Machine Learning-Assisted Prediction and Exploration of the Homogeneous Oxidation of Mercury in Coal Combustion Flue Gas.

Mercury emission from coal combustion flue gas is a significant environmental concern due to its detrimental effects on ecosystems and human health. Elemental mercury (Hg) is the dominant species in flue gas and is hard to immobilize. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehend the reaction mechanisms of Hg oxidation, namely, Hg to oxidized mercury (Hg), for mercury immobilization.

Simultaneous Electrochemical Upgrading of Biomass and CO₂ Utilization Using Fe/Ni-Derived Carbon Nanotubes Derived from CO₂.

Fossil fuel consumption has caused petroleum shortages and increased carbon emissions, thus, utilizing renewable resources in biorefineries for biomass-derived chemical synthesis is promising. Among them, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is a key alternative to terephthalic acid (PTA) for sustainable polyester production. In this work, we demonstrate an efficient approach for the simultaneous production of FDCA while utilizing CO₂ via an electrochemical approach.

Adhesive Hydrogel Paint for Passive Heat Dissipation via Radiative Coupled Evaporation Cooling.

Passive cooling technologies have shown great interest recently due to their free electricity, especially for radiative cooling (RC), and evaporation cooling (EC). While single-mode passive cooling is often limited by environmental conditions, such as sunlight, clouds, and humidity, resulting in a limited cooling performance. To address these issues, an adhesive hydrogel paint is designed for passive heat dissipation in the daytime or high workload via radiative coupled evaporation cooling (REC), which also can realize water self-replenishment at night or low workload by RC-assisted adsorption for moisture capture.

Critical role of vegetation and human activity indicators in the prediction of shallow groundwater quality distribution in Jianghan Plain with LightGBM algorithm and SHAP analysis.

Groundwater serves as an indispensable resource for freshwater, but its quality has experienced a notable decline over recent decades. Spatial prediction of groundwater quality (GWQ) can effectively assist managers in groundwater remediation, management, and risk control. Based on the traditional intrinsic groundwater vulnerability (IGV) model (DRASTIC) and three vegetation (V) indicators (NDVI, EVI, and kNDVI) and four human activity (H) indicators (land use, GDP, urbanization index, and nighttime light), we constructed four models for GWQ spatial prediction in the Jianghan Plain (JHP), namely DRASTI, DRASTIH, DRASTIV, and DRASTIVH, excluding the conductivity (C) indicator due to its uniformly low values.

Cellulosomal AcXyn30B_12 from Acetivibrio clariflavus acts synergistically with AcGH30A upon the hydrolysis of complex carbohydrates.

AcGH30A and AcXyn30B_12 are two of the most abundant enzymes in the cellulosome of the thermophilic anaerobe Acetivibrio clariflavus. Their surprising abundance within the glycolytic repertoire of this highly efficient microorganism, active in sewage sludge ecosystems, suggests a cooperative role in the hydrolysis of complex carbohydrates. Here, we cloned, expressed and characterized the endo/exo-β-1,4-xylanase AcXyn30B_12, which has a molecular weight of ~74 kDa and displays optimal activity at pH 5.

Long-Life Quasi-Solid-State Lithium-Oxygen Battery Enabled by the Gel Polymer Electrolyte and Redox Moieties Anchored in the Cathode.

The practical development of Li-O batteries is often hindered by poor cycling stability, which arises from volatile liquid electrolytes, an unstable anode/electrolyte interface, and sluggish reaction kinetics related to LiO. In this study, we design a long-life quasi-solid-state Li-O battery by integrating a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) with a tetramethylpiperidinyloxy (TEMPO) redox mediator anchored in a poly(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyloxy-4-methacrylate) (PTMA) cathode. During cycling, the GPE stabilizes the lithium/electrolyte interface and retains the electrolyte, while the TEMPO moieties anchored in the PTMA cathode effectively enhance the catalytic selectivity for LiO formation and decomposition.

Advancing Renewable Energy Systems: A Numerical Approach to Investigate Nanofluidics' Role in Engineering Involving Physical Quantities.

Nanofluids, with their enhanced thermal properties, provide innovative solutions for improving heat transfer efficiency in renewable energy systems. This study investigates a numerical simulation of bioconvective flow and heat transfer in a Williamson nanofluid over a stretching wedge, incorporating the effects of chemical reactions and hydrogen diffusion. The system also includes motile microorganisms, which induce bioconvection, a phenomenon where microorganisms' collective motion creates a convective flow that enhances mass and heat transport processes.

Ultra-Wide Voltage Aqueous Superbatteries Enabled by Iron and Zinc Zeolitic Frameworks.

Extensive research on supercapacitor-battery hybrid devices has bridged the gap between conventional batteries and supercapacitors. However, several challenges persist, including limited capacitance in the negative potential range, restricted rate capability, and a narrow potential window (<1.23 V) in aqueous electrolytes.

