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Polyurethane (PU) is a complex polymer synthesized from polyols and isocyanates. It contains urethane bonds that resist hydrolysis, which decreases the efficiency of biodegradation. In this study, we first expressed the amidase GatA250, and then, assessed the enzymatic characterization of GatA250 and its efficiency in degrading the polyester-PU. GatA250 degraded self-synthesized thermoplastic PU film and postconsumption foam with degradation efficiency of 8.17% and 4.29%, respectively. During the degradation, the film released 14.8 µm 4,4'-methylenedianiline (MDA), but 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and adipic acid (AA) were not released. Our findings indicated that GatA250 only cleaved urethane bonds in PU, and the degradation efficiency was extremely low. Hence, we introduced the cutinase LCC, which possesses hydrolytic activity on the ester bonds in PU, and then used both enzymes simultaneously to degrade the polyester-PU. The combined system (LCC-GatA250) had higher degradation efficiency for the degradation of PU film (42.2%) and foam (13.94%). The combined system also showed a 1.80 time increase in the production of the monomer MDA, and a 1.23 and 3.62 times increase in the production of AA and BDO, respectively, compared to their production recorded after treatment with only GatA250 or LCC. This study provides valuable insights into PU pollution control and also proposes applicable solutions to manage PU wastes through bio-recycling., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

The inevitable organic matters in radioactive wastewater and contaminated waters pose great challenge in uranium recycling by traditional techniques. Here, a self-driven solar coupling system (SSCS), which was assembled by a TiO 2 @MXene/CF cathode and a monolithic photoanode, was proposed for synergistically recycling uranium and degrading organics from complex radioactive wastewater, combining with electricity production. The TiO 2 @MXene/CF was prepared via a simple annealing process with in-situ derived TiO 2 nanoparticles decorated Ti 3 C 2 MXene coated on carbon felt (CF). Under sunlight illumination, the photoanode captured electrons of organics, and drove electrons to the TiO 2 @MXene/CF, which exhibited an exceptional UO 2 2+ adsorption and reduction capacity because TiO 2 nanoparticles provided plenty of surface hydroxyl groups for UO 2 2+ adsorption, and the unique two-dimensional MXene facilitated the charge transfer. The SSCS with TiO 2 @MXene/CF removed almost 100% UO 2 2+ and organics with rate constants of ∼21 and ∼6.9 times those of the system with CF, accompanying with excellent power output (∼1000 μW·cm -2 ). The fixed uranium on TiO 2 @MXene/CF was effectively reduced into insoluble UO 2 (91.1%), and no obvious decay was observed after 15 repeated uses. This study proposes a multi-functional and easy-operated way for remediating radioactive wastewater and contaminated waters, and gives valuable insights in designing cathode materials for uranium reduction., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Persistent photocatalysis has garnered significant attention due to its ability to sustain catalytic activity in dark by storing electrons. However, the practical application of persistent photocatalysis is hindered by limited electron storage capacity. Herein, we synthesized and demonstrated that Ti 3 C 2 /TiO 2 /Ag persistent photocatalyst has good electron storage capability. The electron storage capacity of Ti 3 C 2 /TiO 2 /Ag is up to 0.125 μmol/mg, which is 2.5 times that of Ti 3 C 2 /TiO 2 . The enhanced electron storage capacity resulted in improved dark-reaction activity because more electrons react with oxygen to form more radicals, as evidenced by degradation experiments of various organics. Especially, persistent photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride by Ti 3 C 2 /TiO 2 /Ag was achieved under natural outdoor conditions (from 2:00p.m. to 8:00p.m.). Additionally, the aid of oxidants such as peroxymonosulfate (PMS) can further improve the dark-reaction activity. TiO 2 /Ti 3 C 2 /Ag/PMS system exhibits excellent efficacy in removing tetracycline hydrochloride, oxytetracycline, rhodamine b, methyl orange, and methylene blue, with removal rates reaching 79.5 %, 81.4 %, 98.9 %, 99.1 %, and 99.2 %, respectively (15 min of light-reaction and 45 min of dark-reaction). This work provides a new strategy to enhance electron storage capacity and demonstrates that decoupling of light-reaction and dark-reaction may provide a new opportunity for photocatalytic removal of pollutants around the clock., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Microbial degradation is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly method for removing microcystin-LR (MC-LR). However, the application of free bacteria has limitations due to low operational stability and difficulties in recovery. In a previous study, our group successfully isolated a highly efficient