New Insights into the Ion/Electron Transfer Mechanisms of LiMnO-Based Membrane Electrodes at Different Electron Fluxes.

Electrochemical Li extraction technology is a highly promising approach for Li extraction from salt lakes. To enhance its practical application, it is crucial to elucidate the ion/electron transfer mechanism under diverse process conditions particularly different electron fluxes. Different migration intermediate states demonstrate the distinct ion migration mechanisms inside the LiMnO lattice at different electron fluxes.

Sludge enrichment and intermittent gradient aeration: Modulating microbial communities for start-up of partial nitrification in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR).

A novel approach has been proposed integrating sludge enrichment with intermittent gradient aeration to achieve partial nitrification (PN). Results indicated that this method suppressed nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) activity while maintained ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) activity, achieving an 82.87 % nitrite accumulation rate (NAR) during startup.

Rational Strategies for Preparing Highly Efficient Tin-, Bismuth- or Indium-Based Electrocatalysts for Electrochemical CO Reduction to Formic acid/Formate.

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CORR) is an environmentally friendly and economically viable approach to convert greenhouse gas CO into valuable chemical fuels and feedstocks. Among various products of CORR, formic acid/formate (HCOOH/HCOO) is considered the most attractive one with its high energy density and ease of storage, thereby enabling widespread commercial applications in chemical, medicine, and energy-related industries. Nowadays, the development of efficient and financially feasible electrocatalysts with excellent selectivity and activity towards HCOOH/HCOO is paramount for the industrial application of CORR technology, in which Tin (Sn), Bismuth (Bi), and Indium (In)-based electrocatalysts have drawn significant attention due to their high efficiency and various regulation strategies have been explored to design diverse advanced electrocatalysts.

Optimizing hydrogen gas production from genetically modified rice straw by steam co-gasification.

Future sustainability visions include clean, renewable energy from hydrogen, which can be produced, among other ways, by biomass steam gasification. This study explores strategies addressing the limitations in steam co-gasification of herbaceous biomass, using Monster-TUAT1 rice straw, a genetically modified rice plant with a taller and bigger stalk developed by Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), and Giant Miscanthus, a promising energy crop, as the feedstock. Firstly, compared with the typical rice straw, the Monster TUAT1 demonstrated superior steam gasification performance with a 1.

Efficient and Stable Inverted Perovskite Solar Modules Enabled by Solid-Liquid Two-Step Film Formation.

A considerable efficiency gap exists between large-area perovskite solar modules and small-area perovskite solar cells. The control of forming uniform and large-area film and perovskite crystallization is still the main obstacle restricting the efficiency of PSMs. In this work, we adopted a solid-liquid two-step film formation technique, which involved the evaporation of a lead iodide film and blade coating of an organic ammonium halide solution to prepare perovskite films.

Modification of spinel MnCoO nanowire with NiFe-layered double hydroxide nanoflakes for stable seawater oxidation.

Currently, direct electrolysis of seawater-based electrolytes rather than fresh water based ones for hydrogen production is gaining more and more attentions for creating a sustainable society. However, using seawater remains more challenges owing to the existence of competitive reactions between chlorine evolution reaction (ClER) or hypochlorite generation reaction and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and electrode erosion. In this study, a MnCoO nanowire coated with NiFe-Layered Double Hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) layer (MnCoO@NiFe-LDH) composite electrocatalyst prepared by a simple two-step hydrothermal method was applied for the seawater electrolysis, which exhibited low overpotentials of 219 and 245 mV at a relatively high current density of 100 mA cm in alkaline simulated and natural seawaters, respectively, as the anode electrocatalyst.

A poly(ether block amide) based solid polymer electrolyte for solid-state lithium metal batteries.

Solid-state lithium (Li) metal batteries (SSLMBs) with high-energy density and high-security are promising for energy storage application and electronic device development. However, Li dendrite generation is still one of the most important factors hindering the application of SSLMBs since interface contact degradation, dead Li accumulation, and continuous solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth are always caused by Li dendrite growth, making the performances of SSLMBs deteriorate rapidly. In this study, a poly(ether block amide) (PEBA) based polymer electrolyte with lithium bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) as the Li salt is developed.

Nanosheet-state cobalt-manganese oxide with multifarious active regions derived from oxidation-etching of metal organic framework precursor for catalytic combustion of toluene.

For the first time, a nanosheet-state CoMnx mixed oxide with multifarious active regions was synthesized by oxidation-etching assembly of metal organic framework (MOF) precursor and applied for catalytic combustion of toluene at low temperatures. The obtained optimum catalyst denoted as CoMn6 showed excellent performance, which achieved 90% conversion of 1,000 ppm toluene under a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 60,000 mL/(g·h) at 219 °C. While, it also exhibited long-term stability with strong water resistance property.

