A bimetallic‐structured ternary phosphide (NiCo2Px) as a novel pH‐universal electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction is presented. It exhibits both high activity and long‐term stability in all ...the tested alkaline, neutral, and acidic media. The excellent catalytic performance endows it with a bright future in the large‐scale electrochemical water splitting industry.
Hydrogels are a unique class of polymeric materials that possess an interconnected porous network across various length scales from nano- to macroscopic dimensions and exhibit remarkable ...structure-derived properties, including high surface area, an accommodating matrix, inherent flexibility, controllable mechanical strength, and excellent biocompatibility. Strong and robust adhesion between hydrogels and substrates is highly desirable for their integration into and subsequent performance in biomedical devices and systems. However, the adhesive behavior of hydrogels is severely weakened by the large amount of water that interacts with the adhesive groups reducing the interfacial interactions. The challenges of developing tough hydrogel-solid interfaces and robust bonding in wet conditions are analogous to the adhesion problems solved by marine organisms. Inspired by mussel adhesion, a variety of catechol-functionalized adhesive hydrogels have been developed, opening a door for the design of multi-functional platforms. This review is structured to give a comprehensive overview of adhesive hydrogels starting with the fundamental challenges of underwater adhesion, followed by synthetic approaches and fabrication techniques, as well as characterization methods, and finally their practical applications in tissue repair and regeneration, antifouling and antimicrobial applications, drug delivery, and cell encapsulation and delivery. Insights on these topics will provide rational guidelines for using nature's blueprints to develop hydrogel materials with advanced functionalities and uncompromised adhesive properties.
Due to the implementation of code-division multiple access in global navigation satellite system (GNSS), a receiver can track different channels of observations for the same satellite and frequency. ...In complex environments, observations from a single channel may be missing during the precise point positioning (PPP) solution process. This article, starting from an exploration of the superiority or inferiority of PPP results using observations from different channels, analyzes the positioning results of the ionosphere-free combined PPP and the undifferenced and uncombined PPP for 42 stations worldwide. It reveals differences in PPP results obtained from different channel observations. Based on this, the article investigates a method for integrating channel observations and compares the PPP results in both static and dynamic environments. In static environments, the positioning accuracy in the East (E), North (N), and Up (U) directions improves by 46%, 29%, and 17% with the ionosphere-free combined PPP model and improves by 39%, 26%, and 25% with the undifferenced and uncombined PPP model. In dynamic environments, the positioning accuracy in the North (N) and Up (U) directions improves by 54.8% and 18.5%, respectively. The statement indicates that the method of integrating channel observations can enhance the accuracy of PPP in complex environments.
Dry-heated Maillard reaction was applied in the preparation of protein–polysaccharide conjugates. Reaction mixtures containing soy protein isolate (SPI) and maltodextrin (1:1 weight ratio) were ...dry-heated at 60°C and 79% relative humidity for three days. The mixtures of SPI and gum acacia (GA) were dry-heated at the same condition for one week. The conjugate of SPI–MD showed lower levels of free amino groups and higher degree of graft, which indicated that reaction between SPI and MD developed much faster than reaction between SPI and GA. The solubility of SPI at isoelectric point was improved remarkably after grafting with MD or GA. The grafted SPI showed significantly higher levels of emulsifying properties than SPI and the emulsifying properties of SPI–GA conjugate were much better than SPI–MD. Decreases of lysine and arginine contents after the graft reaction indicated that these two amino acid residues attended the covalent linkage between SPI and MD or GA. The graft reaction reduced surface hydrophobicity and fluorescence emission maximum value because of a shielding effect of the polysaccharide chain bound to proteins. The results of secondary structure suggested that grafted SPI had decreased the levels of α-helix, β-sheet and β-turn and increased unordered coils level.
► SPI-MD or SPI-GA conjugates were prepared by dry-heating. ► The conjugates had no obvious isoelectric point. ► The conjugates showed higher levels of emulsifying properties than SPI. ► Lysine and arginine contents decreased after the graft reaction. ► Graft reaction affected the secondary structure of SPI.
Ternary blending strategy has been used to design and fabricate efficient organic solar cells by enhancing the short-circuit current density and the fill factor. In this manuscript, we report ...all-small-molecule ternary solar cells consisting of two compatible small molecules DR3TBDTT (M1) and DR3TBDTT-E (M2) as donors and PC71BM as acceptor. A transformation from an alloy-like model to a cascade model are first realized by designing a novel molecule M2. It is observed that after thermal and solvent vapor annealing M2 shifts from the mixed region to donor–acceptor (D–A) interfaces which ameliorates the charge transfer and recombination processes. The optimal ternary solar cells with 10% M2 exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 8.48% in the alloy-like model and 10.26% in the cascade model. The proposed working mechanisms are fully characterized and further supported by the density functional theory and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. This provides an important strategy to design high-performance ternary solar cells which contains one molecule not only is compatible with the main donor molecule but also performs a preference to appear at the D–A interfaces hence builds cascade energy levels.
