Ultralow-threshold wideband-tunable single-mode ultraviolet lasing from lanthanide-doped upconversion nanomaterials

Ultraviolet (UV) lasers with dynamic wavelength-tunability and high monochromaticity are crucial in a multitude of practical applications yet still remarkable challenges. Here, we show wide wavelength-tuning of single-mode UV lasing based on lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). The rationally designed Yb³⁺/Er³⁺/Tm³⁺/Gd³⁺/Ce³⁺ co-doped multilayer UCNPs, which exhibits a broad gain spectrum with the full width of half maximum of around 57 nm in the UV regime, are developed. More importantly, by taking advantages of a diffraction grating as the tuning component, stable single-mode emission can be achieved in the UCNPs-based external-cavity-extended Fabry–Pérot laser at room temperature. Specifically, the lasing threshold is around 137 µJ cm^–2, which is two orders of magnitude lower than that in the previously reported articles. Precise wavelength-tuning from 310 to 363 nm can be realized by adjusting the Littrow angle. This achievement highlights a portable alternative to continuously wideband-tunable UV lasers and opens up new opportunities for constructing compact solid-state UV photon sources.     

Simultaneous degradation of RhB and reduction of Cr(VI) by MIL-53(Fe)/Polyaniline (PANI) with the mediation of organic acid

MIL-53(Fe)/polyaniline (PANI) composite was prepared by in situ depositing PANI on the surface of MIL-53(Fe) and their catalytic performances on the simultaneous removal of RhB and Cr(VI) were investigated. The elimination efficiency of both RhB and Cr(VI) reached more than 98% under pH=2 where hydrochloric acid and citric acid were used to adjust the pH. The results indicated that MIL-53(Fe)/PANI revealed an obvious pH response to the degradation of RhB, while citric acid promoted the Cr(VI) photoreduction. UV-Vis spectra, EIS, and photocurrent response experiments showed that MIL-53(Fe)/PANI had a better light response and carrier migration ability than MIL-53(Fe). The transient absorption spectra also exhibited that the lifetimes of photo-generated carriers were prolonged after the conductive polymer deposition on the MIL-53(Fe) surface. Scavenger experiments demonstrated that the main active species were ·O₂^- and OH. Combined with activity evaluation results, and the possible photocatalytic mechanism of MIL-53(Fe)/PANI on RhB oxidation and Cr(VI) reduction was proposed. The addition of conductive polymer can effectively improve the light response of the catalyst under acidic conditions, and meanwhile citric acid also provided a new mediation for the synergistic degradation of multiple pollutants. Good activity and stability of the catalysts made the scale-up purification of acid water feasible under UV-Vis light.     

Highly efficient electrochemical generation of H2O2 on N/O co-modified defective carbon

The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) via two-electron pathway is a sustainable way of producing hydrogen peroxide. Nanostructured carbon materials are proved to be effective catalysts for 2e^? ORR. Herein, a series of mesoporous carbon with tunable nitrogen species and oxygen functional groups were synthesized by varying the added amount of dopamine hydrochloride as nitrogen and oxygen source. The modified catalysts exhibited higher content of pyrrolic-N and ether C–O groups which are confirmed by a series of characterization. Raman spectra and correlation analysis revealed that the increased proportion of defect sites in carbon materials are closely related to the introduced pyrrolic-N and ether C–O groups. And the rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) measurement carried out in 0.1 M KOH electrolyte showed the H₂O₂ selectivity increased with the content of defect sites. Among them, the optimized catalyst (NOC-6M) exhibited a selectivity of 95.2% and a potential of 0.71 V vs. RHE at ?1 mA cm^?2. Moreover, NOC-6M possessed the high H₂O₂ production rate of 548.8 mmol g_cat^?1 h^?1 with faradaic efficiency of 92.4% in a two-chamber H-cell. Further mechanistic analysis revealed that the introduction of pyrrolic-N and ether C–O are likely to improve the binding energy of the defect sites toward 1OOH intermediate, resulting in a more favorable 2e^? ORR pathway for H₂O₂ production.     

A practical reliability assessment approach and its application for pile-stabilized slopes using FORM and support vector machine

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Many uncertainties exist in pile-stabilized slopes which make their design substantially complicated. In this paper, a first-order reliability...     

