Despite the fact that antimony triselenide (Sb2Se3) thin‐film solar cells have undergone rapid development in recent years, the large open‐circuit voltage (VOC) deficit still remains as the biggest ...bottleneck, as even the world‐record device suffers from a large VOC deficit of 0.59 V. Here, an effective interface engineering approach is reported where the Sb2Se3/CdS heterojunction (HTJ) is subjected to a post‐annealing treatment using a rapid thermal process. It is found that nonradiative recombination near the Sb2Se3/CdS HTJ, including interface recombination and space charge region recombination, is greatly suppressed after the HTJ annealing treatment. Ultimately, a substrate Sb2Se3/CdS thin‐film solar cell with a competitive power conversion efficiency of 8.64% and a record VOC of 0.52 V is successfully fabricated. The device exhibits a much mitigated VOC deficit of 0.49 V, which is lower than that of any other reported efficient antimony chalcogenide solar cell.
A heterojunction post‐annealing treatment is utilized to suppress the nonradiative recombination for a highly competitive power conversion efficiency of 8.64% and a record open‐circuit voltage (VOC) of 520 mV in Sb2Se3 thin‐film solar cells. The VOC deficit of the device is lower than that of any other reported efficient antimony chalcogenide solar cells.
Biochar application in agricultural soils can be highly beneficial to plant productivity. However, how plant productivity response (PPR) % change of plant yield from control (without biochar ...application) to biochar application is affected by biochar properties, soil conditions, and their combinations is still unclear. Therefore, a meta-analysis based on 1254 paired comparisons from 153 published studies was conducted. The grand mean of PPR was estimated to be 16.0 ± 1.3%, regardless of biochar/soil conditions. Meanwhile, a large variation of PPR from −31.8% to 974% was also observed under different biochar or/and soil conditions. Specifically, biochar properties including pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), contents of carbon and ash, bulk density, and soil conditions including texture, pH, CEC, nitrogen content, and C/N ratio significantly affected the results of PPR to biochar addition. Furthermore, the liming effect, improvement in soil physical structure, and increased nutrient use efficiency were suggested as the key mechanisms for the positive PPR in biochar-amended soils. Moreover, PPR could be significantly affected (strengthened or weakened) by the combined effect of biochar properties and soil conditions. Overall, the application of biochars with high ash content (or low carbon content) into sandy soils or acidic soils is highly recommended for increasing plant productivity. This meta-analysis will provide helpful information to elucidate the combined effect of biochar properties and soil conditions on plant growth, which is critical for developing engineered biochar with specific functionality to promote plant production and food security.
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•Effect of biochar/soil properties on plant productivity response (PPR) was examined.•Grand mean of PPR was estimated to be 16.0% regardless of biochar/soil conditions.•PPR varied from −31.8% to 974% under different biochar/soil combinations.•Design of functional biochar according to initial soil conditions is needed.
This is the second part of a two-part work on the unified mathematical theory of gapped and gapless edges of 2+1D topological orders. In Part I, we have developed the mathematical theory of chiral ...gapless edges. In Part II, we study boundary-bulk relation and non-chiral gapless edges. In particular, we explain how the notion of the center of an enriched monoidal category naturally emerges from the boundary-bulk relation. After the study of 0+1D gapless walls, we give the complete boundary-bulk relation for 2+1D topological orders with chiral gapless edges (including gapped edges) and 0d walls between edges. This relation is stated precisely and proved rigorously as a monoidal equivalence, which generalizes the functoriality of the usual Drinfeld center to an enriched setting. We also develop the mathematical theory of non-chiral gapless edges and 0+1D walls, and explain how to gap out certain non-chiral 1+1D gapless edges and 0+1D gapless walls categorically. In the end, we show that all anomaly-free 1+1D boundary-bulk rational CFT's can be recovered from 2d topological orders with chiral gapless edges via a dimensional reduction process. This provides physical meanings to some mysterious connections between mathematical results in fusion categories and those in rational CFT's.
