Search

A ZCS/PO/FCNPi–MO composite was constructed by a two-step photochemical synthesis strategy and used for efficient tandem application of photocatalytic partial water splitting and overall water splitting.

Catalytic conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals has attracted considerable attention in addressing the global challenges associated with energy and environmental crisis. Catalyst plays a crucial role in the biomass conversion process, and the characteristic of catalysts are continuously improved to meet the requirements. Niobium (Nb) based catalysts, generally in the form of niobic acid, niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5), niobium phosphate (NbOPO4), and their supporting materials, have been widely employed for bioenergy production. This review summarizes the special characteristics of Nb-based catalysts, and the application of these catalysts on the catalytic conversion of biomass, including (I) properties of Nb-based catalysts, (II) catalytic hydrolysis/dehydration for platform chemicals, (III) catalytic pyrolysis for hydrocarbons, (IV) catalytic esterification, (V) catalytic hydrogenation, and (VI) catalytic oxidation. The Nb compounds become an attractive candidate in the bioenergy field, and this review serves as a basis for future research on biomass catalytic conversion over Nb-based catalysts.

With the increased awareness of reusing solid wastes for higher sustainability and the concern of water pollution associated with phosphorus over-emission, there are strong interests in developing solid waste based adsorbents for purifying phosphorus-containing wastewater. As a rich calcium resource, paper mill sludge (i.e., a major solid waste from pulping industry) can be used as phosphorus removal adsorbent after calcination. Thus, in this work, a simple and clean thermally treating route has been proposed for preparing calcium-containing biochar from paper mill sludge. The effect of the physicochemical properties of paper mill sludge and its carbonization condition on phosphorus adsorption has been analyzed. Moreover, the influence of some key adsorption parameters, e.g., biochar dosage, initial pH of solution, co-existing anions, initial phosphorus concentration and contact time has also been investigated. The results showed that the phosphorus adsorption data could be fitted well with pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isothermal models. The calculated maximum adsorption capacity of the as-prepared optimal calcium-containing biochar could reach to 68.49 mg·g−1 at 25 °C. Combined with the characterization results, it can be reasonably inferred that the adsorption process was chemisorption-dominated. Lastly, the application of this spent adsorbent in agriculture field has also been discussed. In brief, this work provided a feasible strategy for converting paper mill solid waste to an environmental functional material (i.e., calcium-rich biochar) for remediation of eutrophic water.

The transesterification of triglycerides is a critical step in biodiesel production. In this work, by loading boron-doped copper oxides onto SBA-15 mesoporous molecular sieve, an acid-base bifunctional catalyst (i.e., CunO-Bs/SBA-15) was prepared and applied to triglyceride transesterification. Compared with pure copper, sodium or boron oxides-based catalysts, CunO-Bs/SBA-15 enabled a higher biodiesel yield (>97.5%) at near room temperature (i.e., 40 °C) in 120 min. The characterization results showed that after B doping, the CunO-Bs/SBA-15 catalyst contained highly-dispersed acid-base sites without blocking the channels of porous SBA-15 support, which had good catalytic performance. Finally, in-situ DRIFTS was used to reveal the catalytic mechanism of the acid-base bifunctional groups of the as-prepared CunO-Bs/SBA-15 during transesterification.

Ethyne is often an unwanted impurity in ethene streams used in plastics industry. Supported Pd catalysts offer high ethyne conversion, but poor ethene selectivity due to over-hydrogenation which leads to the formation of carbonaceous deposits. In this paper, acrylamide was grafted by free radical polymerization onto bagasse pith hemicellulose (to form HEMI-g-AAMs), which was then used as a porous bio-based carrier of Pd nanoparticles. The obtained Pd/HEMI-g-AAMs catalyst showed an ethyne conversion and ethene selectivity of 100% and 94.70%, respectively, at 100 °C and a space velocity of 70,000 h−1. The nitrogen-rich bio-based support regulated the physicochemical properties and catalytic activity of the supported Pd nanoparticles. Results guide the development of new and improved Pd-based catalysts for the partial catalytic hydrogenation of ethyne to ethene.

