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The boron- and nitrogen-codoped 3D interconnected carbon nanosheets were synthesized with chitosan hydrogel and boric acid as precursors. The obtained nanosheets were interconnected to form a 3D network with thin lamellae (thickness ∼30 nm) and abundant meso-pores. The successful doping of boron and nitrogen atoms was proved by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Following the decoration of manganese oxides, the resultant B, N-codoped manganese oxide-containing 3D interconnected carbon nanosheets were highly favorable for ionic transportation and storage. The specific capacitance and desalination amount of the corresponding deionization device reached 249 F g−1 and 20.3 mg g−1, respectively. This nanosheet material exhibited a fast salt adsorption rate and high cycling stability, showing an average salt adsorption rate (ASAR) of 1.5 mg g−1 min−1 and the desalination retention of 90.3% after 50 cycles. B, N-dual doping introduces active sites for ion adsorption and improves the conductivity. In addition, MnO2 deposition contributes to the faradaic pseudocapacitance. This work provides a facile and novel strategy to fabricate 3D carbon nanosheets, by combination of B, N-doping and MnO2 decoration, for highly efficient deionization application.

Objective: To perform an evaluation of the risk to healthcare personnel of exposure to cisplatin during a Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) procedure in an operating room environment. Methods: Breathing zone air samples were taken from the operating room (OR) before, during and after the procedure of HIPEC filter membrane adsorption and the liquid impact method was applied to collect air samples. The samples of surface wipe from the floor of the OR were taken after the procedure. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS) was used to detect the content of cisplatin in all the samples. Results: Thirty-six air samples and three surface wipes were collected from three different locations of healthcare personnel breathing zones. All the breathing zone air samples were negative for cisplatin; however, cisplatin contamination was detected on three surface wipes from the floor, but in a lowconcentration(≤ 2.25 ng). Conclusion: The results suggest that the risk of inhalation of cisplatin was extremely low for the healthcare personnel during the procedure of HIPEC, but the contamination of the OR floor should be taken into consideration.

As the global demand for potassium continues to increase, the potassium in natural resources is gradually insufficient. The potassium resources in the ocean are extremely rich. In this paper, a new battery deionization method (BDI) was developed to selectively recover potassium from seawater using a Fe[Fe(CN)6] (BG) battery electrode. The BG-based electrode exhibited totally different insertion behavior to the most abundant cations in seawater, with the capacity order of K+>Na+>Li+>Ca2+>Mg2+. Using the battery cell assembled with BG and activated carbon electrode, the recovery capacity of K+ arrived at 177 μmoL/g under the discharge stage of battery from 0.8 to 0 V, and no significant variation was found even in the presence of 37 times higher concentration of Na+ than that of K+. In synthetic seawater, the BG battery electrode still kept the recovery of 69.6% for K+ with the separation factor α(K+/Na+) of 141.7. Moreover, energy consumption is calculated to be 15.4 kJ/mol, 10 times lower than that of the capacitive deionization method. Meanwhile, the BG battery electrode is very stable with the adsorption amount retaining 86% over 150 cycles. The three-cell stack test in synthetic seawater proves that the current BDI device is easy to be amplified for recovering potassium from seawater.

ZnS-CuInS2 (CIZS) solid solution is synthesized via a chitosan gel-assisted method. The bandgap of the obtained CIZS semiconductor is 1.68 eV, and the position of the flat potential is 0.86 eV. When Ru is selected as the cocatalyst, the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of CIZS@Ru reaches 4.86 mmol g−1h−1 under visible-light (λ＞420 nm) radiation, and it presents good stability. Besides, CIZS@Ru also shows good CO2 reducibility, where the product contains hydrogen, methane, and a small amount of formate. The photoelectrochemical tests also suggest that Ru is the optimum cocatalyst compared with Rh, Pt and Ni. Meanwhile, the internal mechanism of photogenerated charge transfer between semiconductors and cocatalyst has been revealed by the band bending concept. This work provides a novel and facile strategy to fabricate p-type CIZS semiconductor with high visible-light photocatalytic reduction performance.

Trace nickel oxide-embedded hierarchical porous carbon nanofibers (CNF-NiO) were fabricated by electrospinning polyacrylonitrile-Ni(NO3)2 (PAN-Ni) followed by stabilization, carbonization and acid treatment. The resultant CNF-NiO was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermo gravimetric analysis and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm. The NiO amount and porous structure can be tuned by varying the PAN/Ni ratio and acid treatment time. The electrochemical properties of the electrospun CNF-NiO nanofibers were analyzed by cyclic voltammetry and impedance method. The specific capacity of 157.9 F/g was obtained at the PAN/Ni mass ratio of 90:3 with 3 h HCl wash. This porous CNF-NiO composite has been applied as a self-supporting cathode for capacitive deionization. The desalination amount arrived at 6.2 mg/g, which is 3 times as high as that of the electrospun pure carbon fibers. Longer wash time leads to decreased capacitance and desalination performance.

The carbon material derived from citrus peel was prepared via hydrothermal synthesis method with low amount of ZnCl2. The morphology and surface structure of the synthesized carbons were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms measurements. The electrochemical and capacitive deionization performance of carbon materials were comparatively studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD). Compared with the materials activated with KOH or H3PO4, ZnCl2-activated carbon showed the best electrochemical double-layer characteristics, with the specific capacity of 120 F g−1. When being applied as anode in the capacitive deionization (CDI) cell, the desalination amount of 16 mg g−1 and the average salt adsorption rate (ASAR) of 0.67 mg g−1 min−1 were achieved, which is much higher than those of KOH- and H3PO4-activated materials. The desalination amount retained 80% after 35 cycles. The possible mechanism is proposed in light of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. This work provides a facile and environmentally friendly method for the preparation of a green and low cost biomass derived porous carbon material by fruit waste with a low amount (1% mass) of activation regents for high performance capacitive deionization.

Hardness ions mainly including Ca2+ and Mg2+ can cause water quality issue. Softening of hard water is still challenging nowadays. Capacitive deionization (CDI) has attracted much attention in recent years because of its high efficiency, environmental-friendliness and low energy consumption. Mordenite is a porous ion exchange material. Herein, the porous mordenite modified activated carbon (MOR-AC) was used as cathode to selectively remove Ca2+ and Mg2+ by CDI technique. At the optimal MOR doping amount, the MOR-AC electrode shows good wettability and high specific capacitance of 162 F/g. The removal amount of Ca2+ ions on the MOR-AC cathode reached 248 μmol/g, much higher than that on the AC electrode (164 μmol/g). Distinct from AC electrode, the MOR-AC electrode delivers a much enhanced selectivity to hardness ions in multi-salt mixture solution. In the synthetic hard water, the MOR-AC electrode displays a highly selective adsorption to Ca2+ and Mg2+ with the selectivity coefficient αCa2+ Na+ and αMg2+ Na+ of 8.0 and 7.5, respectively. This CDI device is very stable and regenerable, and the adsorption capacity of Ca2+ retains 87% after 50 cycles in hard water. In addition, the scaling of electrode has been efficiently inhibited.