The demand for advanced energy storage devices such as supercapacitors and lithium‐ion batteries has been increasing to meet the application requirements of hybrid vehicles and renewable energy ...systems. A major limitation of state‐of‐art supercapacitors lies in their relatively low energy density compared with lithium batteries although they have superior power density and cycle life. Here, we report an additive‐free, nano‐architectured nickel hydroxide/carbon nanotube (Ni(OH)2/CNT) electrode for high energy density supercapacitors prepared by a facile two‐step fabrication method. This Ni(OH)2/CNT electrode consists of a thick layer of conformable Ni(OH)2 nano‐flakes on CNT bundles directly grown on Ni foams (NFs) with a very high areal mass loading of 4.85 mg cm−2 for Ni(OH)2. Our Ni(OH)2/CNT/NF electrode demonstrates the highest specific capacitance of 3300 F g−1 and highest areal capacitance of 16 F cm−2, to the best of our knowledge. An asymmetric supercapacitor using the Ni(OH)2/CNT/NF electrode as the anode assembled with an activated carbon (AC) cathode can achieve a high cell voltage of 1.8 V and an energy density up to 50.6 Wh/kg, over 10 times higher than that of traditional electrochemical double‐layer capacitors (EDLCs).
A high energy density asymmetric supercapacitor is developed based on an additive‐free, nano‐architectured Ni(OH)2/CNT electrode with an ultra‐high specific capacitance of 3300 F g−1 and high areal capacitance of 16 F cm−2. This asymmetric supercapacitor prototype is able to power up a 3 V mini‐fan for 90 s by 10 s charging with an AA battery.
Nowadays, great effort has been devoted to establishing wearable electronics with excellent stretchability, high sensitivity, good mechanical strength, and multifunctional characteristics. Herein, a ...soft conductive hydrogel is rationally designed by proportionally mixing silk fibroin, polyacrylamide, graphene oxide, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate). The resultant hydrogel has considerable stretchability and compressibility, which enables it to be assembled into a strain/pressure sensor with a wide sensing range (strain, 2%–600%; pressure, 0.5–119.4 kPa) and reliable stability. Then, the corresponding sensor is capable of monitoring a series of physical signals of the human body (e.g., joint movement, facial gesture, pulse, breathing, etc.). In particular, the hydrogel-based sensor is biocompatible, with no anaphylactic reaction on human skin. More interestingly, this conductive hydrogel exhibits a positive response when it works in a triboelectric nanogenerator; consequently, it lights up 20 commericial green light-emitting diodes. Thus, this silk fibroin-based hydrogel is a kind of multifunctional material toward wearable electronics with versatile applications in health and exercise monitors, soft robots, and power sources.
The kinesin superfamily (KIF) is a group of proteins that share a highly conserved motor domain. Except for some members, many KIF proteins have adenosine triphosphatase activity and ...microtubule‐dependent plus‐end motion ability. Kinesins participate in several essential cellular functions, including mitosis, meiosis and the transport of macromolecules. Increasing evidence indicates kinesin proteins play critical roles in the genesis and development of human cancers. Some kinesin proteins are associated with maligancy as well as drug resistance of solid tumor. Thus, targeting KIF therapy seems to be a promising anticancer strategy. Inhibitors of KIF such as kinesin spindle protein (KSP/Eg5) have entered clinical trials for monotherapy or in combination with other drugs, and kinesins other than Eg5 with various potential anticancer target characteristics are also constantly being discovered and studied. Here, we summarize the oncogenic roles of kinesin proteins and potential cancer therapy strategies that target KIF.
Conjugated polymer photocatalysts for hydrogen production have the advantages of an adjustable structure, strong response in the visible light region, adjustable energy levels, and easy ...functionalization. Using an atom- and step-economic direct C-H arylation method, dibromocyanostilbene was polymerized with thiophene, dithiophene, terthiophene, and fused thienothiophene and dithienothiophene, respectively, to produce donor-acceptor (D-A)-type linear conjugated polymers containing different thiophene derivatives with different conjugation lengths. Among them, the D-A polymer photocatalyst constructed from dithienothiophene could significantly broaden the spectral response, with a hydrogen evolution rate up to 12.15 mmol h
g
. The results showed that the increase in the number of fused rings on thiophene building blocks was beneficial to the photocatalytic hydrogen production of cyanostyrylphene-based linear polymers. For the unfused dithiophene and terthiophene, the increase in the number of thiophene rings enabled more rotation freedom between the thiophene rings and reduced the intrinsic charge mobility, resulting in lower hydrogen production performance accordingly. This study provides a suitable process for the design of electron donors for D-A polymer photocatalysts.