A novel catalyst-free pyrolysis process of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) to crotonic acid (CA) in inert nonpolar solvents was developed. After a simple consecutive process of reaction (210 °C for 5 h in a cyclohexane solvent) and separation (vacuum distillation at 60 °C), CA was obtained with a yield of 89 wt% and a purity of 91%. This work paves a green and sustainable way for the mass production of CA from renewable PHB.

Semi-hydrogenation of acetylene is an essential step in the olefin industry. In recent years, little attention has been paid to the development of base metal catalysts for use in this process. Nano-nickel catalysts with different loading amounts were prepared by a simple impregnation method in this study. Compared with other non-noble-metallic catalysts, the supported nickel catalyst has a higher activity and selectivity for acetylene selective hydrogenation. The results showed that the conversion and selectivity of the Ni/MCM-41 catalyst were 96% and 87%, respectively, at 240 °C with a Ni loading of 25 wt% and a space velocity of 40 000 h−1. The high activity was attributed to the high metal dispersion and the interaction between the metal and the carrier. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) results confirmed the existence of π-bonded ethylene on the metal sites, which improved the selectivity of ethylene.

Introduction Gene expression association studies of tumor samples have uncovered several long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) closely related to various types of cancer. Several lncRNAs have been reported to play essential roles in the progression of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Novel lncRNA inhibiting proliferation and metastasis (lnc-NLIPMT) is a known regulator of mammary cell proliferation and motility, but its involvement in PTC is unclear. Materials and methods We investigated the role of lnc-NLIPMT in PTC by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) on various PTC tissue samples and cell lines. We assessed the effects of overexpression or knockdown of lnc-NLIPMT on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of PTC cells using CCK-8, cell clone formation, and transwell assays. Changes in the expression of N-cadherin and vimentin were detected by immunoblotting. Results Our results revealed a downregulation of the expression of lnc-NLIPMT in PTC and a negative correlation between lnc-NLIPMT expression and tumor size (P=0.006). Overexpression of lnc-NLIPMT in TPC-1 and B-CPAP cells significantly suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, while lnc-NLIPMT knockdown had the opposite effect. In addition, lnc-NLIPMT played an important role in the regulation of the expression of N-cadherin and vimentin. Conclusion lnc-NLIPMT inhibits cell proliferation and metastasis of PTC cells and is a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in PTC.

As one of the organic carbon-rich feedstocks, Miscanthus sinensis is an interesting candidate for producing many high-value materials and chemicals. In this study, M. sinensis-derived activated carbon (msAC) particles with ca. 3.4 nm average pore size have been prepared by a simple carbonation method for supporting Pd nanoparticles (NPs) to hydrogenate acetylene. Catalytic test results showed that the 0.25% Pd/msAC catalyst could convert ∼99.9% of acetylene with ∼99.9% of ethylene selectivity. The life test result strongly demonstrated that the catalyst had a good durability for long-term (>100 h) acetylene hydrogenation with high conversion (∼99.9%) and ethylene selectivity (∼93.1%) at 260 °C with a space velocity of 80,000 h–¹. The characterization results indicated that the msAC with the micro- and nanoscale pore structure and uniformly distributed oxygen-containing functional groups could efficiently disperse Pd nanoparticles and promote their Pd (111) crystal plane exposure. The above structure nature was co-contributing to the catalyst to choose the energetically favorable path for efficient acetylene hydrogenation and ethylene desorption. This work opens up valuable insights into the high-value utilization of M. sinensis biomass to design an efficient isolated Pd NP catalyst.

Carbon materials show great potential in catalytic applications, due to their advantages of wide raw material sources, stable chemical properties, and large specific surface area. In this paper, N-doped biochar was prepared from Pennisetum giganteum for supporting PdLa bimetallic nanoparticles to achieve efficient conversion of acetylene. The results showed that the conversion and ethylene selectivity of the Pd0.25La0.25/N-pgBC bimetallic catalyst could reach 100% and 94.2%, respectively. From the characterization results, it could be inferred that the electron transfer from lanthanum to palladium can weaken the ethylene adsorption onto the negatively charged Pd sites and thus improve the selectivity of Pd0.25La0.25/N-pgBC. It is noted that the bimetallic PdLa/N-pgBC catalyst showed strong component dependence, which may be caused by the difference in electronic or geometric modification caused by different metal ratios. This work has shown that the active site separation effect formed by doping inert metals is of great significance to the whole catalytic field.

