Good dielectric performance and broadband dielectric polarization in Ag,Nb co-doped TiO2

Due to the demand of miniaturization and integration for ceramic capacitors in electronic components market, TiO₂-based ceramics with colossal permittivity has become a research hotspot in recent years. In this work, we report that Ag⁺/Nb⁵⁺ co-doped (Ag_1/4Nb_3/4)_xTi_1−xO₂ (ANTOx) ceramics with colossal permittivity over a wide frequency and temperature range were successfully prepared by a traditional solid–state method. Notably, compositions of ANTO0.005 and ANTO0.01 respectively exhibit both low dielectric loss (0.040 and 0.050 at 1 kHz), high dielectric permittivity (9.2 × 10³ and 1.6 × 10⁴ at 1 kHz), and good thermal stability, which satisfy the requirements for the temperature range of application of X9R and X8R ceramic capacitors, respectively. The origin of the dielectric behavior was attributed to five dielectric relaxation phenomena, i.e., localized carriers' hopping, electron–pinned defect–dipoles, interfacial polarization, and oxygen vacancies ionization and diffusion, as suggested by dielectric temperature spectra and valence state analysis via XPS; wherein, electron-pinned defect–dipoles and internal barrier layer capacitance are believed to be the main causes for the giant dielectric permittivity in ANTOx ceramics.     

Characterization,in vitro bioactivity and biological studies of sol-gel-derived TiO2 substituted 58S bioactive glass

Bioactive glasses (BGs) have been used for bone formation and bone repair processes in recent years. This study investigated the titanium substitution effect on 58S BGs (Ti-BGs) 60SiO₂-(36 − X)CaO-4P₂O₅-XTiO₂ (X = 0, 3, and 5 mol.%) prepared by the sol-gel technique, and the main goal was to find the optimum amount of titanium in Ti-BGs. Synthesized BGs, which were investigated after immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF), were tested by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy. Moreover alkaline phosphate (ALP) activity, 3-(4,5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and antibacterial studies were employed to investigate the biological properties of Ti-BGs. According to the FTIR and XRD test results, hydroxyapatite (HA) formation on Ti-BGs surfaces was confirmed. Meanwhile, the presence of 5 mol.% compared to 3 mol.% increased the HA grain distribution and their size on the Ti-BGs surface. Additionally, MTT and ALP results confirmed that the optimal amount of titanium substitution in BG was 5 mol.%. Since 5 mol.% Ti incorporated BG (BG-5) had the highest biocompatibility level, antibacterial properties, maximum cell proliferation, and ALP activity among the synthesized Ti-BGs, it is presented as the best candidate for further in vivo investigations.     

TiO2/MXene-Assisted LDI-MS for Urine Metabolic Profiling in Urinary Disease

Cancer remains an intractable medical problem. Rapid diagnosis and identification of cancer are critical to differentiate it from nonmalignant diseases. High-throughput biofluid metabolic analysis has potential for cancer diagnosis. Nevertheless, the present metabolite analysis method does not meet the demand for high-throughput screening of diseases. Herein, a high-throughput, cost-effective, and noninvasive urine metabolic profiling method based on TiO₂/MXene-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) is presented for the efficient screening of bladder cancer (BC) and nonmalignant urinary disease. Combined with machine learning, TiO₂/MXene-assisted LDI-MS enables high diagnostic accuracy (96.8%) for the classification of patient groups (including 47 BC and 46 ureteral calculus (UC) patients) from healthy controls (113 cases). In addition, BC patients can also be identified from noncancerous UC individuals with an accuracy of 88.3% in the independent test cohort. Furthermore, metabolite variations between BC and UC individuals are investigated based on relative quantification, and related pathways are also discussed. These results suggest that this method, based on urine metabolic patterns, provides a potential tool for rapidly distinguishing urinary diseases and it may pave the way for precision medicine.     