Synthetic biology based on bacteria has been displayed in antitumor therapy and shown good performance. In this study, an engineered bacterium Escherichia coli MG1655 is designed with NDH-2 enzyme ...(respiratory chain enzyme II) overexpression (Ec-pE), which can colonize in tumor regions and increase localized H
O
generation. Following from this, magnetic Fe
O
nanoparticles are covalently linked to bacteria to act as a catalyst for a Fenton-like reaction, which converts H
O
to toxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH) for tumor therapy. In this constructed bioreactor, the Fenton-like reaction occurs with sustainably synthesized H
O
produced by engineered bacteria, and severe tumor apoptosis is induced via the produced toxic •OH. These results show that this bioreactor can achieve effective tumor colonization, and realize a self-supplied therapeutic Fenton-like reaction without additional H
O
provision.
The homojunction of oxygen/metal vacancies and its interfacial n–p effect on the physiochemical properties are rarely reported. Interfacial n–p homojunctions of TiO2 are fabricated by directly ...decorating interfacial p‐type titanium‐defected TiO2 around n‐type oxygen‐defected TiO2 nanocrystals in amorphous–anatase homogeneous nanostructures. Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations on the cell lattice parameters show that the homojunction of oxygen and titanium vacancies changes the charge density of TiO2; a strong EPR signal caused by oxygen vacancies and an unreported strong titanium vacancies signal of 2D 1H TQ‐SQ MAS NMR are present. Amorphous–anatase TiO2 shows significant performance regarding the photogeneration current, photocatalysis, and energy storage, owing to interfacial n‐type to p‐type conductivity with high charge mobility and less structural confinement of amorphous clusters. A new “homojunction of oxygen and titanium vacancies” concept, characteristics, and mechanism are proposed at an atomic‐/nanoscale to clarify the generation of oxygen vacancies and titanium vacancies as well as the interface electron transfer.
The homojunction of oxygen and titanium vacancies developed in the amorphous–anatase interface of nanostructured TiO2 results in a unique n–p electronic transmission, which is mostly preferred to the mobility of electronic charge carriers. It also contributes to significant performance regarding photogeneration current, photocatalysis, and energy storage.
Abstract
With the increasing improvement of China’s industrial production technology, more and more attention is paid to the application of new five-axis CNC machine tools, and it is also urgent to ...strengthen the post-processing design. However, there are still many problems in the post-processing of DMU125P five-axis machine tools at this stage. The method is analyzed by combining the post-processing requirements of the DMU125P five-axis machine tool. At the same time, most studies in recent years have found that the use of post-processing application design is critical to improving the processing of complex mechanical parts. This study will analyze the post-processing customization method of the DMU125P five-axis machine tool, and provide a basis for the next step of work.
Interest in the use of biochar to improve soil productivity has rapidly increased. Nitrogen (N) loss, retention and bioavailability in biochar-amended soils fertilized with NH4+–N and NO3−–N were ...studied using leaching and pot experiments. NO3−–N leaching from the soils fertilized with NH4+–N and NO3−–N was significantly reduced by biochar addition. NH4+–N leaching from the NO3−–N fertilized soil was also significantly reduced by biochar, while no significant effect was observed for the NH4+–N fertilized soil. Also lower NH4+–N and NO3−–N were leached from NO3−–N fertilized soil with maize (Zea mays L.) grown. Mitigation of N leaching loss following biochar addition is mainly attributed to the increase in soil water holding capacity (WHC), NH4+ adsorption and enhanced N immobilization. Biochar addition stimulated maize growth, both above and below ground. Biochar also increased N utilization efficiency (NUE) of maize but decreased N accumulation efficiency (NAE), indicating that biochar addition may improve N bioavailability in agricultural soils. Therefore, reduction of N leaching, and increase of N retention and bioavailability in agricultural soils can potentially decrease the N fertilizer demand for crop growth.
•Biochar reduced NO3−–N and/or NH4+–N leaching from soils.•Biochar addition improved maize growth including biomass and root morphology.•Biochar increased N utilization efficiency, but reduced N accumulation efficiency.•Biochar could increase N retention and bioavailability in agricultural soils.
