Strategy For Preparation Research Articles

Block Copolymers‐Enabled Organic–Organic Assembly for Unique Carbonaceous Micro‐/Nano‐Structures

AbstractOver the past decade, there has been growing research interest in deriving advanced carbonaceous materials with unique architectures, including diverse morphologies and compositions, from polymer‐based precursors with tailored nano/micro‐structures. The organic–organic assembly between organic molecules and block copolymers (BCPs) has emerged as a promising strategy for advancing the preformed polymers with multiple levels of complexity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the synthesis and potential applications of unique carbonaceous nano/micro‐structures derived from commonly used organic precursors, including phenol/formaldehyde, dopamine, and biomass. It begins with a brief summary of the polymerization mechanism for each type of precursors. Following this, it details the delicate design and preparation strategies for unique polymer architectures, including the formation mechanisms of the first‐level assembly involving BCPs and organic precursors, which form composite micelles as building units, and the principles for manipulation the higher‐level assembly process of the composite micelles, illustrated with some representative examples. The review then highlights the advanced applications of these materials in heterogeneous catalysts, secondary batteries, separation, and intelligent drug delivery systems. Finally, the synthetic challenges and potential development directions of unique carbonaceous nano/micro‐structures are outlined, underscoring a pathway for developing advanced materials.

Recent Advances and Future Developments in the Preparation of Polypeptides via N-Carboxyanhydride (NCA) Ring-Opening Polymerization.

Polypeptides have the same or similar backbone structures as proteins and peptides, rendering them as suitable and important biomaterials. Amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides (NCA) ring-opening polymerization has been the most efficient strategy for polypeptide preparation, with continuous advance in the design of initiators, catalysts and reaction conditions. This Perspective first summarizes the recent progress of NCA synthesis and purification. Subsequently, we focus on various initiators for NCA polymerization, catalysts for accelerating polymerization or enhancing the controllability of polymerization, and recent advances in the reaction approach of NCA polymerization. Finally, we discuss future research directions and open challenges.

Electrical Stimulation Therapies for Public Health Management and Chronic Pain Management

All progressive lung diseases, respiratory disorders, chronic bronchitis, and stubborn (non-reversible) asthma are collectively referred to as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. When a person with COPD maintains their level of muscle strength and mobility, which is crucial for all COPD patients, they can live for several years and profit from life. Conscription is one approach to accomplish physical mobility inside a structured programme, like a physical training programme. It is a part of the COPD management guidelines and has been shown to be a beneficial tool in managing COPD. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) has been successfully used as a limited to a small region preparation strategy in seriously impaired patients WHO do not appear to be capable of adhering to strict pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and/or enduring superior coaching frequencies. In order to evaluate public health concerns and predict the onset of illnesses, the objective of this project is to create an intelligent framework for electrical stimulation therapies for the management of chronic pain and public health.

<p>Applying the Dual Deficit Model: Do Students’ Test Preparation Strategies Moderate the Relationship between Test Anxiety and Students’ Academic Achievement?</p>

Introduction. Understanding the mechanism through which test anxiety impacts students’ learning outcomes is critical to its management. Test preparation strategies are associated with test confidence and could also affect students’ academic achievement. However, previous studies have underplayed the role students’ test preparation strategies could play in the associations between test anxiety and their academic achievement. Hence, the moderating roles of students’ test preparation strategies on the relationship between test anxiety and students' academic achievement were explained by framing our study within the dual deficit model. Method. The cross-sectional research design was adopted, and 248 secondary school students constituted the sample. Results. The major findings revealed significant negative relationships between the worry and the cognitive test anxiety subscales and students’ academic achievement scores. Furthermore, there was a joint significant negative relationship between the components of test anxiety and students’ academic achievement, whereas students’ test preparation strategies was not a significant moderator. Discussion and Conclusion. Our findings indicate that learning strategies deficits may not significantly impact the effects of attentional-cognitive deficits on students’ academic achievement. It is concluded that cognitive-attentional deficit could defy strengths that may come from test preparation strategies.

Regulating oxidation states of Cu nanowires for enhanced catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

Abstract The construction of highly efficient and low-cost catalysts is crucial for the reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). Herein, we provide a simple processing method, including vacuum storage, natural oxidation, and heating oxidation, that effectively regulates the surface oxidation state of copper nanowires and produces copper nanowires with different oxidation states (such as Cu, Cu2O, and CuO). Research has found that CuNW-N (Cu nanowires for vacuum storage) catalysts with a surface composition of 67.9% Cu0, 20.6% Cu+, and 11.5% Cu2+ exhibit the best catalytic performance for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and their reaction rate constant reaches 0.791 min−1. This work provides a feasible catalyst preparation strategy for the efficient catalytic reduction of 4-NP.

