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With the process of industrialization, many production fields produce high-salt organic wastewater. In this work, we have employed an electrodialysis (ED)-resin-bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED) mixed process to address sodium acrylate wastewater, achieving resource recovery. The influences of the initial volume ratio and applied voltage were investigated. In the ED-resin, the separation of organic compounds and pigments such as sodium acrylate and phenol was realized. The desalting rate could reach 93.1%, the energy consumption is 0.6 kWh/kg C 3 H 3 O 2 Na, and the chroma removal rate can reach 99%. In the subsequent BMED phase, we attain notable acrylic acid and base concentrations, reaching levels of 1.59 mol/L and 3.12 mol/L, with a current efficiency of 58.14% and an energy consumption of 3.28 kWh/kg NaOH. In addition, economic and environmental evaluations verify the feasibility of this process, which is indicative of its prospect of industrial application. • The mixed process is employed to resourcelize the sodium acrylate wastewater. • Optimum operation conditions were investigated to obtain high quality products. • Desalination rate of during the ED process was 93.1%. • The chroma removal rate of sodium acrylate wastewater reaches 99%. • The process cost of treating sodium acrylate wastewater was estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Fabricating stable mono-/multi-valent anion-selective membranes with high perm-selectivity for electrodialysis (ED) applications is critical but challengeable. In this work, we have fabricated a series of novel homogeneous monovalent anion-selective amphoteric ion-exchange membranes (AIEMs, PAES-im-Xc) based on a long-side-chain type imidazolium-functionalized poly(arylene ether sulfone) cross-linked with 4,4′-diazostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid disodium salt (DAS) for ED. By tuning the mass percent of DAS added, low swelling ratio but appreciably high anion perm-selectivity (in Cl–/SO 4 2– system) of optimized AIEM are achieved to values of 8.0% and 47.12 at current density of 2.5 mA cm–2, respectively. In particular, at an enhanced current density of 5.0 mA cm–2, its perm-selectivity reaches 12.5, significantly outperforming commercial monovalent anion-selective Neosepta ACS (5.27). The appreciably high perm-selectivity possibly arises from pore-size sieving effect from dense matrix structure with cross-linkings and strong electrostatic repulsion between negative fixed –SO 3 – groups and negative divalent ions of SO 4 2– in feeding solution. The superior performances might be particularly interesting findings that can facilitate the development of advanced mono-/bi-valent anion-selective membranes in applications of sea water desalination, resource recovery and water treatment/pretreatment etc.. Graphic abstract fx1 Highlights • A series of novel homogeneous monovalent anion-selective AIEMs has been fabricated for ED. • By tuning the content of cross-linker, low swelling ratio but high perm-selectivity are achieved. • The optimized AIEM shows the perm-selectivity (P S O 4 2 − C l − ) of 12.5, outperforming Neosepta ACS (5.27). • Pore-size sieving effect and electrostatic repulsion contribute to high perm-selectivity a lot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Developing highly ion conductive and desirable electrodialysis (ED) performance anion exchange membranes (AEMs) is of great significance. In this work, we report a strategy for fabricating novel AEMs based on a series of fluoro-methyl poly(arylene ether ketone)s having long-side-chain imidazolium groups for ED. Having hydrophilic conductive flexible side-chain imidazolium groups and rigid hydrophobic backbone within AEM matrix, the optimized AEM (PAEK-60-im) shows low water uptake of 24.9% at 80 °C and desirable ion conductivity of 22.01 mS cm–1 at 30 °C. In NaCl removal application of ED, PAEK-60-im shows the NaCl removal ratio of 69.66% within 120 min, outperforming commercial AEM-Type II (68.98%). Accordingly, it has a higher current efficiency of 83.7% but lower energy consumption of 5.9 kWh kg–1, compared with the commercial one (82.0%; 6.6 kWh kg–1). In particular, in selectrodialysis application, possibly owing to the synergistic effect of pore-size sieving effect resulting from macro-separation morphology and hydration energy difference of SO 4 2– ions (–1000 kJ mol–1) and Cl– ions (–317 kJ mol–1) in feeding solution, PAEK-60-im shows significantly superior monovalent anion perm-selectivity (Cl−/SO 4 2−) of 7.70 at 30 min, relative to commercial anion-selective Neosepta ACS (5.27) and many other reported mono-valent