Degradation of soil-sorbed trichloroethylene by stabilized zero valent iron nanoparticles: effects of sorption, surfactants, and natural organic matter

Zero valent iron (ZVI) nanoparticles have been studied extensively for degradation of chlorinated solvents in the aqueous phase, and have been tested for in-situ remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater. However, little is known about its effectiveness for degrading soil-sorbed contaminants. This work studied reductive dechlorination of trichloroethylene (TCE) sorbed in two model soils (a potting soil and Smith Farm soil) using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) stabilized Fe-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles. Effects of sorption, surfactants and dissolved organic matter (DOC) were determined through batch kinetic experiments. While the nanoparticles can effectively degrade soil-sorbed TCE, the TCE degradation rate was strongly limited by desorption kinetics, especially for the potting soil which has a higher organic matter content of 8.2%. Under otherwise identical conditions, ∼44% of TCE sorbed in the potting soil was degraded in 30 h, compared to ∼82% for Smith Farm soil (organic matter content = 0.7%). DOC from the potting soil was found to inhibit TCE degradation. The presence of the extracted SOM at 40 ppm and 350 ppm as TOC reduced the degradation rate by 34% and 67%, respectively. Four prototype surfactants were tested for their effects on TCE desorption and degradation rates, including two anionic surfactants known as SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) and SDBS (sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate), a cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA) bromide, and a non-ionic surfactant Tween 80. All four surfactants were observed to enhance TCE desorption at concentrations below or above the critical micelle concentration (cmc), with the anionic surfactant SDS being most effective. Based on the pseudo-first-order reaction rate law, the presence of 1×cmc SDS increased the reaction rate by a factor of 2.5 when the nanoparticles were used for degrading TCE in a water solution. SDS was effective for enhancing degradation of TCE sorbed in Smith Farm soil, the presence of SDS at sub-cmc increased TCE degraded by ∼10%. However, effect of SDS on degradation of TCE in the potting soil was more complex. The presence of SDS at sub-cmc decreased TCE degradation by 5%, but increased degradation by 5% when SDS dosage was raised to 5×cmc. The opposing effects were attributed to combined effects of SDS on TCE desorption and degradation, release of soil organic matter and nanoparticle aggregation. The findings strongly suggest that effect of soil sorption on the effectiveness of Fe-Pd nanoparticles must be taken into account in process design, and soil organic content plays an important role in the overall degradation rate and in the effectiveness of surfactant uses.     

试述消防人员在灭火救援行动中的安全防护

为了减少消防人员不必要的伤亡,就消防人员在灭火救援行动中的安全防护问题进行了分析探讨,找出有效的对策,供广大官兵在实施灭火救援行动中参考。     

Seismic response analysis of structures with velocity-dependent dampers

This paper is concerned with seismic response analysis of structures with velocity-dependent passive energy dissipation devices, such as viscous and viscoelastic dampers. The modeling of a damper-brace component composed of a viscous or viscoelastic damper connecting with braces in series is presented. Several key parameters influencing the energy dissipation efficiency of such dampers in the damper-brace component are investigated and the relationships of the parameters and efficiency of the dampers are established. An equivalent model for the passive energy dissipation system is developed, which can significantly simplify the dynamic analysis of structures with the velocity-dependent dampers. The seismic responses of a single-story structure and a multi-story structure with the viscous and viscoelastic dampers are analyzed to verify the effectiveness of the passive energy dissipation devices for suppression of dynamic responses of structures and the reliability of the proposed simplified computational methods.     

预应力新技术在翠林大桥中的应用

翠林大桥为福建省厦漳高速公路上的重要桥梁，同时跨越翠林河和漳龙公路。桥型为五孔连续预应力混凝土箱梁桥，桥梁全长为２３５．４０ｍ，桥面全宽为２６．０ｍ，按汽车－超２０级、挂车－１２０荷载标准设计。本文着重介绍翠林大桥设计中国内首次应用的全断面同步张拉施工法、新型ＣＤＭ大吨位镦头锚体系，以及大直径（φ２２００ｍｍ）预应力混凝土空心管桩基础等新技术。     

Insight into the selective oxidation mechanism of glycerol to 1,3-dihydroxyacetone over AuCu–ZnO interface

Directional regulation of polyol oxidation selectivity by constructing active sites with specific structure is a critical yet challenging problem. Herein, the specific Au-based catalyst with efficient Au–Cu–ZnO interfacial active sites was successfully designed to promote selective oxidation of glycerol to 1,3-dihydroxyacetone under mild conditions. X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed that the increased electron transfer between Au and Cu increases the content of Au⁺, resulting in the higher catalytic activity (turnover frequency: 402.5 h⁻¹). Meanwhile, small AuCu alloy nanoparticles (ca., 2.7 nm) could be inserted into the ZnO lattice with the formation of Au(Cu)–O–Zn linkages, resulting in the enrichment of interfacial oxygen vacancies. These interfacial oxygen vacancies induce the activation and adsorption of the secondary hydroxyl group of glycerol on the interfacial active sites, improving the selectivity of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone (83.4%). Furthermore, in situ Fourier transform infrared, structure-dependent kinetics and density functional theory calculation demonstrated that Au–Cu–ZnO interfacial active sites could enhance the participation of OH* and oxygen vacancies in activating the O H and C H bonds, respectively, promoting the improvement of the catalytic performance. The outcome of this work offers new insights for the rational design of high effective catalyst for the selective oxidation of polyol.     