Trimetallic sulfides derived from tri-metal-organic frameworks as anode materials for advanced sodium ion batteries.

Highly conductive metal sulfides with high theoretical capacities and good conductivity have been considered as anode material alternatives for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Unfortunately, the unsatisfactory cycling stability and poor rate performance are usually resulted from the sluggish electrochemical kinetics and volumetric expansion in the charge/discharge process, which severely restricts their applications. Herein, trimetallic sulfides embedded into the carbon matrix with a microsphere shape (denoted as CoNiZnS/C) were successfully prepared by a facile solid sulfidation of tri-metal-organic frameworks.

Foldable nano-LiMnO integrated composite polymer solid electrolyte for all-solid-state Li metal batteries with stable interface.

All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries (ASSLBs) are considered as the most promising next-generation energy storage devices. In this work, a low-cost foldable nano-LiMnO integrated Poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) based composite polymer solid electrolyte (CPSE) is prepared by simply solid-phase method. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the LMO could provide faster ion transfer channels for the migration of lithium ions between PEO chains and segments.

Trace holmium assisting delaminated OMS-2 catalysts for total toluene oxidation at low temperature.

In this study, octahedral molecular sieve (OMS-2) is successfully delaminated by using trace holmium (Ho) via a facile redox co-precipitation route, which exhibits high performance for the total toluene oxidation at low temperature. High resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analyses verify that abundant multi-phase interfaces and lattice dislocations are formed on the obtained delaminated OMS-2 by the Ho (Ho-OMS-2), which can induce more active oxygen species. In particular, the delaminated OMS-2 with a trace Ho amount has a high O/O ratio with a balanced ratio of Mn and Mn, demonstrating much higher activity (T of 228 °C even under 5 vol% HO vapor over 0.

In-situ catalytic upgrading of bio-oil from rapid pyrolysis of biomass over hollow HZSM-5 with mesoporous shell.

To solve the issue of narrow micropores in traditional protonic type Zeolite Socony Mobil-5 (HZSM-5) catalysts in the restricting of large-molecular reactants/products diffusion, hollow HZSM-5 with a mesoporous shell was prepared using a hydrothermal method combined with a tetrapropylammonium hydroxide (TPAOH) treatment process. Applying for in-situ catalyst upgrading of bio-oil from rapid pyrolysis of biomass, the obtained most efficient catalyst of Hollow(30)-TP resulted in aromatic hydrocarbon yields in the range of 78.49-78.

Microwave-assisted synthesis of manganese oxide catalysts for total toluene oxidation.

Oxygen vacancy on the heterogeneous catalyst is of great importance to the catalysis of volatile organic compound (VOC) oxidation. Herein, microwave radiation with special energy-excitation is successfully utilized for the post-processing of a series of manganese oxides (MnO) to generate oxygen vacancies. It is found that the MnO catalyst with 60 min of microwave radiation demonstrates higher activity for toluene oxidation with a T of 210 °C and a T of 223 °C, which is attributed to the higher concentration of oxygen vacancies derived from the rich phase interface defects resulted from the microwave radiation.

Controllable Synthesis of Novel Orderly Layered VMoS Anode Materials with Super Electrochemical Performance for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), being an attractive candidate of lithium-ion batteries, have attracted widespread attention as a result of sufficient sodium resource with low price and their comparable suitability in the field of energy storage. However, one of the main challenges for their wide-scale application is to develop suitable anode materials with excellent electrochemical performance. Herein, a novel orderly layered VMoS (OL-VMS) anode material was synthesized through a facile hydrothermal self-assembly approach followed by a heating procedure.

Adsorptive removal and photocatalytic decomposition of cationic dyes on niobium oxide with deformed orthorhombic structure.

Nano-rod-shaped niobium oxide with a deformed orthorhombic structure (ortho-NbO) is first demonstrated as a selective adsorbent to remove cationic dyes wastewater. Ortho-NbO quickly adsorbs methylene blue (MB) with much greater capacity than reported inorganic adsorbents. Furthermore, ortho-NbO has a stronger affinity to cationic dye than anionic dye because cation exchange is involved in the adsorption process.

Hydrogen-rich gas production from steam co-gasification of banana peel with agricultural residues and woody biomass.

Steam co-gasification of banana peel with other biomass, i.e., Japanese cedar wood, rice husk and their mixture, was carried out for the hydrogen-rich gas production in a fixed-bed reactor.

Biomass-Derived N-Doped Carbon for Efficient Electrocatalytic CO Reduction to CO and Zn-CO Batteries.

