A robust, self-healing superhydrophobic poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabric was fabricated by a convenient solution-dipping method using an easily available material system consisting of ...polydimethylsiloxane and octadecylamine (ODA). The surface roughness was formed by self-roughening of ODA coating on PET fibers without any lithography steps or adding any nanomaterials. The fabric coating was durable to withstand 120 cycles of laundry and 5000 cycles of abrasion without apparently changing the superhydrophobicity. More interestingly, the fabric can restore its super liquid-repellent property by 72 h at room temperature even after 20000 cycles of abrasion. Meanwhile, after being damaged chemically, the fabric can restore its superhydrophobicity automatically in 12 h at room temperature or by a short-time heating treatment. We envision that this simple but effective coating system may lead to the development of robust protective clothing for various applications.
Aim
To explore nurses’ experiences in natural disaster response.
Background
Nurses are key to disaster response. There is a growing body of qualitative research exploring this emerging nursing issue. ...However, there is a need to synthesise and summarise this body of knowledge to identify the overarching elements of how nurses experience working in disaster situations to reflect on their experiences so that we may help shape future clinical practice, research and education.
Design
Qualitative meta‐synthesis.
Method
Following PROSPERO guidelines (Moher et al., 2015), an exhaustive and systematic literature search and quality appraisal was undertaken in December 2019 to reveal nurses’ experiences during natural disaster response. Sandelowski and Barroso's systematic retrieval, analysis and interpretation of findings method was used to produce a meta‐summary of findings from 10 papers evaluating experiences across 9 disasters. A meta‐aggregation was used to synthesise the findings from the studies and was methodically quality assessed with PRISMA and CASP.
Results
Our findings aggregated data from 42 sub‐themes, into the following four themes to capture nurses’ experiences after responding to disasters. These included agile response; leadership and innovative problem solving; building resilience; positive communication and need for psychological/emotional support.
Discussion
This meta‐synthesis provides evidence to illustrate nurses’ resilience and leadership capabilities as means to manage and perceive their disaster relief response. Factors such as emotional intelligence, capacity to react to changing situations, to manage scant resources in extreme situations were highlighted in nurses practising in highly stressful environments. Managers can use these examples to support ways to improve disaster management policies, but also, to engage in support for their staff.
Relevance to clinical practice
The role of nursing staff in disaster rescue is receiving significant attention. Understanding nurses’ experiences during disaster rescue can help future leaders to improve capacity to respond and nursing preparedness through education, training and management, but also for continuing emotional support after the event.
•Sectoral Water-Energy-Carbon Emissions Nexus of China is illustrated.•Light industry and heavy industry are water-, energy- and carbon-emissions-intensive.•Agriculture consumed most of water, ...however, the water efficiency is low.•Light industry has the highest indirect water consumption coefficient.•Heavy industry has the highest indirect energy consumption coefficient.
China has one of the fastest-growing economies worldwide, consuming large amounts of resources but also experiencing significant environmental issues. Water, energy, and carbon play significant roles in regional sustainable development. It is critical to understand the Water-Energy-Carbon Emissions nexus, and this study explores the nexus using the Environmental Input-Output model. The embodied water and energy consumption and embodied carbon emissions are assessed. The water and energy consumption coefficients and CO2 emission coefficients are analysed. The main results are: (1) The Water-Energy-Carbon Emissions nexus characteristics of light industry, heavy industry, and service industry were similar: water-intensive, energy-intensive, and carbon-emission-intensive; (2) Agriculture consumed 64.38% of the national water supply; however, the water utilisation efficiency was only 32%; (3) Agriculture had much higher water consumption and direct water consumption coefficients. Light industry, service industry, and heavy industry were the top three sectors in terms of indirect water consumption coefficients; (4) Heavy industry, light industry, and service industry were the top three sectors with the highest indirect energy consumption coefficients and carbon emission coefficients. The consumption (water and energy) and CO2 emission coefficients can provide significant support for sustainable development strategies. This study provides a better understanding of the Water-Energy-Carbon Emissions nexus in China.
Functional textiles are ideal substrates for wearable electronics. Herein, superhydrophobic, flame-retardant and conductive cotton fabrics were fabricated by sequential assembly of ...poly(ethylenimine), ammonium polyphosphate and carbon nanotubes, followed by post-treatment with poly(dimethylsiloxane). The resulting fabrics possessed excellent superhydrophobic stability toward acid, alkali, organic solvent, UV irradiation, abrasion and long-time laundering. Meanwhile, when suffering to fire, the coated fabric could generate an efficient char layer and extinguish the fire to protect the cotton fiber from forming flame. Furthermore, this conductive cotton fabric exhibited stable sensing ability in contact with water droplets, showing wide potential application in wearable electronics as multifunctional smart textiles.
