Triethanolamine interface modification of crystallized ZnO nanospheres enabling fast photocatalytic hazard-free treatment of Cr(vi) ions

Abstract The hazard-free treatment of Cr(vi) ions is critical in modern industry. Photocatalytic reduction and detoxification are high-potential strategies. Photocatalysts with high efficiency, low cost, environmental friendliness, and easy mass products are required. In this study, we report a facile strategy using triethanolamine (TEOA) as a capping ligand to modify the surface of ZnO nanospheres. The experimental and theoretical results reveal that the presence of TEOA on the surface was beneficial for electron enrichment on Zn and hole transfer to TEOA and can photocatalytically reduce Cr(vi) by almost 100% in 5 min. The photocatalytic property of TEOA-modified ZnO could be renewed by the reabsorption of TEOA in solution. The great sedimental properties benefit photocatalyst recycling and renewal, which also provides high potential for water pollution and environmental emergency responses applications.

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Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic, Inorganic and Microbial Pollutants Present in Water by Novel Materials: A Critical Review and Present Update

Asian Journal of Chemistry ◽

10.14233/ajchem.2021.23317 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 33 (10) ◽

pp. 2251-2259

Author(s):

Elizabeth Kuruvilla ◽

C. Freeda Christy ◽

A. Samson Nesaraj

Keyword(s):

Water Pollution ◽

Photocatalytic Degradation ◽

Low Cost ◽

Good Method ◽

Capacitive Deionization ◽

Aquatic Life ◽

Environmental Friendliness ◽

Living Things ◽

The World ◽

The One

Presently water pollution is the one of the major threats faced by living things all over the world. The main cause of water pollution is its effect on the life of aquatic animals. Organic, inorganic, microbial and other pollutants often mix with water bodies mainly due to human activities. Because of the presence of pollutants in water, the amount of dissolved oxygen level can be decreased which in turn affect the survival of aquatic life. The pollutant water may enter the agriculture fields and damage the plants extensively. The methods, such as, coagulation, adsorption, foam floating, electrodialysis, capacitive deionization, etc. are presently employed to treat the waste water. Among these methods, heterogeneous photocatalytic degradation is considered to be a good method because of its low cost and environmental friendliness. In this review, the decontamination of different kinds of organic, inorganic and microbial contaminants in water with different photocatalysts process is presented.

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Superhydrophobic photothermal icephobic surfaces based on candle soot

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2001972117 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 117 (21) ◽

pp. 11240-11246 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Shuwang Wu ◽

Yingjie Du ◽

Yousif Alsaid ◽

Dong Wu ◽

Mutian Hua ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Efficiency ◽

Low Cost ◽

High Energy ◽

Silica Shell ◽

Oxygen Plasma Treatment ◽

Human Society ◽

Environmental Friendliness ◽

Candle Soot ◽

Low Surface Energy ◽

Ice Accumulation

Ice accumulation causes various problems in our daily life for human society. The daunting challenges in ice prevention and removal call for novel efficient antiicing strategies. Recently, photothermal materials have gained attention for creating icephobic surfaces owing to their merits of energy conservation and environmental friendliness. However, it is always challenging to get an ideal photothermal material which is cheap, easily fabricating, and highly photothermally efficient. Here, we demonstrate a low-cost, high-efficiency superhydrophobic photothermal surface, uniquely based on inexpensive commonly seen candle soot. It consists of three components: candle soot, silica shell, and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) brushes. The candle soot provides hierarchical nano/microstructures and photothermal ability, the silica shell strengthens the hierarchical candle soot, and the grafted low-surface-energy PDMS brushes endow the surface with superhydrophobicity. Upon illumination under 1 sun, the surface temperature can increase by 53 °C, so that no ice can form at an environmental temperature as low as −50 °C and it can also rapidly melt the accumulated frost and ice in 300 s. The superhydrophobicity enables the melted water to slide away immediately, leaving a clean and dry surface. The surface can also self-clean, which further enhances its effectiveness by removing dust and other contaminants which absorb and scatter sunlight. In addition, after oxygen plasma treatment, the surface can restore superhydrophobicity with sunlight illumination. The presented icephobic surface shows great potential and broad impacts owing to its inexpensive component materials, simplicity, ecofriendliness, and high energy efficiency.