MC-LR-degrading bacterium, Sphingopyxis sp. YF1, from Taihu. To enhance its practical potential in addressing MC-LR-contaminated water pollution, a novel biological material named polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber @ Sphingopyxis sp. YF1 (PAN-CF@YF1) was synthesized. The immobilization conditions of strain Sphingopyxis sp. YF1 on PAN-CF surfaces were optimized using Box-Behnken design and response surface methodology (RSM), which turned out to be an optimal pH of 7.6 for the culture medium, a ratio of 0.038 g of supporting materials per 100 mL of culture media, and an incubation time of 53.4 h. The resultant PAN-CF@YF1 showed a great degradation effect both for low and high concentrations of MC-LR and exhibited satisfactory cyclic stability (85.75% after six cycles). Moreover, the application of PAN-CF@YF1 in the bioreactors demonstrated effective and sustainable MC-LR removal, with a removal efficiency of 78.83% after three consecutive treatments. Therefore, PAN-CF@YF1 with high degradation activity, environmental compatibility, straightforward preparation, and recyclability shows significant application potential for the bioremediation of MC-LR-contaminated water bodies.

Even though uranium (U) is considered to be an essential strategic resource with vital significance to nuclear power development and climate change mitigation, U exposure to human and ecological environment has received growing concerns due to its both highly chemically toxic and radioactively hazardous property. In this study, a composite (M-BC) based on Ficus macrocarpa (banyan tree) aerial roots biochar (BC) modified by δ-MnO 2 was designed to separate U(VI) from synthetic wastewater. The results showed that the separation capacity of M-BC was 61.53 mg/g under the solid - liquid ratio of 1 g/L, which was significantly higher than that of BC (12.39 mg/g). The separation behavior of U(VI) both by BC and M-BC fitted well with Freundlich isothermal models, indicating multilayer adsorption occurring on heterogeneous surfaces. The reaction process was consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the main rate-limiting step was particle diffusion process. It is worthy to note that the removal of U(VI) by M-BC was maintained at 94.56% even after five cycles, indicating excellent reusability and promising application potential. Multiple characterization techniques (e.g. Scanning Electron Microscope-Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (SEM-EDS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)) uncovered that U(VI) complexation with oxygen-containing functional groups (e.g. O-CO and Mn-O) and cation exchange with protonated ≡MnOH were the dominant mechanisms for U(VI) removal. Application in real uranium wastewater treatment showed that 96% removal of U was achieved by M-BC and more than 92% of co-existing (potentially) toxic metals such as Tl, Co, Pb, Cu and Zn were simultaneously removed. The work verified a feasible candidate of banyan tree aerial roots biowaste based δ-MnO 2 -modified porous BC composites for efficient separation of U(VI) from uranium wastewater, which are beneficial to help address the dilemma between sustainability of nuclear power and subsequent hazard elimination., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Proper disposal of uranium-containing waste is of utmost importance for safeguarding the environment and human health. In this study, we proposed a novel zero-dimensional (0D)/two-dimensional (2D) nanocomposite material, nZVC/Ti 3 C 2 , composed of nano zero-valent copper (nZVC) nanoparticles loaded onto Ti 3 C 2 MXene nanoflakes, which was prepared using a simple in situ chemical reduction method. The uniform dispersion of 0D nZVC nanoparticles, with a size of approximately 5 nm, onto the 2D ultrathin Ti 3 C 2 MXene effectively prevented agglomeration and corrosion of nZVC. This unique configuration provided numerous adsorption sites for UO 2 2+ and facilitated a fascinating charge channel for reducing adsorbed UO 2 2+ into low-mobilized UO 2 by nZVC. Under the synergistic effect of Ti 3 C 2 MXene and nZVC, remarkable efficiency and selectivity of nZVC/Ti 3 C 2 for U (VI) removal were demonstrated, which exhibited an exceptional adsorption capacity of up to 360 mg/g, coupled with a high removal efficiency of 97.5 % and rapid kinetics. Importantly, the presence of humic acid did not significantly affect the U (VI) removal efficiency of the composite because of the reduction effect of nZVC. The underlying mechanism of U (VI) removal was elucidated, revealing the involvement of reductive immobilization in the form of UO 2 (as high as 73.6 %), inner-sphere surface complexation, and hydrolytic precipitation. This mechanism was dependent on the availability of active nZVC and the solution's pH. These findings highlight the potential of nZVC/Ti 3 C 2 composites as efficient decontaminants for radioactive wastewater, thus contributing to advancements in environmental remediation endeavors., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The development of new-onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a clinical complication that requires a better understanding of the causative risk factors. This study aimed to explore the risk factors and the expression and function of miR-1 and miR-133a in new atrial fibrillation after AMI., Methods: We collected clinical data from 172 patients with AMI treated with emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between October 2021 and October 2022. Independent predictors of NOAF were determined using binary logistic univariate and multivariate regression analyses. The predictive value of NOAF was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for related risk factors. In total, 172 venous blood samples were collected preoperatively and on the first day postoperatively; the expression levels of miR-1 and miR-133a were determined using the polymerase chain reaction. The clinical significance of miR-1 and miR-133a expression levels was determined by Spearman correlation analysis., Results: The Glasgow prognostic score, left atrial diameter, and infarct area were significant independent risk factors for NOAF after AMI. We observed that the expression levels of miR-1 and miR-133a were significantly higher in the NOAF group than in the non-NOAF group. On postoperative day 1, strong associations were found between miR-133a expression levels and the neutrophil ratio and between miR-1 expression levels and an increased left atrial diameter., Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the mechanism of NOAF after AMI may include an inflammatory response associated with an increased miR-1-related mechanism. Conversely, miR-133a could play a protective role in this clinical condition., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

Efficient degradation of antibiotic by peroxydisulfate (PDS)-based advanced oxidation processes in complex water environment is challenging due to the interference of impurities and the low activation efficiency of PDS caused by its symmetric structure. Herein, a novel Cu 7 S 4 /PDS system was developed, which can selectively remove tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) without interference of inorganic ions (e.g., Cl - and HCO 3 - ) and natural organic matter (e.g., humic acid). The results of quenching and probe experiments demonstrated that surface high-valent copper species (Cu(III)), rather than radicals and 1 O 2 , are main active species for TC degradation. Cu(III) can be generated via Cu(I)/O 2 and Cu(II)/Cu(I)/PDS systems and the S species on the surface of Cu 7 S 4 promotes the cycle of Cu(II)/Cu(I) and Cu(III)/Cu(II), resulting in continuous generation of Cu(III). In addition, the degradation pathways of TC were proposed based on product analysis and DFT theory calculations. The acute toxicity, developmental toxicity and mutagenicity of treated TC were significantly reduced according to the results of toxicity estimation software tool. This study shows a promising Cu 7 S 4 /PDS system for the degradation and detoxication of antibiotic in complex water environment, while also providing a comprehensive understanding of PDS activation by Cu 7 S 4 to generate active Cu(III) species., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The utilization of bio-wastes, such as shaddock peels, is of great significance for sustainable development. Combined with the potential of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) based advanced oxidation process (AOP) in wastewater treatment, a highly efficient functional catalyst, derived from shaddock peels biochar (SPC) and embedded with CoO@Co nanoparticles, i.e. Co-SPC-x(y), was prepared using a facile impregnation-calcination method and used for refractory organics degradation with PMS. The decoration amount of Co and annealing temperature were optimized, and the effects of various reaction factors were investigated. The results indicated that the optimized sample of Co-SPC-10 (900) consisted of multilayer biochar with curly edges and highly dispersed CoO@Co nanoparticles in the range of 20-200 nm, which is in cubic metallic Co and CoO. Moreover, it also possessed a specific surface area of 248.6 m 2 /g, and exhibited excellent PMS activation ability with ∼100% chlortetracycline hydrochloride (CTC) removal ratio within only 12 min of operation. The Co-SPC-10 (900)/PMS system showed relatively high tolerance for HPO 4 2- , NO 3 - and SO 4 2- , while the Cl - and HA had considerable effects on it. Mechanism exploration results revealed that both radical and non-radical pathways existed in the Co-SPC-10 (900)/PMS system, in which the multilayered biochar functioned as an electron transfer carrier to facilitate the continuous cycle of Co 2+ /Co 3+ in the CoO@Co nanoparticles by reacting with the absorbed CTC and PMS, resulting in the production of •OH, SO 4 •- , O 2 •- and 1 O 2 . Additionally, the Co-SPC-10 (900) also showed good stability and catalytic oxidation performance for various refractory organics., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Microorganisms capable of decomposing polyurethane (PU) and other plastics have the potential to be used in bio-recycling processes. In this study, 20 PU-degrading strains were isolated, including 11 bacteria and 9 fungi, using a synthesized poly(1,4-butylene adipate)-based PU (PBA-PU) as the screening substrate. Three PU substrates with increasing structure complexities were used for a thorough evaluation of microbial degradation capacity: Impranil® DLN-SD, PBA-PU film and PU foam waste. After 4 days, the best fungal PBA-PU degrader, Cladosporium sp. P7, could degrade 94.5% of Impranil® DLN-SD. After 28 days of cultivation, 32.42% and 43.91% of solid PBA-PU film was converted into soluble small molecules when used as the sole carbon source or in a medium with other co-carbon sources, respectively. Accordingly, the weight loss of PU foam waste after 15 days was 15.3% for the sole carbon condition and 83.83% for the co-carbon conditions. Furthermore, PBA-PU was used for metabolic pathway analysis because of its known composition and chemical structure. Six metabolites were identified during the degradation process of PBA-PU, including adipic acid (AA), 1,4-butanediol (BDO), and 4,4'-methylenedianiline (MDA), which can also be used as the sole carbon source to grow the fungal strain P7, resulting in the discovery of two MDA metabolites during the cultivation processes. Based on the presence of these eight metabolites, we hypothesized that PBA-PU is first depolymerized by the fungal strain P7 via ester and urethane bond hydrolysis, followed by intracellular metabolism and mineralization of the three monomers to CO 2 and H 2 O., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Reed is a typical emerged plant in constructed wetlands (CWs). Its litters were used as raw materials for preparing Fe-C ceramic-filler (Fe-C-CF). The physical and chemical properties of Fe-C-CF were studied under different conditions, including the mass ration of Fe to carbon (Fe/C ratio), sintering temperature, and time, to determine the optimum preparing conditions. Meanwhile, the denitrification performance and CO 2 emission flux of the surface flow constructed wetland (SFCW) systems were investigated when using Fe-C-CF as the matrix. The optimum preparing conditions for Fe-C-CF were Fe/C ratio of 1:1, sintering temperature and time of 500 °C and 20 min, respectively. The SFCW system with Fe-C-CF obtained a higher total nitrogen (TN), nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 - -N), and ammonia nitrogen (NH 3 -N) removal efficiencies than the control SFCW system without Fe-C-CF. Compared with the heterotrophic denitrification process, the SFCW system with Fe-C-CF decreased CO 2 emission by 67.9 g m -2 per year. The results of microbial community analysis indicated that addition of Fe-C-CF increased the diversity and abundance of microbial communities in the SFCW systems. The dominant genus of the SFCW system with Fe-C-CF was Bacillus, while Uliginosibacterium was the dominant genus in the system without the filler., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Transition metal sulfides have been demonstrated to be effective for peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation towards wastewater treatment. However, the activity of vanadium sulfide (VS 4 ) and the role of the chemical state of V have not been revealed. Here, three types of VS 4 with various morphologies and chemical states of V were synthesized by using methanol (M-VS 4 , nanosphere composed of nanosheets), ethanol (E-VS 4 , sea urchin like nanosphere) and ultrapure water (U-VS 4 , compact nanosphere) as hydrothermal solvent, respectively, and used as heterogeneous catalysts to activate PMS for the degradation of refractory organic pollutants. The effects of PMS concentration, temperature, pH, inorganic ions, and humic acid (HA) on the degradation efficiency of VS 4 /PMS system were investigated systematically. The results indicated that the highest specific surface area and lowest ratio of V 5+ enable E-VS 4 /PMS system possessed the highest performance in degrading tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH), in which 100% TCH was removed after operating 10 min (0.805 min -1 ) under a relatively low concentration of PMS (1 mM) and catalyst (100 mg/L). It also revealed that the system exhibited a typical radical process in TCH degradation, which could be attributed to the redox cycles between V 5+ , V 4+ and V 3+ in the presence of PMS to generate various radicals. This radical process enabled the E-VS 4 /PMS system with a high activity in wide reaction conditions and high mineralization ratios in degrading various refractory organic pollutants within 10 min. In addition, the E-VS 4 /PMS system exhibited favorable reusability and stability with very less V and S ions leaching, and showed excellent performance in real water purification., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is one of themost common causes of