Two Facile Aniline-Based Hypercrosslinked Polymer Adsorbents for Highly Efficient Iodine Capture and Removal.

Effective capture and safe disposal of radioactive iodine (129I or 131I) during nuclear power generation processes have always been a worldwide environmental concern. Low-cost and high-efficiency iodine removal materials are urgently needed. In this study, we synthesized two aniline-based hypercrosslinked polymers (AHCPs), AHCP-1 and AHCP-2, for iodine capture in both aqueous and gaseous phases. They are obtained by aniline polymerization through Friedel-Crafts alkylation and Scholl coupling reaction, respectively, with high chemical and thermal stability. Notably, AHCP-1 exhibits record-high static iodine adsorption (250 wt%) in aqueous solution. In the iodine vapor adsorption, AHCP-2 presents an excellent total iodine capture (596 wt%), surpassing the most reported amorphous polymer adsorbents. The rich primary amine groups of AHCPs promote the rapid physical capture of iodine from iodine water and iodine vapor. Intrinsic features such as low-cost preparation, good recyclability, as well as excellent performance in iodine capture indicate that the AHCPs can be used as potential candidates for the removal of iodine from radioactive wastewater and gas mixtures.

Graphene quantum dots: efficient mechanosynthesis, white-light and broad linear excitation-dependent photoluminescence and growth inhibition of bladder cancer cells.

Heteroatom-doped graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications as luminescent materials and in biology. In this work, we developed a solvent-free gram-scale mechanochemical method for the preparation of nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) with the highest solubility (31 mg mL-1) in water reported to date. Commercial graphite was sheared and cut through grinding with solid melamine and then ground with solid KOH to get sub-5 nm-sized, 1-3-layered N-GQDs. Notably, these N-GQDs exhibit white-light emission and broad excitation-dependent full-color photoluminescence from 463 nm to 672 nm. When the excitation light ranged from 325 nm to 485 nm, these mechanochemically obtained N-GQDs exhibited bright white-light emission. Intriguingly, the change in the emission wavelength has two-stage linear relationships with the change in the excitation wavelength, and the inflection point is at 580 nm (excited at 550 nm). The difference between the emission and excitation wavelengths decreases from 138 to 12 nm, which also shows two-stage linear relationships with the change in the excitation wavelength. It is notable that their PL quantum yields are high, up to 26.6%. Furthermore, we studied the inhibitory effect of as-obtained N-GQDs on bladder cancer cells (UMUC-3); as a result, with the increase of the concentration of N-GQDs, the proliferation of cancer cells was obviously prohibited.

NaCl as a solid solvent to assist the mechanochemical synthesis and post-synthesis of hierarchical porous MOFs with high I2 vapour uptake.

The use of salts as grinding media to assist the mechanosynthesis, and the following one-pot mechanochemical post-synthesis, of hierarchically porous MOFs was carried out efficiently by ball milling. NaCl or KCl were used as a solid solvent to initially pre-grind with 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H3BTC) and copper acetate monhydrate, respectively, for 1 minute, then both mixtures were combined together for a further 20 minutes of grinding, and the resultant mixture was finally washed with ethanol and water to obtain the hierarchically micro-, meso- and macroporous HKUST-1 with a high yield. Moreover, the post-synthesis of these as-obtained hierarchically porous HKUST-1 was easily performed via grinding triethylenediamine (TED) with the above unwashed crude-products for 20 minutes. By adjusting the amount of NaCl and TED added, we simply fabricated the pore- and function-adjustable hierarchically porous HKUST-1. Furthermore, these as-obtained HKUST-1 products showed high performance in the capture of volatile iodine.

Surfactant-free scalable synthesis of hierarchically spherical Co3O4 superstructures and their enhanced lithium-ion storage performances.

Unique hierarchically porous spherical Co(3)O(4) superstructures were synthesized via a surfactant-free hydrothermal process followed by a calcination treatment, in which the concentration of reactant cobalt (II) nitrate hexahydrate is a key factor affecting the morphology of products. X-ray powder diffraction, electron microscopies (TEM and SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis were employed to investigate the formation of Co(3)O(4) spherical superstructures. Our results suggest that they formed from numerous cubic Co(3)O(4) nanocrystals via an oriented attachment mechanism. These superstructures exhibit a high specific capacity of 1750 mA h g(-1) after the first charge-discharge cycle, and the capacity retention remains at a constant of 1600 mA h g(-1) at 0.2 C after 50 cycles. The facile, scalable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly nature of the presented approach renders it particularly attractive from a technological standpoint. In addition, this scalable and facile synthesis method could be extended to the preparation of other transition metal oxides with specific morphologies and surface textures.

Cobalt-doping-induced synthesis of ceria nanodisks and their significantly enhanced catalytic activity.

High-quality cobalt-doped ceria nanostructures with triangular column, triangular slab, and disklike shapes are synthesized by tuning the doping amount of cobalt nitrate in a facile hydrothermal reaction. The cobalt-doped ceria nanodisks display significantly enhanced catalytic activity in CO oxidation due to exposed highly active crystal planes and the presence of numerous surface defects.