In-situ concentration measurement of soluble-soluble redox couple in molten chlorides utilizing intense natural convection effect

Herein we reported the in-situ electrochemical concentration measurement of soluble-soluble redox species (Eu3+/Eu2+ and Sm3+/Sm2+) in molten LiCl-KCl, based on the notable natural convection in molten salts. The combined simulation and experiments confirmed the presence of strong natural convection, which resulted in steady-state current in cyclic voltammetry tests at low scan rates. Interestingly, this natural convection effects offered a novel and simple way to calculate the diffusion coefficient and concentration ratio of soluble redox species

In Situ Self-Assembled FeWO₄/Graphene Mesoporous Composites for Li-Ion and Na-Ion Batteries

With the growing demands for large-scale applications, rechargeable batteries with cost-effective and environmental-friendly characteristics have gained much attention in recent years. However, some practical challenges still exist in getting ideal electrode materials. In this work, three-dimensional FeWO₄/graphene mesoporous composites with incredibly tiny nanospheres of 5–15 nm in diameter have been synthesized by an in situ self-assembled hydrothermal route. First-principles density functional theory has been used to theoretically investigate the crystal structure change and the insertion/extraction mechanism of Li and Na ions. Unlike most graphene-coated materials, which suffer the restacking of graphene layers and experience significant irreversible capacity losses during charge and discharge process, the as-prepared composites have alleviated this issue by incorporating tiny solid nanospheres into the graphene layers to reduce the restacking degree. High capacity and excellent cyclic stability have been achieved for both Li-ion and Na-ion batteries. At the current density of 100 mA g^–1, the discharge capacity for Li-ion batteries remains as high as 597 mAh g^–1 after 100 cycles. The Na-ion batteries also exhibit good electrochemical performance with a capacity of 377 mAh g^–1 at 20 mA g^–1 over 50 cycles. The synthetic procedure is simple, cost-effective and scalable for mass production, representing a step further toward the realization of sustainable batteries for efficient stationary energy storage

Programming Cell Adhesion for On-Chip Sequential Boolean Logic Functions

Programmable remodelling of cell surfaces enables high-precision regulation of cell behavior. In this work, we developed in vitro constructed DNA-based chemical reaction networks (CRNs) to program on-chip cell adhesion. We found that the RGD-functionalized DNA CRNs are entirely noninvasive when interfaced with the fluidic mosaic membrane of living cells. DNA toehold with different lengths could tunably alter the release kinetics of cells, which shows rapid release in minutes with the use of a 6-base toehold. We further demonstrated the realization of Boolean logic functions by using DNA strand displacement reactions, which include multi-input and sequential cell logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, and AND-OR). This study provides a highly generic tool for self-organization of biological systems