Construction of flexible porous 3D biochar based on electrospun rice straw-derived cellulose acetate with excellent adsorption properties toward organic pollutants.

Cellulose was extracted from rice straw waste by the intergrated technique of CHOH/HO, dilute alkali treatment and HO bleaching process, and rice straw-derived cellulose acetate was obtained by the acetylation reaction of cellulose. Flexible porous 3D biochars were constructed by the electrospinning, NaBH foaming and calcination process. Effects of calcination temperature, adsorption time, pH, pollutant concentration, interfering anions, and cycle times on the adsorption performance of 3D biochar were systematically investigated.

Activation of peroxymonosulfate over recyclable CoO/rice straw lignin-based carbon fiber flexible membrane for the degradation of organic pollutants.

Heterogeneous composite catalysts have gained significant attention in recent years due to their cleanliness, high efficiency, and stable performance. However, the difficulty of recovery and high cost have always limited the development of heterogeneous composite catalysts. Herein, flexible lignin-based carbon fiber (LCF) membranes with easy recovery and low cost were prepared by electrospinning and carbonization using rice straw lignin waste and polyacrylonitrile (PAN).

Facile electrospinning-electrospray method to fabricate flexible rice straw-derived cellulose acetate/TiO nanofibrous membrane with excellent photocatalytic performance.

A novel and facile electrospinning-electrospray (EE) method that based on electrospinning technique and simultaneous electrospray was proposed to anchor TiO (P25) nanoparticles on the surface of rice straw-derived cellulose acetate (CA) nanofiber, a series of EE-CA/P25 nanofibrous membranes with different P25 dosage were successfully fabricated, which were characterized in terms of SEM, TEM, FI-IR, XRD, DRS, PL, UV-vis and 3D-EMMs, etc. Results confirmed that P25 nanoparticles were anchored on the surface of CA nanofiber. For different organic dyes of Methylene blue (MB), Rhodamine B (RhB) and Methyl orange (MO), EE-CA/P25 nanofibrous membrane toward MB dye showed the best photocatalytic degradation efficiency of 99.

Enhanced photocatalytic CO conversion of a CdS/Co-BDC nanocomposite Co(ii)/Co(iii) redox cycling.

Photocatalytic CO reduction into value-added chemical fuels using sunlight as the energy input has been a thorny, challenging and long-term project in the environment/energy fields because of to its low efficiency. Herein, a series of CdS/Co-BDC composite photocatalysts were constructed by incorporating CdS nanoparticles into Co-BDC using a dual-solvent growth strategy for improving photocatalytic CO reduction efficiency. The composites were characterized through XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, DRS and EPR techniques in detail.

MOFs-derived CuO-FeO@C with abundant oxygen vacancies and strong Cu-Fe interaction for deep mineralization of bisphenol A.

A novel CuO-FeO encapsulated in the carbon framework with abundant oxygen vacancies (CuO-FeO@C) was successfully prepared by thermal conversion of Cu(OAc)/Fe-metal organic framework. The as-prepared catalyst exhibited excellent peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation performance, good recyclability and fast magnetic separation. Under optimal conditions, the added BPA (60 mg/L) could be completely removed by CuO-FeO@C/PMS system within 15 min with the degradation rate constant (k) of 0.

Investigation on the Controllable Synthesis of Colorized and Magnetic Polystyrene Beads With Millimeter Size Suspension Polymerization.

A series of colorized and magnetic polystyrene/FeO (PS/FeO) composite beads with millimeter size are successfully synthesized by introducing hydrophobic FeO suspension polymerization of styrene for the first time. Effects of the hydrophobic FeO content, stirring speed, and surfactant dosage on the macromorphology and particle size of PS/FeO beads are systematically investigated to realize the controllable synthesis. Moreover, three kinds of hydrophobic pigments are also employed to synthesize colorized polystyrene, which demonstrates the versatility, simplicity, and wide applicability of the proposed method.

Total value adjustment of Bermudan option valuation under pure jump Lévy fluctuations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions have announced that their counterparties are struggling to fulfill contracts. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the counterparty default risk when pricing options. After the 2008 financial crisis, a variety of value adjustments have been emphasized in the financial industry.

A New Index of Energy Dissipation Considering Time Factor under the Impact Loads.

Rock failure phenomena are accompanied by abundant energy variation, and the energy dissipation can explain the dynamic mechanical characteristics of the rock. In this study, a series of granite specimens (a total of 60) with different aspect ratios were dynamically loaded by a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) to explain the energy dissipation and the rock-crushing degree under dynamic load. A new index, namely energy time density (), is proposed to evaluate the energy dissipation considering the time factor.

Piezo-photocatalytic flexible PAN/TiO composite nanofibers for environmental remediation.

Mechanical vibrations and solar energy are ubiquitous in the environment. Hereon, we report the synergic enhancement of the oxidation by simultaneously harvesting solar and mechanical vibrations through flexible piezo and photocatalytic composite nanofiber mats. Surface enriched titanium dioxide nanoparticles incorporated in polyacrylonitrile (PAN/TiO) nanofibers were synthesized using a single pot electrospinning process with well-defined fiber diameters with widely tunable loading density.

