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The development of high-performance nickel-zinc (Ni-Zn) alkaline batteries is mainly plagued by short life span and poor rate performance of ZnO anode materials. To improve the cycling stability and rate capability of Ni-Zn batteries, carbon dots (CDs) are employed to construct clustered ZnO-CDs nanocomposites, coating ZnO with protective shells of carbon layers and providing electron paths to enhance conductivity of the nanocomposites. Univalent zinc species are found at the interfaces between CDs derivatives and ZnO, which are embedded in the nanoclusters and protected well by carbon coating. Theoretical calculations show univalent zinc species change the electronic structures of ZnO surface, so as to accelerate the charging process of ZnO anode materials. Such ZnO-CDs derived nanocomposites exhibit excellent rate capability (95.3%, 84.7% and 75.0% of capacity retention rate at 2, 5 and 10 A g−1, respectively) and outstanding cycling stability with 92.0% of capacity retention rate after 5000 cycles, which is far better than ZnO based anodes without the protection of CDs (39.1% retention rate from 1 to 10 A g−1 and 71.6% of capacity retention rate after 500 cycles).

The corrosion behavior of the new Ni–Cr–Fe base superalloy GH984G in a synthetic coal ash and flue gas environments was studied at 700 °C. The results showed that the corrosion rate was slow during the initial corrosion stage, then followed by a stage of faster mass loss. During the corrosion test, the scale trended to spall slightly, resulting in the formation of corrosion pits on the sample surfaces. The main corrosion products were identified as NiFeCrO4 and a small amount of Cr2O3. The scale microstructure involved the presence of three corrosion layers. The outer layer contained Cr, Ni, Fe, O and a small amount of S. Many micro-cracks were detected in the Cr-rich intermediate oxide layer. The inner corrosion layer was thin and rich in S. Internal sulfidation and internal oxidation occurred in the substrate. Because of its relatively high Cr content, the GH984G superalloy exhibited a good corrosion resistance under the test conditions.

Correction for ‘Mechanistic study on NO reduction by sludge reburning in a pilot scale cement precalciner with different CO2 concentrations’ by Xiang Xiao et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 22863–22874.