Southwest University of Science and Technology

About: Southwest University of Science and Technology is a education organization based out in Mianyang, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Adsorption & Graphene. The organization has 10017 authors who have published 8923 publications receiving 94850 citations. The organization is also known as: Xīnán Kējìdàxué.

Needle-like Co3O4 anchored on the graphene with enhanced electrochemical performance for aqueous supercapacitors.

Abstract: We synthesized the needle-like cobalt oxide/graphene composites with different mass ratios, which are composed of cobalt oxide (Co3O4 or CoO) needle homogeneously anchored on graphene nanosheets as the template, by a facile hydrothermal method. Without the graphene as the template, the cobalt precursor tends to group into urchin-like spheres formed by many fine needles. When used as electrode materials of aqueous supercapacitor, the composites of the needle-like Co3O4/graphene (the mass ratio of graphene oxide(GO) and Co(NO3)2·6H2O is 1:5) exhibit a high specific capacitance of 157.7 F g–1 at a current density of 0.1 A g–1 in 2 mol L–1 KOH aqueous solution as well as good rate capability. Meanwhile, the capacitance retention keeps about 70% of the initial value after 4000 cycles at a current density of 0.2 A g–1. The enhancement of excellent electrochemical performances may be attributed to the synergistic effect of graphene and cobalt oxide components in the unique multiscale structure of the composites.

Electronic Structure Reconfiguration toward Pyrite NiS2 via Engineered Heteroatom Defect Boosting Overall Water Splitting

Abstract: Developing highly active and low-cost heterogeneous catalysts toward overall electrochemical water splitting is extremely desirable but still a challenge. Herein, we report pyrite NiS2 nanosheets doped with vanadium heteroatoms as bifunctional electrode materials for both hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution reaction (HER and OER). Notably, the electronic structure reconfiguration of pyrite NiS2 is observed from typical semiconductive characteristics to metallic characteristics by engineering vanadium (V) displacement defect, which is confirmed by both experimental temperature-dependent resistivity and theoretical density functional theory calculations. Furthermore, elaborate X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements reveal that electronic structure reconfiguration of NiS2 is rooted in electron transfer from doped V to Ni sites, consequently enabling Ni sites to gain more electrons. The metallic V-doped NiS2 nanosheets exhibit extraordinary electrocatalytic performance with overpotentials of about 290 mV for O...

Causes and consequences of eastern Australia's 2019-20 season of mega-fires.

Abstract: The 2019-20 fire season in eastern Australia is attracting considerable national and international attention. At the time of writing c. 3.8 million ha of mainly temperate forest have burnt in the state of New South Wales (NSW; NSW Rural Fire Service, 29/12/2019; Fig. 1a). Major blazes are also occurring in other states, including over 0.5 million ha in the state of Victoria (situated on the southern border of NSW).

Efficient Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting Induced by the Giant Internal Electric Field of a g‐C 3 N 4 /rGO/PDIP Z‐Scheme Heterojunction

Abstract: A graphitic carbon nitride/rGO/perylene diimide polymer (g-C3 N4 /rGO/PDIP) Z-scheme heterojunction is successfully constructed to realize high-flux charge transfer and efficient photocatalytic overall water splitting. A giant internal electric field in the Z-scheme junction is built, enabling the charge separation efficiency to be enhanced dramatically by 8.5 times. Thus, g-C3 N4 /rGO/PDIP presents an efficient and stable photocatalytic overall water splitting activity with H2 and O2 evolution rate of 15.80 and 7.80 µmol h-1 , respectively, ≈12.1 times higher than g-C3 N4 nanosheets. Meanwhile, a notable quantum efficiency of 4.94% at 420 nm and solar-to-hydrogen energy-conversion efficiency of 0.30% are achieved, prominently surpassing many reported g-C3 N4 -based photocatalysts. Briefly, this work throws light on enhancing the internal electric field by interface control to dramatically improve the photocatalytic performance.

High-Performance N2-to-NH3 Conversion Electrocatalyzed by Mo2C Nanorod.

Abstract: The synthesis of NH3 is mainly dominated by the traditional energy-consuming Haber–Bosch process with a mass of CO2 emission. Electrochemical conversion of N2 to NH3 emerges as a carbon-free process for the sustainable artificial N2 reduction reaction (NRR), but requires an efficient and stable electrocatalyst. Here, we report that the Mo2C nanorod serves as an excellent NRR electrocatalyst for artificial N2 fixation to NH3 with strong durability and acceptable selectivity under ambient conditions. Such a catalyst shows a high Faradaic efficiency of 8.13% and NH3 yield of 95.1 μg h–1 mg–1cat at −0.3 V in 0.1 M HCl, surpassing the majority of reported electrochemical conversion NRR catalysts. Density functional theory calculation was carried out to gain further insight into the catalytic mechanism involved.