Ag nanoparticles-polypyrrole-carbon black/mesoporous TiO2 novel nanocomposite as ultrafast visible-light-driven photocatalyst

Effective design and fabrication of novel visible light-oriented photocatalysts is an existing challenging task that requires further dedicated efforts, and it has been always a main concern among the scientific community. This study deals with the design and fabrication of an extremely active and ultrafast ternary photocatalyst based on Ag nanoparticles, polypyrrole doped carbon black (PPy-C) and mesoporous TiO₂ (m-TiO₂). Sol-gel methodology along with sonication and photodeposition routes have been employed for the successful creation of the ternary framework. Ternary photocatalyst composed of uniform spherical titania nanoparticles (10–15 nm in size) perfectly intermingled with the polymeric linkage of PPy-C. Fruitful creation of unique trio photocatalyst between AgNPs, PPy-C and m-TiO₂ was confirmed by XPS and XRD. FTIR analysis further supports the development of nanocomposite photocatalyst. TEM analysis showed uniform spherical m-TiO₂ nanoparticles (10–15 nm in size) covered by PPy-C with compact nodes like appearance interlocked very well among each other. The newly developed Ag@PPy-C/m-TiO₂ ternary photocatalyst exhibited band gap energy in desired visible range of spectra. The photocatalytic efficiency for all created photocatalysts has been evaluated taking Imidacloprid (insecticide derivative) and methylene blue (MB) dye as target pollutants. The novel Ag@PPy-C/m-TiO₂ photocatalyst produced astonishing results with ultrafast removal of both Imidacloprid as well MB dye under visible light irradiation. The newly created ultrafast Ag@PPy-C/m-TiO₂ photocatalyst has removed 96.0% of the insecticide Imidacloprid in only 25 min with almost ? 2.65 times more efficient than bare m-TiO₂ towards the removal of insecticide derivative. The present report offers a highly encouraging and vastly talented Ag@PPy-C/m-TiO₂ ternary photocatalyst, enabling the ideal management of extremely lethal and notorious chemicals.     

单晶SiC的电助光催化抛光及去除机理

为满足电子半导体等领域对SiC超光滑、无损伤和材料高效去除的要求，提出了电助光催化抛光SiC的新方法。研究了光催化剂种类及其pH值对抛光液氧化性和抛光效果的影响，讨论了材料的去除机理。结果表明：以p25型TiO2为光催化剂配制抛光液所获得的最大氧化还原电位为633.11 mV，材料去除率为1.18 μm/h，表面粗糙度Ra=0.218 nm；抛光后SiC表面氧化产物中，Si-C-O、Si-O和Si4C4O4的含量明显增加，SiC表面被氧化并被机械去除是主要的材料去除方式。     

应用M-MIVM预测含钛渣系组元活度

 在钢铁冶炼过程中,随着护炉钛材料和含钛铁矿石的应用,大量的含钛炉渣被生产出来。由于缺少多元含钛渣系的热力学数据,限制了钛资源综合利用技术的深入发展。因此,应用改进的分子相互作用体积模型(M-MIVM(FII)),预测了基础渣系Al₂O₃-CaO-SiO₂、FeO-MnO-SiO₂和含钛渣系FeO-MnO-TiO₂、FeO-SiO₂-TiO₂、MnO-SiO₂-TiO₂、Al₂O₃-CaO-FeO-TiO₂中各组元活度,并与试验值比较。结果表明,M-MIVM(FII)的预测值与试验值符合较好,6个体系总的平均相对误差为11%,该精度处于Turkdogan提出的30%以内的试验误差范围; M-MIVM(FII)在参数拟合与活度预测能力方面均优于MIVM,该模型对多元含钛熔渣体系组元活度具有更好的预测效果。在此基础上,应用M-MIVM(FII)预测Al₂O₃-CaO-SiO₂-TiO₂熔体中TiO₂活度,并分析其影响因素。结果表明,TiO₂活度预测值与试验值吻合良好,且随炉渣碱度、Al₂O₃含量的增加而降低,该规律与试验规律相一致。M-MIVM(FII)仅通过拟合子二元系活度或者直接由无限稀活度系数就能够预测多元熔体的热力学性质。     

