Search

Robust, conductive and flexible electrode materials have been the focus of attention in portable, wearable electronics. However, it is still a significant challenge to achieve synergistic development of multiple properties simultaneously. Herein, we propose a combination of microscale design and nanostructures strategy to prepare MXene/cellulose nanofiber-poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiphoenes):polystyrene sulfonate (Ti 3 C 2 T x /CNF-PEDOT:PSS, TC-P) hybrid film by a simple in-situ polymerization and vacuum filtration process. CNF serves as the supporting skeleton of PEDOT:PSS, effectively mitigating its self-aggregation and structural deformation due to the expansion/contraction of the polymer network. And the CNF-PEDOT:PSS composite is capable to open up the interlayer space of Ti 3 C 2 T x , which reduces the self-stacking of Ti 3 C 2 T x nanosheets. The strong interactions among the three components enable the hybrid film electrode to possess both flexibility and high electrochemical properties. As a result, the film electrode exhibits a remarkable tensile strength of 77.4 MPa and an excellent conductivity of 162.5 S cm -1 , as well as an outstanding areal specific capacitance of 896 mF cm -2 at 4 mA cm -2 . Moreover, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor (SSC) device displays a large areal energy density of 62 µWh cm -2 at a power density of 800 µW cm -2 and demonstrates a long cycle life with 85.1 % capacitance retention after 10,000 GCD cycles. This study provides an effective strategy to balance mechanical flexibility and electrochemical properties, providing an inspiration to prepare flexible electrodes that are widely applied in a new generation of portable, wearable electronics., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The green synthesis strategy for cellulose-containing hydrogel electrolytes is significant for effectively managing resources, energy, and environmental concerns in the contemporary world. Herein, we propose an all-green strategy using AlCl 3 /ZnCl 2 /H 2 O solvent to create cellulose/polyacrylamide-based hydrogel (AZ-Cel/PAM) with expanded hierarchical topologies. The aqueous AlCl 3 /ZnCl 2 facilitates the efficient dissolution of cellulose at room temperature, and the dispersed Al 3+ -Zn 2+ ions autocatalytic system catalyzes in-situ polymerization of acrylamide (AM) monomer. This expands the AM network within the cellulose framework, forming multiple bonding interactions and stable ion channels. The resulting hybrid hydrogel exhibits improved mechanical properties (tensile strength of 56.54 kPa and compressive strength of 359.43 kPa) and enhanced ionic conductivity (1.99 S/m). Furthermore, it also demonstrates excellent adhesion, freeze resistance (-45 °C), and water retention capabilities. Quantum simulations further clarify the mechanical composition and ion transport mechanism of AZ-Cel/PAM hydrogels. The assembled supercapacitor with the hydrogel electrolyte, demonstrates an ideal area-specific capacitance of 203.80 mF/cm 2 . This all-green strategy presents a novel approach to developing sustainable energy storage devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The production of hydrogen through seawater electrolysis has recently garnered increasing concern. However, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by alkaline seawater electrocatalysis is severely impeded by the slow H 2 O adsorption and H* binding kinetics at industrial current densities. Herein, a face-centered cubic/hexagonal close packed (fcc/hcp) NiRu alloy heterojunction was fabricated on Ni foam (N doped NiRu-inf/NF) by a low-temperature nitrogen plasma activation. Simultaneously, nitrogen atoms are introduced into the alloy to facilitate d-p hybridization. When N doped NiRu-inf/NF is integrated into a dual-electrode cell for urea-assisted seawater electrolysis, it achieves 100 mA cm -2 with an ultra-low voltage of 1.36 V and excellent stability. Density functional theory (DFT) verifies that the robust d-p hybridization among Ni, Ru and N exhibits more energy level matching for H 2 O molecule adsorption at the Ru sites, while simultaneously reducing the interaction between H* and Ni sites in N-doped NiRu-inf., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Hypothesis: Nonpolar solvents with added charge control agents are widely used in various applications, such as E-paper displays. In spite of previous work, the mechanisms governing charge generation in nonpolar liquids, particularly those induced by electrochemical reactions at the liquid-solid interface, are not completely understood. We hypothesize that a physics-based model, according to the modified Butler-Volmer equation, can be used to quantitatively predict the injection of charges and the corresponding currents, in nonpolar solvents with surfactants., Simulation and Experiments: We propose a model to describe the migration and charge generation of inverse micelles. In addition to the mechanisms of electromigration, diffusion and charge generation via disproportionation that were introduced in earlier models, we include charge generation via electron injection at the electrodes using a microscopically justified expression as opposed to the previously used semi-empirical approaches. To validate our model, we compare its results to experimental current measurements in a simplified, effectively 1D, geometry., Findings: We find that the incorporation of both bulk and electrochemical reaction mechanisms in the model can effectively explain the experimental steady-state currents in a wide range of concentrations, voltages (0.5 V-5 V), and cell thicknesses. These numerical results of currents at longer time scales show a steady-state current only when both bulk and electrochemical reactions are taken into account. Moreover, we have observed in our simulation that at low applied voltages, the electric field in the bulk is fully shielded, and the steady-state current in this low-voltage regime is governed by the charge injection at the electrodes. Conversely, when the voltage is high enough and the electric field remains partially unscreened, the bulk disproportionation mechanism dominates the current generation. This also explains why we observe a non-Ohmic behavior where the steady-state currents at high voltages are independent of applied voltage. Hence, by elucidating the physical processes underlying the experimental observations, our model offers a more profound comprehension of charge transport in these systems, which could facilitate advancements in the design of enhanced E-ink displays and smart windows., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation technology has important application value in treating emerging contaminant (ECs), but it still faces challenges in achieving efficient electron transfer and metal valence cycling. In this study, the interfacial electric field characteristics of FeNC catalysts were adjusted by introducing NC defects to affect the electron transfer process, thereby enhancing the catalytic performance of PMS. It is found that in the FeNC structure, the shift of the charge generates an interfacial electric field, which can promote the directional transfer of electrons. Through quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis, it was confirmed that the defect played a decisive role in regulating the interfacial electric field and improving the catalytic reaction efficiency. The interfacial electric field-mediated superexchange interaction realizes the electron donor effect of organic pollutants and the effective electron transfer between the Fe site, accelerates the electron cycling of the Fe site, and realizes the rapid and stable catalysis of PMS. The increase of the occupancy state distribution of d orbitals near the Fermi level provides favorable conditions for electron transitions and catalytic activation of PMS. ECs can be converted into environmentally friendly, non-toxic and harmless substances through. This defect-controlled interface electric field strategy realizes rapid electron directional transfer, which provides a new solution for improving the catalytic efficiency of PMS and the safe treatment of ECs in water., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Corrosion of steel in the marine environment greatly reduces their service life. Polymeric coatings are the most popular anticorrosion technology, but seawater penetration cannot be prohibited because of the distinct stacking structure of the macromolecular chains. In this context, a novel anticorrosive hyperbranched polyurethane-based coating with dopamine (DOPA) at the terminals is prepared herein. The built-in DOPA is able to capture the iron ions released from the corroded substrate and form DOPA-Fe 3+ complexation, which further cooperates with the surrounding seawater and imparts self-passivation, self-delivery and self-healing capabilities to the coating. Under the joint action of these measures, the corrosion of tinplate (serving as the steel model) is reduced to a record-low level (corrosion current = 1 × 10 -9  A cm -2 , corrosion rate = 1 × 10 -5  mm year -1 ). Conceptually, the present dynamic active anticorrosion strategy greatly outperforms the traditional static passive approach, and turns the unfavorable but unavoidable seawater into a favorable factor, which paves the way for the development of long-lasting marine