Miniaturized electrochemical sensors and their point-of-care applications

Most of the current analytical methods depend largely on laboratory-based analytical techniques that require expensive and bullky equipment,potentially incur costly testing,and involve lengthy detection processes.With increasing requirements for point-of-care testing(POCT),more attention has been paid to miniaturized analytical devices.Miniaturized electrochemical(MEC)sensors,including different material-based MEC sensors(such as DNA-,paper-,and screen electrode-based),have been in strong demand in analytical science due to their easy operation,portability,high sensitivity,as well as their short analysis time.They have been applied for the detection of trace amounts of target through measuring changes in electrochemical signal,such as current,voltage,potential,or impedance,due to the oxidation/reduction of chemical/biological molecules with the help of electrodes and electrochemical units.MEC sensors present great potential for the detection of targets including small organic molecules,metal ions,and biomolecules.In recent years,MEC sensors have been broadly applied to POCT in various fields,including health care,food safety,and environmental monitoring,owing to the excellent advantages of electrochemical(EC)technologies.This review summarized the state-of-the-art advancements on various types of MEC sensors and their applications in POCT.Furthermore,the future perspectives,opportunities,and challenges in this field are also discussed.     

Machine Learning towards Screening Solid-state Lithium Ion Conductors

Machine learning is an emerging method to discover new materials with specific characteristics.An unsupervised machine learning research is highlighted to discover new potential lithium ionic conductors by screening and clustering lithium compounds,providing inspirations for the development of solid-state electrolytes and practical batteries.     

Surface defect-rich ceria quantum dots anchored on sulfur-doped carbon nitride nanotubes with enhanced charge separation for solar hydrogen production

Designing defect-engineered semiconductor heterojunctions can effectively promote the charge carrier separation.Herein,novel ceria(CeO2) quantum dots(QDs) decorated sulfur-doped carbon nitride nanotubes(SCN NTs) were synthesized via a thermal polycondensation coupled in situ depositionprecipitation method without use of template or surfactant.The structure and morphology studies indicate that ultrafine CeO2 QDs are well distributed inside and outside of SCN NTs offering highly dispersed active sites and a large contact interface between two components.This leads to the promoted formation of rich Ce³⁺ ion and oxygen vacancies as confirmed by XPS.The photocatalytic performance can be facilely modulated by the content of CeO2 QDs introduced in SCN matrix while bare CeO2 does not show activity of hydrogen production.The optimal catalyst with 10% of CeO2 loading yields a hydrogen evolution rate of 2923.8 μmol h-1 g-1 under visible light,remarkably higher than that of bare SCN and their physical mixtures.Further studies reveal that the abundant surface defects and the created 0 D/1 D junctions play a critical role in improving the separation and transfer of charge carriers,leading to superior solar hydrogen production and good stability.     

Superfast and solvent-free core-shell assembly of sulfur/carbon active particles by hail-inspired nanostorm technology for high-energy-density Li-S batteries

The demand on low-carbon emission fabrication technologies for energy storage materials is increasing dramatically with the global interest on carbon neutrality.As a promising active material for metal-sulfur batteries,sulfur is of great interest due to its high-energy-density and abundance.However,there is a lack of industry-friendly and low-carbon fabrication strategies for high-performance sulfur-based active particles,which,however,is in critical need by their practical success.Herein,based on a hail-inspired sulfur nano-storm(HSN)technology developed in our lab,we report an energy-saving,solvent-free strategy for producing core-shell sulfur/carbon electrode particles(CNT@AC-S)in minutes.The fabrication of the CNT@AC-S electrode particles only involves low-cost sulfur blocks,commercial carbon nanotubes(CNT)and activated carbon(AC)micro-particles with high specific surface area.Based on the above core-shell CNT@AC-S particles,sulfur cathode with a high sulfur-loading of 9.2 mg cm^-2 delivers a stable area capacity of 6.6 mAh cm^-2 over 100 cycles.Furthermore,even for sulfur cathode with a super-high sulfur content(72 wt%over the whole electrode),it still delivers a high area capacity of 9 mAh cm^-2 over50 cycles in a quasi-lean electrolyte condition.In a nutshell,this study brings a green and industryfriendly fabrication strategy for cost-effective production of rationally designed S-rich electrode particles.     

