Effect of dissolved humic acids and coated humic acids on tetracycline adsorption by K2CO3-activated magnetic biochar.

Humic acids (HAs) widely exist in water environment, and has an important impact on the adsorption of pollutants. Herein, HAs (both dissolved and coated) was employed to assess the effect on the removal of the organic contaminant tetracycline (TC) by K2CO3 modified magnetic biochar (KMBC). Results showed that low concentration of dissolved HAs promoted TC removal, likely due to a bridging effect, while higher concentration of dissolved HAs inhibited TC adsorption because of the competition of adsorption sites on KMBC. By characterization analysis, coated HAs changed the surface and pore characteristics of KMBC, which suppressed the TC removal. In a sequential adsorption experiment involving dissolved HAs and TC, the addition of HAs at the end of the experiment led to the formation of HAs-TC ligands with free TC, which improved the adsorption capacity of TC. TC adsorption by KMBC in the presence of dissolved HAs and coated HAs showed a downward trend with increasing pH from 5.0 to 10.0. The TC adsorption process was favorable and endothermic, and could be better simulated by pseudo-second-order kinetics and Freundlich isotherm model. Hydrogen bonds and π-π interactions were hypothesized to be the underlying influencing mechanisms.

The cluster-assembled nanowires based on M12N12 (M = Al and Ga) clusters as potential gas sensors for CO, NO, and NO2 detection.

The advances in cluster-assembled materials where clusters serve as building blocks have opened new opportunities to develop ever more sensitive gas sensors. Here, using density functional theory calculations, the structural and electronic properties of cluster-assembled nanowires based on M12N12 (M = Al and Ga) clusters and their application as gas sensors have been investigated. Our results show that the nanowires can be produced via the coalescence of stable M12N12 fullerene-like clusters. The M12N12-based nanowires have semiconducting electrical properties with direct energy gaps, and are particularly stable at room temperature for long enough to allow for their characterization and applications. Furthermore, we found that the CO, NO, and NO2 molecules are chemisorbed on the M12N12-based nanowires with reasonable adsorption energies and apparent charge transfer. The electronic properties of the M12N12-based nanowires present dramatic changes after the adsorption of the CO, NO, and NO2 molecules, especially their electric conductivity. However, the adsorption of NO2 on the Al12N12-based nanowire is too strong, indicating an impractical recovery time as NO2 sensors. In addition to this, due to reasonable adsorption energies, apparent charge transfer, change in the electric conductivity, and the short recovery time, the Al12N12-based nanowire should be a good CO and NO sensor with quick response as well as short recovery time, while the Ga12N12-based nanowire should be a promising gas sensor for CO, NO, and NO2 detection.

Accumulating microparticles and direct-writing micropatterns using a continuous-wave laser-induced vapor bubble.

Through the enhanced photothermal effect, which was achieved using a silver film, a low power weakly focused continuous-wave laser (532 nm) was applied to create a vapor bubble. A convective flow was formed around the bubble. Microparticles dispersed in water were carried by the convective flow to the vapor bubble and accumulated on the silver film. By moving the laser spot, we easily manipulated the location of the bubble, allowing us to direct-write micropatterns on the silver film with accumulated particles. The reported simple controllable accumulation method can be applied to bimolecular detection, medical diagnosis, and other related biochip techniques.

Nonlinear generation of a neat semi-Gaussian laser beam with a transversely varying periodically-poled LiTaO3 crystal.

We experimentally demonstrate a compact, all-solid-state 532 nm semi-Gaussian laser beam (SGB) source based on a 1064 nm laser and a transversely varying periodically-poled LiTaO3 (TPPLT) crystal as the laser beam shaper as well as the nonlinear frequency converter. We have used the designed TPPLT crystal to obtain a neat 532nm SGB with the quality of QSGB=1:17.5 by a single-pass second harmonic generation. The dependence of the generated SGB quality on the designed TPPLT parameter and the potential applications of the neat SGB are also discussed.

Role of asymmetric environment on the dark mode excitation in metamaterial analogue of electromagnetically-induced transparency.

An otherwise dark magnetic dipole resonance in a split-ring resonator can be excited electrically with a Fano-type profile once the symmetric environment for this resonator is broken with respect to the polarized electric-field direction of incident waves. When this asymmetrically induced narrow resonance coincides with a broad dipolar resonance at an identical frequency regime, the metamaterial analogue of electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) window can be formed. We demonstrate that this environmental-asymmetry condition can be introduced dielectrically as well as plasmonically, either resonantly or nonresonantly, which indicates the plasmon coupling between different resonant modes is not responsible for the dark mode excitation. Thus, this result should contribute to the physical understanding on dark-mode excitation pathway for EIT-like phenomenon in plasmonic metamaterials.

Resonance amplification of left-handed transmission at optical frequencies by stimulated emission of radiation in active metamaterials.

We demonstrate that left-handed resonance transmission from metallic metamaterial, composed of periodically arranged double rings, can be extended to visible spectrum by introducing an active medium layer as the substrate. The severe ohmic loss inside metals at optical frequencies is compensated by stimulated emission of radiation in this active system. Due to the resonance amplification mechanism of recently proposed lasing spaser, the left-handed transmission band can be restored up to 610 nm wavelength, in dependence on the gain coefficient of the active layer. Additionally, threshold gains for different scaling levels of the double-ring unit are investigated to evaluate the gain requirement of left-handed transmission restoration at different frequency ranges.