MIL-100(Fe), a kind of iron-based metal-organic framework materials (MOFs), can be synthesized at room temperature or hydrothermal conditions, which are promising precursor materials for preparing photocatalysts to degrade some recalcitrant chlorophenols in industrial wastewater. However, the relationship between the structural characterization of MIL-100(Fe) derivatives and their photodegradation behavior of chlorophenol pollutants is still unclear. Thus, in this work, a porous Z-scheme α-Fe2O3/MIL-100(Fe) composite was successfully fabricated via partial-pyrolysis of MIL-100(Fe) precursor synthesized through green synthesis route, which was further used for degrading high-concentration of 2,4-dichlorophenol under visible-light illumination (λ > 420 nm). The effects of synthesis route and pyrolysis temperature of MIL-100(Fe) on the degradation efficiencies of as-derived materials for 2,4-dichlorophenol were investigated. The structure-activity relationship was illuminated in detail. Otherwise, the influence of several process factors, i.e., initial concentration and pH of the 2,4-dichlorophenol solution, catalyst dosage on the degradation efficiency of 2,4-dichlorophenol has also been performed. The removal efficiency of 2,4-dichlorophenol with the initial concentration of 100 mg L−1 reached up to 87.65% under optimized conditions. Lastly, the possible mechanism was explored based on trapping experiments and some other characterization results. The study in this paper not only exhibited new insight into the modified α-Fe2O3 material with high photocatalytic activity but also provided a promising method for treating wastewater containing 2,4-dichlorophenol or other similar organic pollutants.

Background Tamoxifen (TAM) and Toremifene (TOR), two kinds of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), have equal efficacy in breast cancer patients. However, TAM has been proved to affect serum lipid profiles and cause fatty liver disease. The study aimed to compare the effects of TAM and TOR on fatty liver development and lipid profiles. Methods This study performed a retrospective analysis of 308 SERMs-treated early breast cancer patients who were matched 1:1 based on propensity scores. The follow-up period was 3 years. The primary outcomes were fatty liver detected by ultrasonography or computed tomography (CT), variation in fibrosis indexes, and serum lipid profiles change. Results The cumulative incidence rate of new-onset fatty liver was higher in the TAM group than in the TOR group (113.2 vs. 67.2 per 1000 person-years, p p = 0.003). According to the Kaplan-Meier curves, TAM significantly increased the risk of new-onset fatty liver (25.97% vs. 17.53%, p = 0.0243) and the severe fatty liver (5.84% vs. 1.95%, p = 0.0429). TOR decreased the risk of new-onset fatty liver by 45% (hazard ratio = 0.55, p = 0.020) and showed lower fibrotic burden, independent of obesity, lipid, and liver enzyme levels. TOR increased triglycerides less than TAM, and TOR increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, while TAM did the opposite. No significant differences in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol are observed between the two groups. Conclusions TAM treatment is significantly associated with more severe fatty liver disease and liver fibrosis, while TOR is associated with an overall improvement in lipid profiles, which supports continuous monitoring of liver imaging and serum lipid levels during SERM treatment.

Silicon is one of the most promising anode candidates for next-generation Li-ion batteries. Inert salt, acting as heat absorbent in magnesiothermic reduction, is playing a crucial role in scaled and economic derivation of Si from SiO2. Herein, the regulating effects of KCl and NaCl as heat absorbent on particle size, morphology and especially electrochemical behavior of obtained silicon are comparatively investigated. Although NaCl assists to get ultrafine nm-Si (~ 12.7 nm), inexpungible SiOx is accompanied, leading to lower reversible capacity (only 496.9 mAh g−1) and first coulombic efficiency (~ 48.7%). Comparatively, superior heat regulation of KCl facilitates to form uniform and well-crystalized Si nanoparticles (nano-SiKCl) with vital size domain (~ 54.6 nm) and reduced surface energy restrains redundant SiOx formation, thus obtaining improved reversible capacity (2201 mAh g−1) and cycling stability. After further carbon coating on nano-SiKCl, an excellent capacity retention of 89.4% over 300 cycles can be obtained by nano-SiKCl@C composite.

