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Highlights • A method was proposed to study the possible drivers of ecosystem services relationships. • Optimal ecosystem attributes of five ecosystem services were summarized and analyzed. • Erosion control, air quality regulation and cooling effect are more likely to form synergic relationships. • Carbon sequestration and cooling effect and air quality regulation are more likely to form trade-off relationships. Abstract Ecosystem services interact and can form neural, synergic, and trade-off relationships with each other. Current studies of ecosystem service relationships have focused more on quantification without analyzing the driver of these interactions. Here, we proposed a qualitative method based on the number of shared optimal ecosystem attributes among services to study the possible driver of ecosystem service relationships and applied it to five ecosystem services (erosion control, water yield, air quality regulation, cooling effect, and carbon sequestration) as examples. The optimal approach of three categories of ecosystem attributes, namely spatial configuration, shape and size, and structure, for these five ecosystem services was summarized by systematically reviewing 116 related studies. Results suggested that synergic relationships were more likely to occur among erosion control, air quality regulation, and cooling effect since they had high numbers of shared optimal ecosystem attributes. A high possibility of trade-off relationships was found between carbon sequestration, cooling effect, and air quality regulation due to the relatively high number of contrary optimal ecosystem attributes they shared. Validation from previous studies supported these findings. The optimal attributes from this method might also provide general guidance for designing landscapes that aim to provide additional, diverse ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Urban development exerts both benign and malignant impacts on urban vegetation. Mixed results have been reported regarding the responses of urban vegetation to urbanization. However, these results are limited by both sample size and location. It is essential to conduct global-scale research in urban areas with various development levels in order to acquire a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between urban development and vegetation states. Thus, we firstly created an urban development score to quantify the development intensity of 68,651 urban areas across 14 biomes through using nighttime light and population density data. We then classified each urban area into a relative development level according to the score and biome. Based on the urban development scores and levels, we determined the relationship between urban development and vegetation states, as represented by the remote-sensed vegetation index. Findings suggested that four distinct types of relationships exist across biomes, namely positive, convex (positive then negative), non-significant, and negative. The positive corrections were commonly found between urban development and vegetation states especially in less-productive biomes such as deserts and open shrublands. However, the positive correlations diminished and eventually turned negative as urban areas became more developed and/or were located in more productive biomes. Turning points of the relationship between urban development and vegetation states were detected in four biomes that have moderate productivity. Completely negative relationships were only found in highly productive tropical and temperate biomes. The results of this study call for a closer examination of the altered urban vegetation states as the result of human engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities have become the most important habitats for mankind in most regions of the world. Many researchers and organizations have attempted to evaluate the states of cities from the perspective of their functionalities. However, the comprising components of a city, which provide these functions, have not been evaluated explicitly and systematically. These components include people, infrastructure and environment, all of which are the foundations of city health and sustainability. In this study, we used the analogy of a healthy human and defined a healthy city as a state of complete demographic, infrastructural and environmental well-being, which means that all components are present with integrity and sufficiency and also function effectively, harmoniously and sustainably. Based on this concept, a component-based city health examination framework was constructed and tested in three major cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen) in both 2010 and 2015. A total of 27 indicators (seven for People, ten for Infrastructure and ten for Environment), each with a health reference value, were chosen and calculated. The fuzzy logic method was selected to perform the evaluation task due to its effectiveness in assessing uncertain and relatively subjective objects. Results showed that all three case study cities failed to meet the healthy condition in both years. Shenzhen was, relatively, the healthiest city among the three in 2015 and had the highest health score in Infrastructure and Environment. Shanghai possessed the highest score in People in both years. Additionally, five indicators with the largest potential for improvement were also identified for each city. This component-based city health evaluation model can be applied to better inform urban planning policies and potentially improve the quality of life in cities in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ecological restoration should consider both effects on ecosystem service supply and