anion selective AEMs having elegant surface modified layers. The superior ED performance of the homogeneous PAEK-60-im is suggestive of its potential separation application. Highlights • Imidazolium-functionalized fluoro-methyl poly(arylene ether ketone) AEMs have been prepared. • The optimized AEM shows water uptake of 24.9% at 80 °C and ion conductivity of 22.01 mS cm–1 at 30 °C. • The NaCl removal ratio within 2 h of optimized AEM is 69.66%, outperforming that of AEM-Type II (68.98%). • The optimized AEM has a significantly high perm-selectivity (Cl-/SO 4 2-) of 7.70 at 30 min in selectrodialysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bifunctional polymer binders featured with both strong binding and superior polysulfide trapping properties are highly desired for the fabrication of sulfur cathodes with suppressed polysulfide shuttling in Li–S batteries. In this paper, we have explored the potential of a quaternary ammonium cationic polymer, polydiallyldimethylammonium (PDADMA-X; X = T, B, P, and Cl) with different counter anions (TFSI – , BF 4 − , PF 6 − , and Cl − , respectively) as the bifunctional binder. We have also revealed the dramatic effects of the counter anion on the performance of the cationic polymer binder. PDADMA-X's containing the former three weakly associating anions have been demonstrated to show polysulfide adsorption capability. In particular, PDADMA-T having the largest, least interacting TFSI – anion shows the optimum performance, with strong binding strength and the best polysulfide adsorption capability. Relative to commercial PVDF and PDADMA-X's of other counter anions, it offers sulfur cathodes with lowered polarization, higher discharge capacity, significantly better capacity retention, and improved cycling stability. With its convenient synthesis from commercially available PDADMA-Cl, cationic PDADMA-T having the TFSI – anion is a promising bifunctioal binder for sulfur cathodes in practical Li-sulfur batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, amphoteric ion-exchange membranes (AIEMs) prepared from fluoro-methyl sulfonated poly(arylene ether ketone- co -benzimidazole)s have been systematically evaluated for their potential usage in all vanadium redox battery (VRB). Our investigation has demonstrated that the compacted structure originated from the self-assembly ionic cross-linking and the positive charged benzimidazole moiety in AIEM matrix could synergistically reduce the vanadium species cross-contamination. The self-discharge time of a single cell assembled with AIEM of optimized chemical structure is over 3 times longer than that with Nafion117, and a desirable conductivity/permeability trade-off can be achieved by tuning the content of benzimidazole moiety. Single cell assembled with the optimized AIEM exhibit higher battery efficiencies and lower capacity loss than that with Nafion117 at current densities of 30, 50 or 70 mA cm −2 . Furthermore, the AIEMs are able to tolerate the strong oxidizing VO 2 + and remain intact for over 370 days, as revealed from ex -situ chemical stability tests. These findings strongly suggest that the as-prepared AIEM can be a good candidate for low-cost and high-performance separator in VRB application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ion-conductive polymers having highly ordered and well-defined phase-separated structures are potential materials for use as monovalent anion-selective membranes (MASMs). In this work, to investigate the effect of hydrophobic spacers, four side-chain-type imidazolium salt-tethered poly(arylene ether sulfone) anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) with different alkyl spacer lengths (–CH 2 – number: 3, 6, 9, and 12) were fabricated for use in electrodialysis (ED). Our investigations using atomic force microscopy, small angle X-ray scattering and X-ray diffraction demonstrate that the extended alkyl spacers change the nano-phase-separated structures, with an increased ion cluster space ranging from 3.29 nm to 7.76 nm, resulting from increased immiscibility between the additional hydrophobic alkyl spacers and (i) the hydrophobic aromatic backbones and (ii) the hydrophilic ion-conductive groups. In addition, with the extension of the alkyl spacer, chloride (Cl−) ion conductivity at 25 °C decreases from 16.4 mS cm−1 to 11.4 mS cm−1 and water uptake is reduced to 12.8% (20 °C). It is found that the as-prepared AEM with a hexyl alkyl spacer shows the superior perm-selectivity (Cl−/SO 4 2−) of 7.10 (separation efficiency: 70.3%), as compared with three others (3.48, 6.81, and 4.26). This work thus presents an efficient strategy to guide the architectural design of novel MASMs. Image 1 • Four side-chain-type AEMs with different alkyl spacer lengths were fabricated. • Pronounced phase-separated morphologies verified by AFM and SAXS are obtained. • Extended alkyl spacer decreases the ion conductivity and lowers the water uptake. • Perm-selectivity of PAES-6C-IM AEM attains a maximum of 7.10 at 5.0 mA cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel TiO 2 @Ag coating with photocatalysis activity on the AEM has been designed. • TiO 2 @Ag and electrochromic AEM achieve synergistic visible light photocatalysis. • The optimized AEM shows effective photocatalytic degradation and anti-biofouling activity. • Optimized AEM offers potential for sustainable water purification and desalination. Membrane-contamination during electrodialysis (ED) process is still a non-negligible challenge, while irreversible consumption and unsustainability have become the main bottlenecks limiting the improvement of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) anti-contamination activity. Here, we introduce a novel approach to design AEMs by chemically assembling 4-pyndinepropanol with bromomethylated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (BPPO) in an electrochromic-inspired process. Subsequently, the co-mingled TiO 2 @Ag nanosheet with the casting-solution were sprayed onto the surface of the substrate membrane to create a micrometer-thick interfacial layer. The addition of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) enhances the active sites of TiO 2 , resulting in stronger local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects and reducing its energy band gap limitation (From 3.11 to 2.63 eV). Post-electrodialysis electrochromic AEMs incorporating TiO 2 @Ag exhibit synergistic enhancement of sunlight absorption, effectively suppressing photogenerated carrier binding and promoting migration. These resultant-membranes demonstrate significantly improved bacterial inhibition properties (42.0-fold increase for E. coli) and degradation activity (7.59-fold increase for rhodamine B) compared to pure TiO 2 membranes. Importantly, they maintain photocatalytic activity without compromising salt-separation performance or stability, as the spraying process utilizes the same substrate materials. This approach to rational design and regulation of anti-contamination AEMs offers new insights into the collaborative synergy of color-changing and photocatalytic materials. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ablative treatment evokes antitumor immunity, but knowledge on the emerging irreversible electroporation (IRE)-induced immunity in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is limited. To investigate the immune effects induced by IRE and its role in preventing post-ablation HCC progression, a C57BL/6J mouse model bearing subcutaneous H22 hepatoma was employed. IRE treatment significantly suppresses HCC growth, and treated mice are tumor-free after secondary tumor injection and show increased splenic interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)+CD8+ T cells. Additionally, more CD8+ T and dendritic cells, but not CD4+ T, B or NK cells, infiltrate into peri-ablation zones after IRE at day 7. Depletion of CD8+ T cells induces local tumor regrowth and distant metastasis after IRE. Vaccination using IRE-processed H22 lysates prevents tumorigenesis in mice, suggesting a protective immune response. IRE also alleviates immunosuppression by reducing local and splenic Treg and PD-1+ T cells. Regarding mechanism, IRE induces cell necrosis and significant release of danger-associated molecular patterns including ATP, high mobility group box 1 and calreticulin that are pivotal to CD8+ T cell immunity. Together, IRE is a promising approach to evoke CD8+ T cell immunity, which help prevent post-ablation HCC progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving behavior classification plays an important role in many fields, such as Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS), traffic safety, and energy saving. In this paper, we propose a Global–local Multimodal Fusion Driving Behavior Classification Network (GLMDriveNet) which classifies driver behaviors into normal driving, aggressive driving, and drowsy driving. First of all, we design a Global–local Interaction Channel Attention Module (GLI-CAM) to extract effective features in both the roadside image and the spectrogram generated from the current prediction time and its previous four seconds of vehicle speeds. Furthermore, a learnable positional embedding is introduced to fuse the global and local information of the channels for better screening of the extracted features. Secondly, we propose a Multi-scale Feature Representation Fusion Module (MS-FRFM) to associate the high-scale and low-scale information of images and spectrograms and assign different importances for different modal information, making the network more inclined to useful modal information. Our model is evaluated on a public dataset UAH-DriveSet and achieves the best performance (98.4% F1-score on all roads, 97.4% F1-score on the motorway road, and 99.8% F1-score on the secondary road) compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Our model has a very fast speed (142 FPS) and strong generalization which has been verified through extensive experiments on multiple datasets. The code is available on https://github.com/liuwenzhuo1/GLMDrivenet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a facile approach to fabricate anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with efficient ionic transport and desirable stabilities (mechanical and dimensional) for various applications is meaningful. In this work, a two-step strategy for the preparation of AEMs with 3D network structure, via cross-linking reaction between 2-chloroacetamide (CAA) modified poly (vinylidene fluoride- co -hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) and N , N , N ′, N ′-tetramethyl-1,4-diaminobutane (TMDAB) has been reported. The as-prepared AEMs with ion-exchange capacity (IEC) in the range of 1.38–1.84 mmol g−1, exhibit the much lower water uptake (13.14–22.45%, 80 °C) relative to the un-crosslinked AEM (35.89%, 80 °C). In addition, due to the presence of fluorine-based 3D network structure, the as-prepared AEMs show much enhanced mechanical and thermal stability in comparison with the un-crosslinked AEM. In the electrodialysis (ED) application, the optimized AEM shows the higher current efficiency (78.6%) and lower energy consumption (2.01 kWh kg−1 NaCl) than those of commercial AEM AEM-Type II (76.4%; 2.26 kWh kg−1), respectively, within 150 min of operation interval. The proposed facile fabrication protocol and the better-performance of optimized PVDF-HFP -based AEM demonstrate the potential ED application. Image 1 • A two-step strategy for the preparation of AEMs with 3D network structure was reported. •Water uptakes of the three cross-linked AEMs are in the range of 13.14–22.45% at 80 °C. •The as-prepared AEMs with 3D structure show enhanced mechanical and thermal stability. •The ED with optimized AEM shows high current efficiency and low energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state-of-the-art graphene oxide (GO) has been wildly used in water purification due to its tunable nanoscale interlayer between the two-dimensional nanosheets. However, the structural instability and flux decline performances significantly limit the practical application of GO-based membranes. Herein, a novel GO/DTiO 2 -PDA-PEI (dopamine modified TiO 2) composite nanofiltration membrane has been prepared via a multi-coupled strategy, combining with the self-assembly, copolymerization and surface grafting. Tuning the nanoscale interspace between the GO nanosheets, and constructing the membrane with positively charged surface and negatively charged subsurface, the loose GO/DTiO 2 -PDA-PEI composite nanofiltration membrane (GDP 1 P 2 -0.6 membrane with a mean pore size = 0.87 nm) show the filtration performance with water permeance as high as 41.6 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 and dye rejection around 99.9%, and the molecular selective factor (Eriochrome black T/Na 2 SO 4) of α = 47.6. Long-term performance and stimulation have been investigated to further analyze the dye concentration and salt removing. The investigations demonstrate that the GO/DTiO 2 -PDA-PEI composite nanofiltration membrane enriches 14.9-fold Eriochrome black T (ET) and reduces Na 2 SO 4 to 0.36% in the term of the concentration factor 15 and batch diafiltration factor 5. Image 1 • A novel GO/DTiO 2 -PDA-PEI composite nanofiltration membrane is synthesized via a multi-coupled strategy, combining with self-assembly, copolymerization and surface grafting. • Tuning the nanoscale interspace between the GO nanosheets and constructing the membrane with positively charged surface resulted in high permeation of pure water and ions. • The GO/DTiO 2 -PDA-PEI composite nanofiltration membrane (GDP 1 P 2 -0.6) shows the satisfied filtration performance with effective molecular selectivity. • GO/DTiO 2 -PDA-PEI composite nanofiltration membrane could enrich 14.9-fold Eriochrome black T (ET) and reduce Na 2 SO 4 to 0.36% after the diafiltration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incomplete radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) could initiate malignant transition. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mice model was established to investigate the effect of VEGF pathway in incomplete RFA of HCC with high fidelity. Cancer stem cell markers and metastatic markers were increased after incomplete RFA, with increased VEGFR1 and decreased VEGFR2 expression. In vitro experiments revealed sublethal heat treatment promoted migration ability of HepG2, HCCLM3, and SMMC7721 cells, which coincided with enhanced ability of sphere formation and up-regulation of VEGFR1, CD133, CD44, and EpCAM. Moreover, HCC cells secreted more VEGF after heat-treatment. VEGF promoted migration and enhanced stemness of HCC cells, which could not be suppressed by VEGFR2 inhibitor. PIGF, the ligand of VEGFR1, significantly increased migration and stemness of HCC cells. Blocking VEGFR1 reduced heat-induced enhancement of migration and stemness, whereas inhibition of VEGFR2 could not. In conclusion, VEGFR1 plays a critical role in sublethal heat treatment-induced enhancement of migration and stemness in HCC, suggesting that VEGFR1 may serve as a potential and promising therapeutic target for preventing recurrence after RFA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Anion exchange membrane (AEMs) fouling is a serious problem influencing membrane performance during electrodialysis process(ED), which would increase power consumption and reduce water recovery. In this paper, an aliphatic anion-exchange membrane was prepared from quaternized polyvinyl alcohol (QPVA) via dual cross-linking through annealing treatment and condensation reaction to restrain the membrane water swelling. The Wu% of QPVA membrane could be reduced to 22.87 ± 0.81%. Due to the hydrophilia (59.86 ± 0.21°), negative ζ-potential surface and aliphatic matrix of QPVA, no transition time appeared under our experiment condition, indicating the QPVA membrane was scarcely fouled by SDBS. And the existence of SDBS in dilute solution generated slightly effect on the QPVA membrane resistance and only 7.47 ± 0.21% reduction of the desalination rate in ED process. Furthermore, only distilled water was used as solution or reaction media, without any harmful organic solvents, presenting an environmentally friendly route for the preparation of water-based anion-exchange membrane. So, the excellent anti-fouling performance along with green preparation of QPVA showed its remarkable prospect for desalination purpose in ED process. Graphical abstract fx1 Highlights • An aliphatic AEM (QPVA) was prepared with hydrophilia and negative ζ-potential surface. • Developed a green preparation of AEMs, using only distilled water as solution or reaction media. • The Wu% of QPVA membrane was only 22.87 ± 0.81%, far below the reported (176%). • Antifouling properties of the QPVA membrane are superior to reported membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• TFN RO membranes were prepared by incorporating p -aminophenol modified GO into polyamide skin layer. • The incorporation of mGO reduced the hydrophilicities and the thickness of functional layers. • The optimized RO membrane shows the superior water flux of 23.6 L·m−2·h−1 and NaCl rejection rate of 99.7%. • RO membrane with mGO exhibits bacterial killing ratios of 96.78% and 95.26% against E. coli and S. aureus. Innovative approaches to restraint bacterial adhesion and growth on membranes are significantly needed to avoid membrane performance decaying for biofouling. In this work, a series of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes has been prepared by incorporating nano-fillers of p -aminophenol-modified graphene oxide (mGO) into the polyamide skin layer via interfacial polymerization. Our investigations demonstrate that the introduction of mGO nano-fillers into the functional skin layers reduces the hydrophilicities with the water contact angles drop from 69.6° to 48.2° and meanwhile decreases the thickness of functional skin layers from 240 nm to 50 nm, relative to pristine polyamide RO membrane without nano-fillers. As a result, the as-prepared TFN RO membrane at optimized conditions shows a water flux of 23.6 L·m−2·h−1 and a NaCl rejection rate of 99.7%, reflecting a remarkable promotion in water flux (by 24.5%) compared with the pristine RO membrane. In addition, the data statistics of the live/dead fluorescent imaging assay demonstrate that TFN RO membrane with mGO exhibits bacterial killing ratios of 96.78% and 95.26% against E. coli and S. aureus at the additive loading of 0.005 wt%, which are much higher than RO membrane with GO (90.64%; 90.43%) and pristine RO membrane (4.95%; 2.48%). This work demonstrates a facile way to TFN RO membranes with good separation performance and desirable antibacterial capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]