Plasmonic Oxygen-Deficient TiO2-x Nanocrystals for Dual-Band Electrochromic Smart Windows with Efficient Energy Recycling

Dual-band electrochromic smart windows capable of the spectrally selective modulation of visible (VIS) light and near-infrared (NIR) can regulate solar light and solar heat transmittance to reduce the building energy consumption. The development of these windows is however limited by the number of available dual-band electrochromic materials. Here, plasmonic oxygen-deficient TiO_2-x nanocrystals (NCs) are discovered to be an effective single-component dual-band electrochromic material, and that oxygen-vacancy creation is more effective than aliovalent substitutional doping to introduce dual-band properties to TiO₂ NCs. Oxygen vacancies not only confer good near-infrared (NIR)-selective modulation, but also improve the Li⁺ diffusion in the TiO_2-x host, circumventing the disadvantage of aliovalent substitutional doping with ion diffusion. Consequently optimized TiO_2-x NC films are able to modulate the NIR and visible light transmittance independently and effectively in three distinct modes with high optical modulation (95.5% at 633 nm and 90.5% at 1200 nm), fast switching speed, high bistability, and long cycle life. An impressive dual-band electrochromic performance is also demonstrated in prototype devices. The use of TiO_2-x NCs enables the assembled windows to recycle a large fraction of energy consumed in the coloration process (“energy recycling”) to reduce the energy consumption in a round-trip electrochromic operation.     

酸改性CoPd/TiO2催化CH4-CO2直接合成C2含氧化合物

采用酸处理方法对CoPd/TiO₂催化剂进行改性，并将酸改性催化剂用于温和条件下CH₄-CO₂梯阶转化直接合成C₂含氧化合物（乙酸和乙醇）的反应。在150～300℃考察了浸酸方式和不同种类酸处理对催化剂活性和选择性的影响。采用X射线衍射（XRD）、X射线光电子能谱（XPS）、NH₃程序升温脱附（NH₃-TPD）和N₂吸附对催化剂进行了表征。结果表明，酸改性明显提高了CoPd/TiO₂上C₂含氧化合物的生成速率和选择性。浸酸方式对催化剂性能和结构有显著影响，先用酸浸渍载体然后再浸渍活性金属所得催化剂具有更高的活性。在H₃PO₄、HNO₃和HCl中，H₃PO₄浸渍的催化剂活性最佳，在150℃时C₂含氧化合物（乙酸和乙醇）的生成速率为3365 μg/(g·h)，选择性达到91%。     

Surface modification of TiO2 particles with 12-hydroxy stearic acid and the effect of particle size on the mechanical and thermal properties of thermoplastic polyurethane urea elastomers

The efficient surface modification of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) particles with different sizes was first carried out with “water only method” (Appl. Surf. Sci. 2018, 447, 664–672) developed in our group using 12-hydroxy stearic acid (12-HSA) as the modifier. The 12-HSA-modified TiO₂ particles with different sizes were then used to explore their effect on the mechanical and thermal properties of a thermoplastic polyurethane urea (TPUU) elastomer with superior mechanical and thermal properties produced newly in our lab using nonsymmetric alicyclic diisocyanate and diamine. Orthogonal experimental results showed that the order of impact of each factor on the modification efficiency of TiO₂ particles was: Temperature > time > modifier content. It was found that, in the nanometer (≤100 nm) range, smaller particles were more helpful to enhance the tensile strength of the TPUU elastomer, while larger ones to increase more significantly the elongation at break. Besides, the TiO₂/polyurethane urea nanocomposites exhibited much better thermomechanical performance than the pristine TPUU elastomer, and the thermomechanical performance of the nanocomposites increased with decreasing particle size.