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Technology for obtaining modified oil sorbents

Proceedings of the Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies ◽

10.20914/2310-1202-2020-4-247-253 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 82 (4) ◽

pp. 247-253

Author(s):

R. Mejri ◽

Y. S. Peregudov ◽

E. M. Gorbunova

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Properties ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Low Cost ◽

Oil Products ◽

Solid Surfaces ◽

Environmental Friendliness ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Oil Sorbent ◽

High Degree ◽

Oil And Oil Products

Expediency of using natural glauconite material as a basis for the production of an environmentally friendly sorbent with hydrophobic and magnetic properties for liquidating oil and oil products spills mechanically and using a magnetic field has been substantiated and experimentally proved. Fractional, elemental and oxide compositions of the original mineral have been studied. The structure of glauconite fraction 0.045-0.1 mm has been investigated by transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the surface of the sample particles is heterogeneous with a large number of pores and cracks. Based on the experimental data, the optimal conditions for the production and use of powder and granular sorbents based on glauconite with specified properties were determined, at which a high degree of recovery (more than 90%) of oil with water and hard surfaces. The optimum temperature for obtaining a magnetic oil sorbent is 400 °C. The doses of stearic acid and iron (III) oxide were established at 5 wt. %, which provide hydrophobicity and magnetic properties to the synthesized sorbent. A high degree of oil (97%) and oil (98%) recovery when using a sorbent is achieved at a ratio of 1: 10 to sorbate. To eliminate oil and oil product spills, it is proposed to use granular ferromagnetic sorbents obtained by introducing carboxymethyl cellulose into the modified glauconite composition. oil and oil products granular sorbent increases in comparison with the original mineral by 1.2–2.2 times. Technological schemes for obtaining ferromagnetic hydrophobic and granular sorbents based on glauconite for collecting oil and oil products from water and solid surfaces have been developed. The synthesized sorbents are characterized by high efficiency, low cost, and environmental friendliness.

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New Oil-Absorbing Material

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.287-290.667 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 287-290 ◽

pp. 667-670

Author(s):

Yan Jin Shi ◽

Yan Feng

Keyword(s):

Water Pollution ◽

Research And Development ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Low Cost ◽

Ecological Environment ◽

Environment Protection ◽

Production Methods ◽

Development Direction ◽

Absorbing Materials ◽

Absorbing Material

With the development of industry, water pollution is increasingly severe. The research and development of oil-absorbing materials plays an important role in solving the ecological environment protection. Various oil-absorbing materials are introduced. Then, the new oil-absorbing materials are introduced mainly, including classification, production methods, oil-absorbing mechanism and properties. The limitations of the new oil-absorbing materials are pointed. And the development direction of oil-absorbing materials should be toward the high efficiency, low-cost, environmentally friendly and biodegradable.

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History and recent developments in divergent electrolytes towards high-efficiency lithium–sulfur batteries – a review

Materials Advances ◽

10.1039/d1ma00332a ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Srikanth Ponnada ◽

Maryam Sadat Kiai ◽

Demudu Babu Gorle ◽

Annapurna Nowduri

Keyword(s):

High Efficiency ◽

Low Cost ◽

Storage System ◽

Specific Capacity ◽

Energy Storage System ◽

Environmental Friendliness ◽

System P ◽

Lithium Sulfur Batteries ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Lithium Sulfur

Lithium–sulfur batteries, with a high specific capacity, low cost and environmental friendliness, could be investigated as a next-generation energy-storage system.