Conversion of CO into valuable chemicals via electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR) is a promising technology to alleviate the energy crisis and the greenhouse effect. Herein, low-cost wood biomass was applied as the carbon source to prepare nitrogen (N)-doped carbon electrocatalysts for the conversion of CO to CO and further as the cathode material for Zn-CO batteries. By virtue of N-doping and assistance of FeCl, a cedar biomass-derived three-dimensional (3D) N-doped graphitized carbon with a high N-doping content (5.

Fabrication of a High-Energy Flexible All-Solid-State Supercapacitor Using Pseudocapacitive 2D-TiCT-MXene and Battery-Type Reduced Graphene Oxide/Nickel-Cobalt Bimetal Oxide Electrode Materials.

Owing to excellent metallic conductivity, hydrophilic surfaces, and surface redox properties, a two-dimensional (2D) metal carbide of TiCT-MXene could serve as a promising pseudocapacitive electrode material for energy storage devices. Meanwhile, the 2D reduced graphene oxide (rGO) combining with the hierarchical cubic spinel nickel-cobalt bimetal oxide (NiCoO) nanospikes could control ion diffusion for charge storage, thereby facilitating the improvement of the energy density of a supercapacitor. As per the strategy, the pseudocapacitive 2D TiCT was loaded on a flexible acid-treated carbon fiber (ACF) backbone to prepare a TiCT/ACF negative electrode by a convenient drop-casting method.

Electroactive magnetic microparticles for the selective elimination of cesium ions in the wastewater.

To improve operability as well as the removal efficiency for cesium ions in the wastewater treatment, a novel electrochemically switched ion exchange (ESIX) technique by using electroactive Prussian-blue(PB)-based magnetic microparticles (PB@FeO microparticle) with different uniform particle sizes in the range of 300-900 nm as the adsorption materials was developed. The obtained PB@FeO microparticle were characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). It is found that the PB can be well coated on the surface of FeO microsphere, which can be easily adsorbed on the magnetic electrode substrate for the electrochemical adsorption of Cs ions.

Engineering interfacial structures to accelerate hydrogen evolution efficiency of MoS over a wide pH range.

Developing low-cost electrocatalysts with outstanding electrochemical performance for water splitting over a wide pH range is urgently desired to meet the practical needs in different areas. Herein, a highly efficient hierarchical flower-like CoS@MoS core-shell nanostructured electrocatalyst is fabricated by a two-step strategy, in which MoS nanosheets with a layered structure are grown on the CoS core supported on carbon paper (CP) and used as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts working in the whole pH range (0-14). Remarkably, benefiting from the interface-engineering in this 3D core-shell structure of the electrocatalyst, the optimum CoS@MoS/CP catalyst exhibits outstanding HER activity over a wide range of pH values and an overpotential of 69 mV in acidic solution, 145 mV in neutral solution and 82 mV in alkaline solution, respectively, to afford the standard current density of 10 mA cm.

Nickel phosphate nanorod-enhanced polyethylene oxide-based composite polymer electrolytes for solid-state lithium batteries.

Solid-state electrolytes with high ionic conductivity, large electrochemical window, and excellent stability with lithium electrode are needed for high-energy solid-state lithium batteries. In this work, a novel polyethylene oxide (PEO)-Lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulphonyl)imide (LiTFSI)-nanocomposite-based polymer electrolyte was prepared by using nickel phosphate (VSB-5) nanorods as the filler. The ionic conductivity of the obtained PEO-LiTFSI-3%VSB-5 solid polymer electrolyte was found to be as high as 4.

Bi-Doped SnO Nanosheets Supported on Cu Foam for Electrochemical Reduction of CO to HCOOH.

Design and fabrication of efficient electrocatalysts is essential for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO). In this work, bismuth (Bi)-doped SnO nanosheets were grown on copper foam (Bi-SnO/Cu foam) by a one-step hydrothermal reaction method and applied for the electrochemical reduction of CO to formic acid (HCOOH). The experimental results indicated that Bi doping stabilized the divalent tin (Sn) existing on the surface of the electrocatalyst, making it difficult to be reduced to metallic tin (Sn) during the electrochemical reduction process.

An Effective Heterogeneous Catalyst of [BMIM] PMo O for Selective Sugar Epimerization.

The development of heterogeneous catalysts for the epimerization of sugars has received much less attention than that for the isomerization of sugars. To date, molybdates are the most effective catalysts for the epimerization of sugars, although they lack stability toward hydrolysis of their active sites in water. To solve the issue of the formation of a highly water-soluble heteropolyblue (PMo ) for phosphomolybdates (PMos) in aqueous reaction systems, herein, a 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium phosphomolybdate ([BMIM] PMo O ) was synthesized through an ion-exchange method.