A new cationic surface-modified 4A zeolite for adsorbing trace chromium in aqueous solution was successfully synthesized. Detailed structural characterization and adsorption mechanism analysis were carried out by zeta potential measurements, SEM, XRD and XPS. The results showed that surface modification did not destroy the excellent pore structure of 4A zeolite itself and the surface roughness leads to high hydrophilicity. HACC was evenly distributed on the surface of 4A zeolite, each amino group site on HACC having adsorption properties. The results of sorption behavior showed that the adsorption efficiency of the modified adsorbent for low-concentration Cr(VI) reached up to 92%, which was significantly higher than that of each component alone. The thermodynamic and kinetic parameters demonstrated the removal process to be spontaneous, exothermic and pseudo-second-order chemisorption. Moreover, the adsorption performance is little affected by pH.

Biochars derived from agricultural residues, Pennisetum giganteum, were prepared by a one-step activation method after impregnated with H3PO4. The effects of activation temperature and H3PO4 impregnation method on the structure and performance of biochar were investigated. Characterizations such as XPS, FTIR, and N2 adsorption-desorption curves showed that the P-containing biochar prepared by one-step method had a large specific surface area, large pores, and abundant surface functional groups. And, C-P, O-P, C-O, and other groups participated in the adsorption and removal of Cr(VI). Moreover, the target adsorbent has a good effect on Cr removal in a wide range of pH (the removal rate was more than 55.92%, at pH≤9). Interestingly, the changing trend of pH value in the reaction process under different initial pH values proved that the adsorbent itself could regulate the pH of the external solution by providing acid groups, thus keeping the adsorption equilibrium solution in a narrow pH range. In addition, the target adsorbent had excellently selective adsorption capacity and good removal capacity (≥77.4%) after five times of reuse. This work should permit for providing a convenient utilization of Pennisetum giganteum agricultural residues and confirmed that the biochar treated with H3PO4 can remove chromium in a wider pH range through self-regulation.

Different morphologies of ZrO2 were produced by different templates: ZrO2(CaCO3), ZrO2(C12H25SO3Na), ZrO2(C12H25SO4Na), ZrO2(CTAB), and solid superacids, such as ZrO2/SBA-15, SO42-/ZrO2, SO42-/ZrO2/SBA-15, and SBA-15-SO3H. The catalytic transesterification activities of these catalysts were tested. The more highly acidic catalysts and higher surface areas led to higher catalytic activity. In particular, the conversion yield of triglyceride reached 90.1% and was maintained for 90 min at 200 °C with 5.0 wt% SBA-15-SO3H, indicating this material to be one of most effective acid catalysts for the transesterification process. The mechanism indicated that the most important process was the abstraction of hydrogen from alcohols and α-substituted carboxylic glycerides. In the initial transesterification, the alcohol hydrogen atoms could be attracted onto the surface. Then, the nucleophilic attack of the alcohol led to the α-substituted carboxylic glyceride. Finally, monoglycerides, diglycerides or glycerine were released from the surface by proton (H+) replacement.

Low-rank coals are very abundant in several regions throughout the world. However, it is difficult to use the low-rank coals directly due to their undesirable characteristics such as high moisture, high ash and high oxygen content. The utilization of low-rank coals has received more and more attention with the increase of consumption of other fossil fuels. Besides the pyrolysis and alcoholysis, the conversion of low-lank coals under hydrothermal conditions (including sub-and supercritical water) for high-quality solid fuel, coal liquefied oil and gaseous fuels has also been widely investigated. In this review, the development of low-rank coal hydrothermal upgrading, the liquid fuel production from coal in sub-and supercritical water and supercritical water gasification of coal for hydrogen production, including partial oxidative gasification, homogeneous/heterogeneous catalytic gasification and related kinetic investigations are discussed. In addition, the element transformation such as N, S and metals during the hydrothermal process are also presented.

