Carbon nanotube assembly at near-industrial natural-fiber spinning rates

A large number of carbon nanotube (CNT) applications require that CNTs be assembled into fibers and films at speeds viable for industrial production processes. Most of the state-of-art CNT thread formation techniques of CNT fiber production in meters per second (m/s) are still an order of magnitude lower than typical industrial processes. Here, we report a modified dry spinning process with improved drawing rates, where catalyst-free CNT films can be drawn at 15.93 m/s, an order of magnitude higher than most similar dry spinning processes reported in literature. We achieved this speed by using spinnable CNT arrays that are completely detached from the substrate and the corresponding catalyst nanoparticles. The detached drawable CNT arrays are free-standing and they can be transferred onto other flat substrates. This allows the formation of CNT threads with higher diameter uniformity; also the Si substrates can be re-used. Additionally, we successfully attached single-layer CNT ribbons from different batches in order to produce arbitrarily long CNT fibers and threads.     

Production and optimization of high grade cellulase from waste date seeds by Cellulomonas uda NCIM 2353 for biohydrogen production

Production of high grade cellulolytic enzymes from waste agricultural biomass would valorise these wastes to valuable products as well as avoid the pollution problems associated with landfilling of the biomass. In the present study, waste date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) seeds were valorised for cellulase production from Cellulomonas uda NCIM 2353 and for its subsequent usage in biohydrogen production. Optimization of key operational parameters such as date seed concentration, xylose, casein and initial media pH were performed using central composite design to obtain the maximum enzyme yield. The optimum values obtained were (g/L): date seed concentration 30.65, xylose concentration 0.55, casein 7.00 and pH 7.40 for a determination coefficient of 0.999. The results demonstrated a higher prediction accuracy of response surface methodology as the cellulase activity increased six fold (175.96 IU/mL) after optimization. The optimum pH and temperature of purified cellulase was 7 and 50 °C respectively where the enzyme retained nearly 80% of activity upto 180 min. Enzymatic hydrolysis studies showed that a high saccharification efficiency of 60.5% was obtained for acid pretreated sugarcane bagasse by the indigenous cellulase, equivalent to the performance of commercial cellulase. Further, the as-obtained reducing sugars were decomposed by Clostridium thermocellum to produce biohydrogen of maximum concentration 187.44 mmol/L at end of 24 h of fermentation. Results show that date seed substrate based cellulase protein can be employed for industrial processes of biohydrogen production.     

Assessment of supercritical water gasification of food waste under the background of waste sorting: Influences of plastic waste contents

Waste sorting is being gradually implemented as a key measure for circular and sustainable development in China, food waste will be separately collected and separated from municipal solid waste (MSW), thus the plastic content in food waste also will be reduced. In this study, supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of food waste with different contents of plastic (0–3.5 wt%) was experimentally investigated to simulate the influence of waste sorting on the food waste treatment. The results showed that lower plastic content in food waste favored higher gas yield and gasification efficiencies. The highest H₂ yield and total gas yield were 3.11 mol/kg and 8.41 mol/kg in the plastic-free case, respectively. When the plastic content decreased from 3.5 wt% to 0 wt%, the cold gas efficiency (CGE), carbon conversion efficiency (CE) and hydrogen gasification efficiency (HE) increased by 125.97%, 173.48% and 94.09%, respectively. However, lower plastic content negatively affected the quality of produced syngas through decreasing H₂ mole fraction and LHV. The solid residues from SCWG of food waste with lower plastic content had higher ratio of fixed carbon to volatile matter (FC/VM). Based on the analysis of pyrolysis properties and combustion behavior, decreasing the plastic content in food waste helped to improve the thermal stability of solid residues. Moreover, lower plastic content resulted in a decrease of total organic carbon (TOC) concentration in liquid effluent, which is favorable for further treatment of liquid effluent.     

Construction of hierarchical Prussian Blue Analogue phosphide anchored on Ni2P@MoOx nanosheet spheres for efficient overall water splitting

In response to the energy crisis, molybdenum-based catalyst has been proposed as a high-performance electrocatalytic material due to its low price and excellent HER performance. However, in contrast with its excellent HER performance, its poor OER performance often limits practical application as a high-performance overall water splitting catalyst. In this study, Prussian blue analogue (PBA) is grown in-situ on molybdenum-based nanosheet spheres by a simple and ingenious method and then subjected to phosphorization. The resulting composite catalyst exhibits highly efficient overall water splitting performance, overpotentials at current densities of 10 mA cm⁻² and 100 mA cm⁻² for the HER and OER are −61 mV and 268 mV, respectively. Moreover, an alkaline electrolyzer makes up by the catalyst both as positive and negative can reach a cell voltage 1.494 V at 10 mA cm⁻² for the overall water splitting. This method has provided a new strategy to effective combine PBA and molybdenum-based catalyst.     

