Simultaneously harvesting, converting and storing solar energy in a single device represents an ideal technological approach for the next generation of power sources. Herein, we propose a device ...consisting of an integrated carbon-based perovskite solar cell module capable of harvesting solar energy (and converting it into electricity) and a rechargeable aqueous zinc metal cell. The electrochemical energy storage cell utilizes heterostructural Co
P-CoP-NiCoO
nanometric arrays and zinc metal as the cathode and anode, respectively, and shows a capacity retention of approximately 78% after 25000 cycles at 32 A/g. In particular, the battery cathode and perovskite material of the solar cell are combined in a sandwich joint electrode unit. As a result, the device delivers a specific power of 54 kW/kg and specific energy of 366 Wh/kg at 32 A/g and 2 A/g, respectively. Moreover, benefiting from its narrow voltage range (1.40-1.90 V), the device demonstrates an efficiency of approximately 6%, which is stable for 200 photocharge and discharge cycles.
Having served as a symbolic fruit since ancient times, pomegranate (
) has also gained considerable recognition as a functional food in the modern era. A large body of literature has linked ...pomegranate polyphenols, particularly anthocyanins (ATs) and hydrolyzable tannins (HTs), to the health-promoting activities of pomegranate juice and fruit extracts. However, it remains unclear as to how, and to what extent, the numerous phytochemicals in pomegranate may interact and exert cooperative activities in humans. In this review, we examine the structural and analytical information of the diverse phytochemicals that have been identified in different pomegranate tissues, to establish a knowledge base for characterization of metabolite profiles, discovery of novel phytochemicals, and investigation of phytochemical interactions in pomegranate. We also assess recent findings on the function and molecular mechanism of ATs as well as urolithins, the intestinal microbial derivatives of pomegranate HTs, on human nutrition and health. A better understanding of the structural diversity of pomegranate phytochemicals as well as their bioconversions and bioactivities in humans will facilitate the interrogation of their synergistic/antagonistic interactions and accelerate their applications in dietary-based cancer chemoprevention and treatment in the future.
Axially chiral indole‐based frameworks have been recognized as a class of important five‐membered heterobiaryls and developing catalytic asymmetric approaches for constructing these frameworks in an ...enantioselective manner is highly desirable. In recent years, synthetic chemists have paid much attention to this research field, and rapid developments have occurred. At this point, a range of axially chiral indole‐based scaffolds have been constructed via various catalytic asymmetric reactions based on different strategies. Thus, the catalytic asymmetric construction of axially chiral indole‐based frameworks has become an emerging area. This minireview summarizes the rapid advances in this field and gives some insights into future developments, which will help this research field to thrive.
Axially chiral indole‐based frameworks have been recognized as an important class of five‐membered heterobiaryls, and the catalytic asymmetric construction of this class of frameworks has become an emerging area. To give an in‐depth understanding of this area, this Minireview not only analyses its history and development trends, but also gives some insights into future developments based on the summarization of the rapid advances in this field.
Reactive polymer blending is basically a flow/mixing‐driven process of interfacial generation, interfacial reaction for copolymer formation, and morphology development. This work shows two ...antagonistic effects of flow/mixing on this process: while flow/mixing promotes copolymer formation by creating interfaces and enhancing collisions between reactive groups at the interfaces, excessive flow/mixing may pull the in situ formed copolymer out of the interfaces to one of the two polymer components of the blend, especially when the copolymer becomes highly asymmetrical. As such, the copolymer may lose its compatibilization efficiency. The mixing‐driven copolymer pull‐out from the interfaces is a catastrophic process (less than a minute), despite the high viscosity of the polymer blend. It depends on the molecular architecture of the reactive compatibilizer, polymer blend composition, flow/mixing intensity, and annealing. These findings are obtained using the concept of reactive compatibilizer‐tracer and a model reactive polymer blend.
Solar cells and rechargeable batteries are two key technologies for energy conversion and storage in modern society. Here, an integrated solar‐driven rechargeable lithium–sulfur battery system using ...a joint carbon electrode in one structure unit is proposed. Specifically, three perovskite solar cells are assembled serially in a single substrate to photocharge a high energy lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery, accompanied by direct conversion of the solar energy to chemical energy. In the subsequent discharge process, the chemical energy stored in the Li–S battery is further converted to electrical energy. Therefore, the newly designed battery is capable of achieving solar‐to‐chemical energy conversion under solar‐driven conditions, and subsequently delivering electrical energy from the stored chemical energy. With an optimized structure design, a high overall energy conversion efficiency of 5.14% is realized for the integrated battery. Moreover, owing to the self‐adjusting photocharge advantage, the battery system can retain high specific capacity up to 762.4 mAh g−1 under a high photocharge rate within 30 min, showing an effective photocharging feature.
