Nanostructured Polyaniline–Cellulose Papers for Solid-State Flexible Aqueous Zn-Ion Battery

Solid-state flexible aqueous Zn-ion battery was fabricated with nanostructured polyaniline–cellulose papers as the cathode and Zn-grown graphite papers as the anode. The separator was a flexible gel electrolyte with high ionic conductivity, based on cellulose nanofibers. The Zn-ion battery exhibited energy density of 117.5 and 67.8 mW·h/g at power density of 0.16 and 3.34 W/g, respectively (estimated from total active mass of both cathode and anode). The energy density of the Zn-ion battery was much higher than that of asymmetric supercapacitors with aqueous electrolytes, while maintaining a comparable power density. Meanwhile, good cyclic stability was achieved with a high capacity retention of 84.7% after 1000 charge/discharge cycles at a current density of 4 A/g. More importantly, specific capacity changed little under mechanical bending, and there was only 9% loss after 1000 bending cycles. The solid-state flexible Zn-ion battery has great potential as an energy-storage device for flexible displays and wearable electronics

Protein purification with nanoparticle-enhanced crystallisation

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. In this study, silica nanoparticle was synthesised and used to promote lysozyme crystallisation effectively against high concentrations of protein impurity (bovine serum albumin (BSA); concentration = 25.0–50.0 mg/mL vs 5.0–25.0 mg/mL for lysozyme) at 1 mL scale, demonstrating that crystallisation is a viable and scalable protein purification technology with the aid of heterogeneous nucleants. The silica nanoparticle expedited the crystallisation of lysozyme through the enhancement of nucleation, significantly improving the process productivity. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the proper use of nanoparticle in terms of process time, as the improvement of product recovery by silica nanoparticle has a monomodal peak shape over time

Thermodynamic Properties of Polymorphs of 2,2′-Thiodiethylene Bis[3-(3,5-di-<i>tert</i>-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate]

In this work, two polymorphic forms of 2,2′-thiodiethylene bis­[3-(3,5-di<i>tert</i>-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)­propionate] (abbreviated as TBHP) were successfully isolated, identified, and characterized by using powder X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. It was found that form I has a lower melting temperature than form II. The solubility data of both form I and form II of TBHP in six pure solvents were experimentally measured in the temperature range of (283.15 to 318.15) K at atmospheric pressure by using a dynamic method. For all of the tested solvents, the solubility data of TBHP form I are higher than those of form II. The modified Apelblat equation was used to correlate the solubility of TBHP form I and form II. The mixing Gibbs energy, the mixing enthalpy, and the mixing entropy of both forms were also determined. It was also found that mixing processes of both forms are endothermic, entropy-driven, and spontaneous. Combining the DCS data and all of the thermodynamic data, it was concluded that the relationship between form I and form II of TBHP is monotropic