•Effects of different conditions on removal of DBP were systematically studied.•Photocatalytic removal rate of DBP increases with the increase of pH values.•The presence of anions plays negative role ...in photocatalytic degradation of DBP.•H2O2 acts as electron acceptor to improve the photocatalytic activity of GR/TNA.•Detailed degradation mechanism of DBP by GR/TNA photoelectrodes was explored.
Graphene loaded TiO2 nanotube array (GR/TNA) photoelectrodes were prepared by using anodization and electrodeposition approaches. The effects of different pH values, anions, bias potentials and electron acceptors on the photocatalytic activity of GR/TNA photoelectrodes in the degradation of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were systematically investigated. Enhanced DBP removal ratio of 87.9% was achieved by GR/TNA photoelectrodes after 90 min of illumination. As a result, with the increase of initial pH values, the DBP removal ratio was also gradually increased. The addition of anions negatively affect the photocatalytic degradation of DBP by the order of NO3− > HCO3− > SO42− > Cl−. After applying a bias potential of +1.0 V, the highest DBP removal ratio of 98% was obtained. In addition, the presence of electron acceptors, KBrO3, K2S2O8 and H2O2, improved the photocatalytic activity of GR/TNA photoelectrodes. Furthermore, to better understand the underlying pathways in the photocatalytic degradation of DBP, the involved reactive species and produced intermediates were detected and analyzed. The major reactive species involved in this system were testified to be hydroxyl, superoxide radicals and holes by performing trapping experiments. The possible mechanism for the photocatalytic degradation of DBP was also proposed and discussed in detail.
Mo-ZrO2 alloy plate was prepared by combing hydrothermal synthesis and powder metallurgy, and its microstructure, fracture and mechanical properties after annealing at different temperatures were ...analyzed. Compared with pure molybdenum, maximum hardness, tensile strength and yield strength of the alloy plate at room temperature were enhanced by 20%, 32% and 54%, respectively. The plasticity increased initially and then decreased with recovery and recrystallization. The strength and reduction of area of alloy annealed at 1400 °C were 25% and 100% higher than those of pure molybdenum, respectively. ZrO2 in the alloy demonstrated an obvious hindering effect on recrystallization, which could effectively improve recrystallization strength and recrystallization plasticity of the recrystallized plate.
•The Mo-ZrO2 alloy plate is a new material that prepared by the combination of hydrothermal synthesis and powder metallurgy.•The ZrO2 can effectively retard the recrystallization of the alloys.•The ZrO2 can effectively improve the recrystallization strength and recrystallization plasticity of the alloys.
We fabricated a C60 fullerene–based molecular spin-photovoltaic device that integrates a photovoltaic response with the spin transport across the molecular layer. The photovoltaic response can be ...modified under the application of a small magnetic field, with a magnetophotovoltage of up to 5% at room temperature. Device functionalities include a magnetic current inverter and the presence of diverging magnetocurrent at certain illumination levels that could be useful for sensing.Completely spin-polarized currents can be created by balancing the external partially spin-polarized injection with the photogenerated carriers.
In this paper, time-frequency transfer and positioning experiments with signal coexistence in the BDS system were conducted using the four types of open service signals of the BDS-3 satellite (B1I, ...B1C, B2a, and B3I), as well as the B2I signals broadcast by the BDS-2 satellites. The experiments used the single-frequency PPP (precise point positioning) method. The experiment validated a modified version of the group and phase ionospheric correction (GRAPHIC) technique. The results demonstrate that, with a single frequency, 18 selected stations may provide positioning results accurate to within a few decimeters. The positioning accuracy of five frequencies signals is improved by 40.4%, 32.2%, 80.3%, 12.4%, and 10.3% when compared to the positioning accuracy of the same signals when using the general observation approach. Currently, the frequency stability may be as precise as dual frequencies with BDS.
Appropriate deciphering and translation of sequence‐dependent function in proteins is inspired by the cation–π interaction that is increasingly implicated in marine adhesives and membraneless ...organelles. A simplified cation‐methylene‐phenyl (C‐M‐P) sequence which enables triggerable poly(ionic liquid) coacervation is reported for the first time. Synthesis of the C‐M‐P structure motif requires only a one‐step quaternization, which is facile compared to the linear sequence of distinct repeating units in model proteins and sequence‐controlled polymers. The C‐M‐P code confers modular coacervation and advanced wet adhesion to task‐specific copolymers. It allows for exceptional underwater adhesion to various submerged substrates including glass (≈1 MPa) and porcine skins (140 KPa), paving the way for prospective adhesive applications in physiological saline and underwater marine salvage. This work introduces a powerful code that, in addition to combining the advantageous adaptive adhesive and phase properties of proteins, reduces the complexity in sequence design for programmable coacervates.
A bio‐inspired cation‐methylene‐phenyl motif is designed to encode poly(ionic liquid) coacervate, demonstrating exceptional wet adhesion in both physiological saline and deep sea conditions. Compared with complicated linear sequences in other model proteins, this work introduces a facile code that combines adaptive adhesives and phase properties in polymers for task‐specific applications.
PDF
