of host-guest energy transfer and direct exciton formation on the guest are effective to furnish the greenish yellow emission. Then, by dint of this ideal host-guest system, a simplified but high-performance hybrid white OLED (WOLED) has been developed. The WOLED can exhibit an ultrahigh color rendering index (CRI) of 92, a maximum total efficiency of 27.5 lm/W and a low turn-on voltage of 2.5 V (1 cd/m²), unlocking a novel avenue to simultaneously achieve simplified structure, ultrahigh CRI (>90), high efficiency and low voltage.     

Solar light-driven reduction of crystal violet by a composite of g-C3N4, β-Ag2Se, γ-Fe2O3 and graphite

Abstract

In this work, a new g-C₃N₄-based Z-scheme with γ-Fe₂O₃ and β-Ag₂Se both n-type semiconductors, and graphite to favor electron exchange is presented. The composite material was studied by XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis, TEM, XPS, TGA, DSC and TOF-SIMS, and the ability of this photocatalytic system to act as a photo-reductant was assessed using crystal violet (CV⁺) dye. Solar light driven photo-reduction of CV⁺ in the presence of tri-sodium citrate evidenced a synergistic enhancement of the activity of the composite toward reduction, with ～20 times higher conversion rates per unit of surface area than those of g-C₃N₄. Photo-oxidation experiments under Xe lamp irradiation in the presence of H₂O₂ also showed that the AgFeCN composite featured a higher activity (～8×) than g-C₃N₄. This Z-scheme may deserve further study as a photo-reductant to obtain hydrogen or hydrogenated compounds. Moreover, the use of CV⁺ may represent a facile procedure that can aid in the selection of new photocatalysts to be used in hydrogen production.