Vapor-phase polymerization of high-performance thin-film composite membranes for nanofiltration

Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes are commendable semipermeable barriers for water treatment. Although conventionally immiscible interfaces between aqueous and organic solutions are widely utilized for obtaining TFC membranes, interfacial polymerization still suffers from the issues of harmful solvents, complex diffusion/reaction of the reactants, and thermodynamic and kinetic instability of interfaces. In this study, vapor-phase polymerization with no requirements for organic solvent and immiscible interface is utilized for processing TFC nanofiltration membranes. Through cross-linking of β-cyclodextrin and piperazine layers by trimesoyl chloride vapor, polyester and polyamide TFC membranes with high cross-linking degree are simply prepared in a scalable and reproducible manner. The prepared TFC membranes exhibit stable nanofiltration and desalination performance for all water, organic solvent, and water–organic mixture systems, with permeance up to an order of magnitude higher than that of commercial membranes.     

Ternary fluid lattice Boltzmann simulation of dynamic interfacial tension induced by mixing inside microdroplets

A ternary fluid color-gradient lattice Boltzmann model is proposed to investigate the effect of mixing-induced dynamic interfacial tension on the diffusive mixing of two fluids inside microdroplets moving in a third continuous phase through a baffled channel. The diffusion coefficient of binary mixtures and dynamic interfacial tension in this model can be directly defined and independently adjusted. The simulation results show that the dynamic interfacial tension between miscible binary fluids at interfaces with ambient phase would lead to the motion of the interface and redistribution of solutes inside the droplet during mixing. The larger initial interfacial tension gradient would improve mixing efficiency at early stages by promoting faster solute flow. The present model can be easily applied to quantitatively characterize the mixing behavior inside droplets in the practical processes involving the dynamic interfacial tension phenomenon and inspire new designs for mixing intensification.     

Enhanced sound absorption properties of porous ceramics modified by graphene oxide films

Under the condition of constant thickness, improving the low-frequency sound absorption performance of conventional sound-absorbing materials is a challenging research topic. To address this issue, a new reduced graphene oxide/polyvinyl alcohol (RGO/PVA) porous composite ceramic was fabricated using freeze-drying and optimized by redesigning the internal connecting pores of porous ceramic matrixes with a reticular microstructure using RGO and PVA. The as-prepared porous structure showed significant enhancement in the low-frequency sound absorption band compared with pristine porous ceramics. In addition, the hybrid porous ceramics exhibited low thermal conductivity. These favorable properties indicate that the hybrid sound-absorbing ceramics have potential application prospects for noise reduction in the fields of construction and electrical and mechanical devices.     

Kinetics,mechanism, and simulation of hydrogen transfer reaction of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes to allylic alcohols

Homogeneous hydrogen transfer reactions of methacrolein (MAL) and isopropanol to methallyl alcohol (MAA) were investigated in batch reactor (Conv. 89%, Select 93.1%) and tubular reactor (Conv. 88.1%, Select 95%) using aluminum isopropoxide (Al(OPrⁱ)₃) as catalyst. Kinetic experiments on hydrogen transfer reactions and reaction order were investigated in batch reactor and tubular reactor. Response surface methodology was applied to optimize the optimum reaction conditions of hydrogen transfer reaction. Purification process of MAA from product mixture after hydrogen transfer reaction was simulated with Aspen Plus software; theoretical stages, reflux ratio, and feed stage of distillation tower were optimized. Density functional theory was used to investigate viable reaction pathway and to probe the catalytic mechanism between reactants and catalyst, including dehydrogenation, coupling, and hydrogenation reaction. Microscopic mechanisms of hydrogen transfer reaction from MAA to MAL were acquired in detail and could be easily extended to other series of hydrogen transfer reaction.     

Novel strong and tough Ta/TaHfC2 composites with multi-scale laminated structure

Ta-Hf-C ternary ceramics are good candidates for structural components used in extreme thermal environment. However, intrinsic brittleness greatly restricts their applications in reality. Here, we report a novel TaHfC₂-based composite with superior strength and toughness by employing Ta foil as interlayers to generate a multi-scale laminated structure together with the in situ formed Ta₂C MXene during sintering. Owing to the unique composition and microstructure, the tensile strength, shear strength, fracture toughness (K_IC), and work of fracture of Ta/TaHfC₂ have reached 233 ± 12 MPa, 64 ± 6 MPa, 13.16 ± 0.03 MPa·m^1/2, and 1726 ± 448 J/m² simultaneously, and all showed substantial increments when compared with TaHfC₂ monolithic ceramic and related Ta-Hf-C materials as showed in literatures. This study significantly improved the toughness of TaHfC₂, and it provides a new high-performance thermal structural material for the aerospace industry as well as a new idea for toughening ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) of transition metal carbides.