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The COVID-19 pandemic emerged in Wuhan, China, towards the end of 2019 and affected the whole world. People who were confined to their homes for a long time due to the global pandemic, which caused many deaths in the world, connected with the outside world through their balconies. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals' habits of using balconies at their homes. The survey prepared to determine the change in the balcony usage habits of people experiencing the pandemic period in Turkey in 2020-2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was intense, was applied to 462 people and statistical analyzes were employed. According to the finding; approximately 81% of the participants stated that they spent time on the balcony during the pandemic period, 68% stated that the time spent on the balcony increased, 53% stated that they made changes to their balconies, and 54% stated that spending time on the balcony had a positive effect on the treatment process. 24% of the participants stated that the balconies of their residences were not large enough and comfortable and that they wanted to move to another residence with a balcony of sufficient size and comfort. In this study shows that having balconies of sufficient size and comfort in newly planned residences, the use of furniture on the balcony, and the production of ornamental plants will provide a great advantage in psychologically recovering from future epidemics and in establishing connections with the outdoors for people who have to stay in quarantine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol groups and β‐O‐4 (C−C) linkages are widespread in biomass feedstock that are abundant renewable resource for value‐added chemicals. The development of sustainable protocols for direct oxidation or oxidative cleavage of feedstock materials in a controlled fashion, using open air as an oxidant is an intellectually stimulating task to produce industrially important value‐added carbonyls. Further, the oxidative depolymerization of lignin into fine chemicals has evoked interest in recent times. Herein, we report the first example of a catalyst system that could activate molecular oxygen from atmospheric air for controlled oxidation and oxidative cleavage/depolymerization of feedstock materials such as alcohols, β‐O‐4 (C−C) linkages and real lignin in water under open air conditions. The selectivity of carbonyl products is controlled by altering the pH between ~7.0 and ~12.0. The current strategy highlights the non‐involvement of any external co‐catalyst, oxidant, radical additives, and/or destructive organic solvents. The catalyst shows a wide substrate scope and eminent functional group tolerance. The upscaled multigram synthesis using an inexpensive catalyst and easily available oxidant evidences the practical utility of the developed protocol. A plausible mechanism has been proposed with the help of a few controlled experiments, and kinetic and computational studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a two-step physical method for the fabrication of composite nanoparticle-based nanostructures. The proposed method is based on the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique performed sequentially in vacuum and in air. As a first step, thin-alloyed films of iron with noble metal were deposited by PLD in vacuum. The films were prepared by ablation of a mosaic target formed by equal iron and gold sectors. As a second step, the as-prepared alloyed films were ablated in air at atmospheric pressure as the laser beam scanned their surface. Two sets of experiments were performed in the second step, namely, by applying nanosecond (ns) and picosecond (ps) laser pulses for ablation. The structure, microstructure, morphology, and optical properties of the samples obtained were studied with respect to the laser ablation regime applied. The implementation of the ablation process in open air resulted in the formation of nanoparticle and/or nanoparticle aggregates in the plasma plume regardless of the ablation regime applied. These nanoparticles and/or nanoaggregates deposited on the substrate formed a complex porous structure. It was found that ablating FeAu films in air by ns pulses resulted in the fabrication of alloyed nanoparticles, while ablation by ps laser pulses results in separation of the metals in the alloy and further oxidation of Fe. In the latter case, the as-deposited structures also contain core–shell type nanoparticles, with the shell consisting of Fe-oxide phase. The obtained structures, regardless of the ablation regime applied, demonstrate a red-shifted plasmon resonance with respect to the plasmon resonance of pure Au nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]