coatings., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) photocatalysis has emerged as a clean method for cleaving lignin-linked bonds due to its mild and sunlight-driven reaction conditions. The fast electron-hole pair complex of g-C 3 N 4 constrains its degradation efficiency, making the heterojunction construction a popular solution. The conventional methods of preparing g-C 3 N 4 heterojunctions by physical mixing destroy π-conjugations in g-C 3 N 4 , reducing the adsorption of lignin containing benzene rings. In this study, a novel indium oxide (In 2 O 3 ) quantum dot-g-C 3 N 4 0D/2D heterojunction was prepared through the high-temperature oxidation of pre-prepared indium-doped g-C 3 N 4 . The introduction of In 2 O 3 at the quantum dot level minimizes the interference with lignin adsorption capacity. The strong combination of the two (In 2 O 3 and g-C 3 N 4 ) increases the intersection interface area, promoting the S-scheme transfer route of the photogenerated electrons. Consequently, this enhances the photoelectric conversion efficiency and carrier lifetime of the heterojunction, and inhibits the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs in g-C 3 N 4 . The proposed heterojunction was 3 times more efficient than g-C 3 N 4 alone for selective cleavage of lignin β-O-4 bonds after 2 h of sunlight irradiation. Combined with inhibitor experiments and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, this paper defines the reactive oxides and proposes a cleavage pathway for the lignin β-O-4 bonds in In 2 O 3 -g-C 3 N 4 heterojunction system., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Hypothesis: Electronic paper displays rely on electrokinetic effects in nonpolar solvents to drive the displacement of colloidal particles within a fluidic cell. While Electrophoresis (EP) is a well-established and frequently employed phenomenon, electro-osmosis (EO), which drives fluid flow along charged solid surfaces, has not been studied as extensively. We hypothesize that by exploiting the interplay between these effects, an enhanced particle transport can be achieved., Experiments: In this study, we experimentally investigate the combined effects of EP and EO for colloidal particles in non-polar solvents, driven by an electric field. We use astigmatism micro-particle tracking velocimetry (A-μPTV) to measure the motion of charged particles within model fluidic cells. Using a simple approach that relies on basic fluid flow properties we extract the contributions due to EP and EO, finding that EO contributes significantly to particle transport. The validity of our approach is confirmed by measurements on particles with different magnitudes of charge, and by comparison to numerical simulations., Findings: We find that EO flows can play a dominant role in the transport of particles in electrokinetic display devices. This can be exploited to speed up particle transport, potentially yielding displays with significantly faster switching times., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Affinity and storage capacity for zinc ions of the electrode materials are crucial factors on the properties of zinc ion hybrid capacitors (ZHICs). Wasted pulping liquor with abundant carbohydrates, lignin and inorganic matter served as a unique precursor to produce embedded oxygen-doped hierarchical porous carbon directly through a one-step carbonization process in this investigation. In carbonization process, lignin can serve effectively as the carbon framework, carbohydrates not only act as sacrificial templates but also offer a plentiful oxygen source which can increase the affinity for Zn 2+ , and sodium-containing inorganic substances plays a role as hard templates to optimize the pore structure. The resulting porous carbon under carbonization temperature of 800 °C shows a high specifical area of 2186 m 2 g -1 with oxygen content of 4.8 %, which can reduce the adsorption energy of Zn 2+ from -0.16 eV to -0.32 eV through electrochemical techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the incorporation of oxygen was demonstrated to enhance the adsorption and desorption kinetics of Zn 2+ , suggesting a bright future for application in the domain of energy storage. The resulting ZIHC assembly showcases a notable energy density of 84.6 Wh kg -1 at a power density of 359 W kg -1 . Remarkably, even after 10,000 charge and discharge cycles, it exhibits exceptional cycle stability with retaining 86.56 % of its capacity. Consequently, this approach provides fresh insights for exploring the facile and commercial fabrication of biomass-derived cathodes for ZIHCs, thereby propelling the progress of eco-friendly energy storage devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The scarcity of freshwater resources and increasing demand for drinking water have driven the development of durable and sustainable desalination technologies. Although MXene composites have shown promise due to their excellent photothermal conversion and high thermal conductivity, their high hydrophilicity often leads to salt precipitation and low durability. In this study, we present a novel Cellulose (CF)/MXene paper with a Janus hydrophobic/hydrophilic configuration for long-term and efficient solar-driven desalination. The paper features a dual-layer structure, with the upper hydrophobic layer composed of CF/MXene paper exhibiting convexness to serve as a photothermal layer with exceptional salt rejection properties. Simultaneously, the bottom porous layer made of CF acts as an efficient thermal insulation. This unique design effectively minimizes heat loss and facilitates efficient water transportation. The Janus CF/MXene paper demonstrates a high evaporation rate of 1.11 kg m -2 h -1 and solar thermal conversion efficiency of 82.52 % under 1 sun irradiation. Importantly, even after 2500 h of operation in a simulated seawater environment, the paper maintains a stable evaporation rate without significant salt deposition and biodegradation due to an antibacterial rate exceeding 90 %. These findings highlight the potential of the Janus CF/MXene paper for scalable manufacturing and practical applications in solar-driven desalination., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Ti-based Metal-organic frameworks (Ti-MOF) have been extensively investigated for producing hydrogen via solar water splitting, while their intrinsic activities are still retarded by the poor performance of photocarriers separation and utilization. Herein, a donor-acceptor (D-A) supramolecular photocatalyst is successfully constructed via encapsulating fullerene (C 60 ) into MIL-125-NH 2 and meanwhile depositing individual Pt atoms as cocatalyst. The as-prepared C 60 @MIL-125-NH 2 -Pt exhibits remarkable activity in photocatalytic water splitting, with a H 2 formation rate of 1180 μmol g -1 h -1 , which is ∼ 12 times higher than that of the pristine MIL-125-NH 2 . Further investigations indicate that the host-guest interactions between C 60 and MIL-125-NH 2 strengthen the built-in electric field, which greatly facilitates the separation and migration of photogenerated charge carriers. In addition, the cocatalyst of individual Pt atoms not only further promotes the separation and transport of carriers but also enhances the contact between water and the catalyst. All of these factors directly contribute to the superior activity of C 60 @MIL-125-NH 2 -Pt. This work provides a new perspective for constructing D-A supramolecular photocatalysts for enhanced charge separation and making full use of photoelectrons to realize efficient hydrogen production., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Iron-nitrogen co-doped carbon materials as heterogeneous catalysts have attracted much attention in advanced oxidation processes involving peroxymonosulfate (PMS) due to their unique structure and enormous catalytic potential. However, there is limited research on the influence of different coordination structures on the central iron atoms. Through simple pyrolysis, we introduced oxygen atoms into the Fe-N coordination structure, constructing Fe-N/O@C catalysts with Fe-N 2 O 2 coordination structure, and achieved efficient degradation of bisphenol A (BPA). Quenching experiments, electron paramagnetic resonance, and electrochemical analysis indicate that compared to the free radical activation pathway of Fe-N@C, high-valent iron-oxo species (≡Fe(Ⅳ) = O) are the main reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the Fe-N/O@C/PMS system. Meanwhile, we compared the differences in the oxidation states of Fe atoms and electron density in different coordination structures, revealing the formation of high-valent iron-oxo species and the mechanism of interfacial electron transfer. Therefore, this study provides new insights into the design and development of Fe-N co-doped catalysts for resource-efficient and environmentally friendly catalytic oxidation systems., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with controlled porosity, high crystallinity, diverse designability and excellent stability are very attractive in metal-free heterogeneous photocatalysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) degradation. In order to construct the high optimal performance COFs under feasible and universal conditions, herein, the visible light-driven hollow COF TAPB-PDA (H-COF TAPB-PDA ) microcapsule was designed by a facile dual-ligand regulated sacrificial template method. The H-COF TAPB-PDA