The dehydrogenation kinetics and reversibility improvements of Mg(BH4)2 doped with Ti nano-particles under mild conditions

Magnesium borohydride, Mg(BH₄)₂, is ball-milled with Ti nano-particles. Such catalyzed Mg(BH₄)₂ releases more hydrogen than pristine Mg(BH₄)₂ does during isothermal dehydrogenation at 270, 280, and 290 °C. The catalyzed Mg(BH₄)₂ also exhibits better dehydrogenation kinetics than the pristine Mg(BH₄)₂. Based on kinetics model fitting, the activation energy (E_a) of the catalyzed Mg(BH₄)₂ is calculated to be lower than pristine Mg(BH₄)₂. During partial dehydrogenation, the catalyzed Mg(BH₄)₂ releases 4.23 wt % (wt%) H₂ for the second dehydrogenation at 270 °C, comparing to 4.05, and 3.75 wt% H₂ at 280, and 290 °C. The reversibility of 4.23 wt% capacity is also one of the highest for Mg(BH₄)₂ dehydrogenation under mild conditions such as 270 °C as reported. 4 cycles of Mg(BH₄)₂ dehydrogenation are conducted at 270 °C. The capacities degrade during 4 cycles and tend to be stable at about 3.0 wt% for the last two cycles. By analyzing the hydrogen de/absorption products of the catalyzed sample, Mg(BH₄)₂ is found to be regenerated after rehydrogenation according to Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Ti nano-particles can react with Mg(BH₄)₂ during ball-milling and de/rehydrogenation. The products include TiH_1.924, TiB, and TiB₂, which can improve the dehydrogenation properties of Mg(BH₄)₂ from a multiple aspect.     

A distributed energy system integrating SOFC-MGT with mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemical hydrogen fuel production

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production with energy level upgraded from solar thermal to chemical energy shows great potential. By integrating mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry and solid oxide fuel cells, in this paper, a new distributed energy system combining power, cooling, and heating is proposed and analyzed from thermodynamic, energy and exergy viewpoints. Different from the high temperature solar thermochemistry (above 1073.15 K), the mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry utilizes concentrated solar thermal (473.15–573.15 K) to drive methanol decomposition reaction, reducing irreversible heat collection loss. The produced hydrogen-rich fuel is converted into power through solid oxide fuel cells and micro gas turbines successively, realizing the cascaded utilization of fuel and solar energy. Numerical simulation is conducted to investigate the system thermodynamic performances under design and off-design conditions. Promising results reveal that solar-to-hydrogen and net solar-to-electricity efficiencies reach 66.26% and 40.93%, respectively. With the solar thermochemical conversion and hydrogen-rich fuel cascade utilization, the system exergy and overall energy efficiencies reach 59.76% and 80.74%, respectively. This research may provide a pathway for efficient hydrogen-rich fuel production and power generation.     

Effects of particle sizes on performances of the multi-zone steam generator using waste heat in a bio-oil steam reforming hydrogen production system

Hydrogen production by bio-oil steam reforming is an advanced production technology. It is a good method of coupling waste heat utilization with bio-oil steam reforming to produce hydrogen, which increases the cleaning ability of the bio-oil steam reforming system. A multi-zone steam generator using waste heat has been proposed, which can produce the heat source and steam source of the hydrogen system. The DEM model of the multi-zone steam generator was set up. The model has been used to investigate the effects of particle sizes (40 mm–80 mm). With increasing particle size, the flow index and the flow uniformity gradually decrease, the vertical velocity gradient increases in the area on both side with the zone steam generator, and the vertical velocity fluctuation amplitude gradually increases. So, the hydrogen production decreases from the particle size increasing.     

Predicting elastic modulus of porous La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ cathodes from microstructures via FEM and deep learning

In this work, a deep learning accelerated homogenization framework is developed for prediction of elastic modulus of porous materials directly from their inner microstructures. The finite element method (FEM) and the homogenization theory are used to obtain the macroscopic properties of materials based on their microstructures. Based on a large dataset consisting of various microstructures and corresponding elastic properties via FEM, a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is trained to capture the nonlinear functional relationship between the microstructure features and their macroscopic elastic properties. The deep learning model is finally well validated against extra new samples with excellent predictive performances. This demonstrates that the CNN deep learning model can be trusted as a surrogate model for the FEM based homogenization method, with the computation time being reduced by several orders of magnitude. The proposed deep learning framework is highly extendable for prediction of various macroscopic properties from microstructures.