Organic compounds, generated from different industries, produce a range of the problematic pollutants in wastewater. TiO2 based photocatalysts are novel materials that exhibit excellent absorption ...behavior toward organic compounds in wastewater due to their outstanding properties including nontoxicity, high photocatalytic degradation ability, and excellent thermal and chemical stabilities. However, several challenges exist regarding TiO2 applications for organic effluents such as particle aggregation, mass transfer limitation, poor affinity, high band energy, scattering conditions, and difficulty of recovery. Therefore, more design and optimization testing need to be conducted on the treatment conditions in order to reach higher removal efficiencies with lower costs. A variety of parameters of TiO2 based photocatalysts need to be studied: substrate, light intensity, dopant, particle size, structure. These parameters, which affect TiO2 photocatalytic activity on organic pollutants, are discussed in the current review. Thus, making the photocatalyst more anticipated and conducive to further research and development.
•Six unique challenges inhibit the application of TiO2 in organic effluents.•Various parameters such as TiO2 forms and substrates were discussed.•High band energy and transfer limitation are the primary limitations.•The key processing parameters are selection of TiO2 substrate and dopant.
The phenomenon of customer incivility poses significant challenges for frontline employees whose expression of emotion determines the service experience. Few studies have explored the mediating ...mechanisms linking customer incivility to frontline employees' emotional labor. Drawing on the dualistic model of job passion theory, we proposed job passion as a feasible mediator of the links from customer incivility to frontline employees' emotional labor. Using data from 1040 frontline employees across the retailing, banking, and hospitality sectors, the results indicate that job passion acts as the psychological mechanism underlying the relationships between customer incivility and frontline employees' emotional labor. Specifically, customer incivility is positively associated with frontline employees' surface acting through both obsessive passion and harmonious passion. Conversely, customer incivility is negatively linked with deep acting only through harmonious passion. Our findings clarify the psychological mechanisms through which customer incivility affects frontline employees' emotional labor from the perspective of job passion. Furthermore, the current study also extends the job passion model to the boundary-spanning context to explain how frontline employees respond to customer incivility. This study sheds light on how service practitioners can support frontline employees in dealing with customer incivility.
Automatic vertebrae localization and segmentation in computed tomography (CT) are fundamental for spinal image analysis and spine surgery with computer-assisted surgery systems. But they remain ...challenging due to high variation in spinal anatomy among patients. In this paper, we proposed a deep-learning approach for automatic CT vertebrae localization and segmentation with a two-stage Dense-U-Net. The first stage used a 2D-Dense-U-Net to localize vertebrae by detecting the vertebrae centroids with dense labels and 2D slices. The second stage segmented the specific vertebra within a region-of-interest identified based on the centroid using 3D-Dense-U-Net. Finally, each segmented vertebra was merged into a complete spine and resampled to original resolution. We evaluated our method on the dataset from the CSI 2014 Workshop with 6 metrics: location error (1.69 ± 0.78 mm), detection rate (100%) for vertebrae localization; the dice coefficient (0.953 ± 0.014), intersection over union (0.911 ± 0.025), Hausdorff distance (4.013 ± 2.128 mm), pixel accuracy (0.998 ± 0.001) for vertebrae segmentation. The experimental results demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed method. Furthermore, evaluation on the dataset from the xVertSeg challenge with location error (4.12 ± 2.31), detection rate (100%), dice coefficient (0.877 ± 0.035) shows the generalizability of our method. In summary, our solution localized the vertebrae successfully by detecting the centroids of vertebrae and implemented instance segmentation of vertebrae in the whole spine.
To meet the goals of reducing adverse effects, continuing economic transformation, and achieving sustainable development, it is necessary to understand the impact mechanism and heterogeneous effects ...of geopolitical risk on carbon emissions. Using panel data from 30 provinces in China gathered between 2003 and 2019, we show that (1) geopolitical risk significantly contributes to the growth of carbon emissions, as does non-renewable energy consumption, trade, and economic growth, but that technological progress, industrial structure upgrading, and marketization inhibit the growth of carbon emissions; (2) geopolitical risk inhibits carbon emissions by suppressing non-renewable energy consumption and trade, and promoting technological progress; and (3) geopolitical risk has heterogeneous effects on carbon emissions in different quartiles. In the lower quartiles (i.e., groups with lower emission levels), geopolitical risk suppresses carbon emissions, while in higher quartiles (i.e., groups with higher emission levels), geopolitical risk promotes carbon emissions. As growing geopolitical risk and carbon emissions are now common problems for all countries, this study serves as a valuable reference not only for China, but for every member of the global community seeking to mitigate geopolitical risk shocks and achieve carbon emission reduction targets.