Unraveling the stabilization mechanism of solid electrolyte interface on ZnSe by rGO in sodium ion battery

Transition metal selenides have been widely studied as anode materials of sodium ion batteries(SIBs),however,the investigation of solid-electrolyte-interface(SEI)on these materials,which is critical to the electrochemical performance of SIBs,remains at its infancy.Here in this paper,ZnSe@C nanoparticles were prepared from ZIF-8 and the SEI layers on these electrodes with and without reduced graphene oxide(rGO)layers were examined in details by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies at varied charged/discharged states.It is observed that fast and complicated electrolyte decomposition reactions on ZnSe@C leads to quite thick SEI film and intercalation of solvated sodium ions through such thick SEI film results in slow ion diffusion kinetics and unstable electrode structure.However,the presence of rGO could efficiently suppress the decomposition of electrolyte,thus thin and stable SEI film was formed.ZnSe@C electrodes wrapped by rGO demonstrates enhanced interfacial charge transfer kinetics and high electrochemical performance,a capacity retention of 96.4%,after 1000 cycles at 5 A/g.This study might offer a simple avenue for the designing high performance anode materials through manipulation of SEI film.     

CXN天然沸石的研究2: 吸附性质

采用N~2,NH~3,CO~2,乙烯,丙烯,水,甲醇,乙醇,丙醇等作为吸附剂,研究了由我国CXN天然沸石改性制得的H-STI和Na-STI沸石的吸附性质,H-STI和Na-STI沸石的BET表面积及微孔孔体积约为420m^2/g和0.20m^3/g。根据NH~3和CO~2在H-STI沸石上的吸附等温线计算得到它们的吸附热分别为44.8和26.5kJ/mol。乙烯,丙烯,甲醇,乙醇,丙醇等在Na-STI沸石上的吸附等温线表明该沸石对有机分子的吸附具有链长选择性。在低分压下水相对于甲醇的吸附量表明沸石具有一定的疏水性质。     

常温常湿条件下Au/MeO~x催化剂上CO氧化性能

利用共沉淀法制备了Au/MeO~x催化剂(Me=Al,Co,Cr,Cu,Fe,Mn,Ni,Zn)。在常温常湿条件下,考察了不同氧化物负载的金基催化剂的CO氧化性能。结果表明,氧化物种类对催化剂的活性和稳定性均有较大的影响。Cu,Mn,Cr等氧化物负载的金基催化剂的活性较差,而Zn,Fe,Co,Ni,Al等金属氧化物负载的金基催化剂可将CO完全氧化,又具有一定的稳定性,在相同反应条件下,CO完全转化时的稳定性顺序为Au/ZnO>Au/α-Fe~2O~3>Au/Co~3O~4>Au/γ-Al~2O~3≈Au/NiO。还发现水对Au/MnO~x催化剂的活性和稳定性有负作用,而对180℃焙烧制备的Au/ZnO-180催化剂的活性和稳定性均有明显的湿度增强作用。     

Boost oxygen reduction reaction performance by tuning the active sites in Fe-N-P-C catalysts

Cost-effective atomically dispersed Fe-N-P-C complex catalysts are promising to catalyze the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)and replace Pt catalysts in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.However,it remains a challenge to increase the number of atomically dispersed active sites on these catalysts.Here we report a highly efficient impregnation-pyrolysis method to prepare effective ORR electrocatalysts with large amount of atomically dispersed Fe active sites from biomass.Two types of active catalyst centers were identified,namely atomically dispersed Fe sites and Fe_xP particles.The ORR rate of the atomically dispersed Fe sites is three orders of magnitude higher than it of Fe_xP particles.A linear correlation between the amount of the atomically dispersed Fe and the ORR activity was obtained,revealing the major contribution of the atomically dispersed Fe to the ORR activity.The number of atomically dispersed Fe increases as the Fe loading increased and reaching the maximum at 1.86 wt%Fe,resulting in the maximum ORR rate.Optimized Fe-N-P-C complex catalyst was used as the cathode catalyst in a homemade Zn-air battery and good performance of an energy density of 771 Wh kgZn^-1,a power density of 92.9 m W cm^-2 at 137 m A cm^-2 and an excellent durability were exhibited.     

