Basic Characteristics of Ionic Liquid-Gated Graphene FET Sensors for Nitrogen Cycle Monitoring in Agricultural Soil.

Nitrogen-based fertilizers are crucial in agriculture for maintaining soil health and increasing crop yields. Soil microorganisms transform nitrogen from fertilizers into NO3--N, which is absorbed by crops. However, some nitrogen is converted to nitrous oxide (NO), a greenhouse gas with a warming potential about 300-times greater than carbon dioxide (CO).

Video Processing Electrophoretic Measurements under High Electric Fields for Sub-millimeter Particles in Oil.

Electrokinetic properties such as the mobility, surface charge, and zeta potential of sub-millimeter particles are vital parameters in various industrial applications. Their measurement and control in aqueous media have been extensively studied. However, despite their growing importance, the electrokinetic properties of organic solvents have not been studied as thoroughly as those of aqueous media.

Tailoring the Structure of Chitosan-Based Porous Carbon Nanofiber Architectures toward Efficient Capacitive Charge Storage and Capacitive Deionization.

Carbon nanoarchitectures derived from biobased building blocks are potential sustainable alternatives to electrode materials generated with petroleum-derived resources. We aim at developing a fundamental understanding on the connection between the structure and electrochemical performance of porous carbon nanofiber (PCNF) architectures from the polysaccharide chitosan as a biobased building block. We fabricated a range of PCNF architectures from the chitosan carbon precursor and tailored their structure by varying the amount and molecular weight of the sacrificial pore-forming polymer poly(ethylene oxide).

Ultrafine self-N-doped porous carbon nanofibers with hierarchical pore structure utilizing a biobased chitosan precursor.

Ultrafine porous carbon nanofiber network with ~40 nm fiber diameter is realized for the first time utilizing a biobased polymer as carbon precursor. A simple one-step carbonization procedure is applied to convert the electrospun chitosan/poly(ethylene oxide) nanofibers to self-N-doped ultrafine hierarchically porous carbon nanofiber interconnected web. The pore formation process is governed by the immiscible nature of the two polymers and the sacrificial character of poly(ethylene oxide) with low carbon yield at the carbonization temperature (800 °C).

Adsorption Properties of Methane, Ethane, and Hexane on Mesoporous Organic Polymers Prepared by the Flash Freezing Method.

Mesoporous organic polymers, including poly(p-phenylene ether-sulfone) (PES), polysulfone (PSF), poly(bisphenol A-carbonate) (PC), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), were prepared by the previously reported flash freezing method. For the four polymers, the vapor adsorption of water and hydrocarbons (CH, CH, and CH) was examined. PVC showed that the hydrocarbon adsorption was more selective than water adsorption.