Low‐dimensional metal halides have recently attracted extensive attention owing to their unique structure and photoelectric properties. Herein, we report the colloidal synthesis of all‐inorganic ...low‐dimensional cesium copper halide nanocrystals (NCs) by adopting a hot‐injection approach. Using the same reactants and ligands, but different reaction temperatures, both 1D CsCu2I3 nanorods and 0D Cs3Cu2I5 NCs can be prepared. Density functional theory indicates that the reduced dimensionality in 1D CsCu2I3 compared to 0D Cs3Cu2I5 makes the excitons more localized, which accounts for the strong emission of 0D Cs3Cu2I5 NCs. Subsequent optical characterization reveals that the highly luminescent, strongly Stokes‐shifted broadband emission of 0D Cs3Cu2I5 NCs arises from the self‐trapped excitons. Our findings not only present a method to control the synthesis of low‐dimensional cesium copper halide nanocrystals but also highlight the potential of 0D Cs3Cu2I5 NCs in optoelectronics.
Warm‐up act: Using the same reactants and ligands, but different reaction temperatures, both 1D CsCu2I3 nanorods (NRs) and 0D Cs3Cu2I5 nanocrystals (NCs) can be prepared. The reduced dimensionality in 0D Cs3Cu2I5 compared to 1D CsCu2I3 makes the excitons more localized, thereby leading to the 0D Cs3Cu2I5 NCs showing stronger emission.
•Hollow Sn-doped NiO nanofibers are synthesized through a facile electrospinning approach.•The Sn-doped NiO sensor with suitable Sn content (6 at%) shows the highest gas response to triethylamine.•Sn ...doping concentrations can significantly influence the resistance of sensors in air and in target gas under different RH.•The resistances of the sensor change slightly in target gas under different RH with suitable Sn doping content (6 at%).
High stable triethylamine gas sensors under different relative humidity are highly desirable in order to correctly detect the concentrations of target gas. In this study, a series of Sn-doped NiO hollow nanofibers were prepared through a facile electrospinning process followed by heat treatment. Sn doping could inhibit the crystal growth, and the crystal sizes would decrease with the increase of Sn doping concentration. Gas sensing investigation indicates that Sn doping could significantly enhance the gas response towards triethylamine at a relative low temperature. Especially, the gas sensor exhibits the highest response to triethylamine when the doping content of Sn reaches to 6 at%. The response value is about 16.6–100 ppm triethylamine, and it is ∼9.2 times higher than that of pure NiO nanofibers at the same operating temperature. In addition, the resistances of the gas sensors with different doping contents of Sn would change differently in air or in target gas under variable relative humidity. The resistances in target gas are almost unchanged with the increase of relative humidity with the Sn doping content of 6 at%. It is reasonable to speculate that Sn doping can heavily alter the surface state of NiO nanofibers, which is beneficial for the improvement of the gas response and humidity dependence properties.
This study showed the new potential of using soluble contents and heavy metals in swine wastewater as nutrient supplements for the algae
with biofilm attached method. Algae with biofilm attached ...cultivation grew well in unpasteurized wastewater reaching a biomass productivity of 5.03 g m
d
, lipid content of 35.9% and lipid productivity of 1.80 g m
d
.
grew in BG11 medium delivered lower values for each of the aforementioned parameters. The FAMEs compositions in the algae paste were mainly consisted of C16:0, C18:2, and C18:3. Algae removed NH
-N, total phosphorus (TP), and COD by 75.9, 68.4, and 74.8%, respectively. Notably, Zn
, Cu
, and Fe
were removed from wastewater with a ratio of 65.71, 53.64, and 58.89%, respectively. Biofilm attached cultivation of
in swine wastewater containing heavy metals could accumulate considerable biomass and lipid, and the removal ratio of NH
-N, TP, COD, and as well as heavy metal were high. Treatment of wastewater with biofilm attached cultivation showed an increasingly popular for the concentration of microalgae and environmental sustainability.