Enhanced Acidic CO-to-C Reduction via Ionic Liquid Layer Modification.

Acidic CO electroreduction reaction (CORR) garners significant attention as a promising approach for cutting carbon density, as it effectively mitigates CO loss by suppressing carbonate species formation. Unfortunately, achieving efficient multi-carbon products (C) production in acidic media remains challenging due to two main limitations: weak CO adsorption on Cu sites and competitive H* adsorption caused by the high concentration protons (H). To overcome these challenges, a cation-anion-modification strategy is proposed using an ionic liquid layer-1-Propyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([PMIM][NTf])-on Cu surface.

Exploration of stagnation-point flow of Reiner-Rivlin fluid originating from the stretched cylinder for the transmission of the energy and matter.

This research focuses on non-Newtonian stagnation-bioconvective point flow near a stretched cylinder along the Reiner-Rivlin model. The study incorporates thermal and mass transfers, considering thermodynamic diffusion, bioconvection, and viscous heating. Entropy production analysis is included to assess the inherent uncertainty in transport processes.

A Radical-Assisted Approach to High-Entropy Alloy Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts under Ambient Conditions.

High-entropy alloy (HEA) nanoparticles are rising as promising catalysts but face challenges in both facile synthesis and correlation of the structure with properties. Herein, utilizing the highly reductive carbon-centered isopropyl alcohol radicals generated by UV irradiation, we report a simple yet robust wet chemical method to synthesize HEA nanoparticles under ambient conditions. These isopropanol radicals verified by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy impose very large overpotentials to reduce diverse metal ions into HEA nanoparticles with five to seven different elements.

Cerium Oxide-Induced Synchronous Lattice Oxygen Activation and Accelerated Deprotonation Kinetics in Cobalt (oxy)Hydroxide for Robust Water Oxidation.

Theoretically, triggering the lattice oxygen mechanism (LOM) of the catalysts during the alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER) can effectively break through the thermodynamic limitations, while following this path, the rate of simultaneous deprotonation also determines the overall kinetics. A cerium oxide units-modified cobalt (oxy)hydroxide nanocomposite of CeO-CoOOH/NF is proposed, where the Ce(4f)-O(2p)-Co (3d) coupling with sites interaction mediates the Co─O Mott-Hubbard splitting state to trigger efficient LOM. Meanwhile, the 4f orbital electron-rich state near the Fermi level is favorable for proceeding the electron-involved deprotonation behavior.

Thermodynamic Characteristics of CH/CO Adsorption in Different Rank Coals and Its Molecular Mechanism.

In order to investigate the essence of CH/CO adsorption in coal for CO-enhanced coalbed methane recovery (CO-ECBM), this study established the coal structure models from the chemical composition and structure information on different rank coals to conduct CH and CO adsorption simulation under different environmental conditions. Thus, the differences and connections between integral heat and isosteric heat of CH/CO adsorption in coal and its micro-mechanism were discussed. The results show that as the coal metamorphism degree deepens, the integral heat of CH/CO adsorption, similar to adsorption capacity, presents a decreasing first and then increasing trend.

A Separator with Double Layers Individually Modified by LiAlO Solid Electrolyte and Conductive Carbon for High-performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

The "shuttle effect" and the unchecked growth of lithium dendrites during operation in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries seriously impact their practical applications. Besides, the performances of Li-S batteries at high current densities and sulfur loadings hold the key to bridge the gap between laboratory research and practical applications. To address the above issues and facilitate the practical utilization of Li-S batteries, the commercial separator is modified with solid electrolyte (nanorod LiAlO, LAO) and conductive carbon (Super P) to obtain a double coated separator (SPLAOMS).

Object detection algorithm based on improved YOLOv8 for drill pipe on coal mines.

Gas extraction is an important measure for coal mine gas disaster control. Its effect is closely correlated to the drilling depth. The existing methods usually determine the drilling depth by manually counting the number of drill pipes, and the number of drill pipes can be automatically counted by object detection and real-time tracking algorithms.

Synthesis of Selenized Metal-Organic Framework Hollow Cage under Ambient Condition for Clean Energy Applications.

The synthesis of structured metal organic framework (MOF)-derived selenide composites is a vibrantly emerging research area serving clean energy purposes. However, there is no way to convert MOFs into structured selenide composites under ambient conditions for unknown reasons. This work gave mechanistic insights into how the redox properties and release rate of selenium precursors influenced the structural inheritance behavior of MOFs during the selenization process, explaining why maintaining the morphology of MOFs during a room-temperature aqueous selenization process is a tricky task.

Touching the classical scaling in penetrative convection.

