Photoelectrocatalytic Synthesis of Urea from Carbon Dioxide and Nitrate over a Cu2O Photocathode.

Transformation of carbon dioxide and nitrate ions into urea offers an attractive route for both nitrogen fertilizer production and environmental remediation. However, achieving this transformation under mild conditions remains challenging. Herein, we report an efficient photoelectrochemical method for urea synthesis by co-reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrate ion over a Cu2O photocathode, delivering urea formation rate of 29.71±2.20 µmol g-1 h-1 and Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 12.90±1.15 % at low external potential (-0.017 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode). Experimental data combined with theoretical calculations suggest that the adsorbed CO* and NO2* species are the key intermediates, and associated C-N coupling is the rate-determining step. This work demonstrates that Cu2O is an efficient catalyst to drive co-reduction of CO2 and NO3 - to urea under light irradiation with low external potential, showing great opportunity of photoelectrocatalysis as a sustainable tool for value-added chemical synthesis.

OECT - Inspired electrical detection.

Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECTs) are integral in detecting human bioelectric signals, attributing their significance to distinct electrochemical properties, the utilization of soft materials, compact dimensions, and pronounced biocompatibility. This review traverses the technological evolution of OECT, highlighting its profound impact on non-invasive detection methodologies within the biomedicalfield. Four sensor types rooted in OECT technology were introduced: Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electromyography (EMG), and Electrooculography (EOG), which hold promise for integration into wearable detection systems. The fundamental detection principles, material compositions, and functional attributes of these sensors are examined. Additionally, the performance metrics and delineates viable optimization strategies for assorted physiological electrical detection sensors are discussed. The overarching goal of this review is to foster deeper insights into the generation, propagation, and modulation of electrophysiological signals, thereby advancing the application and development of OECT in medical sciences.

Fractionated lignin as a green compatibilizer to improve the compatibility of poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) /polylactic acid composites.

Blending poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) and polylactic acid (PLA) is a cost-effective strategy to obtain biodegradable plastic with complementary properties. However, the incompatibility between PBAT and PLA is a great challenge for fabricating high-performance composite films. Herein, the ethyl acetate fractionated lignin with the small glass transition temperature and low molecular weight was achieved and incorporated into the PBAT/PLA composite as a compatibilizer. The fractionated lignin can be uniformly dispersed within the PBAT/PLA matrix through a melt blending process and interact with the molecular chain of PBAT and PLA as a bonding bridge, which enhances the intermolecular interactions and reduces the interfacial tension of PBAT/PLA. By adding fractionated lignin, the tensile strength of the PBAT/PLA composite increased by 35.4 % and the yield strength increased by 37.7 %. Owing to lignin, the composite films possessed the ultraviolet shielding function and exhibited better water vapor barrier properties (1.73 ± 0.08 × 10-13 g·cm/cm2·s·Pa). This work conclusively demonstrated that fractionated lignin can be used as a green compatibilizer and a low-cost functional filler for PBAT/PLA materials, and provides guidance for the application of lignin in biodegradable plastics.

A Smartphone-Based sEMG Signal Analysis System for Human Action Recognition.

In lower-limb rehabilitation, human action recognition (HAR) technology can be introduced to analyze the surface electromyography (sEMG) signal generated by movements, which can provide an objective and accurate evaluation of the patient's action. To balance the long cycle required for rehabilitation and the inconvenient factors brought by wearing sEMG devices, a portable sEMG signal acquisition device was developed that can be used under daily scenarios. Additionally, a mobile application was developed to meet the demand for real-time monitoring and analysis of sEMG signals. This application can monitor data in real time and has functions such as plotting, filtering, storage, and action capture and recognition. To build the dataset required for the recognition model, six lower-limb motions were developed for rehabilitation (kick, toe off, heel off, toe off and heel up, step back and kick, and full gait). The sEMG segment and action label were combined for training a convolutional neural network (CNN) to achieve high-precision recognition performance for human lower-limb actions (with a maximum accuracy of 97.96% and recognition accuracy for all actions reaching over 97%). The results show that the smartphone-based sEMG analysis system proposed in this paper can provide reliable information for the clinical evaluation of lower-limb rehabilitation.

High-performance thermoplastic starch/poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) blends through synergistic plasticization of epoxidized soybean oil and glycerol.