microcapsule possesses improved surface area, high crystallinity, broad absorption range and high stability, which enables enhanced substrates and visible light adsorption, photogenerated electrons-holes separation and transfer, and facilitate the generation of reactive radicals. Importantly, it was found to be a highly efficient photocatalyst for toluene degradation under visible-light irradiation compared with the solid COF TAPB-PDA , and the degradation efficiency of toluene reached 91.8 % within 180 min with the conversion rate of CO 2 was 68.9 %. Additionally, the H-COF TAPB-PDA presented good recyclability and long-term stability after multiple photocatalytic reuses. Furthermore, the active sites of H-COF TAPB-PDA in photocatalytic degradation of toluene was proposed by XPS and DFT calculations, and the degradation pathway and mechanism was proposed and analyzed. The result presented great prospect of morphologic design of hollow COFs in metal-free heterogeneous photocatalysis for VOCs degradation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Thermosensitive hydrogels have found extensive applications in soft devices, but they often suffer from limited functionalities, low response rate and small response amplitude. In this work, double layered asymmetrical hydrogels composed of a thermosensitive layer and a non-thermosensitive layer are developed to simultaneously achieve high-performance mechanosensing and actuating properties in a single hydrogel. In thermosensitive layer, thermosensitive microgels are introduced to construct hierarchical structure, which accounts for the enhanced thermosensitive behaviors by cooperative responsiveness. In non-thermosensitive layer, poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (P(AM-co-AA)) hydrogel is constructed. KCl is introduced as conductive component. Mechanosensors for monitoring various mechanical stimuli in daily life have been fabricated utilizing such hydrogels and high gauge factors (GF) have been achieved, 0.38 for resistive strain sensors, 9.40 kPa -1 for piezoresistive pressure sensors and 3.92 kPa -1 for capacitive pressure sensors. Because of the asymmetrical structure, such hydrogels also exhibit outstanding actuating properties with a fast response rate of 863°/min and a bending amplitude about 360°. Interestingly, grasping-releasing of target objects utilizing an octopus-shaped hydrogel actuator and temperature alerting based on hydrogel actuator are also demonstrated. Overall, the double layered asymmetrical ionic hydrogels have provided a new clue to construct hydrogel devices with multiple functionalities and enhanced response properties., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The development of a strong and tough conductive hydrogel capable of meeting the strict requirements of the electrode of a hydrogel-based triboelectric nanogenerator (H-TENG) remains an enormous challenge. Herein, a robust conductive polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel is designed via a three-step method: (1) grafting with 3,4-dihydroxy benzaldehyde, (2) metal complexation using ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ) and (3) salting-out using sodium citrate. The hydrogel contains robust crystalline PVA domains and reversible/high-density non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, π-π interactions and Fe 3+ -catechol complexations. Benefiting from the crystalline domains, the hydrogel can resist external forces to the hydrogel network; meanwhile, the reversible/high-density of non-covalent interactions can impart gradual and persistent energy dissipation during deformation. The hydrogel possesses multiple cross-linked networks, with 6.47 MPa tensile stress, 1000 % strain, 35.24 MJ/m 3 toughness and 37.59 kJ/m 2 fracture energy. Furthermore, the inter-connected porous hydrogel has an ideal structure for ionic-conducing channels. The hydrogel is assembled into an H-TENG, which can generate open circuit voltage of ∼ 150 V, short-circuit current of ∼ 3.0 μA, with superb damage immunity. Subsequently, road traffic monitoring systems are innovatively developed and demonstrated by using the H-TENG. This study provides a novel strategy to prepare superiorly strong and tough hydrogels that can meet the high demand for H-TENGs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Despite the intriguing features of freestanding flexible electronic devices, such as their binder-free nature and cost-effectiveness, the limited loading capacity of active material poses a challenge to achieving practical high-performance flexible electrodes. We propose a novel approach that integrates multiple self-assembly and in-situ polymerization techniques to fabricate a high-loading paper-based flexible electrode (MXene/Polypyrrole/Paper) with exceptional areal capacitance. The approach enables polypyrrole to form a porous conductive network structure on the surface of paper fiber through MXene grafting via hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interaction, resulting in an exceptionally high polypyrrole loading of 10.0 mg/cm 2 and a conductivity of 2.03 S/cm. Moreover, MXene-modified polypyrrole paper exhibits a more homogeneous pore size distribution ranging from 5 to 50 μm and an increased specific surface area of 3.11 m 2 /g. Additionally, we have optimized in-situ polymerization cycles for paper-based supercapacitors, resulting in a remarkable areal capacitance of 2316 mF/cm 2 (at 2 mA/cm 2 ). The capacitance retention rate and conductivity rate maintain over 90 % after undergoing 100 bends.The maximum energy density and cycling stability are characterized to be 83.6 μWh/cm 2 and up to 96 % retention after 10,000 cycles. These results significantly outperform those previously reported for paper-based counterparts. Overall, our work presents a facile and versatile strategy for assembling high-loading, paper-based flexible supercapacitors network architecture that can be employed in developing large-scale energy storage devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Lignin-derived carbon materials are widely used as electrode materials for supercapacitors. However, the electrochemical performance of these materials is limited by the surface chemistry and pore structure characteristics. Herein, a novel and sustainable strategy was proposed to prepare heteroatom-doped lignin-derived carbon material (Fe-NLC) with well-developed pore size distributions and enhanced graphitization structure via a facile lignin-Fe coordination method followed by carbonization. During carbonization, Fe 3+ in lignin-metal complexes evolve into nanoparticles, which act as templates to introduce porous structures in carbon materials. Also, the lignin-Fe coordination structure endows the material with a higher graphitization during carbonization, thereby improving the structural properties of the carbon materials. Due to the removal of Fe 3 O 4 template, the obtained Fe-NLC possessed reasonable pore distribution and nitrigen/oxygen (N/O) functional groups, which can improve the wettability of materials and introduce pseudocapacitance. Accordingly, Fe-NLC possesses a notable specific capacitance of 264 F/g at 0.5 A/g. Furthermore, a symmetric supercapacitor Fe-NLC//Fe-NLC with a high voltage window (1.8 V) was constructed. The symmetric supercapacitor exhibits a maximum energy density of 15.97 Wh/kg at 450 W/kg, demonstrating well application prospects. This paper proposes a novel approach for preparing carbon materials via lignin-metal coordination to provide an alternative way to explore sustainable and low-cost energy storage materials., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hypothesis: Oil-water interfaces that are created by confining a certain amount of oil in a square shaped pixel (∼200 x 200 μm 2 with a height of ∼10 μm) topped by a layer of water, have a curvature that depends on the amount of oil that happens to be present in the confining area. Under the application of an electric field normal to the interface, the interface will deform due to inhomogeneities in the electric field. These inhomogeneities are expected to arise from the initial curvature of the meniscus, from fringe fields that emerge at the confining pixel walls and, if applicable, from interfacially adsorbed particles., Modeling and Experiments: We model the shape of the confined oil-water interface invoking capillarity and electrostatics. Furthermore, we measure the initial curvature by tracking the position of interfacially adsorbed particles depending on sample tilt., Findings: We found that the pixels exhibited meniscus curvature radii ranging from 0.6-7 mm. The corresponding model based minimum oil film thicknesses range between 0.7 and 9 μm. Furthermore, the model shows that the initial meniscus curvature can increase up to 76 percent relative to the initial curvature by the electric field before the oil film becomes unstable. The pixel wall and particles are shown to have minimal impact on the interface deformation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Faranaaz Rogier reports financial support was provided by Dutch Research Council (TOPPUNT Grant)., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Multicolor electrochromic devices have gained attention widely. To support the development of multicolor electrochromic devices, we studied complementary combinations of a multicolor switchable polyaniline (PANI) electrode and 