Investigation on the Preparation of Rice Straw-Derived Cellulose Acetate and Its Spinnability for Electrospinning.

Rice straw-derived cellulose (RSC) with purity of 92 wt.% was successfully extracted from rice straw by a novel and facile strategy, which integrated the CHOH/HO autocatalytic process, dilute alkali treatment and HO bleaching process. Influencing factors of the cellulose extraction were systematically examined, such as ethanol concentration, alkali concentration, HO bleaching process and so on; the optimal extraction conditions of cellulose was determined.

Polarization-Modulated Multidirectional Photothermal Actuators.

Photothermal actuators have attracted increasing attention due to their ability to convert light energy into mechanical deformation and locomotion. This work reports a freestanding, multidirectional photothermal robot that can walk along a predesigned pathway by modulating laser polarization and on-off switching. Magnetic-plasmonic hybrid Fe O /Ag nanorods are synthesized using an unconventional templating approach.

Janus Evaporators with Self-Recovering Hydrophobicity for Salt-Rejecting Interfacial Solar Desalination.

The recent advancements in interfacial evaporation of salty water using renewable solar energy provide one of the promising pathways to solve worldwide water scarcity. Pursuing a stable evaporation rate of water has been the central focus of this field, as it is directly related to the throughput, while salt deposition on the evaporator becomes a critical issue. Although Janus-structured evaporators with an upper hydrophobic layer and a bottom hydrophilic layer have been demonstrated as an effective way to suppress the salt precipitation, the hydrophobic upper layer, achieved usually by some special organic groups, suffers from a photochemical oxidation when exposed to oxidative chemicals in water and high-energy light, resulting in a deteriorated surface hydrophobicity.

Filling metal-organic framework mesopores with TiO for CO photoreduction.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are known for their specific interactions with gas molecules; this, combined with their rich and ordered porosity, makes them promising candidates for the photocatalytic conversion of gas molecules to useful products. However, attempts to use MOFs or MOF-based composites for CO photoreduction usually result in far lower CO conversion efficiency than that obtained from state-of-the-art solid-state or molecular catalysts, even when facilitated by sacrificial reagents. Here we create 'molecular compartments' inside MOF crystals by growing TiO inside different pores of a chromium terephthalate-based MOF (MIL-101) and its derivatives.

Strategies to Explore and Develop Reversible Redox Reactions of Li-S in Electrode Architectures Using Silver-Polyoxometalate Clusters.

Investigations of the Ag (I)-substituted Keggin K[HAgPWO] as a bifunctional Lewis acidic and basic catalyst are reported that explore the stabilization of LiS moieties so that reversible redox reactions in S-based electrodes would be possible. Spectroscopic investigations showed that the LiS-moieties can be strongly adsorbed on the {AgPWO} cluster, where the Ag(I) ion can act as a Lewis acid site to further enhance the adsorption of the S-moieties, and these interactions were investigated and rationalized using DFT. These results were used to construct an electrode for use in a Li-S battery with a very high S utilization of 94%, and a coulometric capacity of 1580 mAh g.

A High-Resolution National-Scale Hydrologic Forecast System from a Global Ensemble Land Surface Model.

Warning systems with the ability to predict floods several days in advance have the potential to benefit tens of millions of people. Accordingly, large-scale streamflow prediction systems such as the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service or the Global Flood Awareness System are limited to coarse resolutions. This article presents a method for routing global runoff ensemble forecasts and global historical runoff generated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model using the Routing Application for Parallel computatIon of Discharge to produce high spatial resolution 15-day stream forecasts, approximate recurrence intervals, and warning points at locations where streamflow is predicted to exceed the recurrence interval thresholds.

Design of an Agent-Based Model to Examine Population-Environment Interactions in Nang Rong District, Thailand.

The design of an Agent-Based Model (ABM) is described that integrates Social and Land Use Modules to examine population-environment interactions in a former agricultural frontier in Northeastern Thailand. The ABM is used to assess household income and wealth derived from agricultural production of lowland, rain-fed paddy rice and upland field crops in Nang Rong District as well as remittances returned to the household from family migrants who are engaged in off-farm employment in urban destinations. The ABM is supported by a longitudinal social survey of nearly 10,000 households, a deep satellite image time-series of land use change trajectories, multi-thematic social and ecological data organized within a GIS, and a suite of software modules that integrate data derived from an agricultural cropping system model (DSSAT - Decision Support for Agrotechnology Transfer) and a land suitability model (MAXENT - Maximum Entropy), in addition to multi-dimensional demographic survey data of individuals and households.

Modeling greenup date of dominant grass species in the Inner Mongolian Grassland using air temperature and precipitation data.

This work was undertaken to examine the combined effect of air temperature and precipitation during late winter and early spring on modeling greenup date of grass species in the Inner Mongolian Grassland. We used the traditional thermal time model and developed two revised thermal time models coupling air temperature and precipitation to simulate greenup date of three dominant grass species at six stations from 1983 to 2009. Results show that climatic controls on greenup date of grass species were location-specific.