Superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surface with excellent universality,corrosion resistance,and antifouling performance prepared without prepolishing

It is urgently necessary to seek more simple and effective methods to construct superhydrophobic metal surfaces to improve the corrosion resistance and antifouling performance. Herein, a facile method for fabricating superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surface is developed via boiling water treatment and stearic acid modification. It is noteworthy that no prepolishing on aluminum alloy is required and no caustic reagents and typical equipments are used during the preparation procedure. Therefore, the fabrication method is quite a simple and environment-friendly technique. Both micro- and nano-scaled binary structure forms at the resultant aluminum alloy surface while long alkyl chains are grafted onto the rough aluminum alloy surface chemically. Consequently, the resultant aluminum alloy exhibits outstanding superhydrophobicity. More importantly, the superhydrophobicity has excellent universality, diversity, stability, excellent corrosion resistance, and antifouling performance. The facile preparation, excellent superhydrophobic durability, and outstanding performance are quite in favor of the practical application.     

Dual effect synergistically triggered Ce:(Y,Tb)3(Al,Mn)5O12 transparent ceramics enabling a high color-rendering index and excellent thermal stability for white LEDs

Ce:Y₃Al₅O₁₂ transparent ceramics (TCs) with appropriate emission light proportion and high thermal stability are significant to construct white light emitting diode devices with excellent chromaticity parameters. In this work, strategies of controlling crystal-field splitting around Ce³⁺ ion and doping orange-red emitting ion, were adopted to fabricate Ce:(Y,Tb)₃(Al,Mn)₅O₁₂ TCs via vacuum sintering technique. Notably, 85.4 % of the room-temperature luminescence intensity of the TC was retained at 150 °C, and the color rendering index was as high as 79.8. Furthermore, a 12 nm red shift and a 16.2 % increase of full width at half maximum were achieved owing to the synergistic effects of Tb³⁺ and Mn²⁺ ions. By combining TCs with a 460 nm blue chip, a warm white light with a low correlated color temperature of 4155 K was acquired. Meanwhile, the action mechanism of Tb³⁺ ion and the energy transfer between Ce³⁺ and Mn²⁺ ions were verified in prepared TCs.     

Effects of Different Short-Term UV-B Radiation Intensities on Metabolic Characteristics of Porphyra haitanensis

The effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, particularly UV-B on algae, have become an important issue as human-caused depletion of the protecting ozone layer has been reported. In this study, the effects of different short-term UV-B radiation on the growth, physiology, and metabolism of Porphyra haitanensis were examined. The growth of P. haitanensis decreased, and the bleaching phenomenon occurred in the thalli. The contents of total amino acids, soluble sugar, total protein, and mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) increased under different UV-B radiation intensities. The metabolic profiles of P. haitanensis differed between the control and UV-B radiation-treated groups. Most of the differential metabolites in P. haitanensis were significantly upregulated under UV-B exposure. Short-term enhanced UV-B irradiation significantly affected amino acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, glutathione metabolism, and phenylpropane biosynthesis. The contents of phenylalanine, tyrosine, threonine, and serine were increased, suggesting that amino acid metabolism can promote the synthesis of UV-absorbing substances (such as phenols and MAAs) by providing precursor substances. The contents of sucrose, D-glucose-6-phosphate, and beta-D-fructose-6-phosphate were increased, suggesting that carbohydrate metabolism contributes to maintain energy supply for metabolic activity in response to UV-B exposure. Meanwhile, dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) was also significantly upregulated, denoting effective activation of the antioxidant system. To some extent, these results provide metabolic insights into the adaptive response mechanism of P. haitanensis to short-term enhanced UV-B radiation.     

Synthesis of succinic acid-based polyamide through direct solid-state polymerization method: Avoiding cyclization of succinic acid

Succinic acid is an important synthetic monomer but it is difficult to use it as a precursor for synthesizing high molecular weight polyamide, due to its tendency to perform intra-cyclization reaction at high temperature. In order to solve this problem, in this paper, the direct solid-state polymerization (DSSP) method with the initial reactant, nylon salt which was composed of 1, 5-diaminopentane, succinic acid, and terephthalic acid, was applied to synthesize the bio-based copolyamide PA 5T/54. In comparison with the conventional melting polymerization method, the DSSP method can prevent the cyclization reaction of succinic acid effectively due to the lower reacting temperature as well as the restriction effect of the nylon salt. As a result, the product fabricated by DSSP method has higher molecular weight and much lighter color from red to white. Therefore, the DSSP method is advantageous for the synthesis of the polymers or copolymers composed of the succinic acid as the monomer. Furthermore, the polymerization mechanism proposed in this work can serve as a guidance for the design of the molecular structure and control of the polymerization process.     

Freeze-drying and mechanical redispersion of aqueous PEDOT:PSS

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films are attracting famous applications in antistatic coating, energy storage and conversion, printed electronics, and biomedical fields due to their conductivity, optical transparency and flexibility. However, PEDOT:PSS has poor dispersion stability during long-term storage and transport. Moreover, the dried PEDOT:PSS films are insoluble in any solvent and cannot be redispersed again. In comparison to bake drying, here, a feasible strategy to achieve mechanically redispersed PEDOT:PSS with the help of freeze-drying process was reported. The redispersed PEDOT:PSS can recover not only the initial characters such as pH, chemical composition, viscosity, and particle size under similar solid contents, but also conductivity and surface morphology of treated films. In addition, the treated film exhibits self-healing properties similar to pristine film in terms of mechanical and electrical properties. This technology enables reuse and overcomes the technical problems of PEDOT:PSS dispersion, realizing real-time processing to meet variable applications.     