Utilizing starch, an abundant polysaccharide, as the renewable filler to blend with poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) is a feasible tactic to construct cost-effective and high-performance biodegradable materials. It's worth noting that the thermal processing properties of starch can be manipulated by its plasticized behavior. Herein, epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and glycerol were used as the plasticizer for native corn starch and the plasticized starch was integrated with PBAT to manufacture starch-based biodegradable blend films. ESO breaks the hydrogen bonds between starch chains through the fatty chains grafting reaction and increases the distance between starch molecular chains due to the large molecular weight of ESO. Meanwhile, glycerol molecules are incorporated into the starch molecular chains, and fatty chains grafted starch chains, effectively reducing the intermolecular forces of molecular chains. On account of the synergistic plasticization of ESO and glycerol which possess good compatibility with PBAT, the PSG20E10 blend film achieved a tensile strength, an elongation at break of 16.11 MPa and 612.09 %, and the balanced water and oxygen permeability properties.

Resolution enhancement of tongue tactile image based on deconvolution neural network.

To reproduce the tactile perception of multiple contacts on the human tongue surface, it is necessary to use a pressure measurement device with high spatial resolution. However, reducing the size of the array sensing unit and optimizing the lead arrangement still pose challenges. This article describes a deconvolution neural network (DNN) for improving the resolution of tongue surface tactile imaging, which alleviates this tradeoff between tactile sensing performance and hardware simplicity. The model can work without high-resolution tactile imaging data of tongue surface: First, in the compression test using artificial tongues, the tactile image matrix (7 × 7) with low resolution can be acquired by sensor array with a sparse electrode arrangement. Then, through finite element analysis modeling, combined with the distribution rule of additional stress on the two-dimensional plane, the pressure data around the existing detection points are calculated, further expanding the tactile image matrix data amount. Finally, the DNN, based on its efficient nonlinear reconstruction attributes, uses the low-resolution and high-resolution tactile imaging matrix generated by compression test and finite element simulation, respectively, to train, and outputs high-resolution tactile imaging information (13 × 13) closer to the tactile perception of the tongue surface. The results show that the overall accuracy of the tactile image matrix calculated by this model is above 88%. Then, we deduced the spatial difference graph of the resilience index of the three kinds of ham sausages through the high-resolution tactile imaging matrix.

Portable Multi-Channel Electrochemical Device with Good Interaction and Wireless Connection for On-Site Testing.

It is very important to rapidly test the key indicators of water in the field to fully evaluate the quality of the regional water environment. However, a high-resolution measuring device that can generate small currents for low-concentration analytes in water samples is often bulky, complex to operate, and difficult for data sharing. This work introduces a portable multi-channel electrochemical device with a small volume, good interaction, and data-sharing capabilities called PMCED. The PMCED provides an easy-to-operate graphical interactive interface to conveniently set the parameters for cyclic voltammetry or a differential pulse method performed by the four electrode channels. At the same time, the device, with a current sensitivity of 100 nA V-1, was applied to the detection of water samples with high background current and achieved a high-resolution measurement at low current levels. The PMCED uses the Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) to meet the needs for uploading data to the cloud in remote areas. The electrochemical signal preprocessing and chemometrics models run in the cloud, and the final results are visualized on a web page, providing a remote access channel for on-site testing results.

In situ quantitative assessment of food oral processing parameters: A review of feasible techniques and devices.

Oral processing is a combination of various actions, the detailed description of which has always been the subject of relevant research. By means of imaging technology and sensory evaluation, more knowledge of oral processing have been accumulated. Presently, the advances in sensory technology have added quantitative parameters to the qualitative description of oral processing, which also enriched the specifics of each action. Previous studies have shown that oral processing includes lip closure, dental occlusion, masticatory muscles activity, tongue movement, and swallowing, whose processing contains rich information such as the movement of organ and the intensity of organ contacts. "Quantification" was taken in this review as the basic feature of in situ detection information, the relevant parameters and feasible methods for the quantitative description of each activity was recorded in detail. In addition, basic problems and feasible optimization schemes of the existing in situ detection device are also proposed in the hope of promoting the development of in situ detection device thus providing available information for the description of oral processing.

Application and Progress of Chemometrics in Voltammetric Biosensing.