Several Applications of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery.

Rapid progress is being made in the area of nanotechnology; solid lipid nanoparticles are currently at the forefront of research and development. They have the capability of becoming employed in an extensive number of applications, including the delivery of medications, clinical treatment, and research, in addition to uses in other areas of academic inquiry that could benefit from their utilisation. This article presents a thorough analysis of solid lipid nanoparticles, covering subjects such as their goals, preparation strategy, applications, advantages, and possible remedies for the issues that have been raised. This review provides a discussion of solid lipids that is both in-depth and comprehensive. Studies that investigate the manner in which SLNs are prepared and the routes via which they are administered are typical. Aspects concerning the route of administration of SLNs as well as the destiny of the carriers in vivo are also investigated in this paper.

Facile preparation of oxygen vacancy-rich magnesium oxide for advanced removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions

In this study, oxygen vacancy-rich magnesium oxides (SH-MgO and SC-MgO) were successfully prepared by the combination of chemical precipitation with high-temperature calcination. Effects of alkaline reagents (NaOH and Na2CO3) on surface morphology, pore structure and particle size distribution of SH-MgO and SC-MgO were analyzed. Besides, the phosphate removal performance and mechanisms were also investigated. The specific surface area of SH-MgO and SC-MgO was 98.03 and 62.35 m2 g−1, respectively. The corresponding average particle sizes were 211.98 and 19.56 μm. The phosphate adsorption followed the Vermeulen model and thus the rate of adsorption was limited by the intraparticle diffusion. The high affinity and selectivity of SH-MgO and SC-MgO for phosphate implied their great potentials in practical application. The EPR results demonstrated the presence of large numbers of oxygen vacancies in SH-MgO and SC-MgO. The phosphate removal mechanisms mainly included oxygen vacancy capture, electrostatic attraction, surface precipitation and inner-sphere complexation. This study provided a new strategy for facile preparation of oxygen vacancy-rich magnesium oxide, which was extremely significant for advanced removal of phosphate to reduce eutrophication.

Confined magnetic nickel nanoparticles in carbon microspheres with high-performance electromagnetic wave absorption in Ku-band

Composition and structure regulation is the primary strategy in preparing high-performance electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption materials. Herein, magnetic-dielectric synergy Ni@C microspheres were fabricated to obtain the high-performance electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption performance. Firstly, the Ni-containing precursor microspheres were obtained via the spray-drying technology. Secondly, reduced magnetic Ni nanoparticles (NPs) were confined in the N-doped carbon microspheres after pyrolysis treatment in the H2/Ar atmosphere. Duo to the existence of melamine, the distribution of Ni NPs and related EM parameters of Ni@C microspheres were efficiently regulated to seek the well impedance matching and EM responded ability. As results, as-synthesized Ni@C microspheres exhibited the minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of −48.2 dB and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 5.7 GHz, covering almost Ku-band. This research represents a significant advancement in the development of magnetic-dielectric composite microspheres with superior absorption capacity, and it also provides a large-scale preparation strategy for electromagnetic wave absorbing materials.

Preparation of stable and biocompatible MOF@SiO2 nanoparticles for Oxybutynin loading and pelvic floor muscle repair

The pelvic floor muscle (PFM) is a critical structure maintaining the support system of pelvic organs, primarily composed of the anal support belt. Structural abnormalities and functional disorders may lead to clinical pathological changes, resulting in pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD), significantly impacting patient health. To address the challenges in PFD treatment, we first constructed a novel Zn4L2 (phen)4 for drug delivery and characterized its structure and fluorescence properties. Subsequently, we developed a stable and biocompatible drug, MOFs@SiO2 nanoparticles, loaded with Oxybutynin. Detailed characterization of their structure was performed. An in vitro cellular model of PFD was established through mechanical injury, and our synthesized novel Zn4L2 (phen)4@SiO2-Oxybutynin particles successfully alleviated the induced upregulation of MDA and downregulation of GPX4 associated with PFD, demonstrating the particle's efficacy in treating PFD by regulating ferroptosis. This study highlights the significant potential of this novel preparation strategy in the biomedical field.