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•The three-dimensional ZnFe2O4-based Macroporous Spheres have been fabricated in ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method.•The construction of interconnected macroporous and the introduction ...of Pd synergistically improve the sensing properties.•The enhanced sensing properties can be attributed to porous structure, electronic sensitization and catalytic effect.
The preparation process and gas sensitivity test of three-dimensional sphere spinel ferrites with well-assembled macroporous structures have been reported in this paper. The three-dimensional ZnFe2O4 macroporous spheres (3D ZnFe2O4 MPs) were prepared by one-step ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP), in which self-assembly sulfonated polystyrene (S-PS) spheres were employed as sacrificial template. The as-prepared samples possessed interconnected macroporous with pore diameters about 200 nm can be observed in TEM characterization, which provided more reactive active sites. The catalyst Pd was doped in 3D ZnFe2O4 MPs with the attempt of enhancing gas-sensing performance, which has been confirmed existed as Pd2+ formation by XRD and XPS analysis. In a comparison with pure 3D ZnFe2O4 MPs, the 0.5% PdO-dopded 3D ZnFe2O4 MPs exhibited a 2 times higher response (18.9) to 100 ppm acetone at 275 °C. Furthermore, the PdO- dopded 3D ZnFe2O4 MPs-based sensor also presented excellent selectivity and good long-term stability towards acetone. The outstanding sensing performance can be attributed to the 3D spheres with interconnect macroporous structure, electronic sensitization and catalytic effects of PdO. The relative sensing mechanism has been discussed in detail.
A novel single lithium‐ion (Li‐ion) conducting polymer electrolyte is presented that is composed of the lithium salt of a polyanion, ...poly(4‐styrenesulfonyl)(trifluoromethyl(S‐trifluoromethylsulfonylimino)sulfonyl)imide (PSsTFSI−), and high‐molecular‐weight poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). The neat LiPSsTFSI ionomer displays a low glass‐transition temperature (44.3 °C; that is, strongly plasticizing effect). The complex of LiPSsTFSI/PEO exhibits a high Li‐ion transference number (tLi+=0.91) and is thermally stable up to 300 °C. Meanwhile, it exhibits a Li‐ion conductivity as high as 1.35×10−4 S cm−1 at 90 °C, which is comparable to that for the classic ambipolar LiTFSI/PEO SPEs at the same temperature. These outstanding properties of the LiPSsTFSI/PEO blended polymer electrolyte would make it promising as solid polymer electrolytes for Li batteries.
A super‐delocalized polyanion is used for a single lithium‐ion conducting polymer electrolyte. The neat LiPSsTFSI ionomer displays a low glass‐transition temperature (44.3 °C), and its blended polymer electrolyte of the LiPSsTFSI/PEO exhibits a high Li‐ion transference number (tLi+=0.91) and high ionic conductivities of individual Li+ cations, which are comparable to those for the classic ambipolar LiTFSI/PEO SPEs above 70 °C (the melting point).
Highlights
This review gives a thinking based on the generic mechanisms rather than simply dividing them as different types of combination of materials, which is unique and valuable for understanding ...and developing the novel hybrid materials in the future.
The hybrid materials, their sensing mechanism, and their applications are systematically reviewed. Critical thinking and ideas regarding the orientation of the development of hybrid material-based gas sensor in the future are also discussed.
Chemi-resistive sensors based on hybrid functional materials are promising candidates for gas sensing with high responsivity, good selectivity, fast response/recovery, great stability/repeatability, room-working temperature, low cost, and easy-to-fabricate, for versatile applications. This progress report reviews the advantages and advances of these sensing structures compared with the single constituent, according to five main sensing forms: manipulating/constructing heterojunctions, catalytic reaction, charge transfer, charge carrier transport, molecular binding/sieving, and their combinations. Promises and challenges of the advances of each form are presented and discussed. Critical thinking and ideas regarding the orientation of the development of hybrid material-based gas sensor in the future are discussed.
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