The voltammetric electrochemical sensing method combined with biosensors and multi-sensor systems can quickly, accurately, and reliably analyze the concentration of the main analyte and the overall characteristics of complex samples. Simultaneously, the high-dimensional voltammogram contains the rich electrochemical features of the detected substances. Chemometric methods are important tools for mining valuable information from voltammetric data. Chemometrics can aid voltammetric biosensor calibration and multi-element detection in complex matrix conditions. This review introduces the voltammetric analysis techniques commonly used in the research of voltammetric biosensor and electronic tongues. Then, the research on optimizing voltammetric biosensor results using classical chemometrics is summarized. At the same time, the incorporation of machine learning and deep learning has brought new opportunities to further improve the detection performance of biosensors in complex samples. Finally, smartphones connected with miniaturized voltammetric biosensors and chemometric methods provide a high-quality portable analysis platform that shows great potential in point-of-care testing.

Fractionation of technical lignin and its application on the lignin/poly-(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) bio-composites.

Complex and heterogeneous structures of lignin impede its further conversion and valorization. Herein, three technical lignins (from softwood, hardwood, and grass) were fractionated with acetone solvent to reduce their structural heterogeneity, which were then blended with poly-(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) to fabricate biodegradable bio-composites. Macromolecular structures of lignins and their effects on the properties of lignin/PBAT composites were thoroughly investigated. Results showed that all fractionated lignin composites displayed better properties. Particularly, the raw and fractionated softwood lignin-based composites exhibited superior performance compared with others. Benefiting from the lower molecular weight, hydroxyl groups, and condensation, acetone fractionated softwood lignin presented the lowest Tg (115.7 °C), achieving ideal melt miscibility and interfacial interaction between lignin and PBAT. The decreased Tg of lignin facilitated the lignin dispersion in the matrix and increase the mechanical strength of the composites. Overall, the fractionated technical lignin possessed desirable physical and chemical structure features, conferring composites good miscibility and mechanical properties.

Unprecedented Eighteen-Faceted BiOCl with a Ternary Facet Junction Boosting Cascade Charge Flow and Photo-redox.

Exposure of anisotropic crystal facets allows the directional transfer of photoexcited electrons (e- ) and holes (h+ ), for spatial charge separation. High-index facets with a high density of low-coordinated atoms always serve as reactive catalytic sites. However, preparation of multi-facets or high-index facets is highly challenging for layered bismuth-based photocatalysts. Herein, we report the preparation of unprecedented eighteen-faceted BiOCl with {001} top facets and {102} and {112} oblique facets via a hydrothermal process. Compared to the conventional BiOCl square plates with {001} top facets and {110} lateral facets, the eighteen-faceted BiOCl has highly enhanced photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution and hydroxyl radicals (. OH) production. Theoretical calculations and photodeposition results disclose that the of eighteen-faceted BiOCl has a well-matched {001}/{102}/{112} ternary facet junction, which provides a cascade path for more efficient charge flow than the binary facet junction in BiOCl square plates.

In-depth insight into facet-dependent charge movement behaviors and photo-redox catalysis: A case of {001} and {010} facets BiOCl.

A central issue in understanding photo-redox catalysis is the facet-dependent charge movement behaviors that include bulk charge separation, surface charge transfer and interfacial charge migration. To get in-depth insight into these complicated processes steered by different exposing facets, herein BiOCl with exposed (001) and (010) facets engaged as the model are investigated. The BiOCl-(010) and BiOCl-(001) single-crystalline sheets are separately synthesized via hydrothermal and hydrolysis routes. In contrast to BiOCl-(010), BiOCl-(001) demonstrates highly promoted photo-redox performance for H2 generation and degradation of pollutants. The facet-dependent charge movement behaviors were surveyed by surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPV), transient photocurrent, linear sweep voltammetry, continuous wavelength photocurrent, and electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS). All the photoelectrochemical and photoelectric measurement results reflect that BiOCl-(001) exhibits superior charge separation and migration efficiencies in the whole charge movement process than the BiOCl-(010). Besides, a higher charge carrier density (3.1-fold enhancement) was also observed for BiOCl-(001) compared to BiOCl-(010). Our current work is expected to further our understanding on facet-dependent charge movement behaviors and offer new insight into design of high-performance photocatalytic/photoelectrochemical materials.

A self-sacrifice template route to iodine modified BiOIO3: band gap engineering and highly boosted visible-light active photoreactivity.