Regulation of carbon distribution to construct high-sulfur-content cathode in lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur(Li-S)battery is regarded as one of the most promising next-generation energy storage systems due to the ultra-high theoretical energy density of 2600 Wh kg^-1.To address the insulation nature of sulfur,nanocarbon composition is essential to afford acceptable cycling capacity but inevitably sacrifices the actual energy density under working conditions.Therefore,rational structural design of the carbon/sulfur composite cathode is of great significance to realize satisfactory electrochemical performances with limited carbon content.Herein,the cathode carbon distribution is rationally regulated to construct high-sulfur-content and high-performance Li-S batteries.Concretely,a double-layer carbon(DLC)cathode is prepared by fabricating a surface carbon layer on the carbon/sulfur composite.The surface carbon layer not only provides more electrochemically active surfaces,but also blocks the polysulfide shuttle.Consequently,the DLC configuration with an increased sulfur content by nearly 10 wt%renders an initial areal capacity of 3.40 mAh cm^-2 and capacity retention of 83.8%during 50 cycles,which is about two times than that of the low-sulfur-content cathode.The strategy of carbon distribution regulation affords an effective pathway to construct advanced high-sulfur-content cathodes for practical high-energy-density Li-S batteries.     

Confined Ni-In intermetallic alloy nanocatalyst with excellent coking resistance for methane dry reforming

Carbon dioxide and methane are two main greenhouse gases which are contributed to serious global warming.Fortunately,dry reforming of methane(DRM),a very important reaction developed decades ago,can convert these two major greenhouse gases into value-added syngas or hydrogen.The main problem retarding its industrialization is the seriously coking formation upon the nickel-based catalysts.Herein,a series of confined indium-nickel(In-Ni)intermetallic alloy nanocatalysts(In_xNi@SiO₂)have been prepared and displayed superior coking resistance for DRM reaction.The sample containing 0.5 wt.%of In loading(In_0.5Ni@SiO₂)shows the best balance of carbon deposition resistance and DRM reactivity even after 430 h long term stability test.The boosted carbon resistance can be ascribed to the confinement of core–shell structure and to the transfer of electrons from Indium to Nickel in In-Ni intermetallic alloys due to the smaller electronegativity of In.Both the silica shell and the increase of electron cloud density on metallic Ni can weaken the ability of Ni to activate C–H bond and decrease the deep cracking process of methane.The reaction over the confined InNi intermetallic alloy nanocatalyst was conformed to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood(L-H)mechanism revealed by in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy(in-situ DRIFTS).This work provides a guidance to design high performance coking resistance catalysts for methane dry reforming to efficiently utilize these two main greenhouse gases.     

疫情背景下“完全线上”远程混合式教学的实践与思考

为应对新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情,教师通过在线直播和线上交互讨论等形式,积极探索有效的线上教学方式,为在家自主学习的学生提供良好的学习体验。本文以"无机化学与化学分析"课程为例,面对疫情期间的特殊性,将以往的"线上线下融合"的混合式教学模式进行相应调整,提供给大家"完全线上"的远程混合式教学案例,以获得实时高效的教学效果。     

以学为中心的高分子化学线上教学实践

In response to the COVID-19 epidemic prevention, the "polymer chemistry" course teaching team actively explored the "learning-centered" online teaching model. The students were guided to active learning by using the rich contents of Chaoxin online teaching platform and multiple online teaching activities. The basic knowledge points, difficulties and emphases of the teaching were highlighted and the real-time communication and Q&A were achieved in combination with the Tencent course live broadcast and QQ learning group. Following the concept of "students as the main body and teachers as the leading", the online teaching of "polymer chemistry" has effectively aroused the students' interest in learning, cultivated the initiative of autonomous learning, organically integrated the ideological and political education, and achieved a good learning outcome.     

有机化学与实验课程在线“双练教学”模式的探索与实践

In the online organic chemistry and laboratory courses, the open or semi open quizzes before class and after class are adopted to explore the "dual quizzes teaching" mode on the network teaching platform. As the progress of "dual quizzes teaching", students' learning weakness, confidence and enthusiasm are improved continuously. Through the analysis of online students' learning data, questionnaire and interactive feedback, the teachers can evaluate the learning situation of the students and regulate instructional content in time. As a result of teaching online, the "dual quizzes teaching" mode has achieved highly positive effect.     

