Facile fabrication of MOF-decorated nickel iron foam for highly efficient oxygen evolution

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as efficient electrocatalysts due to the features of high specific surface area, rich pore structure and diversified composition. It is still challenging to synthesize self-supporting MOF-based catalysts using simple and low-cost fabrication methods. Herein, we successfully fabricated Ni-doped MIL-53(Fe) supported on nickel-iron foam (Ni-MIL-53(Fe)/NFF) as efficient electrocatalyst. A facile two-step solvothermal method without adding any metal salts was used, which can simplify the fabrication process and reduce the experimental cost. In the fabrication process, the bimetallic Ni-MIL-53(Fe)/NFF was in situ converted from an intermediate NiFe₂O₄/NFF. The obtained material exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic oxygen evolution performance with a low overpotential of 248 mV at 50 mA cm^?2, and a small Tafel slope of 46.4 mV dec^?1. This work sheds light on the simple and efficient preparation of bimetallic MOF-based material, which is promising in electrocatalysts.     

Hydrodynamics study of a fast liquid–liquid oxidation process with in situ gas production in microreactors

Hydrodynamics characteristics of a fast and highly exothermic liquid–liquid oxidation process with in situ gas production in microreactors were studied using a newly developed experimental method. In the adipic acid synthesis through the K/A oil (the mixture of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone) oxidation with nitric acid, bubble generation modes were divided into four categories. The gas production became more intensive, unstable, even explosive with increasing the oil phase feed rate and the temperature. A novel automatic image processing method was developed to monitor the instantaneous velocity online by tracking the gas–liquid interface. The axial velocity at the same location was unstable due to the changing gas production rate. Furthermore, the actual residence time was obtained easily with being only 36% of the space–time minimally, beneficial for establishing accurate kinetics and mass transfer models with time participation. Finally, an empirical correlation was developed to predict the actual residence time under different conditions.     

Direct View on the Origin of High Li+ Transfer Impedance in All-Solid-State Battery

Large interfacial resistance plays a dominant role in the performance of all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. However, the mechanism of interfacial resistance has been under debate. Here, the Li⁺ transport at the interfacial region is investigated to reveal the origin of the high Li⁺ transfer impedance in a LiCoO₂(LCO)/LiPON/Pt all-solid-state battery. Both an unexpected nanocrystalline layer and a structurally disordered transition layer are discovered to be inherent to the LCO/LiPON interface. Under electrochemical conditions, the nanocrystalline layer with insufficient electrochemical stability leads to the introduction of voids during electrochemical cycles, which is the origin of the high Li⁺ transfer impedance at solid electrolyte-electrode interfaces. In addition, at relatively low temperatures, the oxygen vacancies migration in the transition layer results in the formation of Co₃O₄ nanocrystalline layer with nanovoids, which contributes to the high Li⁺ transfer impedance. This work sheds light on the mechanism for the high interfacial resistance and promotes overcoming the interfacial issues in all-solid-state batteries.     

Fabrication of bacterial cellulose with high efficient loading of Ag and TiO2 nanoparticles for removing organic dyes

As a new advanced oxidation technology, photocatalytic technology has broad application prospects in the field of wastewater treatment. However, in the actual use process, there will be difficulties in catalyst recovery and reuse. This article successfully prepared bacterial cellulose (BC) loaded silver and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (Ag-plated TiO₂/BC composite pellicle) by in situ embedding method. BC not only works as the carrier to load TiO₂ and Ag NPs but also adsorbs dyes to promote the reaction. As a reusable photocatalytic film, it is convenient to use and recycle in terms of testing and characterization compared with powders. The results show that Ag and TiO₂ nanoparticles were closely embedded in BC. We evaluated the photocatalytic degradation performance of the catalyst on methylene blue (MB), active red X-3B, and Rhodamine B. When the reaction time was 2 h, the dye removal rates were 71%, 68%, and 82.6%. At the same time, through the inhibition zone experiment, it was found that the material has a certain inhibitory effect on both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, the supported catalyst prepared by this method has the advantages of high catalytic activity, relatively stable property, easy recovery, and tailorability, making it potentially applicable in sewage post-treatment links.     

Influence of the SiC matrix introduction time on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Cf/Hf0.5Zr0.5C-SiC ultra-high temperature composites

C_f/Hf_0.5Zr_0.5C-SiC composites were prepared by introducing Hf_0.5Zr_0.5C matrix (11 cycles) and SiC matrix (9 cycles) into the carbon cloth preform through precursor impregnation and pyrolysis (PIP) process. The influence of the introduction time of SiC matrix on the microstructure and mechanical properties of C_f/Hf_0.5Zr_0.5C-SiC composites was studied, and the results show that with the increase of the PIP cycles of the SiC matrix introduced before Hf_0.5Zr_0.5C matrix, the composite open porosity decreased, and the flexural strength and modulus presented an obvious upward trend. CS45 sample, which has 4 cycles of PIP SiC introduced in advance, has the highest flexural strength, flexural modulus and interfacial shear strength of 402.73 ± 35.73 MPa, 56.92 ± 3.97 GPa and 100.88 ± 7.79 MPa, respectively. Hf_0.5Zr_0.5C matrix has a loose and porous structure, so when more SiC matrix was introduced in advance, its covering effect on the surface of fibers led to less intra-bundle pores and thusly denser composite structure, and due to the compactness of SiC matrix, better overall bonding of fiber, interface and matrix was achieved, as well as better load transfer effect, which led to obvious interfacial debonding and cracking based on the in-situ SEM observation during flexural tests. While in the sample without pre-introduced SiC, the cracking occurred mainly between the interface and porous matrix and the overall performance of the material was poor.     