The Cassini missions have identified the tiger stripes on Enceladus as the source of both thermal emission and plume jets. The hot spots in the tiger stripes are highly localized, and the plumes suggest active hydrothermal processes within the subglacial ocean of Enceladus. However, understanding the mechanism responsible for the heat anomalies in the tiger stripes remains a challenge.

Eliminating electron localization by molecular array induces uniform zinc deposition enabling stable zinc anode.

Electrolyte additives are considered as a straightforward and effective approach for steadying zinc anode. Nevertheless, most reported adsorption-type additives primarily focus on modulating the transport of Zn and inhibiting side reactions, while neglecting the regulation of the surface state of zinc anode, which determines the final depositional behavior of Zn. Herein, vanillin acetate molecules incorporating strong electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups, and conjugated benzene rings and capable of assembling into compact molecular array layers on zinc anodes are designed as functional electrolyte additives for optimizing the performance of zinc metal anode.

Robust Coupling Between Piezoelectric Field and Interfacial Polarization in Layered Bismuth-Based Heterostructure for High-performance Piezocatalytic Water Splitting.

The creation of heterostructures with inherent interface polarization has been proven effective in enhancing piezocatalytic activity; however, developing efficient heterostructure piezocatalysts remains challenging, and the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In this work, a stable BiWO/BiOBr heterostructure with strong chemical binding is successfully constructed by exchanging double Br with WO in hydrothermal reaction. The heterostructure demonstrates exceptional piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) efficiencies of 0.

Mitigating shuttle effect of the Li||S battery with Se-deficient commercial MoSeflakes.

In lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs), the dissolution of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) triggers the shuttle effect to lose active materials irreversibly, leading to the fast deterioration of electrochemical performance. Rational designs on the separator membrane could mitigate the shuttle effect. However, the development of efficient separators economically remains a challenging task, aggressively limiting the commercial use of LSBs.

D-band state control engineering over ZnInS for enhanced photoreduction of CO to CH.

Metal-based photocatalysts with d electronic configurations exhibit good photocatalytic performance due to strong band edge dispersion, however, the weak bonding between d metal sites and CO through 2p-3d orbital hybridization limits their activity and selectivity for CO to CH conversion. Herein, a strategy for modulating the d-band center is proposed to promote the formation of CH in the photocatalytic CO reduction process. In a model system taking ZnInS (ZIS) as photocatalysts, highly thermodynamically electronegative elements (such as Bi, Cu, and Co) are doped to upshift the d-band center of ZIS, enhance the selectivity and yield of CH.

Chemical kinetic study of lean-burn and NO/NO behaviors on ethanol/ammonia cracked gas.

Ammonia (NH) holds promise as a carbon-free fuel. Blending it with highly reactive fuels could efficiently alleviate issues such as slow burning rates and narrow flammability ranges. Ethanol (CHOH) offers the advantage of carbon neutrality and has a high-octane rating.

Slip length and drag reduction of superhydrophobic surfaces in shear-thinning fluid flows.

Hypothesis: We hypothesise that superhydrophobic surfaces can achieve effective interfacial slip and drag reduction even under non-Newtonian, shear-thinning fluid flows. Unlike Newtonian fluids, where slip is primarily influenced by viscosity and surface tension, we anticipate that the shear-thinning nature of these fluids may enhance slip length and drag reduction.

Experiments And Numerical Analysis: The superhydrophobic surfaces used in this study, featuring a dual-scale random topography, were fabricated via a spray coating process, and low-concentration xanthan gum solutions (50-250 ppm) were used as model shear-thinning fluids of low elasticity.

Examining driving stability and traffic capacity: A simulation study on appropriate speed limits in expressway work zones.

In order to obtain proper speed limits in expressway work zones, CarSim and TruckSim software were used to determine the critical car and truck safe speeds and then VISSIM software was used to determine the traffic capacities and their corresponding speed limits under different upstream transition area lengths and road adhesion coefficients. The results show that critical car and truck safe speeds increase exponentially while traffic capacity and its corresponding speed limit increase logarithmically with rising road adhesion coefficient under a constant upstream transition area length, and critical car and truck safe speeds increase as a power function while traffic capacity and its corresponding speed limit increase exponentially with rising upstream transition area length under a constant road adhesion coefficient. Because Road Traffic Signs and Markings- Part 4: Work Zone (RTSM, GB 5768.

Cellulose nanocrystal-based synthetic biodegradable biopolymeric composites: A comprehensive review on recent progress.

With the worldwide transformation to a circular and low-carbon economy, the demand for sustainable materials has skyrocketed in recent years. Of various methods, sustainable and biodegradable biopolymers derived from renewable bioresources have received significant interest. Synthetic biodegradable biopolymers offer tremendous advantages over natural biodegradable biopolymers due to their stability, flexibility, and a wide range of achievable properties to fit several applications.