1-methyl-4,4'-bipyridyl iodide (MBI). In particular, MBI acting as an electrolyte and cathodic electrochromic layer can not only simplify the architecture of a device, but also support the color richness of the device simultaneously. Wide band optical modulation in visible light (58.1% at 550 nm) and near-infrared light (35% at 800 nm) confirms the advantageous optical properties of the combination, possessing a wide color gamut range over a range of working voltages adjustable for red, yellow, green, blue, and purple, each having a high color contrast of up to 73.8. This is accompanied by the excellent electrochemical performances of the mentioned combination, such as a fast response time of 1 s/1.9 s (modulating 77%-colored/bleached) with good cycle stability, and high coloration efficiency of 140.63 cm 2 /C. In addition, utilizing a screen-printed polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a masking barrier layer, it is possible to display patterned anti-counterfeit information within the application. Given these electrochromic performance properties, it is considered a readily feasible strategy to utilize PANI and MBI combination to develop novel electrochromic devices, which can be used widely in the areas of smart packaging, smart labels, and flexible smart windows associated with specific application scenarios., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hypothesis: Interfacial adhesion caused by intermolecular forces only occur between surfaces at nano-scale contact (NSC), i.e., 0.1-0.4 nm and can be evaluated using Forster resonance energy transfer spectroscopy (FRET). For this, a suitable pair of fluorescent dyes must be selected, which spectroscopic properties will determine the FRET system performance. Here, we present a brand-new FRET dye system specifically designed to measure NSC in the distance range relevant for van-der-Waals and hydrogen bonding, i.e., below 1 nm., Experiments: We propose the FRET pair: 7-Amino-4-methyl-cumarin (C120) and 5(6)-Carboxy-2',7'-dichlor-fluorescein (CDCF) with high quantum yield (QY, QY C120  = 0.91 and QY CDCF  = 0.64) and a distance detection range of 0.6-2.2 nm (0.1 mM). Adhered-thin films with increasing NSC degrees are produced with ascending pressure from 1.5 to 150 bar. To validate the proposed FRET measurement, we are correlating the bonded films interfacial adhesion (separation energy) to the measured FRET intensity, indicating its degree of NSC., Findings: We find that the proposed dyes are producing the desired FRET signal in adhered-thin films, for an interaction range of 0.6-2.2 nm, with high sensitivity due to the dye's high quantum yields. The increasing adhesion in these films is only caused by its increase in NSC. We find that the adhesion strength, measured as the separation energy between the films, is correlated to the measured FRET signal. Hence, the introduced FRET system is accurately able to measure the degree of NSC between soft surfaces., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The engineering of a new monodisperse colloid with a sea urchin-like structure with a large complex internal structure is reported, in which silica surfaces are bridged by an aromatic organic cross-linker to serve as a nanocarrier host for drugs such as doxorubicin (DOX) against breast cancer cells. While dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS) was employed and we do not observe a dendritic structure, these particles are referred to as sea urchin-like nanostructured silica (SNS). Since the structure of SNS consists of many silica fibrils protruding from the core, similar to the hairs of a sea urchin. For the aromatic structured cross-linker, bis(propyliminomethyl)benzene (b(PIM)B-S or silanated terephtaldehyde) were employed, which are prepared with terephtaldehyde and 3-aminopropyltriethoxy-silane (APTES) through a simple Schiff base reaction. b(PIM)B-S bridges were introduced into SNS under open vessel reflux conditions. SPS refers to the product obtained by incorporating the cross-linker b(PIM)B-S in ultra-small colloidal SNS particles. In-situ incorporation of DOX molecules resulted in SPS-DOX. The pH-responsive SPS nanocomposites were tested as biocompatible nanocarriers for controllable doxorubicin (DOX) delivery. We conclude that SPS is a unique colloid which has promising potential for technological applications such as advanced drug delivery systems, wastewater remediation and as a catalyst for green organic reactions in water., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) garner significant attention for their potential to create high-performance gas sensors. Despite their favorable properties such as tunable bandgap, high carrier mobility, and large surface-to-volume ratio, the performance of TMDCs devices is compromised by sulfur vacancies, which reduce carrier mobility. To mitigate this issue, we propose a simple and universal approach for patching sulfur vacancies, wherein thiol groups are inserted to repair sulfur vacancies. The sulfur vacancy patching (SVP) approach is applied to fabricate a MoS 2 -based gas sensor using mechanical exfoliation and all-dry transfer methods, and the resulting 4-nitrothiophenol (4NTP) repaired molybdenum disulfide (4NTP-MoS 2 ) is prepared via a sample solution process. Our results show that 4NTP-MoS 2 exhibits higher response (increased by 200 %) to ppb-level NO 2 with shorter response/recovery times (61/82 s) and better selectivity at 25 °C compared to pristine MoS 2 . Notably, the limit of detection (LOD) toward NO 2 of 4NTP-MoS 2 is 10 ppb. Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and density functional theory (DFT) reveal that the improved gas sensing performance is mainly attributed to the 4NTP-induced n-doping effect on MoS 2 and the corresponding increment of surface absorption energy to NO 2 . Additionally, our 4NTP-induced SVP approach is universal for enhancing gas sensing properties of other TMDCs, such as MoSe 2 , WS 2 , and WSe 2 ., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Quantitatively understanding of interaction mechanism between lignin and cellulases is essential for the efficient improvement of lignocellulose enzymatic hydrolysis. However, the individual contribution of multiple forces between lignin and cellulases to the non-productive adsorption of enzymes still remains deeply ambiguous, especially in situations of near enzymatic hydrolysis temperatures. Herein, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and computational simulations were utilized to quantitatively analyze the intermolecular forces between lignin and enzyme at 25 °C and 40 °C. Our results unveiled that an increase in temperature obviously improved adsorption capacity and total intermolecular forces between lignin and cellulases. This positive relationship mainly comes from the increase in the decay length of hydrophobic forces for lignin-cellulases when temperature increases. Different from the hydrophobic interaction which provides long-range part of attractions, van der Waals forces dominate the intermolecular force only at approaches < 2 nm. On the other hand, electrostatic forces exhibited repulsive effects, and its intensity and distance were limited due to the low surface potential of cellulases. Short-range forces including hydrogen bonding (main) and π-π stacking (minor) stabilize the non-specific binding of enzymes to lignin, but increasing temperature reduces hydrogen bond number. Therefore, the relative contribution of long-range forces increased markedly at higher temperatures, which benefits protein capture and brings lignin and cellulase close together. Finally, the structure-activity relationships between lignin physicochemical properties and its inhibitory effect to enzymes indicated that hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonding, and steric effects drive the final adsorption capacity and glucose yields. This work provides quantitative and basic insights into the mechanism of lignin-cellulase interfacial interactions and guides design of saccharification enhancement approaches., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hypothesis: Pickering emulsions, defined as emulsions that are stabilized by colloidal particles, provide dispersion stability by preventing coalescence of the dispersed phase. In this study, we used a bifunctional hairy nanocellulose (BHNC) bearing both aldehyde and carboxylic acid groups as an stabilizer. We hypothesize that these particles as Pickering stabilizers can effectively reside at the oil-water interface, better than hairy nanocelluloses containing only carboxyl groups or aldehyde groups, and provide long-term stability without the need of any surfactants., Experiments: Varying concentrations of BHNC were tested to explore the optimal concentration that provides emulsion stability. The effects of various preparation conditions such as salt and pH were also studied. Finally, carvacrol, an antibacterial essential oil, was loaded in the oil phase to develop antibacterial emulsions., Findings: It was shown that a 1% BHNC suspension provides 90% and 80% stability for a duration of 30 and 60 days, respectively. A theoretical model using nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry data is developed to prove that only a monolayer of BHNC covers oil droplets. Increasing the concentration of BHNC decreased the size of oil droplets, which as a result increases the surface area available for monolayer