This report puts forward an economically-feasible method for the preparation of a novel lithium doped metal–organic framework (i.e., Li/UiO-66). UiO-66 was impregnated with an ethanol solution of lithium nitrate instead of expensive and toxic organolithium. Lithium nitrate was used as the alkali-metal resource for the modified MOFs. The samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, XPS, BET, etc. The results indicated that free carboxylate protons can be replaced by the doped lithium cations and the formed lithium carboxylate groups. The effect of the doped lithium on CO2 adsorption and separation was evaluated by gas sorption isotherm measurements. Moreover, the interaction between adsorbed CO2 and the MOFs was studied by in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (in situ DRIFTS). The in situ DRIFTS results showed that the doped lithium can increase the concentration of the active metal sites, which can provide some new adsorption sites for CO2.

Micrometer silicon (MSi) particles are prospective anode material for high energy-density lithium-ion batteries. Aiming at the scale-up production and the improvement in rate capability, a novel sub-micro Si/Sn@SiOx-C (SSSC) composite via a facile two-step process of milling and annealing is designed and synthesized. With the structural uniqueness including in-situ introduction of metallic tin (Sn) originated from mechano-reduction of nano tin dioxide (nano-SnO2) with MSi, dual-buffering of inner SiOx matrix and uniform surface carbon layer, SSSC electrodes exhibit impressive rate capability and stable cyclability. The optimum architecture of SSSC-73 (i.e. weight ratio of precursor MSi-to-SnO2 is 7:3) delivers stable cycling with 1102 mAh g−1 (at 0.5 A g−1) over 100 cycles and exceptional rate performance with a high capacity retention of 95% over 500 cycles at 2 A g−1. Particularly, this facile and cost-effective preparation of SSSC composites has no by-products, making it competitive in practical application.

The exploration of non-noble-metal catalysts for high efficiency gasification of biomass in supercritical water (SCW) is of great significance for the sustainable development. A series of Ni–M (M = Co or Zn) bimetallic nanoparticles supported on graphitized carbon black were synthesized and examined as catalysts for gasification of phenol in SCW. It was found that a nearly complete gasification of phenol can be achieved even at a low temperature of 450 °C with the bimetallic nanoparticles catalysts. Kinetic study indicated the activation energy for phenol gasification were 20.4 ± 2.6 and 43.6 ± 2.6 kJ/mol for Ni20Zn15 and Ni20Co15 catalyst, respectively. XRD, XPS and TEM were further performed to characterize the catalysts and the results showed the formation of NiCo and NiZn alloy phase. Catalyst recycling experiments were also conducted to evaluate the stability of the catalysts. The characterization of used catalysts suggest that the severe agglomeration of nanoparticles leads to the decrease in catalytic activity.

We report high performance Noble-metal-free NiCo/AC bimetal for gasification in supercritical water by the polyol reduction method with chloroplatinic acid as nucleation seed. At 475 °C and 20 min, the carbon efficiency (CE) for gasification of phenol with NiCo/AC has reached about 65%, which represents a more than 20-fold enhancement of carbon efficiency compared to the Co/AC and 6-fold compared to the Ni/AC. The CE of commercial noble Ru/C (5 wt%) catalyst is only about 15% higher than that of NiCo/AC catalyst. The catalyst was characterized by BET, XRD, XPS and TEM. The results indicate smaller and higher disperse of NiCo alloy has been achieved. By using NiCo/AC catalyst, the CE can reach about 90% at 525 °C and 60 min with a 5 wt% phenol, 0.098 kg/m 3 density and catalyst loading of 0.5 g/g (the mass of NiCo/AC catalyst/the mass of phenol). The results of GC–MS indicate NiCo/AC can suppress tar successfully. A kinetic modeling was also proposed to describe gaseous product and tar formation, which gives the activation energy (Ea) 123.56 ± 31 kJ/mol and the frequency factor 16.93 ± 0.48 for gaseous products. While for tar formation, the Ea is 112.95 ± 24 kJ/mol and the frequency factor is 13.99 ± 0.37. The successful use of noble-metal-free NiCo/AC shows the potential to replace noble Ru-catalysts in SCWG process for gases fuels by bimetal.