Optimization of biohydrogen production using acid pretreated corn stover hydrolysate followed by nickel nanoparticle addition

The dilute acid hydrolysis using corn stover (CS) to produce reducible sugars was optimized by the response surface methodology. The electron-equivalent balances of the main metabolites during the dark fermentation (DF) using acid hydrolysate were investigated to identify the evolutions of the electron sinks over the course of DF. The additions of nickel ion and Ni⁰ nanoparticles (NPs) were found to effectively enhance the hydrogen production at experimental conditions. The optimal condition (HCl 2.5 wt%, hydrolyzing duration 105 minutes, pH=5, S/B=3.5, Ni⁰ NPs=10 mg/L^-1) was achieved with Y_H2/S reaching 1.18 (mol.mol^-1-glucose). The Y_H2/S increased from 0.7 (mol.mol^-1-glucose) to 1.18 (mol.mol^-1-glucose) reaching 40% hydrogen yield increase when Ni⁰ NPs was added to the fermentation broth. Among the investigated significant soluble metabolites, the butyric acid was found to serve as the largest e-sink in the electron-equivalent balance. The additions of Ni⁰ NPs at low level (below 10 mg/L) were found to appreciably increase the hydrogen production. The increased pH and substrate to biomass ratio were found to skew the metabolic balance from hydrogen production to the biosynthesis (an increase of biomass). The proposed anaerobic digestion model with consideration of the inhibitory factors model presents a good agreement with the experimental data. The chemical addition such as nickel ions, Ni⁰ NPs was found to be a practical approach in enhancing biohydrogen production using CS acid hydrolysate as cultivation broth.     

Optimizing Ni–Ce/HZSM-5 catalysts for ex-situ conversion of pine wood pyrolytic vapours into light aromatics and phenolic compounds

The main objective of the present work is to investigate the influence of nickel to cerium ratio on hydrogen exchanged Zeolite Socony Mobil-5 (HZSM-5) towards the catalytic upgrading of pine derived oxygenated pyrolysis vapours into aromatic hydrocarbon and phenol in pyrolysis oil via ex-situ fixed bed reactor. The presence of CeO₂ could change electron density of Ni, promote the reduction of Ni species, accelerate the transfer of carbon species, and suppress the production of carbon deposits (17.53%–25.11%) compared with the parent HZSM-5 catalyst (28.95%); it also improved the hydrodeoxygenation ability of all xNiyCe/HZSM-5(nickel and cerium bimetal modified HZSM-5) catalysts, resulting increases in noncondensable gas content (from 31.46% to 52.99%–65.53%). Ni to Ce ratio of 1:1 and 1:2 produced highest aromatic hydrocarbon (32.14%) and phenols (55.51%) relative peak areas. The acid center of HZSM-5 and the metal acid center of the Ni:Ce = 1:1 catalyst obviously fine-tuned the formation of coke; and promoted hydrocarbon production. Moreover, high Ni content promoted alkylation of benzene at C6–C9 and increased C10⁺ PAHs relative peak area; high Ce content promoted the formation of olefin and Increasing the cleavage of C–O bonds and promoted hydrogenation or dehydrogenation, reduced polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and coke yield, and increased phenols and alkylphenols selectivity.     

Sulfonated-polysulfone membrane surface modification by employing methacrylic acid through UV-grafting: Optimization through response surface methodology approach

Membrane surface modification through UV-grafting method was studied and optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) approach. Sulfonated-polysulfone (SPS) membrane was modified through grafting process by employing methacrylic acid (MAA) monomer solution under the exposure of UV light. The parameters used were the concentration of MAA in the range of 0–6 wt% and UV activation time of 0–50 min. The optimized parameters from RSM were 2.61 wt% of MAA and 21.10 min of UV activation time. The optimized water permeability obtained was 8.75 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹, while the rejection percentages for humic acid, NaCl and MgSO₄ solution were 95.0%, 65.7% and 48.3%, respectively.     

Removal of acid blue 113 and reactive black 5 dye from aqueous solutions by activated red mud

Removal of acid blue 113 (AB113) and reactive black 5 (RB5) dyes from aqueous solutions by activated red mud was investigated at different reaction parameters. Activated red mud has higher removal efficiency for AB113 than that for RB5. This can be explained by a greater molecular size of RB5 than that of AB113 and by different binding affinity with the surface of the activated red mud. Equilibrium data was fitted well with Freundlich isotherm and the kinetic data followed a pseudo second-order model. Maximum adsorption capacity was 83.33 mg/g and 35.58 mg/g at pH 3 for AB113 and RB5, respectively.     

First-principles predictions of potential hydrogen storage materials: Novel sandwich-type ethylene dimetallocene complexes

The hydrogen storage capacities of a sandwich-type ethylene dimetallocene complex (Cp₂Ti₂C₂H₄) are studied using first-principles calculations. It is found that the TiC₂H₄Ti molecule can intercalate into the two cyclopentadienyl (Cp) rings and form a stable sandwich-type complex. Each Ti atom can adsorb a maximum of three H₂ molecules, which corresponds to a gravimetric storage capacity of 4.73 wt%. This hydrogen storage capacity is close to the 2015 target of 5.5% set by the US Department of Energy (DOE) in 2009. Furthermore, the Cp₂Ti₂C₂H₄ molecule proposed in this paper is favorable for both adsorption and desorption of hydrogen molecules at room temperature and ambient pressure because its average binding energy of 0.34 eV/H₂.