Construction Recovery along with Recycling from the Used LiCoO2 Cathode Material

The shuttling of Na+ ions through the Na3Zr2Si2PO12 SSE sustains the ionic charge balance between the two electrodes. The Zn-TEMPO nonaqueous cell with a stable energy density of ca. 12-18 Wh L-1 over 50 cycles was demonstrated.Most current flame-retardant nanocoatings for flexible polyurethane foam (PUF) consist of passive barriers, such as clay, graphene oxide, or metal hydroxide. In an effort to develop a polymeric and environmentally benign nanocoating for PUF, positively charged chitosan (CH) and anionic sodium hexametaphosphate (PSP) were deposited using layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly. Only six bilayers of CH/PSP film can withstand flame penetration during exposure to a butane torch (∼1400 °C) for 10 s and stop flame spread on the foam. Additionally, cone calorimetry reveals that the fire growth rate, peak heat release rate, and maximum average rate of heat emission are reduced by 55, 43, and 38%, respectively, compared with uncoated foam. This multilayer thin film quickly dehydrates to form an intumescent charred exoskeleton on the surface of the open-celled structure of polyurethane, inhibiting heat transfer and completely eliminating melt dripping. This entirely polymeric nanocoating provides a safe and effective alternative for reducing the fire hazard of polyurethane foam that is widely used for cushioning and insulation.Macrophages play essential roles in innate immunity and their functions can be activated by different signals at pathological sites. Concerning changes in the rigidity of the microenvironment as a disease progresses, the influence of stiffened substrates on macrophage physiology remains elusive. In this study, to evaluate the effect of stiffened substrates on macrophages, we used J774A.1 cells as the macrophage model to investigate its mechanoinflammation responses using engineered polymeric substrates with various physiological rigidities (approximately 0.6 to 100 kPa). Under lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) stress, approximately 4-fold higher cytoplasmic reactive oxygen species (ROS) were triggered in cells on the softer substrate, compared with cells on the stiff substrates. The enhanced ROS response was found to be regulated mainly by NADPH oxidase. Moreover, mitochondrial ROS (mtROS), a crucial intracellular ROS source, are produced in response to substrate rigidity. The results macrophages influenced by substrate rigidity but may also support the manipulation of the inflammatory responses of macrophages via physical microenvironment modifications.Point-of-care testing for nucleic acid that combines amplification and readout is in great demand. This report integrates recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) with the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas12a system in a centrifugal microfluidic point-of-care test. We overcome the difficulty in the integration of these two processes, which mainly lies in the fact that Cas12a can digest the template DNA. We further integrate all reagents into the centrifugal microfluidics to automate the entire process. The Cas12a-assisted straightforward microfluidic equipment for analysis of nucleic acid (CASMEAN) enables us to rapidly and conveniently detect nucleic acid within 1.5 h. An application for detecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa confirms the excellent compatibility between RAA and the Cas12a system, which ensures the superior performance of CASMEAN, such as capabilities of point-of-care detection, high sensitivity, and high specificity. CASMEAN is a genetic detection platform with great potential.Carbonylation of nitroaromatics with CO is extensively investigated with efficient but precious group 8-10 metal-based catalysts for the productions of both industrially and academically important chemicals such as isocyanates, formamides, carbamates, ureas and several types of heterocyclic compounds. Herein, we report that rationally designed nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) exhibit catalytic activity toward CO activation for carbonylation of nitroaromatics to benzimidazolinones and ureas. read more Under the optimal conditions, N-CNT-promoted intramolecular carbonylation of 2-nitroaniline (1a) with CO leads to formation of 1,3-dihydro-2H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-one in 90% yield. Moreover, an intermolecular carbonylation of nitrobenzene and aniline with CO in the presence of the N-CNT gives 70% yield of N,N'-diphenylurea. The N-CNT is also applicable to various benzimidazolinones and phenyl ureas; moreover, it can be readily reused at least 9 times for the carbonylation. The theoretical investigation based on density functional theory calculations indicates that the graphitic N of the N-CNT plays a crucial step in the 1a reduction with CO. The correlation between the structural defect and catalytic performance of the N-CNT reveals an enhanced catalytic activity of the N-CNT with its increased structural defects. This research thus represents a major breakthrough in CO activation for nitroaromatic carbonylation with environmental-friendly, low-cost, and carbon-based catalysts as a potential alternative to expensive and scarce noble-metal-based catalysts.Perovskite light-emitting diodes have been gaining attention in recent years due to their high efficiencies. Despite of the recent progress made in device efficiency, the operation mechanisms of these devices are still not well understood, especially the effects of ion migration. In this work, the role of ion migration is investigated by measuring the transient electroluminescence and current responses, with both the current