Showing papers by "Xuzhou Institute of Technology published in 2020"

Advances in manganese-based oxides for oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract: Hydrogen production by water electrolysis, characterized by sufficient sources of raw materials, cost-effectiveness, and environment-friendly merits, has attracted increasing attention. Nevertheless, the inherent high reaction energy barrier and four-electron mechanism of anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) result in higher reaction overpotential, slower reaction rate, and more power consumption, affording low hydrogen evolution efficiency in the cathodic half reaction. This considerably limits practical applications. Manganese-based oxides (MnOx) show great promise for driving OER due to their worthwhile intrinsic properties, such as well-controlled morphology, structure, and electronic state. Moreover, a large number of unsaturated edge sites on the surface of MnOx can not only improve the active area to increase the number of active sites, but they also help adsorb OH− in alkaline solutions, thereby facilitating oxygen production. From this perspective, we review the emerging applications of a series of MnOx materials as highly efficient electrocatalysts for OER. By highlighting the reaction mechanisms, superiorities, and challenges of each type of MnOx, we hope to provide guidance for constructing more efficient MnOx electrocatalysts and reveal the bright future for future applications in the highly exciting energy-conversion-related areas.

Determinants of economic growth and environmental sustainability in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation: evidence from panel ARDL

Abstract: Considering the importance of green economic growth and environmental sustainability in the discussion, it is crucial to understand its critical contributing factors and to draw results implications for the green policy. This research used the data of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries for a period from 2005 to 2017. It adopted the panel autoregressive distributed lag technique to examine the hypotheses. The findings revealed that environmental sustainability is strongly and positively associated with national scale-level green practices, including renewable energy, regulatory pressure, and eco-friendly policies, and sustainable use of natural resources. Conversely, in our model, the "regulatory pressure" has an insignificant effect on economic growth. A necessary contribution of the present study is that a positive effect of green practices on national scale economic and environmental variables, particularly in the scenario of SAARC member states, can be noticed. At the end of the present study, we have provided policy implications for regulatory authorities and discussed potential areas for future research.

Determining lump solutions for a combined soliton equation in (2+1)-dimensions

Abstract: We consider a combined soliton equation involving three fourth-order nonlinear terms in (2+1)-dimensional dispersive waves and determine its lump solutions via symbolic computations. The combined equation is transformed into a Hirota bilinear equation under a logarithmic transformation and its lump solutions are computed explicitly in two cases of the coefficients in the model. Illustrative examples are presented, together with three-dimensional plots and contour plots of two specific lump solutions.

VO2·0.2H2O nanocuboids anchored onto graphene sheets as the cathode material for ultrahigh capacity aqueous zinc ion batteries

Abstract: Aqueous Zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs), using zinc negative electrode and aqueous electrolyte, have attracted great attention in energy storage field due to the reliable safety and low-cost. A composite material comprised of VO2·0.2H2O nanocuboids anchored on graphene sheets (VOG) is synthesized through a facile and efficient microwave-assisted solvothermal strategy and is used as aqueous ZIBs cathode material. Owing to the synergistic effects between the high conductivity of graphene sheets and the desirable structural features of VO2·0.2H2O nanocuboids, the VOG electrode has excellent electronic and ionic transport ability, resulting in superior Zn ions storage performance. The Zn/VOG system delivers ultrahigh specific capacity of 423 mAh·g−1 at 0.25 A·g−1 and exhibits good cycling stability of up to 1,000 cycles at 8 A·g−1 with 87% capacity retention. Systematical structural and elemental characterizations confirm that the interlayer space of VO2·0.2H2O nanocuboids can adapt to the reversible Zn ions insertion/extraction. The as-prepared VOG composite is a promising cathode material with remarkable electrochemical performance for low-cost and safe aqueous rechargeable ZIBs.

