Highly efficient recovery of Zn (II) from zinc-containing wastewater by tourmaline tailings geopolymers to in-situ construct nanoscale ZnS for the photodegradation of tetracycline hydrochloride.

While treating zinc-containing wastewater, recovering zinc for reuse as a secondary resource has significant environmental and economic benefits. Herein, based on the alkali-activated tourmaline tailings geopolymers (TTG) after adsorption of zinc ions (Zn (II)), a series of new composites with in-situ construction ZnS nanoparticles on TTG (ZnS/TTG) were synthesized, and used as photocatalysts for the photodegradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) in solution. Specifically, ZnS nanoparticles were uniformly and stably distributed in the layered structure of TTG, interweaving with each other to generate an interfacial electric field, which could induce more photocarrier generation. Meanwhile, TTG acted as an electron acceptor to accelerate the electron transfer at the interface, thus enhancing the photodegradation activity for TCH. The active radical quenching experiments combined with the ESR indicated that the active species produced during the photocatalytic degradation of TCH by ZnS/TTG composites were •O2- and photogenerated h+. When the initial concentration of Zn (II) was 60 mg/L, the synthesized 60-ZnS/TTG composites (0.5 g/L) reached 91.53% degradation efficiency of TCH (10 mg/L) at pH = 6. Furthermore, the possible pathways and mechanism of 60-ZnS/TTG composites photodegraded TCH were revealed with the aid of degraded intermediates. This report not only proposed valuable references for reusing heavy metal ions and removing TCH from wastewater, but also provided promising ideas for realizing the conversion of used adsorbents into high-efficiency photocatalysts.

Skeletal Muscle Fibers Inspired Polymeric Actuator by Assembly of Triblock Polymers.

Inspired by the striated structure of skeletal muscle fibers, a polymeric actuator by assembling two symmetric triblock copolymers, namely, polystyrene-b-poly(acrylic acid)-b-polystyrene (SAS) and polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polystyrene (SES) is developed. Owing to the microphase separation of the triblock copolymers and hydrogen-bonding complexation of their middle segments, the SAS/SES assembly forms a lamellar structure with alternating vitrified S and hydrogen-bonded A/E association layers. The SAS/SES strip can be actuated and operate in response to environmental pH. The contraction ratio and working density of the SAS/SES actuator are approximately 50% and 90 kJ m-3 , respectively; these values are higher than those of skeletal muscle fibers. In addition, the SAS/SES actuator shows a "catch-state", that is, it can maintain force without energy consumption, which is a feature of mollusc muscle but not skeletal muscle. This study provides a biomimetic approach for the development of artificial polymeric actuators with outstanding performance.

Extraordinary terahertz transmission in superconducting subwavelength hole array.

We report the extraordinary terahertz (THz) transmission through subwavelength hole array in superconducting NbN film. As the temperature drops below the superconducting transition temperature, the transmission spectra experience distinct changes. The extraordinary transmission is greatly enhanced in superconducting state due to the enhancement of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and localized surface plasmons (LSPs). We have also observed temperature-dependent resonance frequency shift, which mainly depends on the coupling between SPPs and LSPs.

Hierarchical {001}-faceted BiOBr microspheres as a novel biomimetic catalyst: dark catalysis towards colorimetric biosensing and pollutant degradation.

In recent years, considerable effort has been devoted to finding novel enzyme mimetics with improved catalytic activities. However, the insightful understanding of such catalytic process is still elusive. In this paper, we report for the first time a typical photoactive layer-structured BiOBr as a novel biomimetic catalyst possessing highly efficient intrinsic peroxidase-like activity. Moreover, we have experimentally achieved high dark peroxidase-like catalytic activity in BiOBr microspheres and provided some new insights into the light-enhanced peroxidase-like catalytic property. On the basis of a typical color reaction derived from catalytic oxidation of peroxidase substrates over BiOBr microspheres with H2O2, the simple and sensitive colorimetric assays for detection of H2O2, glucose and ascorbic acid were successfully established. More interestingly, the BiOBr microspheres showed strong ability towards activation of H2O2, displaying excellent dark catalytic activity for the degradation of organic dye. It is therefore believed that our findings in this study could open up the possibility of utilizing BiOBr as enzymatic mimics in biotechnology and environmental remediation.

A blue emission polymer: synthesis, photophysical and electrochemical properties.

A novel π-conjugated polymer (PCPyrene) containing N-benzylcarbazole and pyrene units has been synthesized and characterized. The polymer possesses high thermal stability with the decomposition temperature of 440 °C. It shows higher fluorescence quantum yields of in solution and solid state, respectively. PCPyrene can emit bright blue-lights both in different organic solutions (440-460 nm) and in the solid state (492 nm). Compared the emission spectra of PCPyrene in solutions with in solid state, the solid state emission of PCPyrene is significantly red-shifted. Additionally, it is not obvious changes of the solid emission spectra even after being annealed at 150 °C under nitrogen for 24 h. The electrochemical properties and energy levels of PCPyrene were also investigated by cyclic voltammetry. Furthermore, in order to provide a basis forecasting the structure-physical property relationships, the photophysical properties of PCPyrene have been carefully investigated by fluorescence emission and UV-vis absorption spectra.

Facile fabrication of robust multilayer films: visible light-triggered chemical cross-linking by the catalysis of a ruthenium(II) complex.

Highly stable covalently attached multilayer films were constructed by visible-light irradiation of hydrogen-bonding directed multilayer films of poly(allylamine) and poly(4-vinylphenol).