and efficiency showing a slow response in a time scale of tens of milliseconds. The results of the charge injection dynamics show that the slow response of the current is attributed to the migration and accumulation of halide ions at the anode interface, facilitating hole injection and leading to a strong charge imbalance. Further, the results of the charge recombination dynamics show that the slow response of the efficiency is attributed to enhanced charge injection facilitated by ion migration, which leads to an increased carrier density favoring bimolecular radiative recombination. Through a combined analysis of both charge injection and recombination dynamics, we finally present a comprehensive picture of the role of ion migration in device operation.Support-free nonporous membranes have emerged as a new material platform for osmotic pressure-driven processes due to its insusceptibility to internal concentration polarization (ICP). Herein, we demonstrate high-performance membranes of zwitterionic hydrogels impregnated in porous membranes with a skin layer of highly cross-linked polyamides on both sides prepared by gel-liquid interfacial polymerization (GLIP). Such a configuration eliminates the pores and thus ICP, while the thin polyamide layer provides high salt rejection but negligible resistance to the water transport compared with the hydrogels. The polyamide skin layers are characterized using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The effect of the hydrogel compositions and polyamide formation conditions on the water/salt separation properties is thoroughly investigated. Example membranes show water permeance and salt rejection comparable to state-of-the-art commercial forward osmosis membranes and essentially no ICP.Lead-free perovskite CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) dielectrics are extremely important candidates for capacitor-varistor dual-function materials. However, their overall success in applications is somewhat controlled by the longstanding issues such as relatively large dielectric loss and insufficiently high electric breakdown field. Herein, we report the success in the preparation of an optimized lead-free (1-x)CaCu3Ti4O12-xSrTiO3 (CCTO-STO) composite system with improved dielectric and nonlinear properties via interface engineering. Interestingly, looking closer at the grain boundaries using transmission electron microscopy, it is found that an obvious interface region with a transition layer of a wrinkled structure is formed between the CCTO matrix phase and STO dopant phase. Significantly, all the composite ceramic samples present high permittivity in the order of about 103 to 104, and the 0.9CCTO-0.1STO composite ceramic sample exhibits a lower dielectric loss of about 0.068 at room temperature and at 1 kHz. Exciting lead-free dielectric materials as well.A critical step in tissue engineering is the design and synthesis of 3D biocompatible matrices (scaffolds) to support and guide the proliferation of cells and tissue growth. The most existing techniques rely on the processing of scaffolds under controlled conditions and then implanting them in vivo, with questions related to biocompatibility and implantation that are still challenging. As an alternative, it was proposed to assemble the scaffolds in loco through the self-organization of colloidal particles mediated by cells. To overcome the difficulty to test experimentally all the relevant parameters, we propose the use of large-scale numerical simulation as a tool to reach useful predictive information and to interpret experimental results. Thus, in this study, we combine experiments, particle-based simulations, and mean-field calculations to show that, in general, the size of the self-assembled scaffold scales with the cell-to-particle ratio. However, we have found an optimal value of this ratio, for which the size of the scaffold is maximal when the cell-cell adhesion is suppressed. These results suggest that the size and structure of the self-assembled scaffolds may be designed by tuning the adhesion between cells in the colloidal suspension.Scaffolds with a biomimetic hierarchy micro/nanoscale pores play an important role in bone tissue regeneration. In this study, multilevel porous calcium phosphate (CaP) bioceramic orthopedic implants were constructed to mimic the micro/nanostructural hierarchy in natural wood. The biomimetic hierarchical porous scaffolds were fabricated by combining three-dimensional (3D) printing technology and hydrothermal treatment. The first-level macropores (∼100-600 μm) for promoting bone tissue ingrowth were precisely designed using a set of 3D printing parameters. The second-level micro/nanoscale pores (∼100-10,000 nm) in the scaffolds were obtained by hydrothermal treatment to promote nutrient/metabolite transportation. Micro- and nanoscale-sized pores in the scaffolds were recognized as in situ formation of whiskers, where the shape, diameter, and length of whiskers were modulated by adjusting the components of calcium phosphate ceramics and hydrothermal treatment parameters. These biomimetic natural wood-like hierarchical structured scaffolds demonstrated unique physical and biological properties. Hydrophilicity and the protein adsorption rate were characterized in these scaffolds. In vitro studies have identified micro/nanowhisker coating as potent modulators of cellular behavior through the onset of focal adhesion formation. In addition, histological results indicate that biomimetic scaffolds with porous natural wood hierarchical pores exhibited good osteoinductive activity. In conclusion, these findings combined suggested that micro/nanowhisker coating is a critical factor to modulate cellular behavior and osteoinductive activity.