Kinetic Enhancement of Sulfur Cathodes by N-Doped Porous Graphitic Carbon with Bound VN Nanocrystals

Abstract: The reaction kinetics of sulfur cathodes generally control the performance of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Here, N-doped porous graphitic carbon with bound VN nanocrystals (3D VN@N-PGC), which is synthesized in one pot by heating a mixture of glucose as C source, urea as N source, and NH4 VO3 as V source, is reported to be an superior electrocatalytic cathode host for Li-S batteries. Notably, the VN nanocrystals, strongly bound to the N-PGC network, form via in situ reactions among the thermolytic products of starting materials. The dopant N atoms and bound VN nanocrystals exhibit synergistic electrocatalytic effects to promote the cathode reactions of the Li-S cells. The observed enhancements are supported by density functional theory simulations and by the observation of electrocatalytic N- and V-intermediate species, via X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy. Li-S cells assembled using 3D VN@N-PGC as cathode host exhibit superior performance in terms of specific capacity (1442 mA h g-1 at 0.1 C), rate capability (641 mA h g-1 at 4 C), and cycle life (466 mA h g-1 after 1700 cycles at 2 C, corresponding to a capacity decay of 0.020% per cycle). The one-pot methodology is facile and scalable and offers a new approach for synthesis of various metal nitride-containing materials for other electrocatalytic applications.

Atomic-Layer-Deposited Amorphous MoS2 for Durable and Flexible Li–O2 Batteries

Abstract: Ming Song, Hua Tan, Xianglin Li, Alfred Iing Yoong Tok, Pei Liang, Dongliang Chao, and Hong Jin Fan

Remarkable Near-Infrared Electrochromism in Tungsten Oxide Driven by Interlayer Water-Induced Battery-to-Pseudocapacitor Transition.

Abstract: Near-infrared (NIR) electrochromism is of academic and technological interest for a variety of applications in advanced solar heat regulation, photodynamic therapy, optical telecommunications, and military camouflage However, inorganic materials with outstanding NIR modulation capability are quite few Herein, we propose a promising strategy for achieving strong NIR electrochromism in tungsten oxide that is closely related to its electrochemical transformation from battery-type behavior to pseudocapacitance, induced by introducing an interlayer space with water molecules within tungsten oxide Further evidence demonstrates that the interlayer water molecules significantly reduced the energy barrier to ion diffusion and increased the ion flux in tungsten oxide As a result, compared with anhydrous WO3, the as-synthesized WO3·2H2O nanoplates exhibited remarkably improved NIR electrochromic properties, including a large transmittance modulation (904%), high coloration efficiency (3226 cm2 C-1), and high cyclic stability (maintaining 937% after 500 cycles), which were comparable to those of the best reported NIR electrochromic materials Moreover, the application of the WO3·2H2O nanoplate-based electrochromic device resulted in a temperature difference of 119 °C, indicating good solar thermal regulation ability

Quorum sensing inhibition and tobramycin acceleration in Chromobacterium violaceum by two natural cinnamic acid derivatives.

Abstract: Chromobacterium violaceum, one free-living Gram-negative bacterium, is abundantly presented in tropics and sub-tropics soil and aquatic environment; it is also an opportunistic human pathogen. Here, two cinnamic acid derivatives, i.e., 4-dimethylaminocinnamic acid (DCA) and 4-methoxycinnamic acid (MCA), were identified as potential quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm inhibitors in C. violaceum ATCC12472. Both DCA (100 μg/mL) and MCA (200 μg/mL) inhibited the levels of N-decanoyl-homoserine lactone (C10-HSL) and reduced the production of certain virulence factors in C. violaceum, including violacein, hemolysin, and chitinase. Metabolomics analysis indicated that QS-related metabolites, such as ethanolamine and L-methionine, were down-regulated after treatment with DCA and MCA. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) demonstrated that DCA and MCA markedly suppressed the expression of two QS-related genes (cviI and cviR). In addition, DCA and MCA also inhibited biofilm formation and enhanced the susceptibility of biofilms to tobramycin, which was evidenced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Our results indicated that DCA and MCA can serve as QS-based agent for controlling pathogens.Key Points • DCA and MCA inhibited QS and biofilm formation in C. violaceum.• The combination of DCA or MCA and tobramycin removed the preformed biofilm of C. violaceum. • DCA or MCA inhibited virulence factors and expressions of cviI and cviR of C. violaceum.• DCA or MCA are potential antibiotic accelerants for treating C. violaceum infection.

ADRL: An attention-based deep reinforcement learning framework for knowledge graph reasoning

Abstract: Knowledge graph reasoning is one of the key technologies for knowledge graph construction, which plays an important part in application scenarios such as vertical search and intelligent question answering. It is intended to infer the desired entity from the entities and relations that already exist in the knowledge graph. Most current methods for reasoning, such as embedding-based methods, globally embed all entities and relations, and then use the similarity of vectors to infer relations between entities or whether given triples are true. However, in real application scenarios, we require a clear and interpretable target entity as the output answer. In this paper, we propose a novel attention-based deep reinforcement learning framework (ADRL) for learning multi-hop relational paths, which improves the efficiency, generalization capacity, and interpretability of conventional approaches through the structured perception of deep learning and relational reasoning of reinforcement learning. We define the entire process of reasoning as a Markov decision process. First, we employ CNN to map the knowledge graph to a low-dimensional space, and a message-passing mechanism to sense neighbor entities at each level, and then employ LSTM to memorize and generate a sequence of historical trajectories to form a policy and value functions. We design a relational module that includes a self-attention mechanism that can infer and share the weights of neighborhood entity vectors and relation vectors. Finally, we employ the actor–critic algorithm to optimize the entire framework. Experiments confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of our method on several benchmark data sets.

Copper-Catalyzed Borylative Couplings with C-N Electrophiles.

Abstract: Copper-catalyzed borylative multicomponent reactions (MCRs) involving olefins and C-N electrophiles are a powerful tool to rapidly build up molecular complexity. The products from these reactions contain multiple functionalities, such as amino, cyano and boronate groups, that are ubiquitous in medicinal and process chemistry programs. Copper-catalyzed MCRs are particularly attractive because they use a relatively abundant and non-toxic catalyst to selectively deliver high-value products from simple feedstocks such as olefins. In this Minireview, we explore this rapidly emerging field and survey the borylative union of allenes, dienes, styrenes and other olefins, with imines, nitriles and related C-N electrophiles.

Psychological Driving Mechanism of Safety Citizenship Behaviors of Construction Workers: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Norm Activation Model

Abstract: Researchers and practitioners are focusing greater attention on safety citizenship behavior (SCB), an important factor in preventing injuries and improving workplace safety conditions; howe...

Determinants of Consumers Purchase Attitude and Intention Toward Green Hotel Selection

Abstract: Prior studies have mostly investigated the relationships of the impact of consumers’ attitudinal characteristics on their green purchase attitude (GPA) and green purchase intention (GPI). The findi...

The Genome of the Medicinal Macrofungus Sanghuang Provides Insights Into the Synthesis of Diverse Secondary Metabolites.

Abstract: The mushroom, Sanghuang is widely used in Asian countries. This medicinal fungus produces diverse bioactive compounds and possesses a potent ability to degrade the wood of the mulberry tree. However, the genes, pathways, and mechanisms that are involved in the biosynthesis of the active compounds and wood degradation by Sanghuang mushroom are still unknown. Here, we report a 34.5 Mb genome-encoding 11,310 predicted genes-of this mushroom. About 16.88% (1909) of the predicted genes have been successfully classified as EuKaryotic Orthologous Groups, and approximately 27.23% (665) of these genes are involved in metabolism. Additionally, a total of 334 genes encoding CAZymes-and their characteristics-were compared with those of the other fungi. Homologous genes involved in triterpenoid, polysaccharide, and flavonoid biosynthesis were identified, and their expression was examined during four developmental stages, 10 and 20 days old mycelia, 1 year old and 3 years old fruiting bodies. Importantly, the lack of chalcone isomerase 1 in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway suggested that different mechanisms were used in this mushroom to synthesize flavonoids than those used in plants. In addition, 343 transporters and 4 velvet family proteins, involved in regulation, uptake, and redistribution of secondary metabolites, were identified. Genomic analysis of this fungus provides insights into its diverse secondary metabolites, which would be beneficial for the investigation of the medical applications of these pharmacological compounds in the future.

Covalent-organic frameworks (COFs)-based membranes for CO2 separation

Abstract: Membrane technology has evolved as an alternative candidate for CO2 separation due to their inherent attributes, such as high energy efficiency, small capital investment, and environmentally benign characteristics. The key point of developing advanced membranes with satisfied performance is to find the balance between selectivity and permeability. Recently, advanced porous open framework materials, especially covalent organic frameworks (COFs), have attracted much attentions in academia and industry due to their high porosity, large surface area and regular pore size. Moreover, their adjustable pore size, diversify topological structure and sieving capacity further endowed them with unprecedented opportunities for efficient CO2 separation. This mini-review concluded and discussed the fabrication strategies as well as CO2 separation properties of COFs-based membranes in the past five years (from 2014 to present). The opportunities and challenges in the related fields are also summarized.