One-step hydrothermal synthesis of fluorescence carbon quantum dots with high product yield and quantum yield

A one-step hydrothermal synthesis of nitrogen and silicon co-doped fluorescence carbon quantum dots (N,Si-CQDs), from citric acid monohydrate and silane coupling agent KH-792 with a high product yield (PY) of 52.56% and high quantum yield (QY) of 97.32%, was developed. This greatly improves both the PY and QY of CQDs and provides a new approach for a large-scale production of high-quality CQDs. Furthermore, N,Si-CQDs were employed as phosphors without dispersants to fabricate white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) with the color coordinates at (0.29, 0.32). It is suggested that N,Si-CQDs have great potential as promising fluorescent materials to be applied in WLEDs.Peer reviewe

Treatment of the Cyanotoxins Cylindrospermopsin, Microcystin-LR, and Anatoxin-a by Activated Carbon in Drinking Water

Cyanotoxins are known to cause human and animal illness, in some cases resulting in death, and their presence in drinking water is a potential risk to public health. Cylindrospermopsin (CYL), microcystin-LR (MC-LR), and anatoxin-a (ANTA) are among the most detected and studied cyanotoxins in North American surface water. While microcystin is regulated in drinking water in most North American jurisdictions, lower maximum contaminant limits may be coming as well as the potential addition of CYL and ANTA as regulated contaminants. Powdered and granular activated carbon (PAC and GAC) may be cost-effective barriers for extracellular cyanotoxins in conventional drinking water treatment plants but not all carbons and toxins have been studied. Even less information is available at PAC contact times that are relevant to practice. The primary objective of this research was to investigate the adsorption behavior (rate and capacity) of CYL, MC-LR, and ANTA during treatment with PAC and GAC. Adsorption of CYL, MC-LR, and ANTA was investigated using three commercially available PACs: coal-based COL-PL60-800 (Carbon Activated Corporation), wood-based BG-HHM (Calgon Carbon), and coconut-based WPC® (Calgon Carbon). Initially adsorption was studied in ultrapure water to establish baseline performance and for inter-lab comparisons now and in the future. The BG-HHM (wood) and the WPC (coconut) adsorbed CYL the fastest, the BG-HHM (wood) adsorbed MC-LR the fastest, while the BG-HHM (wood) and WPC (coconut) adsorbed ANTA the fastest. Adsorption capacity was evaluated under both equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions (0.5 h and 1 h contact times). At equilibrium, the BG-HHM (wood) had the highest CYL capacity, the COL-PL60-800 (coal) had the highest MC-LR capacity, and the WPC (coconut) had the highest capacity for ANTA adsorption. Interestingly, PAC had substantially different capacities under non-equilibrium conditions which serve to more accurately simulate PAC contact times typically available in full-scale water treatment plants. Under non-equilibrium conditions, the wood-based BG-HHM outperformed the other two PACs with the highest capacity for the all three cyanotoxins investigated in this study. The adsorption of CYL, MC-LR, and ANTA was then investigated using Lake Erie water (adjusted to pH 7) collected from the Elgin Area Water Treatment Plant (Southern Ontario, Canada), again using the same PAC products as studied in the ultrapure water investigations. The BG-HHM (wood) adsorbed CYL and MC-LR the fastest, whereas the WPC (coconut) adsorbed ANTA the fastest. At equilibrium, the COL-PL60-800 (coal) had the greatest CYL capacity, the BG-HHM (wood) had the highest MC-LR capacity, and the WPC (coconut) and BG-HHM (wood) retained the greatest and similar capacity for ANTA. Under non-equilibrium conditions, the BG-HHM (wood) had the highest capacity for CYL and MC-LR, while the WPC (coconut) performed best for ANTA removal. Compared to the ultrapure water results, a substantial reduction in adsorptive capacity and a slight decrease in the rate of adsorption were observed in Lake Erie water. To describe the competitive adsorption of cyanotoxins and dissolved natural organic matter (NOM) in Lake Erie water, a competitive adsorption model, the simplified equivalent background compound model (SEBCM), was successfully utilized in this study to predict PAC dose to achieve target removals of each of CYL, MC-LR and ANTA under non-equilibrium conditions (0.5 h contact time). Based on the SEBCM results, an economic analysis was conducted and it was found that the BG-HHM (wood) was the most cost-effective alternative for CYL and MC-LR removal, while none of the selected PACs in this study was an effective barrier for ANTA. CYL adsorption was then investigated in ultrapure water using three virgin GACs, including coal-based F-300® (Calgon Carbon), wood-based C Gran (Norit), and coconut-based Aqua Carb (Siemens), and a preloaded coal-based F-300, previously prepared by Vlad (2015). Among all virgin GACs, the C Gran (wood) adsorbed CYL the fastest, while the F-300 (coal) was slowest. The F-300 (coal) retained the highest equilibrium capacity, while the C Gran (wood) had the lowest. Comparing the performance of virgin and preloaded F-300 (coal), both the rate of adsorption and capacity deteriorated as a result of preloading. Overall, PAC adsorption for CYL and MC-LR is a promising treatment option. Further investigations are required to explain differences observed for ANTA removal by PAC in this study vs. that reported by Vlad (2015). In the case of CYL adsorption by GAC, bench-scale testing has demonstrated that larger scale investigations are justified (at pilot- or full-scale in the event of a bloom). At present, the price and availability of the cyanotoxins is such that larger scale experiments may be cost prohibitive. Additional bench-scale PAC and GAC studies in other water sources are warranted