trade-offs. • Four ecosystem services supply and trade-offs were analyzed under six restoration scenarios. • Restoration of the case study area improved all service supplies, even compared to the reference. • But higher service supply improvements and lower trade-off intensities are still possible. Ecological restoration is becoming increasingly important in addressing the global crisis of ecosystem degradation. Ecosystem services, as a concept that connects people and natural ecosystems, can be incorporated into the design, practice and evaluation of restoration projects to promote both the socioeconomic and ecological effects of restoration. However, the full incorporation of ecosystem services in landscape-scale restoration projects is still greatly lacking. In this study, we used the Dashihe mine tailings restoration project in Hebei, China, as a case study and analyzed data from field surveys, remote sensing and literature reviews to study the following two questions: 1) How would multiple ecosystem service supply capabilities and their tradeoffs change after ecological restoration; 2) How can multiple ecosystem service supply capabilities be maximized while minimizing their tradeoffs? The supply capabilities of four important ecosystem services (i.e., soil retention, dust deposition, carbon sequestration and habitat maintenance) and their tradeoff intensities under six restoration scenarios were quantified and compared. The results showed that restored ecosystems outperformed unrestored and even the reference conditions in terms of ecosystem service supply enhancement. However, there is still much room for improvement compared to the recommended restoration scenario. The recommended scenario could result in both higher service supplies and lower tradeoff intensities among the services. On this basis, we call for more incorporation of ecosystem service supply and tradeoff analysis in future ecological restoration projects to reverse the declining trends of ecosystem services across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freshwater ecosystem service is essential to human’s survival and development. Many studies have documented the spatial differences in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and proposed the concept of ecosystem services flows. However, few studies characterize freshwater ecosystem service flow quantitatively. Therefore, our paper aims to quantify the effects of freshwater ecosystem service flow on downstream areas. We developed a freshwater ecosystem service flow model and applied it in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, China, for the year of 2000, 2005, and 2010. We assessed the regional water security with an improved freshwater security index by integrating freshwater service provision, consumption and flow; and found that most areas of the BTH region (69.2%) were affected by upstream freshwater flows. The areas achieving water security in the region also expanded to 66.9%, 66.1%, and 71.3%, which were 6.4%, 6.8% and 5.7% increments compared to no-flow situation, in 2000, 2005 and 2010, respectively. Setting quota for human water consumption is suggested to further improve water security. These results highlight the need to fully understand the connections between distant freshwater ecosystem service provision and local freshwater ecosystem service consumption. This approach may also help managers to choose more sustainable strategies for critical freshwater resource management across different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire, as a strong disturbance type, can exert significant impacts on the biosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and human society. It can inherently trigger both critical transitions in ecosystems and dramatic changes in land cover. However, the general patterns and possible influencing factors of post-fire land cover change remain largely unclear at a global scale. Obtaining such knowledge is of great value in advancing the understanding of fire ecology and promoting sustainable fire management. Here, we combined satellite observations of long-term ESA CCI land cover (300 m resolution) and burned area data from MODIS collection 6 (500 m resolution) to assess the global post-fire land cover change patterns from 2005 to 2015. The results showed that areas with identified post-fire land cover change accounted for approximately 0.36–0.74% of the annual global burned areas during the study period and were most common in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and the D.R. Congo. The most common land cover change types in 2005, 2010 and 2015 were "forest-to-agriculture" (31.93%), "forest-to-shrubland" (26.23%) and "agriculture-to-forest" (18.74%), respectively. In addition, the conversion between agriculture and forest, and shrubland and forest, after fire were found to be bidirectional. After assessing 14 fire-related, climatic, topographic, ecological and socioeconomic factors that could potentially influence post-fire land cover change occurrence, burned area size and vegetation cover diversity were identified as the two strongest predictors, followed by aspect, fire intensity and slope. Our results provide a global overview of post-fire land cover change patterns and offer guidance for developing sustainable fire management policies. • About 0.36–0.74% of the global burned areas experienced post-fire land cover change. • The most common post-fire land cover change type was from forest to agriculture. • Forest and agriculture and forest and shrubland commonly change to each other after fire. • Burned area size and vegetation cover diversity are two strong predictors of changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear infrastructures, such as roads, highways and railways, can bring significant social and economic benefits while posing great threats to local environment and biodiversity. Although processes such as Strategic Environmental Assessment have been increasingly applied during the route planning stage of major linear infrastructures to evaluate their potential impacts, the assessment of the spatial variations in these impacts is often missing. Thus, a spatial planning tool that balances both the costs and benefits for environmental and socioeconomic aspects is needed. Here we propose a Sustainable Linear Infrastructure Route Planning Model, which incorporates the spatial assessments of potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts using factors from six aspects, which are ecosystem importance, biodiversity conservation, environmental risks, economic costs, social costs, and socioeconomic benefits. The model allows users to set weights for different factors according to specific development priorities, then produces a weighted spatial resistance map, and identifies the optimized route through least-cost path analysis. We implemented this model through a case study of the Southern Expressway Extension project in Sri Lanka to test its validity. The results showed that the route choices from our model under three hypothetical scenarios (environmental, socioeconomic and balanced) all resulted in lower negative impacts compared to the current route. The proposed model can provide decision-makers an effective tool to improve the sustainability of roads, highways and railways in the age of rapid linear infrastructure expansion across the globe. • We proposed a route planning model to assess both conservation and socioeconomic impacts. • Spatial differences in linear infrastructures' impacts are included in the route planning model. • Scenario settings are used to reflect different development and planning priorities. • Three alternative routes are identified and compared with a case study project in Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Much of the urban form's impact on nighttime UHI is mediated by air pollution. • Urban fractal dimension affects the UHI intensity almost through air pollution. • Urban population density has direct effect on heat island effect. • Urban elongation and continuity have both direct and indirect effects on UHI. Urban form studies on urban heat island (UHI) are mostly from the microscale perspective of thermodynamics or fluid mechanics, lacking of consideration of the impact of urban form on traffic behavior or air pollution, which is also proved to be influential on nighttime urban thermal environment. The objective of this paper is to quantitatively reveal the mediating role of air pollution in the impacts of urban form on nighttime UHI intensity based upon an empirical research of 150 cities of China. We constructed multivariate regression models, structural equation models and scenario simulations to verify and predict the mediating effect of air pollution. Results showed that the fractal dimension of urban planar shape almost all influences UHI intensity through air pollution. The mediating effect related to urban continuity and urban elongation also accounts for 25–28 % and 33–40 % of the total effect, respectively. Controlling urban population density can play an important role on UHI mitigation, but optimization of urban geometry can bring co-benefits on urban air and thermal environments. For the purpose of improving urban thermal environment, we advocate the proper elongation and decentralization of urban form, and control urban sprawl disorderly, especially in cities with severe air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Intermediate and final ecosystem disservices should be differentiated. • Functional classification of disservices helps people studying their effects. • Economic gains from services outweighed the losses from disservices in Beijing. • Both services and disservices effects should be considered in planning. Ecosystem disservices (EDS) is an important form of social-ecological interactions and can strongly influence people's perception of nature. However, compare to ecosystem services (ES), current studies on EDS are still very limited especially from the perspective of classification and valuation. Here, we firstly proposed a function-based classification system to better explain the general effects of EDS. Then, we used Beijing, the capital of China, as a case study to value three common urban EDS (excessive decrease in water quantity, plant-related diseases and infrastructure damage) there. The results suggested that the total EDS value of Beijing was approximately 10.54 billion RMB/year in 2019, which equaled about 5.13% of the total value of five important ecosystem services (food and raw material production, climate regulation, environmental quality regulation, soil retention and ecotourism). The finding showed that although EDS caused considerable financial loss, the potential economic gains from ecosystem services could still greatly outweigh the loss and therefore supported the current urban greening expansion policy in Beijing. Our study attempted to promote the bridging of ecosystem services and disservices studies and call for more equal consideration of both ES and EDS to create more compressive and sustainable planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The relative contributions of urbanization and climate on vegetation dynamics in the urban areas are not well understood. • Prevalent vegetation greening (63 % of the total urban areas) was observed in urban environments from 2000 to 2013. • The greening trend in the urban core areas was higher than that of urban fringe regions. • The climate change and urbanization explained the 33 % and 24 % vegetation variation in the urban area, respectively. • The contribution of urbanization was higher in urban fringe zones than urban core areas. Climate change and urbanization are the two major drivers that can alter vegetation growth processes in the urban environment. However, the effects of these two drivers on the continuous vegetation dynamics in the urban environments are not well understood, especially at a high spatial resolution. This study identified the urban fringe zones and explored the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation dynamics (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and the mechanisms underlying these variations in the urban core areas and urban fringe zones of China during 2000–2013. The results suggested that from 2000 to 2013, rapid urbanization regions in Yangtze River Delta experienced a high probability of vegetation degradation. However, some rapid urbanization areas in other parts of China did not undergo such sharp vegetation degradation. We demonstrated that about 63 % of the vegetated areas in urban environments showed increasing trends, and the greening trend in the urban core areas was higher than that of urban fringe regions. Furthermore, the relative contributions of climate change, urbanization, and other factors to vegetation variation in the urban area were 33 %, 24 %, and 43 %, respectively. The contribution of urbanization was higher in urban fringe zones than in urban core areas, while the climate change and residual factors were both higher in urban core areas. Our results verified that the urbanization process would not necessarily result in large-scale vegetation degradation. The vegetation in urban environments was mainly determined by climatic variables rather than urbanization. Based on these findings, we propose that the development of fringe areas outside the urban core areas should be avoided as much as possible to effectively mitigate vegetation degradation and the positive influences of urbanization on vegetation growth through effective urban landscape planning should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effects of urban form on UHI changed significantly along urbanization gradient. • Urban continuity, complexity, population density and NDVI become more influential. • Urban elongation, nighttime light index and tree cover become less influential. • Contribution rate of urban size factors draws a convex curve along urbanization gradient. • Urban geometry and vegetation factors become more and less contributive, respectively. There is an increasing demand for urban form optimization to mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effect under the background of global climate change and urbanization. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how the relationship between urban form and UHI intensity changes under diverse urbanization contexts. This study aims to show the change patterns of the relationship between urban form and UHI intensity along the urban development gradient based upon the investigation of a total of 150 urban areas in the Jing-Jin-Ji region in China in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. We defined a comprehensive urban development index taking into account the size of urban area, population density and night light intensity to classify the different levels of urban development. A multi-model comparison was carried out to validate the results. We found that the increase in urban continuity, sprawling, scale and density all enhanced UHI effect at the regional scale. However, the relationship between urban form indicators and UHI intensity demonstrated two opposite patterns along the urban development gradient: population density, geometric complexity and continuity, and general vegetation index of a city were found to be increasingly influential, while night light intensity, geometric elongation and forest coverage presented declining influence. Finally, the study obtained an ascending contribution rate curve for urban geometry indicators, a convex curve for urban size indicators and a declining curve for urban vegetation. These changes along the urban development gradient may be closely related to the changes of the microclimate in cities due to land use, social and economic activities in different urban development stages. The findings can contribute to more appropriate and effective urban planning in countries and regions undergoing rapid urbanization as a valuable reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel cholesterol electrochemical biosensor based on graphene-based nanocomposites by LBL technique was fabricated. • The PEI-GP provided well biocompatible microenvironment for the immobilized cholesterol oxidase to keep its bioactivity. • The cholesterol oxidase/PEI-GP modified electrodes show ultrasensitive biosensing detection performance towards cholesterol. • The fabricated biosensor exhibited good selectivity, reproducibility, stability and practical application. A novel electrochemical platform composed of water soluble polyethylene imine-reduced graphene oxide (PEI-rGO) composites and cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) based on layer-by-layer (LBL) technique has been triumphantly developed. The PEI-rGO composites could effectively improve the electron transfer ability between the assembled enzyme and the surface of electrode. Furthermore, LBL technique could immobilize more enzyme under mild conditions, which was benefit to keep the bioactivity of redox enzyme. TEM, UV–vis and FT-IR showed that the PEI-rGO composites behaved as individual nanosheet structure and were successfully prepared. The self-assembly process of (ChOx/PEI-rGO) n film was monitored by UV–vis spectroscopy, demonstrating that the ChOx had been immobilized orderly without denaturation. Owing to the good conductivity of the PEI-rGO composites, the electron transfer ability of the immobilized ChOx was greatly improved on glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The PEI/(ChOx/PEI-rGO) 3 /GCE showed excellent electrochemical performances toward the detection of cholesterol. Under optimized conditions, the fabricated electrode exhibited a wide linear range in the cholesterol concentration from 0.10 × 10−6 to 9.331 × 10−3 mol L−1 with a detection limit of 0.021 μmol L−1 estimated at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (K m) was 0.0431 mmol L−1. This result indicated that a good affinity between the immobilized ChOx and the cholesterol. Meanwhile, the biosensor presented good stability, reproducibility and anti-interference ability with good recoveries for real sample detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using the one-step copolymerization of styrene (St) and 1-vinyl-3-ethylimidazolium bromide (VEIB), fine particles clustered (FPC) poly(St- co -VEIB) microspheres have been successfully prepared in the present of sodium dodecylsulfonate (SDS) in aqueous alcohol system. The FPC poly(St- co -VEIB) microspheres are composed of small poly(St- co -VEIB) nanospheres with the average diameter of 40 nm. The formation mechanism of FPC poly(St- co -VEIB) microspheres is proposed by investigating the influence of reaction conditions on their morphologies and observing their growth process. It can be well convinced that VEIB not only acted as a kind of monomers, which participated in the polymerization and provided electropositivity for FPC poly(St- co -VEIB) microspheres, but also acted as emulsifier and reactive stabilizer. The FPC poly(St- co -VEI[SO 3 CF 3 ]) microspheres, which were obtained by anion-exchange between − SO 3 CF 3 of HSO 3 CF 3 and Br − in FPC poly(St- co -VEIB) microspheres due to the existence of imidazolium groups with electropositivity, showed higher catalytic efficiency for hydration of 1,2-epoxypropane with H 2 O and esterification between acetic acid and ethanol than that of H 2 SO 4 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Novel Pd&TiO 2 @2-MeIm/PPy/GO nanosheets were successfully prepared. • The good electrocatalytic activity towards NOR was achieved. • Pd&TiO 2 @2-MeIm/PPy/GO exhibited the excellent stability and selectivity towards NOR. Though a very simple method, a small quantity of Pd and TiO 2 nanoparticles have been in-situ grown on 2-methylimidazolium functionalized polypyrrole/graphene oxide (2-MeIm/PPy/GO), which can be confirmed by several characterization analysis. The obtained Pd&TiO 2 @2-MeIm/PPy/GO nanosheets exhibit good nitrogen oxidation reaction (NOR) electroactivity with the excellent stability and selectivity, due to the concerted catalysis of Pd and TiO 2 with super-small size. Pd with high nitrogen activation capacity and TiO 2 with low oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electroactivity are combined to the benefit of electrocatalytic NOR process. The optimal potential for NOR by Pd&TiO 2 @2-MeIm/PPy/GO is 2.04 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, with the corresponding nitrate yield and Faraday efficiency are 12.60 μg h−1 mg−1 cat. and 4.04 %, respectively. No NO 3 − is detected in Ar-saturated electrolyte, indicating the generation of the detected NO 3 − deriving from the electrocatalytic oxidation of N 2. Hierarchical Pd&TiO 2 @2-MeIm/PPy/GO nanosheets exhibited the excellent electrocatalytic activity towards nitrogen oxidation reaction, which may be attributed to the concerted catalysis of Pd and TiO 2 with super-small size. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We utilized the Markov-PLUS model to explore woodland growth by setting up a no-policy scenario. • We analyzed ecosystem service trade-offs and bundles at dual scales. • Woodland growth was more influenced by proximity to cropland following the implementation of the policy. • The ecosystem services trade-offs showed a decrease after the policy implementation. Forest can provide multiple benefits, such as supplying a variety of ecosystem services. However, the planet is currently at risk of deforestation as a result of increased urbanization and growing food demand. Countries around the world have introduced a wide range of policies to mitigate this issue. In China, the Linyi City government has launched the cross-county forest credit market transactions (CFCMT) policy, which showcased significant innovations in compliance credits and transaction entities to enhance motivation for afforestation. This study creates a no-policy counterfactual scenario to analyze the woodland growth and ecosystem service trade-offs between 2013 and 2021. The results demonstrate that the woodland grew faster after this policy, with a growth rate 1.78 times higher than that from 2013 to 2017. The areas of woodland growth with the policy are mainly located on the edges of cropland and woodland. The increased woodland primarily originates from cropland conversion, and compared to the no-policy scenario, these growing woodlands have gentler slopes and lower altitudes. After the policy's enforcement, there were more increases in carbon storage, soil retention, and habitat quality. And ecosystem services showed a more optimizing trend in the direction of synergy at grid and town scales. We also find that larger spatial scales exhibit synergies and less accurately represent trade-off/synergistic change trends. The ecosystem services bundle consisting of carbon stocks, soil conservation and habitat quality showed a significant increase. This study reveals woodland growth and trade-offs among ecosystem services after the implementation