Effective solid acid catalysts play a key role to produce high-quality biodiesel through triglyceride transesterification. The present work describes a facile technique for the synthesis of a high-performing sulfonated multi-walled carbon nanotube (S-MWCNTs) solid acid catalyst for fatty acid ethyl ester (biodiesel) production. The results indicated that S-MWCNTs possessed high acidity due to their polycyclic textural matrix. An overall conversion of 97.8% is achieved for triglycerides at 1 h, 150 °C using 3.7 wt% of catalyst in ethanol, outperforming its counterpart catalysts, such as hydrothermal carbonization synthesized sulfonated carbon and metal oxide catalyst WO3/ZrO2. This superior performance is a result of the high acidity that S-MWCNTs possess, stemming from their polycyclic textural matrix. The catalyst was fully characterized by BET, FT-IR, XPS and TEM measurements to understand and evaluate their physical and structural properties. Combining activity and characterization data enables the postulation of the following reaction mechanisms for triglyceride transesterification based on S-MWCNTs:SO3H groups first absorb triglycerides and ethanol through the interaction between the acid sites and the atomic oxygen. The carbonyl carbon was then attacked by the nucleophilic ethanol to produce fatty acidethyl ester (CH3CH2COOR), the final product. Findings from this work provide useful insights on designing effective solid acid catalysts via facile synthesis and regeneration protocol for the transesterification of triglyceride to produce biodiesels.

High moisture content materials present challenges for direct liquefaction. We herein report an effective way to liquefy high moisture content feedstocks in supercritical ethanol with a Ru/C catalyst. The Ru/C catalyst converts some of the ethanol into hydrogen through steam reforming. Additional hydrogen is produced by the water gas shift reaction. During this process, water is converted into gaseous products. Compared to the case with no added catalyst, use of Ru/C suppressed solid residues, improved hydrogen yields, and improved the quality of the oil fraction. Oil quality was improved by enhancing production of long chain alkanes (LCAs), and suppressing production of phenols and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The effects of reaction temperature and time on the product distribution and composition were also investigated. Higher temperatures favored gasification. The maximum oil yield, 6.4 wt%, and minimum solid residue yield, 0.9 wt% (calculated by oil or solid/the mass of ethanol and lignite), were obtained at 400 °C and 60 min reaction time with an ethanol/lignite (E : L) ratio of 9 : 1, and 50 wt% catalyst loading relative to lignite. The dominant compounds in the oil were LCAs, esters, and phenols. The major gaseous products were CH4, H2, and CO.

Enhancement of the transesterification efficiency of triglyceride has come under heated study in biodiesel-making industry. In this research, the NiMo/La-Al

Enhancement of the transesterification efficiency of triglyceride has come under heated study in biodiesel-making industry. In this research, the NiMo/La-Al2O3 nanopowders have been prepared for producing biodiesel efficiently. The screening test showed that the NiMo/La-Al2O3 catalyst has the best catalytic activity for triglyceride transesterification. Besides, the process parameters including reaction temperature, time, oil-to-alcohol ratio and catalyst loading etc., also have been investigated for optimization of the transesterification process. The results showed that with 5 wt% of catalyst loading, and oil to methanol molar ratio of 1:9, the conversion yield of triglyceride could be up to 95.2% within 120 min at 160°C. The NiMo/La-Al2O3 catalyst has the outstanding recycle property, which proved that the prepared NiMo/La-Al2O3 powders can be suitable for biodiesels’ production.