An Efficient Synthesis and Photoelectric Properties of Green Carbon Quantum Dots with High Fluorescent Quantum Yield

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)To greatly improve the production quality and efficiency of carbon quantum dots (CQDs), and provide a new approach for the large-scale production of high-quality CQDs, green carbon quantum dots (g-CQDs) with high product yield (PY) and high fluorescent quantum yield (QY) were synthesized by an efficient one-step solvothermal method with 2,7-dihydroxynaphthalene as the carbon source and ethylenediamine as the nitrogen dopant in this study. The PY and QY of g-CQDs were optimised by adjusting reaction parameters such as an amount of added ethylenediamine, reaction temperature, and reaction duration. The results showed that the maximum PY and QY values of g-CQDs were achieved, which were 70.90% and 62.98%, respectively when the amount of added ethylenediamine, reaction temperature, and reaction duration were 4 mL, 180 °C, and 12 h, respectively. With the optimised QY value of g-CQDs, white light emitting diodes (white LEDs) were prepared by combining g-CQDs and blue chip. The colour rendering index of white LEDs reached 87, and the correlated colour temperature was 2520 K, which belongs to the warm white light area and is suitable for indoor lighting. These results indicate that g-CQDs have potential and wide application prospects in the field of white LEDs.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Efficacy and safety of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation for the management of primary dysmenorrhoea: Protocol for a randomised controlled trial in China

INTRODUCTION: Primary dysmenorrhoea (PD) is a common menstrual concern with significant physical and psychosocial impacts. The effectiveness and safety of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) in alleviating PD symptoms remain uncertain due to insufficient evidence. This single-centre, parallel, randomised controlled study intends to evaluate the efficacy and safety of TEAS for PD management. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: 60 participants aged 18-40 years diagnosed with moderate to severe PD will be recruited from Tai\u27an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and randomly assigned to either a TEAS group or a TEAS-sham group (1:1). The TEAS group will undergo 12 sessions of TEAS treatment over two menstrual cycles, with 30 min per session, three sessions weekly. Participants in the TEAS-sham group will receive TEAS stimulation using identical devices and protocols but without current output. The primary outcome is the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain assessment. Secondary outcomes are Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, total effective rate, uterine artery haemodynamics, prostaglandin and β-endorphin level, mental well-being and quality of life. Adverse events and their potential reasons and the use of analgesics will also be recorded. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Tai\u27an Hospital of TCM. Written informed consent will be obtained from each participant. The results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ChiCTR2300071686

Realizing the Hayden-Preskill Protocol with Coupled Dicke Models

Hayden and Preskill proposed a thought experiment that Bob can recover the information Alice throws into a black hole if he has a quantum computer entangled with the black hole, and Yoshida and Kitaev recently proposed a concrete decoding scheme. The parallel question is that after a small system is thermalized with a large system, how one can decode the initial state information with the help of two entangled many-body systems. Here we propose to realize this protocol in a physical system of two Dicke models, with two cavity fields prepared in a thermofield double state. We show that the Yoshida-Kitaev protocol allows us to read out the initial spin information after it is scrambled into the cavity. We show that the readout efficiency reaches a maximum when the model parameter is tuned to the regime where the system is the most chaotic, characterized by the shortest scrambling time in the out-of-time-ordered correlation function. Our proposal opens up the possibility of discussing this profound thought experiment in a realistic setting.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure