In this study, we compared the microbial communities colonising ancient cave wall paintings of the Mogao Grottoes exhibiting signs of biodeterioration. Ten samples were collected from five different caves built during different time periods and analysed using culture-independent and culture-dependent methods. The clone library results revealed high microbial diversity, including the bacterial groups Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Planctomycetes and Chloroflexi and the fungal groups Euascomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Saccharomycetes, Plectomycetes, Pezizomycetes, Zygomycota, and Basidiomycota. The bacterial community structures differed among the samples, with no consistent temporal or spatial trends. However, the fungal community diversity index correlated with the building time of the caves independent of environmental factors (e.g., temperature or relative humidity). The enrichment cultures revealed that many culturable strains were highly resistant to various stresses and thus may be responsible for the damage to cave paintings in the Mogao Grottoes.
With the growth of new energy economy, proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has great potential to be success. However, the lack of high-performance catalyst layer (CL) especially at cathode limits its applications. It is becoming increasingly important to understand interface property during electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Here, the rotating disk electrode (RDE) method is developed to study the temperature and Nafion ionomer content effects on interface formed between Nafion and Pt/C. The results show that the temperature has the significant influence on electrochemical active sites, charging double capacitance, and reaction polarization resistance at low Nafion content region. Excess Nafion loaded in CLs will turn to self-reunion and increase the exposed active sites. We find that the optimum Nafion loading is in the range of 30 to 40 wt.%. The highest specific activity we achieve is 107.8 μA/cm2.Pt at 60 °C with 0.4 of ionomer/catalyst weight ratio, corresponding to the kinetic current 283.5 μA at 0.9 V. This finding provides new insights into enhancing the Pt utilization and designing high-efficiency catalysts for ORR.
The Renewable Energy Data Book for 2015 provides facts and figures on energy and electricity use, renewable electricity in the United States, global renewable energy development, wind power, solar power, geothermal power, biopower, hydropower, marine and hydrokinetic power, hydrogen, renewable fuels, and clean energy investment.
A three-dimensional (3D) model for piston ring-pack dynamics and blow-by gas flow was developed to enable more in-depth analyses of the ring-pack performance. This model predicts the 3D dynamic behavior of compression rings and twin-land oil control ring due to the ring’s non-axisymmetric properties, bore distortion and piston secondary motion. Finite element beam theory is used for ring structure calculation. Gas flows along the axial and circumferential directions of the power cylinder system are resolved simultaneously with the ring dynamics. The model was applied to a heavy-duty diesel engine. Particular emphasis was placed on the dynamics of keystone type of top ring, and the stability of the second ring with a twist chamfer and twin-land oil control ring under the influence of piston secondary motion. The variations of the gas pressure and ring dynamic behavior along the circumference are discussed.
The development of efficient and stable catalyst systems using low-cost, abundant, and nontoxic materials is the primary demand for photocatalytic water oxidation. Distinguishing the true active species in a heterogeneous catalytic system is important for construction of efficient catalytic systems. Herein, hydrothermally synthesized Ti3+ self-doped TiO2, labeled as Ti3+/TiO2, was first used as a light absorber in a powder visible light-driven photocatalytic water oxidation reaction. When an iron-containing polyoxometalate Na27[Fe11(H2O)14(OH)2(W3O10)2(α-SbW9O33)6] (Fe11) was used as a cocatalyst, an amorphous layer of active species was wrapped outside the initial Ti3+/TiO2 nanorod and the in situ formed composite was labeled as F/Ti3+/TiO2. When the composite F/Ti3+/TiO2 was tested as a photocatalytic water oxidation catalyst, dramatically improved oxygen evolution performance was achieved. The composite F/Ti3+/TiO2 showed an oxygen evolution rate of 410 μmol/g/h, which was about 11-fold higher than that of prism Ti3+/TiO2. After 24 h of illumination, an O2 yield of 36.4% was achieved. The contrast experiments, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization demonstrated that FeO x is the true cocatalyst that enhanced the oxygen evolution activity of TiO2. A recycling experiment proved that the composite F/Ti3+/TiO2 has favorable stability in the oxygen production process.
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