major birth defects, with a prevalence of 1%. Although an increasing number of studies have reported the etiology of CHD, the findings scattered throughout the literature are difficult to retrieve and utilize in research and clinical practice. We therefore developed CHDbase, an evidence-based knowledgebase of CHD-related genes and clinical manifestations manually curated from 1114 publications, linking 1124susceptibility genes and 3591 variations to more than 300 CHD types and related syndromes. Metadata such as the information of each publication and the selected population and samples, the strategy of studies, and the major findings of studies were integrated with each item of the research record. We also integrated functional annotations through parsing ∼ 50 databases/tools to facilitate the interpretation of these genes and variations in disease pathogenicity. We further prioritized the significance of these CHD-related genes with a gene interaction network approach and extracted a core CHD sub-network with 163 genes. The clear genetic landscape of CHD enables the phenotype classification based on the shared genetic origin. Overall, CHDbase provides a comprehensive and freely available resource to study CHD susceptibilities, supporting a wide range of users in the scientific and medical communities. CHDbase is accessible at http://chddb.fwgenetics.org., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A cobalt (Co)-doped perovskite molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO 3 ) catalyst (Co-MO) was synthesized by a facile pyrolysis strategy and used for degrading various organic contaminants via peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. The doped Co was inserted in the inter space between the octahedron [MoO 6 ], facilitating the growth of the α-MoO 3 crystal on the [010] direction. This unique structure accelerated the activation of PMS as the Co-MO could function as a carrier for electron transfer to facilitate the Co(II)/Co(III) cycle in the Co-MO/PMS system. As a result, the Co-MO/PMS system showed noticeable activity for removing 100% bisphenol A (BPA) under a broad conditions within 30 min. The radical quenching test and electron paramagnetic resonance analysis revealed that singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) was the main active species for BPA degradation in the Co-MO/PMS system, while free radicals, such as O 2 •- , SO 4 •- and •OH, were also produced as the intermediate species. Furthermore, the carrier mechanism may enable the Co-MO/PMS system maintain relatively high performance during repeat use, and also excellent adaptability was revealed by the well function in various water matrices and high activity in degrading various refractory organic pollutants. Our findings pave a useful avenue for the rational design of novel cobalt-doped catalysts with high catalytic performance toward wide environmental applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Gait impairments are among the most common hallmarks of Parkinson's disease (PD), usually appearing in the early stage and becoming a major cause of disability with disease progression. Accurate assessment of gait features is critical to personalized rehabilitation for patients with PD, yet difficult to be routinely carried out as clinical diagnosis using rating scales relies heavily on clinical experience. Moreover, the popular rating scales cannot ensure fine quantification of gait impairments for patients with mild symptoms. Developing quantitative assessment methods that can be used in natural and home-based environments is highly demanded. In this study, we address the challenges by developing an automated video-based Parkinsonian gait assessment method using a novel skeleton-silhouette fusion convolution network. In addition, seven network-derived supplementary features, including critical aspects of gait impairment (gait velocity, arm swing, etc.), are extracted to provide continuous measures enhancing low-resolution clinical rating scales. Evaluation experiments were conducted on a dataset collected with 54 patients with early PD and 26 healthy controls. The results show that the proposed method accurately predicted the patients' unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (UPDRS) gait scores (71.25% match on clinical assessment) and discriminated between PD patients and healthy subjects with a sensitivity of 92.6%. Moreover, three proposed supplementary features (i.e., arm swing amplitude, gait velocity, and neck forward bending angle) turned out to be effective gait dysfunction indicators with Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.78, 0.73, and 0.43 matching the rating scores, respectively. Since the proposed system requires only two smartphones, it holds a significant benefit for home-based quantitative assessment of PD, especially for detecting early-stage PD. Furthermore, the proposed supplementary features can enable high-resolution assessments of PD for providing subject-specific accurate treatments.