Fabrication of metal‐organic frameworks macro-structures for adsorption applications in water treatment: A review

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging porous organic–inorganic hybrid materials composed of metal centers/clusters and various organic ligands, which are widely used in water and wastewater treatment applications due to their large specific surface area, high porosity, tunable chemical properties and abundant active sites. However, pure MOFs powders have limitations such as poor recovery, blocked pipelines and secondary contamination in practical water treatment processes. Enabling the magnetization of MOFs or immobilizing MOFs as macroscopic MOFs materials offers new opportunities to improve solid–liquid separation performances of powdered MOFs. Besides, macroscopic MOFs materials with outstanding adsorption performance and mechanical properties by the combining of 3D particles and 2D nanosheets MOFs with other substrates are widely used for water treatment. This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent advancements in MOFs macro-structures. We firstly summarized the synthesis strategies of magnetic MOFs composites and various MOFs macro-structures such as hydrogels/aerogels, membranes, beads/spheres, others composites, etc. which can be constructed by various methods, including in-situ growth, solvothermal method, direct mixing, self-assembly, layer-by-layer growth, etc. Innovative preparation strategies to improve the mechanical properties of MOFs macro-structures were highlighted. Next the article discusses its application for adsorptive removal of various pollutants (i.e., dyes, heavy metal ions, oils and organic pollutants) from water. Finally, the challenges of macroscopic MOFs materials and their practical applications are presented, while future research directions to overcome these existing limitations are also pointed out.

Multifunctional organic-inorganic hybrid coating for enhanced bronze corrosion protection

Bronze relics with vital historical, artistic, and scientific value, are one of the significant symbolizations of human civilization. However, due to the long burial time and the change in storage conditions, an inevitable and thorny problem arises in preventing the ancient bronze relics from corrosion. Coatings have great potential for metal corrosion protection at present. This study prepared a multifunctional coating consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and fluoroethylene vinyl ether (FEVE) polymer by an organic-inorganic hybrid, which was applied onto the surface of corroded bronze using a self-assembly method and spraying. The rough structure of composite coating resembling that of the mastoid structure found on lotus leaf, effectively prolongs the transmission path of corrosive ions while preventing bronze contact with the corrosive media. Additionally, this study mainly investigated the bronze anti-corrosion mechanism through an electrochemical analysis perspective. Electrochemical tests revealed the lower corrosion current density, and the positive corrosion potential of multifunctional FEVE@ZnO/TiO2 coating immersion in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. The experimental results demonstrate that the synergistic effect of organic-inorganic significantly enhances corrosion resistance by retarding the corrosion process and providing active protection against corrosion. The multifunctional coating also exhibits exceptional self-cleaning properties and weatherability when without changing the bronze color and appearance. Consequently, this preparation strategy and research approach for constructing a multifunction coating has a great application prospect in the conservation of bronze relics and metal anti-corrosion.

ADOPTION OF STRATEGIC DECISIONS AT THE ENTERPRISE

The process of determining the best way to achieve goals and objectives is called strategic decision making. These are long-term goals and objectives, as well as strategic decision-making tools, that help describe the company's primary goals in order to achieve short-term goals with a broad mission. In the long run, the company gains clarity and consistency in achieving its goals. Strategic decision-making is used in competitive companies to give the company a competitive advantage by changing its scale and the way the company manages its operations. The difference between strategic decision-making and other decision-making processes, such as administrative and operational decision-making, is that strategic decision-making is a long-term process that requires significant resources and is fraught with uncertainty. Administrative decisions are based on short-term goals. Unlike other decision-making processes, strategic decision-making considers the long-term future of the company. Successful business managers do more than just make money and sell products. They not only perform day-to-day sales tasks, but also look at the big picture and make decisions that will lead the company to its desired goal. This is known as strategic decision making, and it occurs when decisions are made in line with the company's goals or mission. This type of decision-making directs the choices made, aligning them with the company's goals. This requires creative thinking as managers must consider future scenarios that may or may not occur. These scenarios will determine the direction of the company's development. Business strategy is a competitive advantage. Businesses need strategies to ensure that resources are allocated in the most efficient way. There has been much research on strategies and much literature outlining the importance of strategies for successful business management. The word "strategy" is probably one of the most used words in business and everyday life [26]. According to Schendel, there are many preparation strategies in the business world for almost every potential activity, from employee management strategies to knowledge management strategies. At first glance, we have the idea that strategy is something simple that refers to the use of resources to realize pre-planned goals. But in practice, strategies differ in terms of time, and its formulation and implementation cannot be perfect. When a firm earns earnings above the average for its industry, the firm is said to have a competitive advantage over its rivals.