Microstructure-abrasive wear correlation of in situ ZA27/TiC composites

Abrasive wear is a complex surface degradation process driven by various factors such as microstructure, the mechanical properties of the target material, the abrasive, loading conditions, and the surrounding environment. In this study, in situ TiC reinforced Zinc Aluminum alloy composites were prepared through a liquid metallurgy route and the synergistic effect of applied load, sliding speed, abrasive grit size and TiC content on the high-stress abrasive wear response were investigated. The test materials' wear response was established by characterising wear surfaces, sub-surfaces, debris particles, and an abrasive medium. The study suggests that the wear resistance of the specimens decreases with an increase in the applied load, and the composite reinforced with 10 wt % of TiC shows superior wear behaviour among all the test materials. The study also points out that the ZA-27 alloy reinforced with in situ TiC can be a suitable replacement of the conventionally used materials for automotive applications.     

Asynchronous control for two‐dimensional hidden Markovian jump systems with partly known mode observation conditional probabilities

This study focuses on the asynchronous control problem for two‐dimensional discrete‐time hidden Markovian jump systems where the mode observation conditional probability matrix is partly known. Considering the original system modes are invisible, the observed modes emitted from an observer serve as an alternative for stability analysis and controller design where a mode observation conditional probability matrix is constructed to characterize the emission between system modes and observed modes. Specially, only partly known information of the mode observation conditional probability matrix is accessible. With the introduction of the free‐connection weighting matrices, the asymptotic mean square stability criterion is firstly derived based on Lyapunov method. This introduction provides a further degree of relaxation and less conservatism is therefore achieved. Secondly, we present synthesis conditions for asynchronous state feedback controller design given in terms of a set of interconnected linear matrix inequalities. Moreover, cluster concept based on the partitions of observed modes is adopted which helps to decrease the number of controllers and simplify the design complexity. A numerical example, regarding the cases with and without clustering of the observed modes, is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Development of the method of production of the ultrafine macrohomogeneous composite powder

ABSTRACT

A method of ultrafine macro-homogeneous composite powder – B₄C–ZrO₂ production using a planetary mill was developed. From the macro-homogeneous composite high-density ceramics, B₄C–ZrB₂ was produced by the method of reactive sintering (in situ) at 2000°C under the pressure of 41–42?MPa. The effect of ZrO₂ grain size and of its distribution in the matrix on the consolidation parameters, and the microstructure of the obtained ceramics was studied.     

纳米Co/rGO磁性复合吸附材料的制备及对Cu2+的吸附性能

以改进Hummer法制备的薄片状氧化石墨烯(GO)为载体和模板负载钴离子，然后采用原位还原法制得纳米金属Co/石墨烯磁性复合吸附材料(Co/rGO)，并将其应用于对Cu2+的吸附和脱除，以期为高效可复用的铜离子脱除剂的合成与应用提供指导。实验结果证实，Co/rGO复合材料具有超顺磁性，能够很方便的使用磁铁进行分离并在无磁场情况下振荡分散。Co/rGO复合材料对Cu2+具有稳定的吸附/脱附性能，实验条件下对Cu2+的最大吸附容量达到117.5 mg/g且5 min内实现吸附平衡，远优于其原料GO的60 min吸附容量27.6 mg/g。本工作系统考察了NaOH加入量、络合剂种类、溶剂种类等关键因素对Co粒子在rGO载体上形貌和分布特性的影响，比较了不同合成条件下的复合材料对Cu2+吸附效果的影响，并对优选条件下制备的Co/rGO复合材料进行了FT-IR, XRD, SEM表征。研究结果表明，纳米Co/rGO磁性材料对Cu2+的吸附过程更符合Freundlich模型，属于多层吸附。室温下吸附焓ΔH=17.81 kJ/mol，吸附反应平衡常数Kθ=3.65。当初始Cu2+浓度为39.22 mg/L时，对Cu2+的吸附率为93.47%，五次吸附/脱附循环后吸附容量仍保持在初始值的94%，每次吸附后溶液中残余Cu2+浓度均满足钴电解液对杂质铜离子的浓度去除要求(5 mg/L)或GB 8978-1996污水综合排放标准3级(2 mg/L)，有望在相关领域发挥作用。     

Study of the surfactant role in latex–aerogel systems by scanning transmission electron microscopy on aqueous suspensions

For insulation applications, boards thinner than 2 cm are under design with specific thermal conductivities lower than 15 mW m^?1 K^?1. This requires binding slightly hydrophobic aerogels which are highly nanoporous granular materials. To reach this step and ensure insulation board durability at the building scale, it is compulsory to design, characterise and analyse the microstructure at the nanoscale. It is indeed necessary to understand how the solid material is formed from a liquid suspension. This issue is addressed in this paper through wet‐STEM experiments carried out in an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM). Latex–surfactant binary blends and latex–surfactant–aerogel ternary systems are studied, with two different surfactants of very different chemical structures. Image analysis is used to distinguish the different components and get quantitative morphological parameters which describe the sample architecture. The evolution of such morphological parameters during water evaporation permits a good understanding of the role of the surfactant.