The development of high-performance visible-light photocatalysts with a tunable band gap has great significance for enabling wide-band-gap (WBG) semiconductors visible-light sensitive activity and precisely tailoring their optical properties and photocatalytic performance. In this work we demonstrate the continuously adjustable band gap and visible-light photocatalysis activation of WBG BiOIO3via iodine surface modification. The iodine modified BiOIO3 was developed through a facile in situ reduction route by applying BiOIO3 as the self-sacrifice template and glucose as the reducing agent. By manipulating the glucose concentration, the band gap of the as-prepared modified BiOIO3 could be orderly narrowed by generation of the impurity or defect energy level close to the conduction band, thus endowing it with a visible light activity. The photocatalytic assessments uncovered that, in contrast to pristine BiOIO3, the modified BiOIO3 presents significantly boosted photocatalytic properties for the degradation of both liquid and gaseous contaminants, including Rhodamine B (RhB), methyl orange (MO), and ppb-level NO under visible light. Additionally, the band structure evolution as well as photocatalysis mechanism triggered by the iodine surface modification is investigated in detail. This study not only provides a novel iodine surface-modified BiOIO3 for environmental application, but also provides a facile and general way to develop highly efficient visible-light photocatalysts.

Iodide surface decoration: a facile and efficacious approach to modulating the band energy level of semiconductors for high-performance visible-light photocatalysis.

We herein report a facile and general approach to modulating the band energy level of semiconductors for visible-light photocatalysis via iodide surface decoration. This strategy enables the wide-band-gap Bi2O2CO3 to possess a continuously tunable band gap and profoundly boosted visible-light photocatalytic performance for dye degradation and NO removal.

Synchronously Achieving Plasmonic Bi Metal Deposition and I(-) Doping by Utilizing BiOIO3 as the Self-Sacrificing Template for High-Performance Multifunctional Applications.

Herein, we uncover simultaneously achieving plasmonic Bi metal deposition and I(-) doping by employing wide-band-gap BiOIO3 as the self-sacrificing template. It was synthesized via a facile NaBH4-assisted in situ reduction route under ambient conditions. The reducing extent as well as photocatalytic levels can be easily modulated by controlling the concentration of NaBH4 solution. It is interesting that the band gap of BiOIO3 can be continuously narrowed by the modification, and the photoresponse range is drastically extended to cover the whole visible region. Bi/I(-) codecorated BiOIO3 not only exhibits profoundly upgraded photoreactivity in comparison with pristine BiOIO3 but also shows universally strong photooxidation properties toward decomposition of multiple industrial contaminants and pharmaceutical, including phenol, 2,4-Dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), bisphenol A (BPA), dye model Rhodamine (RhB), tetracycline hydrochloride, and gaseous NO under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm) or simulated solar light irradiation. It also outperforms the well-known and important photocatalysts C3N4, BiOBr, and Bi2WO6 for NO removal. The cooperative effects from Bi SPR and I(-) doping endow BiOIO3 with a narrowed band gap and highly boosted separation of charge carriers, thus responsible for the outstanding catalytic activity. The present study provides an absorbing candidate for practical environmental applications and also furthers our understanding of developing high-performance photocatalysts by manipulating manifold strategies in a facile way.

[Exogenous NO mediated GSH-PCs synthesis pathway in tomato under copper stress].

Nitric oxide (NO), as a biologically active molecule, widely involved in the biotic and abiotic stresses. By using solution culture, this paper reported the dynamic changes in enzyme activity and metabolites related to GSH-PCs synthesis way mediated by exogenous NO in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). The results showed that exogenous NO could affect the metabolic pathway of GSH-PCs in tomato seedlings under copper stress. Compared with CK, the activity of γ-ECS and GS was significantly activated, consequently resulting in a sharp rise in GSH and PCs contents in tomato root. Moreover, γ-ECS and GS activity, GSH and PCs contents constantly rise with the extension of processing time under copper stress. Adding exogenous SNP could further improve γ-ECS and GS activity in tomato, and promote the production of GSH and PCs, which contributed to enhancing the ability of removing superoxide and chelating excess Cu2+ to reduce its biological toxicity. To a certain extent, GSH-PCs metabolic changes in leaf lagged behind that in roots. Exogenous BSO could significantly inhibit γ-ECS activity, and applying SNP could significantly reverse the inhibition on GSH and PCs synthesis by BSO. BSO had little effects on PCs content in leaf. Under copper stress, exogenous NO may initiate a signal mechanism and reduce the biotoxicity and oxidative damage caused by excessive Cu2+ by activating or enhancing the enzymatic and non-enzymatic systems in the GSH-PCs synthesis path.