Nanosized-laser-induced sub-20 nm homogenous alloy nanoparticles

Alloy nanoparticles (NPs) have great potential in nanosized 3D-printing, surface coating, plasmonic enhancement, information coding, and so forth. However, chemical-pollution-free and homogeneous sub-20 nm NPs maintain still a challenge in preparation. Here we present a smart nanosecond laser scan strategy of alloy-NPs preparation on a bilayer metal film by using a nanosized focused beam, successfully realizing controllable fabrication of the sub-20 nm homogeneous alloy NPs without pollution. As a demonstration, various sub-20 nm AgCu NPs with different volume ratios have been prepared, all NPs show narrow size distribution and uniform interparticle spacing. This simple and cost-effective method is stable and adaptable for other alloy-NPs such as AuAg NPs. In addition, such alloy NPs exhibit two-peak plasma resonance feature and information coding capacity. We believe that homogenous alloy sub-20 nm NPs will provide new application opportunities in many fields.

A facile and versatile preparation method of sodium alginate-copper sulfide photothermal coating for efficient solar evaporation

Utilizing inexhaustible solar energy for water purification represents a green and sustainable solution to water scarcity. However, the developments of efficient, inexpensive, convenient and reliable photothermal materials remain a major challenge. Herein, a facile and versatile preparation strategy of sodium alginate (SA)-CuS composite coating with superior adhesion and stability has been proposed toward high-efficiency solar-driven interfacial evaporation. The fabrication process can be quickly completed in aqueous solution with cheap reagents. The SA-CuS coating can be firmly adhered on different substrates, which can withstand rinsing treatment, iterative freeze-thaw cycles as well as high and low pH environments. The SA-CuS coating can convert various substrates into photothermal materials with broad light absorption for desirable solar evaporation because of high CuS loading and rough surface. As a proof of concept, a wood evaporator covered with the SA-CuS coating can achieve a water evaporation rate of ∼2.2 kg m−2 h- 1 under one sun illumination, which is superior to most reported wood-based solar evaporators.

Halloysite-derived hierarchical cobalt silicate hydroxide hollow nanorods assembled by nanosheets for highly efficient electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is regarded as the bottleneck of electrolytic water splitting. Thus, developing robust earth-abundant electrocatalysts for efficient OER has received a great deal of attention and it is an ongoing scientific challenge. Herein, hierarchical hollow nanorods assembled with ultrathin mesoporous cobalt silicate hydroxide nanosheets (denoted as CoSi) were successfully fabricated, using the silica nanotube derived from halloysite as a sacrificial template, via a simple hydrothermal method. The resulting cobalt silicate hydroxide nanosheets stack with thicknesses ∼10 nm, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. The elaborated nanoarchitecture possesses a high specific surface area (SSA) allowing good exposure to the cobalt active centers exhibiting superior catalytic activity vs analogs synthesized using sodium silicate. Among all as-prepared CoSi samples, those synthesized at 150 °C (CoSi-150) exhibited the minimum overpotential of ∼347 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm–2. In addition, CoSi-150 also exhibited superior performance against typical cobalt-based catalysts, and its surface hydroxyl groups were beneficial for the enhancement of OER performance. Furthermore, the CoSi-150 showed excellent durability and stability after the 105 s chronopotentiometry test in 1 M KOH. This design concept provides a new strategy for the low-cost preparation of high-quality cobalt water splitting electrocatalysts.

Numerical Study of Melt-Spinning Dynamic Parameters and Microstructure Development with Ongoing Crystallization.

In response to an investigation on the paths of changes in the crystallization and radial differences during the forming process of nascent fibers, in this study, we conducted numerical simulation and analyzed the changes in crystallization mechanical parameters and tensile properties through a fluid dynamics two-phase model. The model was based on the melt-spinning method focusing on melt spinning, the environment of POLYFLOW, and the method of joint simulation, coupled with Nakamura crystallization kinetics, including the development of process collaborative parameters, stretch-induced crystallization, viscoelasticity, filament cooling, gravity term, inertia, and air resistance. Finally, for nylon 6 BHS and CN9987 resin spinning, the model successfully predicted the distribution changes in temperature, velocity, strain rate tensor, birefringence, and stress tensor along the axial and radial fibers and obtained the variation pattern of fibers' crystallinity along the entire spinning process under different stretching rates. Furthermore, we also explored the effects of spinning conditions, including inlet flow rate, winding speeds, and the extrusion temperature, on the fibers' crystallization process and obtained the influence rules of different spinning conditions on fiber crystallization. Knowing the paths of changes in mechanical performance can provide important guidance and optimization strategies for the future industrial preparation of high-performance fibers.

Synthetic Protein Nanoparticles via Photoreactive Electrohydrodynamic Jetting.