Table S1. Primers for genotyping of CXCR4 transgenic mice and ApcMin/+ mice. Table S2. Antibodies for identification of the immunocytes. Table S3. Clinical pathological analysis of human CRC specimens. Table S4. The downregulated miRNAs in HCT116 cells upon activation of CXCL12/CXCR4Â by miRNA sequencing analysis. (DOCX 20 kb)

In the present study, biomass-derived furans were identified as desirable feedstock for synthesizing benzo [b]furans via a simple one-pot reaction under mild conditions. Under a typical reaction condition, i.e. 75 vol% acetic acid solution and 5 wt% AlCl3 catalyst at 140 °C for 2 h, benzo [b]furan can be synthesized from furan with a yield of 31 wt% and a selectivity of 90%. Furthermore, a general reaction pathway was identified, i.e. various benzo [b]furans can be directly produced from two furans, except for when 2,5-dimethyfuran is the only reactant. This work opens a novel sustainable avenue to synthesize benzo [b]furan derivatives from furans with targeted substitutes.

Hydrogenation of phenol was investigated in a high-temperature water (HTW) system. The characterization of the catalyst used in the system was investigated by BET surface area, XRD, XPS, and TEM testing methods. The results indicated that phosphotungstic acid (PTA) modified Pd/Ce-AlO x catalyst, i.e., Pd/W-Ce-AlO x , could not only increase the values of binding energy of the major elements and thus enhance its ability in attracting electrons, but also enhance the phenol degradation and selectivity in HTW when comparing with non-PTA modified catalysts. The Pd/W-Ce-AlO x catalyst also showed a high activity for the phenol hydrogenation and high selectivity at a moderate temperature (180 °C) in HTW system, because cyclohexanone is the major products (more than 95%) from the reaction. However, at the temperatures greater than 260 °C, the changes of transport properties would increase the dissociation of cyclohexanone from the acidic sites, which resulted in the future reactions with hydrogen to form cyclohexanol rather than cyclohexane. Based on the observation, a kinetic model of detail pathways to give the insight views was proposed. The model confirmed that at higher temperatures over 260 °C, the reactions to form cyclohexanol, benzene and cyclohexane increased dramatically. In the presence of Pd/W-Ce-AlO x catalyst, the formation of benzene can be effectively suppressed. Therefore, PTA modified catalysts have a great potential to improve the hydrogen selectivity of phenol in the HTW system.

The lithium-sulfur battery is regarded as one of the most promising candidates for lithium-metal batteries with high energy density. However, dendrite Li formation and low cycle efficiency of the Li anode as well as unstable sulfur based cathode still hinder its practical application. Herein a novel electrolyte (1 m LiODFB/EC-DMC-FEC) is designed not only to address the above problems of Li anode but also to match sulfur cathode perfectly, leading to extraordinary electrochemical performances. Using this electrolyte, lithium|lithium cells can cycle stably for above 2000 hours and the average Coulumbic efficiency reaches 98.8 %. Moreover, the Li-S battery delivers a reversible capacity of about 1400 mAh g(-1) sulfur with retention of 89 % for 1100 cycles at 1 C, and a capacity above 1100 mAh g(-1) sulfur at 10 C. The more advantages of this cell system are its outstanding cycle stability at 60 °C and no self-discharge phenomena.

Finding a more efficient method for the transesterification of triglycerides to biodiesel fuel (BD) is important in today’s world. In this study, transesterification of trilaurin was carried out in a solution containing 4wt% of the Lewis acid AlCl3 dissolved in a cosolvent of ethanol and 5MPa CO2. A conversion rate of over 90% was achieved within 1h at the low temperature of 180°C. The process indicates a co-catalytic effect of the Lewis acid and CO2. We postulate several key steps for the mechanism. First, the CO2–ethanol mixture enhances the hydrogen bonding, increasing the concentration of C2H5O. Second AlCl3 attacks the oxygen of COC to weaken the bonds to form carbonyl carbon OR1, which is then easily attacked by C2H5O to give the transesterified product (C2H4COOR1). Third, AlCl3 is finally replaced by H to form glycerin (GL) and intermediates, such as unmethyl esterified compounds (uME). AlCl3 was used as a flocculant and catalyst for converting waste cooking oil (WCO) to BD. The process achieved 97% free fatty acid (FFA) conversion at 120°C in 90min, making it one of the most efficient systems available for WCO recovery. AlCl3 was also successfully applied to microalgae, signaling the potential for a process that combines harvesting, lipid extraction, and transterification, leading to fully integrated, microalgae-based BD production.

