Effect of Biodiesel impurities (K, Na, P) on non-catalytic and catalytic activities of Diesel soot in model DPF regeneration conditions

Abstract(#br)The impact of Biodiesel impurities (Na, K and P) on the non-catalytic and catalytic reactivity of Diesel soot was evaluated under model DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) regeneration conditions. Temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO) measurements confirmed that Na and K depositing into soot or on the surface of the catalyst enhanced the oxidative reactivity of soot under both O 2 and NO x + O 2 and Na-doped samples showed better results. However, the presence of P inhibited the non-catalytic and catalytic reactivity. These findings can be mainly attributed to the changes in nanostructure and surface chemical properties of the doped samples, characterized by Raman, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), H 2 temperature-programmed reduction (H 2 -TPR) and NO temperature-programmed oxidation (NO-TPO). The result of this characterization evidenced that the presence of Na and K increased structural defects of soot and reduction ability of the catalyst. Moreover, Na-/K-doped catalysts presented higher oxidizing ability of NO into NO 2 , whereas the opposite trend was observed for the P-containing catalysts. In addition, higher structural disorder of Na-doped soot and higher alkali metal content on the surface of Na-doped catalyst might lead to enhanced reactivity in comparison to K-doped soot and catalyst

Vibrational dephasing of self-assembling monolayer on gold surface

Ultrafast vibrational dephasing processes of ODT (1-Octadecanethiol) on Au surface had been investigated with time-resolved broadband vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy. Vibrational dephasing time constants obtained from different visible wavelength varying from 470 nm to 810 nm. The results showed that electronic structure of the gold substrate plays an important role in surface molecule dephasing dynamics. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Study of tissue engineered vascularised oral mucosa-like structures based on ACVM-0.25% HLC-I scaffold in vitro and in vivo

AbstractPurpose To explore the feasibility of constructing tissue-engineered vascularised oral mucosa-like structures with rabbit ACVM-0.25% HLC-I scaffold and human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs), human gingival epithelial cells (HGECs) and vascular endothelial-like cells (VEC-like cells).Method Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining, immunohistochemical, immunofluorescence, 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) staining and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were performed to detect the growth status of cells on the scaffold complex. After the scaffold complex implanted into nude mice for 28 days, tissues were harvested to observe the cell viability and morphology by the same method as above. Additionally, biomechanical experiments were used to assess the stability of composite scaffold.Results Immunofluorescence and Immunohistochemistry showed positive expression of Vimentin, S100A4 and CK, and the induced VEC-like cells had the ability to form tubule-like structures. In vitro observation results showed that HGFs, HGECs and VEC-like had good compatibility with ACVM-0.25% HLC-I and could be layered and grow in the scaffold. After implanted, the mice had no immune rejection and no obvious scar repair on the body surface. The biomfechanical test results showed that the composite scaffold has strong stability.Conclusion The tissue-engineered vascularised complexes constructed by HGFs, HGECs, VEC-like cells and ACVM-0.25% HLC-I has good biocompatibility and considerable strength

Pushing the efficiency of high open-circuit voltage binary organic solar cells by vertical morphology tuning

The tuning of vertical morphology is critical and challenging for organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, a high open-circuit voltage (VOC ) binary D18-Cl/L8-BO system is attained while maintaining the high short-circuit current (JSC ) and fill factor (FF) by employing 1,4-diiodobenzene (DIB), a volatile solid additive. It is suggested that DIB can act as a linker between donor or/and acceptor molecules, which significantly modifies the active layer morphology. The overall crystalline packing of the donor and acceptor is enhanced, and the vertical domain sizes of phase separation are significantly decreased. All these morphological changes contribute to exciton dissociation, charge transport, and collection. Therefore, the best-performing device exhibits an efficiency of 18.7% with a VOC of 0.922 V, a JSC of 26.6 mA cm-2 , and an FF of 75.6%. As far as it is known, the VOC achieved here is by far the highest among the reported OSCs with efficiencies over 17%. This work demonstrates the high competence of solid additives with two iodine atoms to tune the morphology, particularly in the vertical direction, which can become a promising direction for future optimization of OSCs.Published versionG.C. and X.L. acknowledge the financial support from Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong (General Research Fund No. 14303519 and NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme (Grant No. N_CUHK418/17). Z.C. and H.Z. acknowledge the financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Program No. 2017YFA0207700). X.Z. thanks NSFC (51761165023)