coverage. It was also shown that the antibacterial emulsions are highly effective against Gram-negative (i.e. E. coli) and Gram-positive (i.e. S. aureus) bacteria. Accordingly, BHNC as a highly functionalized bio-derived colloidal particle opens new opportunities for engineering highly stable Pickering emulsions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Using renewable biomass resources to regulate the growth and properties of catalysts is sustainable nanotechnology for achieving efficient photocatalysis and recycling. This work suggested a way to produce paper-based photocatalysts and resize the embedded zinc oxide (ZnO) flowers. The combination of experimental analysis and theoretical simulations demonstrated that small pores of the branching fiber network enhanced the interfacial interaction between ZnO flowers and cellulose fibers, thereby improving mechanical properties and optimizing flower structure. The interaction energy and electron density difference (EDD) simulation results demonstrated that the ZnO/cellulose interface structure shares significant attraction and charge transfer. Cellulose fibers ground for 20 cycles (CFG20) possessed dense branching fiber network and loaded with the smallest ZnO flowers, achieving a balance of strong mechanical properties and reaction efficiency. Remarkably, ZnO/CFG20 paper-based catalyst indicated strong photodegradation efficiency (100% for methyl orange, 100% for phenol, and 85.23% for aniline) and excellent reusability. This work will pave the way for the green regulation of catalysts., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Protective fabrics containing Zr-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks (Zr-MOFs) show great potential in the detoxification of chemical warfare agents (CWAs). However, the current studies still face the challenges of complicated fabrication processes, limited MOF loading mass, and insufficient protection. Herein, we developed a lightweight, flexible and mechanical robust aerogel by in situ growth of UiO-66-NH 2 onto aramid nanofibers (ANFs) and assembly of UiO-66-NH 2 loaded ANFs (UiO-66-NH 2 @ANFs) into 3D hierarchically porous architecture. The UiO-66-NH 2 @ANF aerogels feature high MOF loading of 261 %, high surface area of 589.349 m 2 g -1 , open and interconnected cellular structure, which provide efficient transfer channels and promote catalytic degradation of CWAs. As a result, the UiO-66-NH 2 @ANF aerogels demonstrate high 2-chloroethyl ethyl thioether (CEES) removal rate at 98.9 % and a short half-life of 8.15 min. Moreover, the aerogels present good mechanical stability (recovery rate of 93.3 % after 100 cycles under 30 % strain), low thermal conductivity (λ of 25.66 mW m -1 K -1 ), high flame resistance (LOI of 32 %) and good wearing comfortableness, indicating promising potential in multifunctional protection against CWAs., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hypothesis: The widely used Lucas-Washburn (LW) equation depends on the contact angle as the driving force for liquid penetration. However, the contact angle depends on both, the liquid and the substrate. It would be desirable to predict the penetration into porous materials, without the requirement to measure the solid-liquid interaction. Here, we propose a novel modeling approach for liquid penetration from mutually independent substrate- and liquid properties. For this purpose, the contact angle in the LW-equation is replaced by polar and dispersive surface energies, utilizing the theories of Owens-Wendt-Rabel-Kaelble (OWRK), Wu, or van Oss, Good, Chaudhury (vOGC)., Experiments: The proposed modelling approach is validated exhaustively by measuring penetration speed for 96 substrate-liquid pairings and comparing the results to model predictions based on literature- and measured data., Findings: Liquid absorption is predicted very well (R 2  = 0.8-0.9) with all three approaches, spanning a wide range of penetration speed, substrate- and liquid surface energy, viscosity, and pore size. The models for liquid penetration without measurement of solid-liquid interaction (contact angle) performed well. Modeling calculations are entirely relying on physical data of the solid and the liquid phase (surface energies, viscosity and pore size), which can be measured or retrieved from databases., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Improving the tailorability of hydrochar synthesis is an effective way to enhance its performance and utilization efficiency. In this study, the growth rate, morphology, and molecular structure of hydrochar were controlled by regulating the pH and temperature of the hydrothermal carbonization process. Growth process analysis indicates that hydrochar has three growth periods: induction, rapid, and stable growth periods. It is mainly controlled by 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which is formed by converting glucose and its transformation products. The regulation of acid can significantly shorten the induction period of hydrochar, even under low-temperature conditions (<180℃), and increase the growth rate of hydrochar. However, the degree of hydrochar adhesion varies: the lower the temperature, the greater the degree of its adhesion. Molecular structural analysis demonstrates that hydrochar mainly consists of furan structural domains and aromatic clusters, and its surface is rich in oxygen-containing functional groups. The degree at which hydrochar was aromatized was improved by increasing the reaction temperature (160-220℃); whereas the regulation of acid reduced it and increased the content of oxygen-containing functional groups on the hydrochar surface. Based on these results, it is proposed that hydrochar formation has five stages and three growth periods with or without acid regulation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The preparation of carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals (cCNCs) and their stabilization in oil-in-water (O/W) Pickering emulsions hold great potential for application and research value. In this work, a novel integrated oxidation strategy was proposed to prepare needle-like cCNCs by sodium periodate (NaIO 4 )/Fenton (SF-cCNCs) with considerable yield (58.58 %), plentiful carboxyl groups (1.28 mmol/g), and high crystallinity (83.3 %). The distinctive features of smaller size and high viscosity accelerated the as-prepared SF-cCNCs to be used in stabilizing Pickering emulsion. Moreover, the effects of oil-water ratio (OWR), SF-cCNCs content, pH, and sodium chloride (NaCl) content on the stability of SF-cCNCs-stabilized Pickering emulsions were also investigated systematically. Interestingly, the stability of the as-obtained emulsions was dependent on pH and salt. Afterwards, the rheological behaviors validated that the emulsion viscosity increased rapidly after adding NaCl, which was dominated by the elastic behavior. Finally, the main stabilization mechanism was confirmed to be interfacial adsorption of SF-cCNCs rather than the formation of spatial network structures between droplets. This study reports a synthetic strategy to efficiently prepare SF-cCNCs, endowing the SF-cCNCs stabilized Pickering emulsion with environmentally friendly, long-term stable and highly anti-agglomeration abilities for cosmetics and food products., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The size of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and loading amount of Ag NPs onto their substrate/carrier are two key factors for their efficient applications. Herein, we present a facile method for in situ synthesizing ultrafine and highly loaded Ag NPs on the surface of tannin-coated catechol-formaldehyde resin (TA-CFR) nanospheres. TA-CFR nanospheres act as green and highly efficient reducing agents for converting silver ions (Ag + ) into Ag NPs, and the size of resultant Ag NPs is only ∼ 7.5 nm, and the Ag NPs loading capacity of TA-CFR is as high as 61.5 wt%, both of which contribute to the very high specific surface area of Ag NPs. Consequently, the as-synthesized TA-CFR@Ag composites show high catalytic performance, and the catalytic rate for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol is almost 10 times higher than that of the control. Meanwhile, TA-CFR@Ag composites also possess high antibacterial activity, efficiently inhibiting the growth of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Furthermore, tannin coating (thickness: ∼ 15 nm) minimizes the aggregation of Ag NPs, and enhances the reusability and stability of resultant Ag NPs, because of their high surface charges (the zeta potential is up to -65.5 ± 1.9 mV) and strong coordination capability with Ag NPs. This work provides a new frontier to develop multifunctional nanomaterials focusing on the green catalyst synthesis and environmental-remedy applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hypothesis: Super-hydrophilic/underwater super-oleophobic materials composed of biomass show great advantages for the treatment of oily wastewater due to their inherent fouling resistance. However, the development of three-dimensional materials from biomass for oil-water separation is still a challenge. It is universally acknowledged that constructing a rough structure on the surface of hydrophilic substrates would significantly improve the underwater oleophobicity and oil-water separation performance., Experiments: In this work, a three-dimensional