“高分子材料合成创新实验”线上教学探索与实践

Based on the platform of "QQ share screen + video live broadcast", through the combination of "online theory teaching", "development of home alternative experiment", "game type" experimental operation and "virtual simulation experiment", we carried out the online teaching of polymer material synthesis innovation laboratories, integrating "theory + practice" and "virtual + reality", which is also a good opportunity for labor education. These explorations and practices are expected to provide some references for online teaching of chemical laboratory courses during the COVID-19 epidemic.     

基于雨课堂+企业微信+慕课的在线直播教学——以有机化学为例

主要介绍了基于雨课堂和企业微信双平台直播教学,以及同步慕课课程为辅的有机化学在线教学实践,并以教学实例展示了“学生为中心,教师为引导”的“疑探”式教学体系。该在线直播教学还融入以弹幕、微信群和小组作业为主的交互方式,注重学生与学生、学生与教师以及学生与教学资源的互动;通过构建多维度的考核体系,加强对学习过程的考核,提高学生学习的主动性和参与度。     

高分子化学理论课与实验课的融合教学模式探索*

以“乙酸乙烯酯的乳液聚合”理论课和实验课为例,探索了将高分子化学理论和实验课程进行融合的创新教学模式。将理论教学和实验教学进行互动和融合的整体安排,克服了传统教学中理论课和实验课相互分离、缺乏相互支撑的缺点。在融合教学模式中,理论课和实验课实行团队协同教学;在同一个实验中设置必修内容和扩展性内容,更好地培养学有余力的学生;将理论课和实验课进行综合考核;对比了实验课前置、实验课居中和实验课后置教学方式,其中实验课居中的融合教学适合于大部分学生,有助于提高学生学习质量。     

基于物理化学MOOC的混合式教学实践

Based on the massive open online course (MOOC) of physical chemistry from Chinese university MOOCs platform, the authors introduce some initiatives and experiences in the MOOC course construction and the application for undergraduate teaching in Dalian University of Technology. The blended teaching and learning mode made up of "online" and "offline" was put into practice in other universities, and a new "1 + M + N" mode to provincial cross-school sharing has been demonstrated. It was shown that only the enhancement of MOOC teaching be highly valued throughout whole course of teaching, the students' quality and ability could be better cultivated followed by improving teaching quality.     

基于“超星直播+学习通”的在线教学示范

为了应对新冠病毒肺炎(COVID-19)蔓延和响应教育部"停课不停教,停课不停学"的号召,作者从"两问题三误区"入手分析了现有在线教学存在的问题,并对比了不同直播平台的优缺点,提出了在线教学的具体教学建议。以基于"超星直播+学习通"的在线教学为例进行了教学示范指导。     

有机化学实验线上课程之扬长避短教学设计与实践篇

It has been two months since a boom of online education triggered by the epidemic in China. At present, we are keeping focus on how to optimize our online class. In the case of chemistry laboratory courses, there's not much that can be done to experimental operations through online teaching. While for the traditional teaching procedure, there is still room for improvement in terms of integrating research to teaching, interactivity, etc. This paper will present some design strategies for improving teaching the organic chemistry laboratory online. To be specific, it describes how teaching materials like the lesson plan and virtual lab were coordinated into the online teaching. And we will also discuss the holistic approach to a better outcome for students' active learning and integration research into teaching by redesigning multiple phases, such as the pre-laboratory preparation, live online class, experimental operations.     

延期开学期间化学类专业线上教学情况调研分析与建议

During the suspending of education for prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic, chemistry majors in colleges and universities actively responded to the requirements of the Ministry of Education that "class is suspended without stopping teaching, class suspension without learning suspension", and earnestly organized online teaching. The National Instructional Committee of Chemistry Higher Education designed three questionnaires for chemistry majors, teachers and students to make survey on the online teaching. Through analysis of the survey, some important problems and suggestions are put forward. It is of significance to promote the future online education and teaching reform of relevant courses of chemistry majors.