Protein nanoparticles are an attractive class of materials for nanomedicine applications due to the intrinsic biocompatibility, biodegradability, and intrinsic functionality of their constituent proteins. Despite the clinical success of select protein nanoparticles, this class of nanocarriers remains understudied and underdeveloped compared to lipid and polymer nanoparticles due to challenges related to formulation optimization, large design space, and their structural complexity. In this work, a modular strategy for protein nanoparticle preparation based on the concept of photoreactive jetting is introduced. The process relies on continuous ultravioletirradiation during electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jetting of protein solutions that contain a homobifunctional photocrosslinker. Protein nanoparticles exhibit nanogel-like architectures comprised of proteins that are linked via synthetic moieties. Compared to conventional protein nanoparticles, this method reduces nanoparticle processing times to minutes, rather than hours to days. The inclusion of an emissive structural motif as the molecular scaffold of the photocrosslinker is used to study the supramolecular architecture of the stable nanoparticles via time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.

MOF-5 anchored polymer@carbon core–shell nanofibers for efficient removal of chlortetracycline from aqueous solution

Antibiotics excreted by human or animal may contain un-degradable residues, which form high concentration accumulation in water, leading to seriously harmful effects on the environment. Herein, MOF-5 anchored polymer@carbon core–shell nanofibers (MAPC) are fabricated via the electrospinning-hydrothermal synthesis and used for high efficiency removing chlortetracycline (CTC) from water. The anchored MOF-5 enhances the adsorption ability of hydrothermal carbon core–shell nanofibers. The MAPC nanofibers exhibit 395.87 mg/g of adsorption capacity for CTC removal process, which well fitted with Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. After nanofiber membrane filtering, the removal efficiency of CTC is nearly 100 % at the concentration of 5 mg/L. And the chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of CTC is reduced from 156.72 mg/L to 50.39 mg/L, that is below the pharmaceutical wastewater discharge standard. In addition, MAPC exhibits high flux and good regeneration performance. This work gives a typical strategy of feasible preparation of high efficiency MOFs anchored carbon-based nanofiber adsorbent towards the pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.

In situ growth of ultrathin covalent triazine frameworks on unmodified cellulose II beads for enhanced dye pollutant removal

cellulose II beads@covalent triazine frameworks (CBCs) are prepared by in situ growth of ultra-dispersed covalent triazine frameworks (CTF) using unmodified regenerated cellulose beads (CBs) as templates. The CBCs as a whole are three-dimensional structures consisting of a layered pore structure and a continuous ultrathin CTF, which combines a functional surface with highly efficient mass transfer. The thickness of the CTF in the prepared CBCs can be controlled at 32–83 nm, which enables the CBC to have a dye adsorption efficiency of up to 191 mg g−1 and an ultrafast dye removal time (Methylene Blue, 0.5 min, 95 %). Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the mechanism for CTF growth on the surface of unmodified cellulose II rather than on the surface of cellulose Ⅰ, and the effects of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic surfaces of cellulose I and cellulose II on the growth of CTF were determined. This is the first use of unmodified cellulose II as a template for the in situ growth of ultrathin CTF and provides important insights into dynamic CTF-cellulose interactions. This research provides a new cost-effective strategy for preparation of ultra-dispersed CTF based on large-scale cellulose templates.

Exploring the analytical potential of total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) combined with partial least square (PLS) for simple determination of ash content in various coal types

Ash content, as a crucial indicator of coal quality, its rapid and accurate determination is pivotal to improve the energy utilization of coal and reduce environmental pollution. Traditional spectroscopic methods face significant challenges in acquiring accurate information from coal samples due to the notorious matrix effects arising from their complex composition, vast molecular structure, and diverse coal types. In this study, the feasibility of total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) combined with partial least squares (PLS) for the determination of coal ash was firstly investigated based on the TXRF being unaffected by matrix effects. Firstly, coal samples were prepared as suspensions, and the effects of sample particle size and different dispersants on the results of TXRF analyses were evaluated. The accuracy and applicability of the chosen sample preparation strategies were further validated using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and two certified reference materials (CRMs). Subsequently, based on the analysis of 19 coal samples, the impact of three different predictive variables on the performance of the PLS model was investigated: (a) TXRF full spectrum normalized by the net intensity of the internal standard; (b) net intensity of characteristic peaks for 12 elements (Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe, Cr, Mn, Cu, Ni, and Sr) normalized by the net intensity of the internal standard; (c) concentrations of the aforementioned 12 elements. The results demonstrate that the PLS model constructed usingthe TXRF full spectrum normalized by the net intensity of the internal standard exhibits the best predictive capabilities, with the determination coefficient of calibration set (R2) and mean square error (MSE) of the prediction set reaching 0.9736 and 0.99 %, respectively. Moreover, the measurement accuracy of this model was six times greater than that obtained with traditional X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Presented analytical results display the possibilities of combining TXRF with PLS for coal quality evaluation.