of CFCMT policy, offering valuable insights for future afforestation policy optimization and promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing relationships among ecosystem service supplies and demands and manipulating certain drivers to maintain well-balanced ecosystem service suites are key challenges for ensuring sustainable social-ecological systems. However, comprehensive research on the spatial relationships and determinants of ecosystem service supply-demand mismatches remains rare. Therefore, we assessed trade-offs and synergies among bundled ecosystem service supply-demand balances and their underlying drivers in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Four distinct ecosystem service bundles revealed diverse ecosystem service supply-demand mismatches among different locations associated with various trade-offs and synergies. Building weighted networks specifically for different bundles promoted innovative understandings of the emergent properties of ecosystem services and unveiled the topological ecosystem service differences, synergistic interdependences among these services and essential umbrella ecosystem services for improving multiple ecosystem service supply-demand states. Social factors severely increased ecosystem service deficits in some bundles, while biophysical factors more critically improved ecosystem service surpluses in other bundles. Besides, the similar nonlinear responses of both the overall supply-demand states of multiple services and the supply-demand relationships of umbrella ecosystem services to their shared drivers in most bundles further supported the important roles of umbrella services in improving ecosystem service multifunctionality. Our study emphasized the significance of considering the spatial relationships and drivers of ecosystem service supply-demand mismatches when targeting effective spatial policies for realizing the sustainability of social-ecological systems and could provide useful guidance for addressing complex human-nature interdependencies. [Display omitted] • Relationships among and drivers of ecosystem service (ES) budgets were analysed. • Topological differences among bundled ES budgets were explored by network analysis. • Synergistic interdependence among bundled ES supply-demand relations was revealed. • Umbrella ESs lied at the heart of managing supply-demand relations of multiple ESs. • Social-ecological drivers had contrasting and nonlinear impacts on ES budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking novel solar energy utilization and conversion methods has always been a frontier topic in energy research. Here, we propose a new way to directly photoelectrodeposit metals using solar energy based on semiconductor energy band theory. Three kinds of semiconductor photoanodes (TiO 2 , BiVO 4 and Fe 2 O 3) are employed to deposit metallic Cu or Bi at the cathode under illumination without external voltage. It is found that when TiO 2 and BiVO 4 are used as photoanodes, Cu, Cu 2 O and Bi can be continuously deposited on the cathode, but when Fe 2 O 3 photoanode is irradiated, no material comes out. The results prove that the potential of electrons in the conduction band determines whether photoelectric deposition occurs or not. The related mechanism involves the oxygen reduction reaction (OER) of the valence band holes of the photoanode, the collection of conduction band electrons by back electrode, as well as the reduction of metal ions on the counter electrode. In addition, we also put forward the concept of using the deposited Cu or Bi as the metal electrode to form a new metal-air battery to release chemical energy of the deposited metal. [Display omitted] • Cu and Bi are directly deposited by a photoelectrochemical cell without bias. • The charge transfer mechanism of photoelectric deposition metals is studied. • A new type of Cu/Bi-air battery is proposed. • A new energy conversion system is built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel poly(ionic liquids) functionalized polypyrrole/graphene oxide nanosheets (PILs/PPy/GO) were prepared by the polymerization of 1-vinyl-3-ethylimidazole bromide (VEIB) on the surface of N-vinyl imidazolium modified PPy/GO nanosheets. Due to the synergistic effects of GO with well-defined lamellar structures, conductive PPy and biocompatible PILs, PILs/PPy/GO modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) presented the excellent electrochemical catalytic activity towards dopamine (DA) with good stability, high sensitivity and wide linear range in the present of ascorbic acid (AA) with high concentration. PILs played an essential role for the simultaneous determination of DA and AA in a mixture, whose existence effectively improved the transmission mode of electrons and resulted in the different electrocatalytic performance towards the oxidation of DA and AA. It is indicated that PILs/PPy/GO nanosheets can act as a good steady and sensitive electrode material for the development of improved DA sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intense research works had been devoted worldwide to the improvement of electrons conductivity of Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 spinel to get better power performances. In this study, our experimental results revealed that pristine Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 spinel possessed excellent power charge performance. Three charge–discharge modes were employed to take advantage of its outstanding power charge capacity. The power capacity of Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 spinel was increased about 13 times at high current density by using an appropriate working mode. Even at 30 C , Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 could