Tungstic oxide (WO 3 ) is a promising visible-light-responsive photoanode material, but it has poor charge transport and collection properties. In this study, a WO 3 /BiFeO 3 core/shell photoanode (WO 3 /BFO) with enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance was successfully prepared using a facile spin-coating method. The optimal WO 3 /BFO shows an excellently enhanced and stable photocurrent density of ∼2.83 mA cm -2 at 0.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl, which is ∼244% more than WO 3 under AM 1.5 illumination. The results of Mott-Schottky tests, intensity modulated photoelectrochemical spectroscopy and transient photocurrent decay indicated that the BFO ferroelectric nanolayer significantly enhances the charge density of the WO 3 /BFO, and improves its charge transport and separation property and charge lifetime, which could be the reason for the enhanced PEC activity of WO 3 /BFO.

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) has enormous potentials for photocatalysis, yet it only possesses moderate activity because of excitonic effects and sluggish charge transfer. Here, we develop a novel two-dimensional g-C 3 N 4 /WO 3 /MoS 2 (CWM) ternary nanocomposite through a facile co-calcination and a hydrothermal process to reach a highly-efficient photocatalyst for organic pollutant elimination under visible light. The WO 3 and MoS 2 nanoparticles were dispersed on the ultra-thin g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets, in which the electronegative g-C 3 N 4 facilitates formation of oxygen vacancies in WO 3 . Compared to pure g-C 3 N 4 , WO 3 , and binary composites, CWM exhibited higher photocatalytic activities for various organic pollutants removal under visible light irradiation. For instance, the CWM showed a removal ratio of ∼99% for RhB after only 10 min irradiation of visible light (λ > 420 nm) and nearly 100% for ciprofloxacin after 2 h of operation. The results showed that OH radicals are the main active species for organic degradation, which suggests a direct Z-scheme heterojunction in CWM that improved spatial separation of charge carries. Furthermore, the collection of electrons is significantly enhanced by MoS 2 for oxygen reduction reaction, and the increased oxygen vacancies of WO 3 further enhanced the separation of electron-hole pairs; therefore, it led to an effective suppression of charge carriers recombination. The above synergistic effects of ternary photocatalyst result in higher photocatalytic oxidation performance for wastewater treatment compared with pure WO 3 , g-C 3 N 4 and their binary composites., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In this paper, a high-performance BiVO4 photoanode deposited with serial hole transfer layers was fabricated for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting in order to overcome the shortcomings of pure BiVO4 electrodes in terms of poor charge transport properties and undesirable surface water oxidation kinetics. The hole transfer layer of Fe2O3 was first deposited on the surface of pure BiVO4 to promote the hole transfer from the bulk of the semiconductor to the electrode surface (bulk/surface transfer process), and then the hole transfer layer of NiOOH/FeOOH was deposited on the surface to improve the hole transfer from the electrode surface to the electrolyte (surface/electrolyte transfer process). The results showed a remarkable improvement in PEC water splitting performance for the NiOOH/FeOOH/Fe2O3/BiVO4 photoanode. The photocurrent was up to 2.24 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE, which was about 2.95 times that of the pristine BiVO4 photoanode. Meanwhile, the charge transport efficiencies in the bulk (ηbulk) and the surface (ηsurface) were enhanced by 1.63 and 2.62 times compared to those of the BiVO4 photoanode at 1.23 V vs. RHE, respectively. In addition, the novel photoanode was assembled with a commercial silicon PVC for self-bias PEC water splitting, and a stable photocurrent density of ∼2.60 mA cm-2, corresponding to a ∼3.2% STH conversion efficiency, was achieved spontaneously. Our study provided a more efficient serial hole transfer strategy for achieving a BiVO4 photoanode with enhanced PEC water splitting.