A perovskite solar cell and lithium–sulfur battery are integrated in one unit as a solar‐driven battery system by using a joint carbon electrode. Owing to the smart charge mode, a high overall efficiency exceeding 5% and high specific capacity of 750 mAh g−1 are obtained under fast photocharge rate approaching 2 C.
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the leading causes of acute viral hepatitis worldwide. In this work, a pulse-triggered ultrasensitive electrochemical sensor was fabricated using graphene quantum ...dots and gold-embedded polyaniline nanowires, prepared via an interfacial polymerization and then self-assembly approach. Introducing an external electrical pulse during the virus accumulation step increases the sensitivity towards HEV due to the expanded surface of the virus particle as well as the antibody-conjugated polyaniline chain length, compared to other conventional electrochemical sensors. The sensor was applied to various HEV genotypes, including G1, G3, G7 and ferret HEV obtained from cell culture supernatant and in a series of fecal specimen samples collected from G7 HEV-infected monkey. The sensitivity is similar to that detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain (RT-qPCR). These results suggests that the proposed sensor can pave the way for the development of robust, high-performance sensing methodologies for HEV detection.
The organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells present a rapid improvement on power conversion efficiency from 3.8% to 25.5% in the past decades. Owing to the tuneable bandgaps, low‐cost, and ...ease of fabrication, perovskites become ideal candidate materials for fabricating tandem solar cells, especially for efficient and high‐voltage monolithic two‐terminal devices. In this review, an overview of recent advances in various monolithic perovskite‐based tandem solar cells with a focus on the key challenges is provided. Subsequently, the recombination layer materials, construction of wide‐bandgap perovskite layer, stability of narrow‐bandgap, and current matching principle in tandems are highlighted in order to optimize the output voltage and conversion efficiency of tandem solar cells. Finally, the recent progress is summarized with a focus on potential applications of tandem solar cells for energy conversion and storage, including hydrogen production by water splitting, CO2 reduction, supercapacitors, and rechargeable batteries, benefiting from the adjustable output voltage of tandem solar cells. It is hoped that this work can offer a feasible strategy to explore more possibilities for fabricating new two‐terminal tandem solar cells with high voltage and high conversion efficiency for energy conversion and storage.
This review provides an essential feature of two‐terminal monolithic perovskite tandem solar cells, and an outlook about on the achieved and potential applications of perovskite‐based tandem devices for energy conversion and storage. These include hydrogen production by water splitting, CO2 reduction, supercapacitors, and rechargeable batteries, benefiting from the adjustable output voltage of tandem solar cells.
Heavy metal soil contamination is associated with potential toxicity to humans or ecotoxicity. Scholars have increasingly used a combination of geographical information science (GIS) with ...geostatistical and multivariate statistical analysis techniques to examine the spatial distribution of heavy metals in soils at a regional scale. A review of such studies showed that most soil sampling programs were based on grid patterns and composite sampling methodologies. Many programs intended to characterize various soil types and land use types. The most often used sampling depth intervals were 0–0.10 m, or 0–0.20 m, below surface; and the sampling densities used ranged from 0.0004 to 6.1 samples per km2, with a median of 0.4 samples per km2. The most widely used spatial interpolators were inverse distance weighted interpolation and ordinary kriging; and the most often used multivariate statistical analysis techniques were principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The review also identified several determining and correlating factors in heavy metal distribution in soils, including soil type, soil pH, soil organic matter, land use type, Fe, Al, and heavy metal concentrations. The major natural and anthropogenic sources of heavy metals were found to derive from lithogenic origin, roadway and transportation, atmospheric deposition, wastewater and runoff from industrial and mining facilities, fertilizer application, livestock manure, and sewage sludge. This review argues that the full potential of integrated GIS and multivariate statistical analysis for assessing heavy metal distribution in soils on a regional scale has not yet been fully realized. It is proposed that future research be conducted to map multivariate results in GIS to pinpoint specific anthropogenic sources, to analyze temporal trends in addition to spatial patterns, to optimize modeling parameters, and to expand the use of different multivariate analysis tools beyond principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA).
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•Critically reviewed field studies of regional distribution of heavy metal in soil.•Reviewed studies combined GIS with multivariate statistical analysis.•Summarized the most common sampling strategies, GIS method, and multivariate technique.•Identified determining and correlating factors for soil heavy metals.•Discussed major natural and anthropogenic sources of soil heavy metals.
The integration of GIS and multivariate statistical analysis is a valuable tool in studying the regional distribution of heavy metals in soil.
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