Numerical Study on the Evaporation of a Non-Spherical Sessile Droplet.

To better understand the evaporation of a non-spherical droplet, a two-dimensional simulation was conducted to investigate the evaporation on the asymmetric cross-section of non-spherical sessile droplets, which are characterized by two curvatures with two different contact angles on both sides. The temperature distribution, internal flow, and evaporation flux distribution at a quasi-steady state were revealed to be different from the spherical droplets. When heated from the substrate, the lowest surface temperature moves to the side of higher curvature or larger contact angle, forming a single vortex in the droplet. This single-vortex formation continues to be enhanced by enlarging the contact angle discrepancy. Unlike spherical droplets, the smaller curvature side of a non-spherical sessile droplet will release more evaporation flux. In addition, it is found that the non-spherical sessile droplets could surpass the spherical sessile droplets in evaporation flux.

N-Doped carbon spheres with hierarchical micropore-nanosheet networks for high performance supercapacitors.

N-doped carbon spheres with hierarchical micropore-nanosheet networks (HPSCSs) were facilely fabricated by a one-step carbonization and activation process of N containing polymer spheres by KOH. With the synergy effect of the multiple structures, HPSCSs exhibit a very high specific capacitance of 407.9 F g(-1) at 1 mV s(-1) (1.2 times higher than that of porous carbon spheres) and a robust cycling stability for supercapacitors.

One-step carbonization synthesis of hollow carbon nanococoons with multimodal pores and their enhanced electrochemical performance for supercapacitors.

Hollow carbon capsules with multimodal pores are highly promising for developing novel electrode materials for high-performance electrochemical devices due to their more active sites for ion and electron transfer. However, at present, most of the previous efforts are focused on the multistep process for the synthesis of hollow carbon nanostructures with individual pores. Herein, hollow carbon nanococoons (HCNCs) with non-spherical cavity and multimodal hierarchical pores have been facilely synthesized via a one-step carbonization of a Fe2O3/carbon precursor core/shell nanospindle at 850 °C. We interestingly found that during the carbonization, Fe2O3 was automatically "escaped" from the inside nanospindle, leading to the formation of new HCNCs. Most importantly, the spindle-shaped cavity of the obtained HCNCs with high conductivity can offer a multimodal ion diffusion pathway, which can facilitate the reaction kinetics in a supercapacitor. As a result, the HCNCs-based supacapacitor exhibits the capacitance of 220.0 F g(-1) at a given scan rate of 5 mV s(-1), 3.5 times higher than that of hollow carbon spheres, high stability with 98% of the initial capacity maintained even after 1000 cycles, and high rate capability. This work provides a new and facile avenue for enhancing performance of a HCNCs-based supercapacitor by using the non-spherical hollow structures with multimodal pores.

High-efficiency encapsulation of Pt nanoparticles into the channel of carbon nanotubes as an enhanced electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation.

Pt-based nanostructures serving as anode catalysts for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) have been widely studied for many years. Nevertheless, challenging issues such as poor reaction kinetics and the short-term stability of the MOR are the main drawbacks of such catalysts and limit their applications. Herein, we have developed a facile approach to encapsulate Pt nanoparticles (NPs) inside the nanochannels of porous carbon nanotubes (CNTs; Pt-in-CNTs) as a new enhanced electrocatalytic material. The as-prepared CNTs offer simultaneously ordered diffusion channels for ions and a confinement effect for the NPs, which both facilitate the promotion of catalytic kinetics and avoid the Ostwald ripening of Pt NPs, thus leading to high activity and durable cycle life as an anode catalyst for MOR. This work provides a new approach for enhancing the stability and activity by optimizing the structure of the catalyst, and the Pt-in-CNTs represent the most durable catalysts ever reported for MOR.