The development of highly efficient and stable visible-light-responsive photoanode materials is essential for practical photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) applications. In this work, a novel method was proposed to enhance the PEC efficiency and stability of WO3 photoanodes by the facile in situ growth of TiO2 branch overlayers on WO3 nanoplates (TWNP) based on the lattice match between monoclinic WO3 and anatase TiO2. The WO3 nanoplates (WNP) with a fluted body and a thickness of 160 nm were first prepared on tungsten foil by a hydrothermal method. Then, numerous 001-oriented anatase TiO2 branches were directly grown in situ on the WNP with an average thickness of 50 nm and a length of 35 ± 5 nm. TWNP exhibited a photocurrent of ∼2.37 mA cm-2, which is 157% of that of WNP, and showed no obvious decay over 100 h continuous testing, compared to only 11.8% that remained for WNP. During the PEC degradation of phenol, the rate constant was 0.322 h-1 for TWNP while it was only 0.131 h-1 for WNP, and the activity of TWNP remained at 97.2% after 10 repeat tests compared to only 67.4% for WNP. According to the transient photovoltage and transient photocurrent measurements, these improvements can be attributed to the TiO2 branches which enhanced the charge separation efficiency and surface reaction kinetics, and hindered the inactivation of TWNP by providing an atomic-level protective cover. Overall, the in situ wet chemical growth of the TiO2 branches is a meaningful way to overcome WO3's drawbacks, i.e., sluggish surface reaction kinetics, rapid charge recombination and gradual loss of photoactivity, to improve the PEC activity and stability of WO3 photoanodes.

A unique, controllable and facile method based on peroxovanadate reduction and conversion to prepare BiVO 4 nanoporous films is presented. In this method, a slow and controllable reduction of peroxovanadate with ethanol was used, which was the crucial step to ensure the uniform deposition of V 2 O 5 ·xH 2 O on an F-doped tin oxide substrate, and subsequently the annealed V 2 O 5 ·xH 2 O film was converted to a BiVO 4 film by a simple impregnation method with Bi 3+ under the oriented effect of polyethylene glycol. The converted BiVO 4 film possessed a single monoclinic scheelite structure and exhibited an optimal water splitting photocurrent density of 1.10 mA cm -2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE in 0.1 M KH 2 PO 4 (pH 7) under AM 1.5G illumination with an incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency of ∼22.4% at 400 nm using an annealed V 2 O 5 ·xH 2 O film deposited for 3 hours. The BiVO 4 film also showed excellent water splitting performance and degradation efficiency in the PEC degradation of methylene blue and tetracycline hydrochloride with a rate constant of 0.63 h -1 and 0.21 h -1 , respectively.

A novel, facile self-driven photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) system was established for highly selective and efficient recovery of H 2 S and simultaneous electricity production. The key ideas were the self-bias function between a WO 3 photoanode and a Si/PVC photocathode due to their mismatched Fermi levels and the special cyclic redox reaction mechanism of I - /I 3 - . Under solar light, the system facilitated the separation of holes in the photoanode and electrons in the photocathode, which then generated electricity. Cyclic redox reactions were produced in the photoanode region as follows: I - was transformed into I 3 - by photoholes or hydroxyl radicals, H 2 S was oxidized to S by I 3 - , and I 3 - was then reduced to I - . Meanwhile, H + was efficiently converted to H 2 in the photocathode region. In the system, H 2 S was uniquely oxidized to sulfur but not to polysulfide (S x n- ) because of the mild oxidation capacity of I 3 - . High recovery rates for S and H 2 were obtained up to ∼1.04 mg h -1 cm -1 and ∼0.75 mL h -1 cm -1 , respectively, suggesting that H 2 S was completely converted into H 2 and S. In addition, the output power density of the system reached ∼0.11 mW cm -2 . The proposed PEC-H 2 S system provides a self-sustaining, energy-saving method for simultaneous H 2 S treatment and energy recovery.