keep 90% of the reversible capacity at 0.5 C in the improved mode, whereas it was only 7% in the ordinary mode. The corresponding improvement mechanism of different working modes was demonstrated. Our results suggested that designing appropriate working modes for electrode materials according to their inherent characteristics would be a promising way to achieve advanced performance in the field of lithium-ion battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesoporous TiO 2 microspheres with large surface area are synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction of titanium glycolate, and then introduced into CdS quantum dot-sensitized solar cell (QDSC). These mesoporous TiO 2 microspheres can not only increase the adsorption amount of quantum dots (QDs), but also possess effective light scattering ability due to the proper size, in comparison with traditional TiO 2 (P25). An overall power conversion efficiency of 2.63% is achieved by using these mesoporous TiO 2 microspheres as electrode in QDSC, significantly higher than that derived from P25 TiO 2 electrode. In addition, the photovoltaic behaviors of the materials are studied by surface photovoltage measurement to explain the excellent performance of QDSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem service is widely acknowledged as a mainstream and valuable concept for the sustainability-oriented decision-makings on meeting the fundamental needs for improving human well-being and addressing the critical challenges such as food scarcity, land degradation, climate warming, biodiversity loss, flood risk and population pressure. Different ecosystem services arise through combinations of social-ecological drivers and interact with each other across scales. Essential to design effective policy interventions toward achieving sustainability is clarifying the relationships among ecosystem services and the underlying drivers at different scales. Therefore, this study analysed the spatial patterns and relationships of six ecosystem service supplies and examined their responses to ten social-ecological drivers at three spatial scales in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in 2015. Our results revealed differences in ecosystem service spatial pattern robustness across scales. The trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services changed less in direction and more in strength at the three scales. The relationships between the provisioning service and the other ecosystem services were mostly antagonistic, and those between the regulating services and cultural service were predominately synergistic. Different types of ecosystem service bundles comprising different abundances of services were detected, and reconfiguration of ecosystem service bundles occurred as the scale changed. The directions of social-ecological drivers' impacts varied across ecosystem services, and the magnitudes of social-ecological drivers' impacts on the services varied at different scales. Across the three spatial scales, the most influential driver of ecosystem services was the normalized difference vegetation index, to which different ecosystem services responded diversely and non-linearly. Our results advocated the multiscale assessment of ecosystem services and social-ecological drivers and emphasized the necessity of embracing scale dependency in the hierarchical governance of ecosystem services. Image 1 • The trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services (ESs) changed with scale. • Reconfiguration of ESs bundles occurred as the spatial scale increased. • The magnitudes of social-ecological drivers' impacts on ESs varied with scale. • Different ESs responded non-linearly to the normalized difference vegetation index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technetium (99Tc), a radionuclide generated from uranium fission in nuclear reactors, has posed a major threat to humans due to its long half-life and radioactivity. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a strategy of selectively and efficiently capturing of 99Tc. In this work, a series of solid copolymers (denoted as DVB-[C x ClVim][Cl]) were synthesized for efficient adsorption of perrhenate (ReO 4 −, a surrogate for TcO 4 −) from mixed ions solution. The adsorbents with vinylimidazolium-based ionic liquid as functional group and divinylbenzene (DVB) as the basic framework exhibited stable structure and good ReO 4 −adsorption performance. The influences of the linear n-alkyl chain length on the morphology and adsorption property of the copolymers were discussed in detail. The maximum uptake of Re(VII) on DVB-[C 4 ClVim][Cl] was 517.61 mg·g−1. Rhenium could be separated from molybdenum in the presence of co-anions and co-cations by DVB-[C 6 ClVim][Cl], which demonstrated its good adsorption selectivity. The kinetic studies showed that pseudo-second-order model was more suitable for describing the behavior of Re(VII) adsorption. The adsorption mechanism was ion-exchange between Cl− and ReO 4 − confirmed by FI-IR, IC and XPS analysis. Additionally, DVB-[C x ClVim][Cl] remained effective Re(VII) capture ability after eight adsorption/elution cycles, demonstrating their good reusability. • A series of vinylimidazolium-based ionic liquid and divinylbenzene copolymers DVB-[C x ClVim][Cl] were synthesized. • DVB-[C 4 ClVim][Cl] has higher adsorption capacity (q e = 517.61 mg·g-1) for rhenium(VII). • DVB-[C 6 ClVim][Cl] has better selectivity and anti-anion interference ability. • The copolymers have application prospects for capturing low concentrations of TcO 4 - from high radioactive waste liquid. • It provides a low-cost and environmentally friendly approach for TcO 4 - removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]