Long-lived superhydrophobic surfaces Xue, Chao-Hua; Ma, Jian-Zhong
Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability,
01/2013, Letnik:
1, Številka:
13
Journal Article
A clear understanding of complex trade-off and synergy (TOS) relationships among different kinds of ecosystem services (ESs) is vital for promoting regional sustainable development, especially for ...the Tibet Autonomous Region. However, the relevant systematically study of this region is still lacking. Here we quantified six key ESs dynamics, explored the relationships between paired ESs using Pearson correlation coefficient, identified the TOS bundles using K-means cluster analysis, and investigated the social-ecological drivers by redundancy analysis (RDA). We found that: (1) from 1995 to 2015, the ESs of food production and livestock supply increased, despite half kinds of ESs decreased. Soil conservation service remained basically unchanged; (2) the synergistic relationships were always more pronounced than the trade-off relationships on the two study scales (Tibet and county). Both of the relationships between water yield and net primary productivity and that between water yield and livestock supply shifted from synergistic dominance toward trade-off dominance; (3) Six kinds of TOS bundles at the county scale clearly expressed different combinations of relationships among paired ESs. Different TOS bundles represented different ecological function characteristics. The spatial distribution pattern of these bundles basically unchanged; (4) The drivers that affected the distribution and changes in ESs and TOS bundles differed over time, but rainfall was always an important driver. Rainfall and temperature are key factors affecting the changes in TOS bundles. These findings can provide an updated understanding of the complex trade-offs and synergies among ESs, and provide a reliable basis for the classified management of sustainable ecological development at the county level.
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•The provisioning services increased at the expense of the regulating services over time.•The trade-offs and synergies (TOSs) among ecosystem services (ESs) changed with scale.•The spatiotemporal dynamics of six trade-offs and synergies (TOS) bundles was relatively stable over time.•The drivers' impacts on ESs and TOS bundles were differentiated.•Understanding climate change should be a focus of future ecological management.
Air pollution caused by energy generation and consumption is both a global as well as localised issue. It contributes to global warming along with degradation in human health, ecosystem health, local ...and global sustainable development. About 75% of the global GHG emissions, 66% of NOx emissions and most of the PM emissions are from energy sectors. Energy sectors have also been reported as the main contributors (90%) of SO2 emission in China. Among various influential factors (like energy utilisation, the intensity of economic activities, climatic conditions), the terrain is one of the key elements for the formation and dispersion of air pollution. The relationship between air pollution and terrain requires to be more deeply studied. The main contributions of this review include: 1) Summarising the main sources and types of air pollutants as well as the emission characteristics of different sector groups; 2) Proposing the mechanism of air pollution terrain nexus; 3) Reviewing modelling and experiments approaches for air pollution terrain nexus simulation; 4) Highlighting the existing limitations and challenges. This review provides a better understanding of the air pollution terrain nexus. It can contribute to mitigating the air pollution problems.
•Main sources and types of air pollutants have been analysed.•Emission characteristics of different sector groups have been analysed.•The mechanism of air pollution terrain nexus has been proposed.•Main approaches for air pollution terrain nexus simulation have been reviewed.•Limitations and challenges of this topic have been reviewed and highlighted.
Superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization of fluorinated methacrylates on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabrics. The hydrophobicity of ...the PET fabric was systematically tunable by controlling the polymerization time. The obtained superhydrophobic fabrics showed excellent chemical robustness even after exposure to different chemicals, such as acid, base, salt, acetone, and toluene. Importantly, the fabrics maintained superhydrophobicity after 2500 abrasion cycles, 100 laundering cycles, and long time exposure to UV irradiation. Also, the surface of the superhydrophobic fabrics showed excellent antifouling properties.
Ethyl levulinate, one of the main derivatives of levulinic acid (LA), is of significant potential as platform chemicals for bio‐based materials. The esterification of LA was generally carried out in ...a conventional batch reactor or in a conventional reactive distillation column. However, traditional methods are hard to deal with equilibrium limited reactions and azeotropic issues. Therefore, the inter‐integration reactive distillation with vapor permeation (R‐VP‐D) process, which integrated reaction, vapor permeation, and distillation into one single unit, is proposed in this paper and validated in the pilot‐scale experiments. A comparative study is made between a pilot‐scale RD column with and without VP module. Owing to the water‐selective VP membrane and the ingenious design of related apparatuses, the R‐VP‐D process reveal a superiority in LA conversion of 21.9% maximum higher than RD without VP process and removing of product water about 53.6% from VP module, which indicates its promising industrial application in process intensification field.
Surfaces with sustainable superhydrophobicity have drawn much attention in recent years for improved durability in practical applications. In this study, hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles ...(HMSNs) were prepared and used as reservoirs to load dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DDTMS). Then superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated by spray coating HMSNs with DDTMS as particle stacking structure and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as hydrophobic interconnection. The mechanical durability of the obtained superhydrophobic surface was evaluated by a cyclic sand abrasion. It was found that once the surface was mechanically damaged, new roughening structures made of the cavity of the HMSNs would expose and maintain suitable hierarchical roughness surrounded by PDMS and DDTMS, favoring sustainable superhydrphobicity of the coating. The surfaces could sustain superhydrophobicity even after 1000 cycles of sand abrasion. This facile strategy may pave the way to the development of robust superhydrophobic surfaces in practical applications.
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