Simultaneous Salt Rejection and Heat Localization Via Engineering Macrochannels in Morning Glory-Shaped 3D Evaporator.

Solar desalination is a promising solution for alleviating water scarcity due to its low-cost, environmentally friendly, and off-grid capabilities. However, simultaneous salt rejection and heat localization remain challenging, as the rapid salt convection often results in considerable heat loss. Herein, this challenge is overcome via a facile design: i) isolating high-temperature and high-salt zones by rationally designing morning glory-shaped wick structures and ii) bridging high-salt zones and bulk water with low-tortuosity macrochannels across low-temperature surfaces.

Twinning Engineering of Platinum/Iridium Nanonets as Turing-Type Catalysts for Efficient Water Splitting.

The twin boundary, a common lattice plane of mirror-symmetric crystals, may have high reactivity due to special atomic coordination. However, twinning platinum and iridium nanocatalysts are grand challenges due to the high stacking fault energies that are nearly 1 order of magnitude larger than those of easy-twinning gold and silver. Here, we demonstrate that Turing structuring, realized by selective etching of superthin metal film, provides 14.

Turing structuring with multiple nanotwins to engineer efficient and stable catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction.

Low-dimensional nanocrystals with controllable defects or strain modifications are newly emerging active electrocatalysts for hydrogen-energy conversion and utilization; however, a crucial challenge remains in insufficient stability due to spontaneous structural degradation and strain relaxation. Here we report a Turing structuring strategy to activate and stabilize superthin metal nanosheets by incorporating high-density nanotwins. Turing configuration, realized by constrained orientation attachment of nanograins, yields intrinsically stable nanotwin network and straining effects, which synergistically reduce the energy barrier of water dissociation and optimize the hydrogen adsorption free energy for hydrogen evolution reaction.

Micro/nano hierarchical structured titanium treated by NH4OH/H2O2 for enhancing cell response.

In this paper, two kinds of titanium surfaces with novel micro/nano hierarchical structures, namely Etched (E) surface and Sandblast and etched (SE) surface, were successfully fabricated by NH4OH and H2O2 mixture. And their cellular responses of MG63 were investigated compared with Sandblast and acid-etching (SLA) surface. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Surface profiler, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Contact angle instrument were employed to assess the surface morphologies, roughness, chemistry and wettability respectively.

Cell responses to titanium treated by a sandblast-free method for implant applications.

Sandblast and acid-etching (SLA) is the most prevalent treatment to titanium implants, while residual sand particles are inevitably introduced on SLA titanium surfaces. NHOH and HO mixture was used to etch titanium plates (E) and titanium bars (EB), aiming at substituting sandblast procedure. To study the effects of different scale rough structures on cell response of Human osteoblast-like cells (MG63), traditional HSO and HCl mixture was also used to further etch the titanium plates above (DE).

Improving the long-term stability of Ti6Al4V abutment screw by coating micro/nano-crystalline diamond films.

Abutment screw loosening is the most common complication of implanting teeth. Aimed at improving the long-term stability of them, well-adherent and homogeneous micro-crystalline diamond (MCD) and nano-crystalline diamond (NCD) were deposited on DIO(®) (Dong Seo, Korea) abutment screws using a hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) system. Compared with bare DIO(®) screws, diamond coated ones showed higher post reverse toque values than the bare ones (p<0.

Heterotrophic respiration does not acclimate to continuous warming in a subtropical forest.

As heterotrophic respiration (R(H)) has great potential to increase atmospheric CO2 concentrations, it is important to understand warming effects on R(H) for a better prediction of carbon-climate feedbacks. However, it remains unclear how R(H) responds to warming in subtropical forests. Here, we carried out trenching alone and trenching with warming treatments to test the climate warming effect on R(H) in a subtropical forest in southwestern China.

Investigation of temperature and aridity at different elevations of Mt. Ailao, SW China.

Our current understanding is that plant species distribution in the subtropical mountain forests of Southwest China is controlled mainly by inadequate warmth. Due to abundant annual precipitation, aridity has been less considered in this context, yet rainfall here is highly seasonal, and the magnitude of drought severity at different elevations has not been examined due to limited access to higher elevations in this area.In this study, short-term micrometeorological variables were measured at 2,480 m and 2,680 m, where different forest types occur.