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Spatiotemporal Coupling Dual-photocatalytic Integration in Atomic- hybridized Co0.5Fe0.5In2S4 Nanoflowers for High Efficiency Nitrogen Reduction

10.21203/rs.3.rs-41091/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Qifan Wu ◽

Gang Zhou ◽

Tao Li ◽

Jun Guo ◽

Lizhe Liu

Keyword(s):

Hydrogen Evolution ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Time Window ◽

Low Cost ◽

Life Time ◽

Reduction Reaction ◽

Photocatalytic Reduction ◽

Attractive Alternative ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Coupling Strategy

Abstract The photocatalytic reduction of N2 to NH3 under mild conditions using low-cost solar is an attractive alternative to replace the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process, but which is typically hampered by poor binding of N2 to catalysts and high activation energy of intermediates. In particular time window, catalyst hydrogenation directly induced by photocatalytic water splitting can provide an alternation pathway to overcome limitations in conventional N2 reduction reaction (NRR). Herein, we propose a spatiotemporal coupling strategy in Co0.5Fe0.5In2S4 ultrathin nanoflowers to integrate hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and NRR together, in which the photo-excited carrier life time is intentionally extended to match six-electron NRR process; meanwhile hydrogen evolution rate is limited to generate a transient hydrogenation on catalytic surface for accelerating N2 adsorption and activation. This spatiotemporal coupling design can easily drive N2 to *N2H2 and far away from conventional stagewise activation of N≡N triplet bonds. As a result, the photocatalytic performance of N2 reduction is about 85.8 μmol g-1 h-1 without sacrificial agent. Our findings provide a new paradigm for integrating dual photocatalytic reduction, bringing a transient hydrogenation and free nitrogen directly to reactants without requiring N2 molecular adsorption to the catalyst.

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Overview of Si Tandem Solar Cells and Approaches to PV-Powered Vehicle Applications

MRS Advances ◽

10.1557/adv.2020.66 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (8-9) ◽

pp. 441-450 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Masafumi Yamaguchi ◽

Kan-Hua Lee ◽

Daisuke Sato ◽

Kenji Araki ◽

Nobuaki Kojima ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Solar Cell ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Low Cost ◽

Clean Energy ◽

High Potential ◽

Tandem Solar Cells ◽

Cell Modules ◽

Application Fields ◽

Further Development

ABSTRACTDevelopment of high-efficiency solar cell modules and new application fields are significant for the further development of photovoltaics (PV) and creation of new clean energy infrastructure based on PV. Especially, development of PV-powered EV applications is desirable and very important for this end. This paper shows analytical results for efficiency potential of various solar cells for choosing candidates of high-efficiency solar cell modules for automobile applications. As a result of analysis, Si tandem solar cells are thought to be some of their candidates. This paper also overviews efficiency potential and recent activities of various Si tandem solar cells such as III-V/Si, II-VI/Si, chalcopyrite/Si, perovskite/Si and nanowire/Si tandem solar cells. The III-V/Si tandem solar cells are expected to have a high potential for various applications because of high efficiency with efficiencies of more than 36% for 2-junction and 42 % for 3-junction tandem solar cells under 1-sun AM1.5 G, lightweight and low-cost potential. Recent results for our 28.2 % efficiency and Sharp’s 33% mechanically stacked InGaP/GaAs/Si 3-junction solar cell are also presented. Approaches to automobile application by using III-V/Si tandem solar cells and static low concentration are presented.

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Fuel Cells Based on Natural Polysaccharides for Rail Vehicle Application

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14041144 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 1144

Author(s):

Paweł Daszkiewicz ◽

Beata Kurc ◽

Marita Pigłowska ◽

Maciej Andrzejewski

Keyword(s):

Fuel Cells ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Low Cost ◽

Environmental Friendliness ◽

Innovative Methods ◽

Rail Vehicles ◽

Independent Power Supply ◽

Reduce Emissions ◽

The Cost

This manuscript shows the use of natural polysaccharides such as starch and cellulose as a carbon source for fuel cells. To achieve this, two innovative methods of obtaining hydrogen have been shown: by adsorption and by enzyme. The carbonization path of the material results in excellent sorption properties and allows gas with high efficiency to be obtained. The enzymatic method for the degradation of the compound is more expensive because specific enzymes (such as laccase, tyrosinase) must be used, but it allows greater control of the properties of the obtained material. A scientific novelty is the use of natural raw materials, the use of which increases the biodegradability of the electrochemical system and also reduces the cost of raw materials and increases the range of their acquisition. Energy should be generated where it is used. Another goal is decentralization, and thanks to the proposed solutions, hydrogen cells represent an innovative alternative to today’s energy giants—also for independent power supply to households. The proposed harvesting paths are intended to drive rail vehicles in order to reduce emissions and secondary pollution of the environment. The goals of both methods were easy recycling, high efficiency, increased environmental friendliness, low cost and a short hydrogen production path.

