Hydrophilic macroporous sponge has been widely used in solar steam generation, catalysis, biosensing and other fields due to its high water transporting and adsorption ability.
Abstract A number of invasive plant species, such as Alternanthera philoxeroides , have been documented to be able to accumulate trace metal elements in their tissues. Since metal accumulation in plants can serve as a defence against herbivores, we hypothesized that metal pollution will increase herbivore resistance of metal‐accumulating invasive plant species and such a benefit will grant them a competitive advantage over local co‐occurring plants. In this study, we compared the differences in plant growth and herbivore feeding preference between A. philoxeroides and its native congener Alternanthera sessilis in single and mixed cultures with and without soil cadmium (Cd) pollution. The results showed that A. philoxeroides plants were more tolerant to Cd stress and accumulated more Cd in the leaves than A. sessilis . Cd exposure increased the resistance of A. philoxeroides against a specialist and a generalist herbivore compared with A. sessilis . Competition experiments indicated that Cd stress largely increased the competitive advantage of A. philoxeroides over A. sessilis with or without herbivore pressures. The differences in herbivore resistance between the two plant species under soil Cd stress are most likely due to the deterring effect of Cd accumulation and Cd‐enhanced mechanical defences rather than changes in leaf specialized metabolites.
Stabilizing the crystalline structure and surface chemistry of Ni-rich layered oxides is critical for enhancing their capacity output and cycle life at a high cutoff voltage. Herein, we adopted a simple one-step solid-state method by directly sintering the Ni0.9Co0.1(OH)2 precursor with LiOH and Ta2O5, to simultaneously achieve the bulk material synthesis of LiNi0.9Co0.1O2 and in situ construction of a rock-salt Ta-doped interphase and an amorphous LiTaO3 outer layer, forming a chemically bonded surface biphase coating on LiNi0.9Co0.1O2. Such a cathode architectural design has been demonstrated with superior advantages: (1) eliminating surface residual alkali, (2) strengthening the layered oxygen lattice, (3) suppressing bulk-phase transformation, and (4) facilitating Li-ion transport. The obtained cathode exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, including a high initial reversible capacity of 180.3 mAh g–1 at 1.0 C with 85.5% retention after 300 cycles (2.8–4.35 V) and a high initial reversible capacity of 182.5 mAh g–1 at 0.2 C with 87.6% retention after 100 cycles (2.8–4.5 V). Notably, this facile and scalable electrode engineering makes Ni-rich layered oxides promising for practical applications.
In order to improve the fault diagnosis accuracy of voltage transformer, an online diagnosis method of current transformer error state based on improved Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) and BP neural network is proposed. Firstly, mutual information is used as the condition of stopping VMD iteration, so that the improved VMD algorithm can self-adaptively determine the decomposition number. Then the improved VMD algorithm is used to process the secondary circuit signal of the current transformer, and the IMF components in different scales are obtained. Finally, BP neural network optimized by genetic algorithm is used to predict different IMF components respectively, and the predicted results are superimposed to obtain the final predicted results. By comparing BP and VMD-ARMA models, the results show that the improved VMD-BP neural network model has higher prediction accuracy and more stable results.
Abstract The use of hydrogel‐based interfacial solar evaporators for desalination is a green, sustainable, and extremely concerned freshwater acquisition strategy. However, developing evaporators that are easy to manufacture, cheap, and have excellent porous structures still remains a considerable challenge. This work proposes a novel strategy for preparing a self‐assembling sponge‐like poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphite composite hydrogel based on the Hofmeister effect for the first time. The sponge‐like hydrogel interfacial solar evaporator (PGCNG) is successfully obtained after combining with graphite. The whole process is environmental‐friendly and of low‐carbon free of freezing process. The PGCNG can be conventionally dried and stored. PGCNG shows impressive water storage performance and water transmission capacity, excellent steam generation performance and salt resistance. PGCNG has a high evaporation rate of 3.5 kg m −2 h −1 under 1 kW m −2 h −1 solar irradiation and PGCNG demonstrates stable evaporation performance over both 10 h of continuous brine evaporation and 30 cycles of brine evaporation. Its excellent performance and simple, scalable preparation strategy make it a valuable material for practical interface solar seawater desalination devices.
Abstract Cr 2 (NCN) 3 features high specific capacity and fast electrical conductivity, making it a promising anode candidate for Li‐ion batteries. However, inherent chemical and structural metastability severely restrict its capacity output and cycle life, resulting in unsatisfactory battery performance. Here we use its thermal instability characteristic and propose a thermal controlled structural coordination strategy to in‐situ construct a Cr 2 (NCN) 3 /CrN heterostructure. Systematic studies reveal the thermodynamic structural evolution of Cr 2 (NCN) 3 under precise temperature regulation, as well as the essential relevancy between electrochemical properties and crystalline structures. An optimal Cr 2 (NCN) 3 /CrN heterostructural composite obtained at 690 °C features uniform two‐phase recombination with abundant grain boundaries enables promising electrochemical performance, exhibiting a high reversible discharge capacity (760 mAh g −1 ) and a good cycle performance (75 % retention after 100 cycles). It is worth noting that the above performance is significantly improved over unmodified pure transition metal carbodiimides or metal nitride anodes. This study provides a simple and universal structural regulation strategy for transition metal carbodiimides that utilizes their thermal sensitivity to synchronously construct synergistic transition metal carbodiimides/transition metal nitrides heterostructures, promoting their potential applications in Li‐ion batteries.
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