lignin/cellulose aerogel (LCA) was developed through sol-gel method with freeze-drying. The rough microstructure and 3D interconnected network composed of lignin and cellulose impart excellent underwater superoleophobicity to LCA for efficient oil-water separation., Findings: The introduction of lignin to cellulose aerogel could effectively enhance its surface roughness, water permeation speed and underwater oil contact angle. Especially, the swelling properties of the hydrogel could be regulated by modulating the content of lignin, which could further control the pore size of aerogels to optimize the separation flux. The as-prepared aerogel showed remarkable performance in separating various oil-water mixtures and oil-in-water emulsions, with a separation flux of 7646 ± 167 L·m -2 ·h -1 and oil rejection rate >99 %. These excellent properties combined with its facile fabrication make LCA a promising candidate for the treatment of oily wastewater., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Novel phase change materials composed of polyethylene glycol (PEG), cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were developed by an efficient and environment friendly strategy. The CNFs were modified and cross-linked by chitosan to form three-dimensional network structure, which provides strong support for the resulting CNF/CNT/PEG composites. The structure and properties of CNF/CNT/PEG composites were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, spectrums, and differential scanning calorimeter. They exhibit high latent heat (158.3 J/g), low heat loss (0.75%) and excellent photo-thermal conversion (energy storage efficiency 85.6%), electro-thermal conversion (energy storage efficiency 92.3%) properties. Due to their excellent performances, CNF/CNT/PEG composites have great potential to be used as thermal management materials., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Although thousands of superhydrophobic composites have been reported, it is still a challenge to develop eco-friendly superhydrophobic materials by a simple and low-cost strategy. Here, a paper-based superhydrophobic material was prepared by carbon fiber powders and polydimethylsiloxane through a facile spraying method. This obtained material has excellent liquid resistance and self-cleaning properties, whose contact angle reaches 155°. In addition, it possesses excellent photothermal conversion characteristics with a stable surface temperature of 73.4 °C and good water evaporation performance with an evaporation rate up to 1.08 kg/(m 2 ·h) under one solar intensity (100 mW/cm 2 ). Also, it has outstanding self-deicing performance, whose deicing time is 120 s earlier than that of the untreated surface under one solar intensity. An adaptability test shows this strategy of functional coatings can also be applied to other fiber substrates (coating paper, kraft paper, non-woven fabric, paulownia veneer, etc.). Overall, this superhydrophobic material has a promising application prospect in many fields such as waterproof packaging, deicing materials, water evaporation materials, etc., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Coating manufacturing, textile processing, and plastic industry have led to dramatical release levels of hazardous organic dye pollutants threatening public health and the environment. To solve this problem, porous carbon materials are being developed following with the United Nations initiative on water purification. However, conventional porous carbon materials face many challenges, such as limited removal rates, low adsorption capacity, and high chemicals consumption, hampering their large-scale utilization in dye wastewater treatment. Herein, we demonstrate a high-performance lignin-derived hierarchical porous carbon (LHPC) material directly prepared from renewable lignin through a low-cost activation procedure. The large specific surface area (1824 m 2 /g) enables the rapid and effective adsorption of organic dyes. Therefore, the LHPC exhibits an ultrahigh adsorption ability (1980.63 mg/g) and removal rate (99.03% in 10 min) for Azure B, superior to that of other adsorbents. Additionally, the LHPC adsorbent, organic dyes, eluting agent, and water all can be recycled and reused in a designed close-looped system. Its high removal ability and rate, strong retrievability, low-cost and scalable production combined with high dyes adsorption universality, positions our LHPC as a promising commercial adsorbent candidate for the purification of harmful organic dye wastewater, especially for heavily polluted area with an insistent demand for clear water., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is an emerging technology to obtain fresh water using solar energy. However, the complicated system and the corresponding fabrication process severely restrict its large-scale and cost-effective production. Herein, an all-in-one solar-driven interfacial evaporator was fabricated via a hybrid nanofibrous aerogel of aramid nanofibers (ANFs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Assisted by the reprotonation of the ANFs, CNTs are assembled into the nanofibrous network for through-body light-to-heat activity, and AuNPs are set on the surface layer to enhance solar absorption. The aerogel also features low thermal conductivity to suppress heat losses and high capillary action to wick and confine water within the aerogels. Benefitting from the synergistic effect, the aerogel shows a high evaporation rate of 1.53 kg m -2 h -1 and an evaporation efficiency of 91.3% under 1 sun irradiation. Simultaneously, the evaporator demonstrates high purification capacity for wastewaters with dyes and heavy metal ions. The integrated structure design and facile fabrication process would make the hybrid nanofibrous aerogel-based all-in-one evaporators promising for cost-effective and large-scale application under ambient solar irradiance., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this work, nitrogen and phosphorus dual-doped alkali lignin-based carbon microspheres (MLCM) were prepared by pre-oxidation and carbonization of ionic liquid ([Mmim]DMP) -lignin solution and used as green-based supercapacitor electrode materials. Compared with the directly carbonized alkali lignin carbon (LC), MLCM had a spherical structure with higher specific surface area (938.1 m 2 /g) and pore volume (0.64 cm 3 /g). Moreover, MLCM materials showed superior electrochemical performance. In the 1 mol/L H 2 SO 4 electrolyte system, MLCM presented the highest specific capacitance of 338.2F/g at a current density of 0.8 A/g. Furthermore, MLCM was used as a positive and negative electrode material to assemble a symmetrical supercapacitor. The resultant device maintained excellent cycle stability after 5000 times of charging and discharging process at 2 A/g. Overall, the facile, green and sustainable synthesis strategy of heteroatom-doped porous carbon microspheres developed in this work opens a new avenue for the fabrication of high-performance carbon electrode materials, especially based on abundant and renewable lignin., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

High-risk arsenic contamination found in aqueous system is reported across the world and causing severe environmental issues. In this study, the Mg-Al Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) modified by sulphur species (LDH-S) was found exhibiting high effectivity and selectivity in As(V) removal owing to the strong interaction between embedded HS - and AsO 4 3- . The LDH-S with Mg to Al ratio 2-1 give the best performance with As(V) adsorption capacity 40.8 mg/g, which is 715% higher than that of pristine LDH (2-1). The adsorbent exhibits a high tolerance to concentrated competitive anions. In the continuous flow test, the adsorbent can reduce the As(V) concentration from 20 ppm to below-ppb-level indicating the potential in industry application. The adsorption mechanism is experimentally investigated and examined by Density Function Theory (DFT) calculation. The result illustrates that, differ from the traditional ion exchange mechanism of LDH, the enhanced removal capacity and selectivity of LDH-S for As(V) is attributed to the strong affinity between H atom from HS- ion (in the interlayer region of LDH) and the O atom from AsO 4 3- ., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The use of functional biodegradable wastes to treat environmental problems would create minimal extra burden to our environment. In this paper, we propose a sustainable and practical strategy to turn spent coffee ground (SCG) into a multifunctional palladium-loaded catalyst for water treatment instead of going into landfill as solid waste. Bleached delignified coffee ground (D-SCG) has a porous structure and a good capability to reduce Pd (II) to Pd (0). A large amount of nanocellulose is formed on the surface of SCG after bleaching by H 2 O 2 , which anchors and disperses the palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs). The D-SCG loaded with Pd NPs (Pd-D-SCG) is superhydrophilic, which facilitates water transport and thus promotes efficient removal of organic pollutants dissolved in water. Pd-D-SCG exhibits excellent room temperature catalytic activity for the removal of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and methylene blue (MB) in water and shows good chemical stability and recyclability in water, with no obvious decrease even after five repeated cycles., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Alignment layers are vital to the function of numerous devices based on liquid crystal (LC) materials. The pursue of versatile, effective and even flexible alignment layers, preferably prepared by simple methods, is still actively ongoing. Herein, we propose a facile one-step method by mixing silanes into the starting LC mixtures, which in contact with a glass substrate secede and self-assemble in-situ to form a stable and highly effective homeotropic alignment layer at the interface. Tetradecyldimethyl(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)ammonium chloride (TDTA) is selected as the example to demonstrate the method, although a number of other silanes can produce similar results. With only 0.05 vol% of TDTA added to a mixture of liquid crystals and reactive mesogens, a uniform monolayer is chemically attached to the substrate, which automatically aligns the LCs homeotropically. Furthermore, by blending the TDTA with acrylate functionalized silanes like 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (A174), additional reactive functional groups can be easily introduced into the alignment layer, therefore offering opportunities to adjust the interface properties. An electro-responsive smart window based on the polymer stabilized liquid crystals (PSLCs) is successfully prepared using a one-step method, demonstrating excellent electro-optic performances and notably enhanced adhesion between the substrate and the in-situ formed polymer network. These findings are valuable especially for the development of flexible LC devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Environmental factors affecting the photocatalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have previously been studied experimentally, but there are few theoretical studies, especially those on surface intermolecular forces. Because of this, it is unclear how multiple coexisting factors impact photocatalytic processes. Herein, comprehensive multi-factorial impact mechanisms of the photocatalytic oxidation of formaldehyde were assessed using experiments and density functional theory simulations. The influence of humidity, concentration, and intermediate formate was investigated using a nano-TiO 2 colloid, followed by adsorption and photocatalytic simulations. The maximum photocatalytic reaction rate and degradation efficiency occurred at 50% humidity due to the initially enhanced and then weakened adsorption and photocatalysis of formaldehyde. This stemmed from the increased number of water molecules and the narrower TiO 2 band gap at low humidities, as well as the competitive adsorption between formaldehyde and excess water molecules at high humidities. Upon increasing the formaldehyde concentration, its photocatalytic oxidation rate increased due to enhanced adsorption, but weakened photocatalysis decreased the photocatalytic efficiency. The intermediate formate enhanced the adsorption and inhibited photocatalysis and did not significantly change the photocatalytic oxidation rate of formaldehyde upon changing the irradiation time. These findings provide guidance for the photocatalytic oxidation of VOCs produced by industrial air pollution., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Polydopamine (PDA)-based self-adhesive hydrogel sensors are extensively explored but it is still a challenge to construct PDA-based hydrogels by free radical polymerization. Herein, a new approach to construct self-adhesive hydrogels by conducting free radical polymerization in both aqueous phase and micelle phase is developed. The following two-phase polymerization processes account for the formation of the self-adhesive hydrogels. The first one is the polymerization of acrylamide (AM) and dopamine (DA) in aqueous phase to form adhesive component PAM-PDA (PAM, polyacrylamide; PDA, polydopamine). The second one is the polymerization of hydrophobic monomer 2-methoxyethyl acrylate (MEA) in micelles of an amphiphilic block copolymer Pluronic F127 diacrylate (F127DA). The poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate) (PMEA) networks help to maintain the high robustness of the hydrogel. Because PMEA and PDA form in relatively separated phases, the inhibition effect of PDA on the free radical polymerization process of PMEA is weakened. Based on this mechanism, mechanically strong and adhesive hydrogels are achieved. The introduced ions during preparation process, such as Na + , OH - and K + , endow the resulting hydrogels ionic conductivity. Resistive strain sensor of the hydrogel achieves a high gauge factor (GF) of 5.26, a response time of 0.25 s and high sensing stability. Because of the adhesiveness, such hydrogel sensor can be applied as wearable sensors in monitoring various human motions. To further address the freezing and drying problems of the hydrogels, organohydrogels are constructed in glycerol-water mixed solvent. The organohydrogels exhibit outstanding anti-freezing property and moisture retention ability, and their adhesiveness is well maintained in subzero conditions. Capacitive pressure sensors of the organohydrogels possessing a GF of 2.05 kPa -1 , high sensing stability and reversibility, are demonstrated and explored in monitoring diverse human motions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A highly sensitive electrochemical sensor was developed through a one-pot green synthesis method for nitrite detection based on the electrochemical technique. Xylan-based carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were used as green in situ reducing agent to prepare CQDs capped gold nanoparticles (Au@CQDs). MXene of good electrical conductivity was used as the immobilized matrix to fabricate Au@CQDs-MXene nanocomposites with the advantages of good electrical conductivity and electrocatalysis. An electrochemical sensor for nitrite monitor was obtained by loading the Au@CQDs-MXene on a glassy carbon electrode. The sensor presents high sensitivity, good stability, wide linear range, and excellent selectivity due to the high catalytic activity of AuNPs and CQDs, the large specific surface area of MXene, and exceptional electrical conductivity of AuNPs and MXene. Under the optimal condition, the linear detection range of the sensor was from 1 μM to 3200 μM with a detection limit of 0.078 μM (S/N = 3), which was superior to most reported sensors using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) method. Furthermore, this sensor was successfully applied to detect nitrite in tap water and salted vegetables with satisfactory recoveries. This modified electrocatalytic sensor shows a new pathway to fabricate nitrite detection sensor with feasibility for practical application., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hypothesis: The synthesis and characterization of aminated nanocrystalline cellulose (ANCC), a new member of the hairy nanocellulose family, is reported. Hairy nanocelluloses consist of a crystalline rod-like body with amorphous cellulose chains ("hairs") at both ends, on which various functional groups can be accommodated. In ANCC these groups are reactive primary amine groups, which are useful for bioconjugation- and Schiff base-centered modifications. We hypothesize that a two-step oxidation-reductive amination of cellulose fibers followed by hydrothermal treatment will result in the formation of rod-like hairy ANCC., Experiments: ANCC was prepared by converting the aldehyde groups in cellulose, introduced by a periodate oxidation, to primary amines using ammonia and sodium borohydride, followed by a hot water treatment, during which diamine modified cellulose fibers were converted to ANCC. ANCC was characterized by AFM, TEM, DLS, ELS, FTIR, NMR, XPS and conductometric titration. Antibacterial activity of ANCC was assessed by the viable cell counting method., Findings: ANCC, with an amine content of 5.5 mmol g -1 is a bare nanocolloid (i.e. non-coated, without adsorbed polyelectrolytes or surfactants) which, as far as we know, has a positive charge density larger than any other bare cationic nanocolloid. It was observed that ANCC particles have a needle-like morphology with a width of ~ 5 nm and a length ~ 120 nm. DLS results proof that ANCC is hairy. Spectroscopic analysis confirmed the introduction of surface primary amine groups. ANCC showed promising bactericidal activities, against Gram-negative species due to their thinner and penetrable cell wall., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this work, a sulfonic acid-functionalized magnetic separable solid acid (Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -SO 3 H) was synthesized, characterized, and tested for fructose conversion to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Results indicated that the prepared catalyst had a good efficacy for fructose dehydration to HMF due to its larger specific surface area, appropriate acid amount and homogeneous acid distribution. The maximum HMF yield of this work was 96.1 mol%. It was obtained at 120 °C for 1.5 h with 100 mol% fructose conversion. More importantly, the produced HMF could be further in-situ oxidized into 2,5-diformylfuran (DFF) after the replacing of the Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -SO 3 H with a ZnFeRuO 4 catalyst, and the highest DFF yield of 90.2 mol% (based on initial fructose) was obtained after reaction another 8.5 h. The production of DFF from fructose through the above two consecutive steps avoids the intermediate HMF separation, which saves time and energy. In addition, both Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -SO 3 H and ZnFeRuO 4 catalysts exhibited satisfied stability in the recycling experiments, which can be reused at least for five times with the HMF and DFF yield loss<5.3% and 3.3%, respectively. Finally, the plausible reaction mechanisms for fructose conversion to HMF or DFF over Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -SO 3 H or/and ZnFeRuO 4 catalysts were also proposed in this work., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Lignin has been demonstrated to be green and effective for the modification of ZnO-based materials. In this work, quaternized lignin/zinc oxide nanostructured hybrid composites (QLS/ZnO NCs) were synthesized with good dispersion and uniform particle size via a facile hydrothermal method. Sodium lignosulfonate (LS) was modified by quaternization to endow the positive charges, which effectively captured bacteria due to the electrostatic interactions. Interestingly, QLS/ZnO NCs show a litchi-like morphology consisting of nanorods with diameters of 5-10 nm, which further resulted in damage to the bacterial cell membrane. Owing to the surface charge and rough surface topology for bacterial capture, QLS/ZnO NCs exhibited greatly enhanced antibacterial activity compared with bare ZnO. After being treated with QLS/ZnO NCs for 90 min, the sterilization rates of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) reached 97.54% and 99.55%, respectively. Due to the reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by ZnO under light irradiation, the antibacterial activity of QLS/ZnO NCs could be further enhanced. In addition, the minimal inhibition concentrations (MICs) of QLS/ZnO NCs towards E. coli and S. aureus were both 100 μg/mL, and the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) were 100 μg/mL and 200 μg/mL, respectively. Moreover, with the incorporation of QLS/ZnO NCs into polyurethane films, the composite films showed excellent antibacterial activity, strong tensile strength and enhanced ultraviolet light blocking performance., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

With the increased awareness of reusing solid wastes for higher sustainability and the concern of water pollution associated with phosphorus over-emission, there are strong interests in developing solid waste based adsorbents for purifying phosphorus-containing wastewater. As a rich calcium resource, paper mill sludge (i.e., a major solid waste from pulping industry) can be used as phosphorus removal adsorbent after calcination. Thus, in this work, a simple and clean thermally treating route has been proposed for preparing calcium-containing biochar from paper mill sludge. The effect of the physicochemical properties of paper mill sludge and its carbonization condition on phosphorus adsorption has been analyzed. Moreover, the influence of some key adsorption parameters, e.g., biochar dosage, initial pH of solution, co-existing anions, initial phosphorus concentration and contact time has also been investigated. The results showed that the phosphorus adsorption data could be fitted well with pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isothermal models. The calculated maximum adsorption capacity of the as-prepared optimal calcium-containing biochar could reach to 68.49 mg·g -1 at 25 °C. Combined with the characterization results, it can be reasonably inferred that the adsorption process was chemisorption-dominated. Lastly, the application of this spent adsorbent in agriculture field has also been discussed. In brief, this work provided a feasible strategy for converting paper mill solid waste to an environmental functional material (i.e., calcium-rich biochar) for remediation of eutrophic water., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has received increasing attention. In this study, AgNPs were prepared through in-situ reduction by aminated alkaline lignin (AAL). Compared with alkaline lignin (AL), AAL exhibited stronger reduction capacity (increased by 36%) due to the introduced amine groups and better water solubility. Moreover, the coordination effect of amine groups on AAL improved the binding force between lignin and AgNPs. The content of AgNPs in AgNPs/AAL composite were 2.4 times higher than that in AgNPs/AL, such content could be further increased through increasing the reduction pH or prolonging the heating time. The results of XPS, XRD and TEM showed that the AgNPs were spherical and monodisperse with an average particle size about 17 nm. Additionally, the size of AgNPs was affected by the amination degree of lignin. AgNPs/AAL exhibited good catalytic performance for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol, and this compound could be easily recovered and reused for at least eight cycles., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Lignin has been considered as a green carrier with excellent biocompatibility for the biomedical applications in drug release, tissue engineering, etc. In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) incorporated quaternized lignin (QAL) composites (Ag@QAL) were synthesized in-situ with the assistance of the microwave radiation. The positive charged QAL, not only serves as reductive and stabilizing carriers, but also endows with electrostatic effect toward negatively charged Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), resulting in greatly enhanced antibacterial activity. It is worth mentioning that Ag@QAL exhibits the highest antibacterial activity, which causes 3.72 log 10 (>99.9%) and 5.29 log 10 (>99.999%) CFU/ml reduction against E. coli and S. aureus respectively after contacting for only 5 min. Furthermore, due to the strong interaction between Ag@QAL and Ag + /AgNPs, bacteria can be captured and co-precipitated by Ag@QAL fastly in 30 min with almost none silver ions detected in the supernatant, which prevents Ag + leaking with extremely low toxicity to the biological environment. This concept of electrostatic capture effect induced antibacterial activity enhancement and environmentally benign features may provide new insights into the design of highly effective antibacterial agents in a sustainable manner., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A softer natural Pickering nanostabilizer, S-ovalbumin (S-OVA) was reported in this work, based on our previous researches about soft globular protein nanoparticles. Compared with native OVA, S-OVA has higher surface hydrophobicity, greater conformational flexibility and thinner tightly-bond water layer, which make it be unfolded more highly at the oil-water interface. However, S-OVA also possesses higher zeta-potential and thicker closely-surrounding water layer, offering it stronger electrostatic repulsion and steric hindrance between molecules and increased intramolecular cohesion. The improvements guarantee S-OVA undisintegrated particle structure and independent state on the interface and high refolding off the interface. The more flexible interior and firmer exterior together endow a higher softness to S-OVA. The HIPPE gels solely stabilized by S-OVA were fabricated using one-step shearing. These HIPPE gels own steady network structure mainly supported by bridging flocculation, strong self-supporting ability and moldability. The high storage stability and ability to inhibiting lipid oxidization provide the HIPPE gels an enormous potential in encapsulating and protecting volatile, easily-oxidized or dangerous organic liquids, during the storage and transportation. The attractive temperature responsiveness offers a high convenience to re-obtaining the organic liquids. And a re-encapsulation can be easily achieved via a re-shearing. The heat-enhanced gel intensity and moldability mean the HIPPE gels can be applied to produce dualistic gels or porous scaffolds with latent applications. These findings are helpful to explore more new Pickering stabilizers from the nature and extend the applications of HIPPEs in highly-demanded and high-tech industries., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Graphitic carbon nitride (CN) is considered as a promising photocatalyst for solar energy conversion. However, low specific surface area and fast electrons and holes recombination restrict the photocatalytic applications of CN material. Herein, a nitrogen defect-rich and highly porous CN nanostructure (CN-LT) was prepared by combining two strategies, i.e., LiOH treatment and heat etching. The as-prepared nitrogen defect-rich porous CN-LT not only has a larger specific surface area, as compared with pristine CN, but also the photogenerated electron-hole separation was boosted remarkably. Using Pt as a co-catalyst and lactic acid aqueous solutions as sacrificial reagent under visible light irradiation (λ > 400 nm), the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) rate for CN-LT (1.54 mmol h -1 g -1 ) was 19.25 times higher than that for pristine CN (0.08 mmol h -1 g -1 ). While subjecting pristine CN to heat etching under the same experimental conditions, excepting the use of LiOH (CN-T), an increase in HER rate of 7.5 times was obtained. Our current study may shed more light on the enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of bulk CN materials by altering their microstructure., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)