We describe the implementation and tests of sink particle algorithms in the Eulerian grid-based code Athena. The introduction of sink particles enables the long-term evolution of systems in which ...localized collapse occurs, and it is impractical (or unnecessary) to resolve the accretion shocks at the centers of collapsing regions. We discuss the similarities and differences of our methods compared to other implementations of sink particles. Our criteria for sink creation are motivated by the properties of the Larson-Penston collapse solution. We use standard particle-mesh methods to compute particle and gas gravity together. Accretion of mass and momenta onto sinks is computed using fluxes returned by the Riemann solver. A series of tests based on previous analytic and numerical collapse solutions is used to validate our method and implementation. We demonstrate use of our code for applications with a simulation of planar converging supersonic turbulent flow, in which multiple cores form and collapse to create sinks; these sinks continue to interact and accrete from their surroundings over several Myr.
Pseudocapacitors based on fast surface Faradaic reactions can achieve high energy densities together with high power densities. Usually, researchers develop a thin layer of active materials to ...increase the energy density by enhancing the surface area; meanwhile, this sacrifices the mass loading. In this work, we developed a novel 3D core–shell Co3O4@Ni(OH)2 electrode that can provide high energy density with very high mass loading. Core–shell porous nanowires (Co3O4@Ni(OH)2) were directly grown on a Ni current collector as an integrated electrode/collector for the supercapacitor anode. This Co3O4@Ni(OH)2 core–shell nanoarchitectured electrode exhibits an ultrahigh areal capacitance of 15.83 F cm–2. The asymmetric supercapacitor prototypes, assembled using Co3O4@Ni(OH)2 as the anode, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) or active carbon (AC) as the cathode, and 6 M aqueous KOH as the electrolyte, exhibit very high energy densities falling into the energy-density range of Li-ion batteries. Because of the large mass loading and high energy density, the prototypes can drive a minifan or light a bulb even though the size is very small. These results indicate that our asymmetric supercapacitors have outstanding potential in commercial applications. Systematic study and scientific understanding were carried out.
The Asian cultivated rice consists of two major subspecies: indica and japonica. There are already many reports about the existence of genetic introgression between the two subspecies. They propose ...some possible introgression-related genes from the comparison of population parameters. This study uses the genome-wide variation data of Asia cultivated rice to investigate their genetic introgression on the whole genome level. We detect a total of 13 significantly high introgression loci between the tropical japonica and indica populations. Two different methods are used to identify the genetic introgression regions. For most of the detected introgression regions, they generally get consistent results. Some previously known introgression genes are detected in the identified introgression loci, such as heat resistance gene TT1 and GLW7. The biological functions for these genetic introgression regions are annotated by the published QTL mapping results. We find that genetic introgression plays a vital role in the determination of both the phenotype and the domestication process of different groups. Our study also provides useful information and resources for the study of rice gene function and the domestication process.
Solar energy is considered the most promising renewable energy source. Solar cells can harvest and convert solar energy into electrical energy, which needs to be stored as chemical energy, thereby ...realizing a balanced supply and demand for energy. As energy storage devices for this purpose, newly developed photo-enhanced rechargeable metal batteries, through the internal integration of photovoltaic technology and high-energy-density metal batteries in a single device, can simplify device configuration, lower costs, and reduce external energy loss. This review focuses on recent progress regarding the working principles, device architectures, and performances of various closed-type and open-type photo-enhanced rechargeable devices based on metal batteries, including Li/Zn-ion, Li-S, and Li/Zn-I2, and Li/Zn-O2/air, Li-CO2, and Na-O2 batteries. In addition to provide a fundamental understanding of photo-enhanced rechargeable devices, key challenges and possible strategies are also discussed. Finally, some perspectives are provided for further enhancing the overall performance of the proposed devices.
A smart hybrid nanowire array consisting of Co3O4 porous nanowire core and a MnO2 ultrathin nanosheet shell is fabricated using a general 3D interfacial carbon‐assisted hydrothermal method. The array ...exhibits a high capacitance with good cycle performance and remarkable rate capability that is ranging among the best reported to date for hybrid metal oxide systems in the absence of a conducting matrix.
In this paper, silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were successfully prepared in situ by chemical pulp fiber (CPF) without any additional reductants. In the green synthesis of Ag NPs, CPF acted as both a ...weak reductant and a stable carrier. The effect of different synthesis conditions was investigated, and the Ag NP load rate was up to 28.12 wt%. The size of the Ag NPs followed a standard Gaussian distribution, ranging from 10 to 50 nm, and a face-centered cubic structure was identified by XRD and TEM. In addition, the AgNPs/CPF composites exhibited good thermostability below 280 °C according to TG analysis. Owing to the high load rate and large specific surface area of Ag NPs, AgNPs/CPF composites exhibited excellent catalytic performance in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol by NaBH
4
. The conversion rate was up to 95.91% after recycling 50 times, and the catalyst was easily separated from the reaction system. Based on the advantages of high conversion rate, excellent catalytic activity and reusability, AgNPs/CPF composites hold tremendous potential in eliminating nitrophenol and its derivatives from industrial pollution.
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