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•Novel direct Z-scheme AgI/Bi4V2O11 photocatalysts were prepared.•A superior photocatalytic activity for the degradation of SMZ refractory pollutants.•A plausible degradation pathway ...for SMZ was proposed.•The fabrication Z-scheme heterostructure play a central role in promoting charge separation and active radical generation.
Z-scheme heterojunction can not only promote the separation of photogenerated carriers, but also retain the strong redox potential of the system, which would greatly improve the photocatalytic performance of catalyst. Herein, a Z-scheme AgI/Bi4V2O11 heterojunction photocatalyst was prepared by a hydrothermal process combined with in situ coprecipitation process. Multiple techniques were employed to investigate the morphology, composition, chemical and electronic properties of the as-prepared samples. The obtained Z-scheme AgI/Bi4V2O11 heterojunction photocatalyst exhibited remarkably enhanced photocatalytic performance towards sulfamethazine (SMZ) degradation under visible light irradiation. Especially, the 20 wt% AgI/Bi4V2O11 composites exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity for sulfamethazine (SMZ) degradation and 91.47% SMZ would be eliminated within 60 min. In comparison with NO3− and SO42−, the presence of Cl− and HCO3− presented more obviously inhibition effects on SMZ degradation. The possible degradation pathways of SMZ were speculated by identifying degradation intermediates. O2−, h+ and OH all involved in the photocatalytic degradation SMZ. The highly enhanced photocatalytic performance might be attributed to form Z-scheme junction between AgI and BVO, which are conducive to the efficient charges separation and maintain high redox potential. This work enriches Bi4V2O11-based Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalytic system and provides a reference for the preparation of effective Z-scheme junction photocatalysts.
Synthetic dimensions based on particles' internal degrees of freedom, such as frequency, spatial modes and arrival time, have attracted significant attention. They offer ideal large-scale lattices to ...simulate nontrivial topological phenomena. Exploring more synthetic dimensions is one of the paths toward higher dimensional physics. In this work, we design and experimentally control the coupling among synthetic dimensions consisting of the intrinsic photonic orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum degrees of freedom in a degenerate optical resonant cavity, which generates a periodically driven spin-orbital coupling system. We directly characterize the system's properties, including the density of states, energy band structures and topological windings, through the transmission intensity measurements. Our work demonstrates a mechanism for exploring the spatial modes of twisted photons as the synthetic dimension, which paves the way to design rich topological physics in a highly compact platform.
Dysfunctions of long non-coding RNA (lncRNAs) have been associated with the initiation and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the clinicopathologic significance and potential role of ...lncRNA PTTG3P (pituitary tumor-transforming 3, pseudogene) in HCC remains largely unknown.
We compared the expression profiles of lncRNAs in 3 HCC tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues by microarrays. In situ hybridization (ISH) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were applied to assess the level of PTTG3P and prognostic values of PTTG3P were assayed in two HCC cohorts (n = 46 and 90). Artificial modulation of PTTG3P (down- and over-expression) was performed to explore the role of PTTG3P in tumor growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Involvement of PTTG1 (pituitary tumor-transforming 1), PI3K/AKT signaling and its downstream signals were validated by qRT-PCR and western blot.
We found that PTTG3P was frequently up-regulated in HCC and its level was positively correlated to tumor size, TNM stage and poor survival of patients with HCC. Enforced expression of PTTG3P significantly promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro, as well as tumorigenesis and metastasis in vivo. Conversely, PTTG3P knockdown had opposite effects. Mechanistically, over-expression of PTTG3P up-regulated PTTG1, activated PI3K/AKT signaling and its downstream signals including cell cycle progression, cell apoptosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated genes.
Our findings suggest that PTTG3P, a valuable marker of HCC prognosis, promotes tumor growth and metastasis via up-regulating PTTG1 and activating PI3K/AKT signaling in HCC and might represent a potential target for gene-based therapy.
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