Inhibition of benzene, toluene, phenol and benzoate in single and combination on Anammox activity: implication to the denitrification-Anammox synergy.

A previous study demonstrated that denitrification synergized with Anammox could accelerate the anaerobic degradation of benzene. The inhibitory effects of benzene, toluene, phenol and benzoate in single and combination on Anammox activity were investigated by short-term batch tests. The results indicated that the inhibition of single compounds on Anammox could be well fitted with the extended non-competitive and Luong inhibition kinetic models. The inhibitions of the individual compound were in order as follows: benzene > toluene > phenol > benzoate. The joint inhibitions of bi-component mixtures of benzene with toluene, benzene with phenol and benzene with benzoate on Anammox activity were additive; the joint inhibition of a tri-component mixture (benzene, toluene and phenol) was partly additive; and the joint inhibition of a multicomponent mixture (benzene, toluene, phenol and benzoate) was synergistic. The effect of benzoate on the denitrification-Anammox synergy for benzene degradation was evaluated using a long-term test. Although the average rate of benzene degradation decreased by 13% with the addition of 10 mg L-1 benzoate, the average rate of NO3- and NH4+ increased by approximately 1- and 0.56-fold, respectively, suggesting that benzoate favors the stability of the denitrification-Anammox synergy. The carboxylation of benzene would be a more favorable pathway for the anaerobic degradation of benzene under denitrification synergized with Anammox.

A new strategy for realizing the conversion of "homo-hetero-homo" heteroepitaxial growth in Bi(2)Te(3) and the thermoelectric performance.

Uncovering the reason for structure-dependent thermoelectric performance still remains a big challenge. A low-temperature and easily scalable strategy for synthesizing Bi2 Te3 nanostring hierarchical structures through solution-phase reactions, during which there is the conversion of "homo-hetero-homo" in Bi2 Te3 heteroepitaxial growth, is reported. Bi2 Te3 nanostrings are obtained through the transformation from pure Bi2 Te3 hexagonal nanosheets followed by TeBi2 Te3 "nanotop" heterostructures to Bi2 Te3 nanostrings. The growth of Bi2 Te3 nanostrings appears to be a self-assembly process through a wavy competition process generated from Te and Bi(3+) . The conversion of homo-hetero-homo opens up new platforms to investigate the wet chemistry of Bi2 Te3 nanomaterials. Furthermore, to study the effect of morphologies and hetero/homo structures, especially with the same origin and uniform conditions on their thermoelectric properties, the thermoelectric properties of Bi2 Te3 nanostrings and TeBi2 Te3 heterostructured pellets fabricated by spark plasma sintering have been investigated separately.

Ionothermal synthesis of mesoporous SnO2 nanomaterials and their gas sensitivity depending on the reducing ability of toxic gases.

Mesoporous SnO2 with a high surface area of 292.7 m(2) g(-1) has been successfully synthesized via a low-cost NH4Cl-based ionothermal route. When evaluated as a gas sensor, impressive performances towards N2H4 and HCHO are achieved owing to its excellent chemical reactivity towards oxygen.

High-accuracy source-independent radiometric calibration with low complexity for infrared photonic sensors.

Radiometric calibration (RC) is an essential solution to guarantee measurements from infrared photonic sensors with certain accuracy, the main task of which is to determine the radiometric responsivity of sensor and usually be solved by comparing with some radiation source (i.e., blackbody), called source-based RC (SBRC). In addition to the complexity in manufacture, the nonideal characteristics of an available source will inevitably introduce unexpected uncertainties to reduce the final calibration accuracy by around 0.2-0.5 K in SBRC. Therefore, we propose an original source-independent RC (SIRC) principle based on modeling instead of comparing for SBRC, where the incident background radiation to detector, as a dominated factor influencing the responsivity characteristics of a photonic sensor, is modeled to implement RC for both two fundamental types (photoconductive and photovoltaic) of HgCdTe photonic detectors. The SIRC merely requires the temperature information of main components of a sensor other than some complex source and its assembly, and provides a traceable way at lower uncertainty costs relative to the traditional SBRC. The SIRC is being implemented in Fengyun-2 satellites since 2019, which ensures a long-term stable service of Chinese geostationary meteorological satellites for the global observation system under the framework of World Meteorological Organization. Moreover, a 20-year-period traceable Fengyun-2 dataset to be recalibrated with SIRC will benefit the further climate applications.

Solvothermal Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Hierarchical CuS Microspheres from a Cu-Based Ionic Liquid Precursor for High-Performance Asymmetric Supercapacitors.

It is meaningful to exploit copper sulfide materials with desired structure as well as potential application due to their cheapness and low toxicity. A low-temperature and facile solvothermal method for preparing three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical covellite (CuS) microspheres from an ionic liquid precursor [Bmim]2Cu2Cl6 (Bmim = 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium) is reported. The formation of CuS nanostructures was achieved by decomposition of intermediate complex Cu(Tu)3Cl (thiourea = Tu), which produced CuS microspheres with diameters of 2.5-4 µm assembled by nanosheets with thicknesses of 10-15 nm. The ionic liquid, as an "all-in-one" medium, played a key role for the fabrication and self-assembly of CuS nanosheets. The alkylimidazolium rings ([Bmim](+)) were found to adsorb onto the (001) facets of CuS crystals, which inhibited the crystal growth along the [001] direction, while the alkyl chain had influence on the assembly of CuS nanosheets. The CuS microspheres showed enhanced electrochemical performance and high stability for the application in supercapacitors due to intriguing structural design and large specific surface area. When this well-defined CuS electrode was assembled into an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) with an activated carbon (AC) electrode, the CuS//AC-ASC demonstrated good cycle performance (∼88% capacitance after 4000 cycles) and high energy density (15.06 W h kg(-1) at a power density of 392.9 W kg(-1)). This work provides new insights into the use of copper sulfide electrode materials for asymmetric supercapacitors and other electrochemical devices.