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Influence of MBE Growth Conditions on Dislocation Densities of GaAs/Ge Epilayers Grown on Silicon Substrates

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100118692 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. 364-365

Author(s):

K.M. Hones ◽

P. Sheldon ◽

B.G. Yacobi ◽

A. Mason

Keyword(s):

High Efficiency ◽

Lattice Mismatch ◽

Low Cost ◽

Growth Conditions ◽

Nonradiative Recombination ◽

Device Structure ◽

Si Substrates ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Dislocation Densities ◽

Dislocation Type

There is increasing interest in growing epitaxial GaAs on Si substrates. Such a device structure would allow low-cost substrates to be used for high-efficiency cascade- junction solar cells. However, high-defect densities may result from the large lattice mismatch (∼4%) between the GaAs epilayer and the silicon substrate. These defects can act as nonradiative recombination centers that can degrade the optical and electrical properties of the epitaxially grown GaAs. For this reason, it is important to optimize epilayer growth conditions in order to minimize resulting dislocation densities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an indication of the quality of the epitaxially grown GaAs layers by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine dislocation type and density as a function of various growth conditions. In this study an intermediate Ge layer was used to avoid nucleation difficulties observed for GaAs growth directly on Si substrates. GaAs/Ge epilayers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si substrates in a manner similar to that described previously.

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Improvement of Ti/RuO2–IrO2 Anode Lifetime and Electrocatalytical Properties by Using an Eco-Friendly Thermal Decomposition Method Using Polyvinyl Alcohol as Solvent

10.26434/chemrxiv.7991129 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Charlys Bezerra ◽

Géssica Santos ◽

Marilia Pupo ◽

Maria Gomes ◽

Ronaldo Silva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thermal Decomposition ◽

Polyvinyl Alcohol ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Electrochemical Impedance ◽

Pechini Method ◽

Low Cost ◽

Charge Transfer Resistance ◽

Transfer Resistance ◽

Calcination Temperatures ◽

Service Lifetime

Electrochemical oxidation processes are promising solutions for wastewater treatment due to their high efficiency, easy control and versatility. Mixed metal oxides (MMO) anodes are particularly attractive due to their low cost and specific catalytic properties. Here, we propose an innovative thermal decomposition methodology using <a>polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)</a> as a solvent to prepare Ti/RuO2–IrO2 anodes. Comparative anodes were prepared by conventional method employing a polymeric precursor solvent (Pechini method). The calcination temperatures studied were 300, 400 and 500 °C. The physical characterisation of all materials was performed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy, while electrochemical characterisation was done by cyclic voltammetry, accelerated service lifetime and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Both RuO2 and IrO2 have rutile-type structures for all anodes. Rougher and more compact surfaces are formed for the anodes prepared using PVA. Amongst temperatures studied, 300 °C using PVA as solvent is the most suitable one to produce anodes with expressive increase in voltammetric charge (250%) and accelerated service lifetime (4.3 times longer) besides reducing charge-transfer resistance (8 times lower). Moreover, the electrocatalytic activity of the anodes synthesised with PVA toward the Reactive Blue 21 dye removal in chloride medium (100 % in 30 min) is higher than that prepared by Pechini method (60 min). Additionally, the removal total organic carbon point out improved mineralisation potential of PVA anodes. Finally, this study reports a novel methodology using PVA as solvent to synthesise Ti/RuO2–IrO2 anodes with improved properties that can be further extended to synthesise other MMO compositions.

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