Optimized microwave absorption properties by tailoring the morphology of carbon coated TiC nanoparticles by N2 pressure

Increasing the dielectric loss capacity plays an important role in enhancing the electromagnetic absorption performance of materials. It remains a challenge to simultaneously introduce multiple types of dielectric losses in the material. In this work, we show that the atomic and interfacial dipole polarizations can be simultaneously enhanced by substituting N species into both carbon coating layers and bulk TiC lattices of a core-shell TiC@C material. Additionally, substitution of N species results more exposed TiC(111) facets and refines the TiC grain sizes in the bulk material, which is beneficial for enhancing the scattering of the external electromagnetic waves. The maximum reflection loss of the N substituted TiC@C material is measured as ?47.1 dB with an effective absorbing bandwidth of 4.83 GHz at 1.9 mm, which illustrates a valuable way to further tuning the electromagnetic absorption performance of this type of materials.     

Enhanced the photocatalytic activity of B–C–N–TiO2 under visible light:Synergistic effect of element doping and Z-scheme interface heterojunction constructed with Ag nanoparticles

In order to enhance the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ under visible light, Ag nanoparticles were introduced into tridoped B–C–N–TiO₂ (TT) catalyst by photoreduction deposition. Ag/B–C–N–TiO₂ (ATT) catalysts with the functions of reducing band gap and carrier recombination were prepared. At the same time, the effect of the amount of Ag on the photocatalytic performance of ATT catalyst was investigated. Through XRD, XPS, PL and other characterization methods, the (211)/(101)/Ag interface heterojunction mechanism similar to the traditional Z-scheme heterojunction was proposed. The intervention of Ag nanoparticles changed the P–N interface heterojunction between (211)/(101) to the (211)/(101)/Ag Z-scheme interface heterojunction. The results show that ATT catalyst exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity when the molar amount of Ag is 0.005% with the MB degradation rate of the ATT catalyst (0.01707 min^?1), which is 14.59 times of TiO₂ (0.00117 min^?1) and 2.02 times of TT (0.00847 min^?1). In addition, the four cycles efficiencies of ATT for MB degradation were all above 94.00%.This study reveals the possibility of construction of Z-scheme heterojunctions between precious metal nanoparticles and different interfaces of TiO₂, and provides a reference for the construction of Z-scheme interface heterojunctions.     

Recent Advances in Design of Functional Biocompatible Hydrogels for Bone Tissue Engineering

Bone related diseases have caused serious threats to human health owing to their complexity and specificity. Fortunately, owing to the unique 3D network structure with high aqueous content and functional properties, emerging hydrogels are regarded as one of the most promising candidates for bone tissue engineering, such as repairing cartilage injury, skull defect, and arthritis. Herein, various design strategies and synthesis methods (e.g., 3D-printing technology and nanoparticle composite strategy) are introduced to prepare implanted hydrogel scaffolds with tunable mechanical strength, favorable biocompatibility, and excellent bioactivity for applying in bone regeneration. Injectable hydrogels based on biocompatible materials (e.g., collagen, hyaluronic acid, chitosan, polyethylene glycol, etc.) possess many advantages in minimally invasive surgery, including adjustable physicochemical properties, filling irregular shapes of defect sites, and on-demand release drugs or growth factors in response to different stimuli (e.g., pH, temperature, redox, enzyme, light, magnetic, etc.). In addition, drug delivery systems based on micro/nanogels are discussed, and its numerous promising designs used in the application of bone diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, cartilage defect) are also briefed in this review. Particularly, several key factors of hydrogel scaffolds (e.g., mechanical property, pore size, and release behavior of active factors) that can induce bone tissue regeneration are also summarized in this review. It is anticipated that advanced approaches and innovative ideas of bioactive hydrogels will be exploited in the clinical field and increase the life quality of patients with the bone injury.     

Additive Manufacturing of Stable Energy Storage Devices Using a Multinozzle Printing System

The development of the Internet of things has prompted an exponential increase in the demand for flexible, wearable devices, thereby posing new challenges to their integration and conformalization. Additive manufacturing facilitates the fabrication of complex parts via a single integrated process. Herein, the development of a multinozzle, multimaterial printing device is reported. This device accommodates the various characteristics of printing materials, ensures high-capacity printing, and can accommodate a wide range of material viscosities from 0 to 1000 Cp. Complete capacitors, inclusive of the current collector, electrode, and electrolyte, can be printed without repeated clamping to complete the preheating, printing, and sintering processes. This method addresses the poor stability issue associated with printed electrode materials. Furthermore, after the intercalation of LiFePO₄ with Na ions, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction results reveal that the Na ions permeate the interlayer structure of LiFePO₄, enhancing the ion migration channels by increasing the ion transmission rate. A current rate of 2.5 mAh ensures >2000 charge/discharge cycles, while retaining a charge/discharge efficiency of 96% and a discharge capacity of 91.3 mAh g⁻¹. This manufacturing process can provide conformal power modules for a diverse range of portable devices with various shapes, improving space utilization.