The sub/supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) of wastewater with high concentrations of pollutants from tall oil rosin production base was studied under the temperature range of 320°C–420°C and the pressure range of 11–25 MPa. The results showed that after pretreatment with Ca(OH)2 for SO42− ions removal, around 385 mg/L SO42− remained which inhibited the oxidation activity by reducing the concentration of hydroxyl radicals (•OH). Since the wastewater compounds were mainly cyclic organic materials, higher O2 contents (stoichiometric ratio over 2.5) and temperatures (over 380°C) are favorable for TOC removal. With O2 SR = 2.5 and T = 420°C, the TOC removal reached almost 100% (99.89%) in 30 min. A global kinetic model for TOC removal during SCWO treatment was built during the research. The kinetic data acquired through the model were fitted to a power-law function, and the data correlated well with the experimental data. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 975–981, 2016

A novel nano/micro-structured pSi@C composite with buffer void was successfully synthesized via a simple and scalable process with combination of the calcination, spray drying, carbonization and HF etching. The obtained pSi@C composite with this particular structure exhibits high reversible capacity of ca. 2200 mA h g −1 and excellent cycling stability with 90.3% capacity retention after 300 cycles, which benefits from its void spaces between silicon and carbon layer and highly conductive carbon-layer. The simple and scalable synthesis technique and good electrochemical performance of this nano/micro-structured pSi@C composite make it a promising candidate for large capacity lithium ion battery anode material.

Phenols are typical aromatic pollutants and major byproducts of non-catalytic gasification and liquefaction processes. In this work, Ru/CeO2 was prepared and used to catalyze phenol gasification in supercritical water. The catalyst improves carbon efficiency by about 90% at the conditions employed: 0.5 g Ru/CeO2/g phenol catalyst loading at 550 °C with a water density of 0.0979 g/cm3 and a 5 wt% loading of phenol relative to water. This represents a more than 10-fold enhancement of carbon efficiency compared to the noncatalytic case, with CH4 as the major gaseous product. GC–MS results show suppressed formation of dimers, such as dibenzofuran and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which may be caused by the hydrogenation activity of Ru/CeO2. Kinetic modeling of the gasification process gives an activation energy of 84.24 ± 22 kJ/mol and an frequency factor (ln A) of 12.5 ± 2.9 for gaseous product formation, compared to 60 ± 17 kJ/mol and 7.53 ± 2.7 for char formation. Ru/CeO2 is stable in supercritical water at temperatures up to 550 °C, suggesting that a Ru/CeO2 supercritical water gasification system may be a promising method for treating phenols.

Phenol is a long-lived intermediate, and it is ubiquitous in the supercritical water gasification (SCWG) processes of various organic materials such as biomass, lignite and sewage sludge. In this work, ruthenium supported on graphitic carbon black (Ru/GCB) was prepared for catalytic gasification of phenol in supercritical water. It exhibited excellent catalytic performance towards phenol gasification, a nearly complete gasification of phenol was achieved at a moderate temperature of 500 °C with an 1 g g−1 catalyst loading. Kinetic study indicated the activation energy and the frequency factor for phenol gasification were 154.0 ± 27.2 kJ mol−1 and 23.2 ± 4.5, respectively. Furthermore, catalyst recycling experiments were conducted to evaluate the stability of Ru/GCB catalyst in the SCWG. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectrum, N2 adsorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy were performed to characterize the fresh and used catalyst in order to investigate possible changes of catalyst after the recycling, the results indicated that the catalyst was found to be stable for phenol gasification under the experimental conditions.

A novel LiFSI/TEGDME-DX electrolyte with good compatibility to a lithium anode is firstly proposed for the rechargeable non-aqueous Li–O2 battery, in which an improved performance with longer cycle life was achieved when compared with the conventional LiTFSI/TEGDME electrolyte.