Amount Of Charge Research Articles

The impact of combined application of biochar and fertilizer on the biochemical properties of soil in soybean fields.

Heilongjiang Province is a major soybean production area in China. To improve soil structure and increase soybean yield, this study examined the effects of combined biochar and chemical fertilizer application on the biochemical properties of soil in a maize-soybean rotation system. The research were conducted from 2021 to 2022 at Heshan Farm Science Park in Heilongjiang Province, this field plot experiment utilized two soybean varieties, Heihe 43 (a high-protein variety) and Keshan 1 (a high-oil variety). In 2021, two plots with similar fertility levels were selected for planting soybeans and maize. In 2022, a maize-soybean rotation was implemented with five treatments: conventional fertilization (CK), increased biochar+reduced fertilizer 1 (F1+B), reduced fertilizer 1 (F1), increased biochar+reduced fertilizer 2 (F2+B), and reduced fertilizer 2 (F2). The study systematically analyzed the effects of combined biochar and chemical fertilizer application on soil chemical properties and microbial characteristics. Over 2 years, results showed that combined application effectively improved soil chemical traits. Compared to conventional fertilization (CK) and reduced fertilization (F1, F2), t he combined application of biochar and chemical fertilizer (F1+B, F2+B) increased soil pH, EC and the absolute value of zeta potential of soil surface, the CEC of soil significantly increased by 15.6-44.3%, the soil surface charge density and the soil surface charge quantity significantly increased by 16.4-73.5%. The combined application of biochar and chemical fertilizer also effectively enhanced the abundance and diversity of soil microbes. Dominant bacterial groups in soybean field soils under different treatments included Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Proteobacteria; while dominant fungal groups were Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Mortierellomycota. Alpha and Beta diversity analyses revealed that the F1+B treatment significantly enhanced the species richness and diversity of bacteria and fungi in the soil, increasing the proportion and evenness of dominant and beneficial genera.

A New Powerful Magnetic Dark Catalyst Based on rGO/Fe3O4/CdSe Nanocomposite for Ultrafast Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye.

In the present study, Rgo/Fe3O4/CdSe as a dark catalyst material was synthesized by a refluxing method. The synthesized magnetic nanocomposites were studied by various analyses such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Raman, Zeta and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Characterization of structural analysis showed that the nanocomposites were successfully synthesized. The absorption spectrum was used to determine the dark catalyst activity of rGO/Fe3O4/CdSe nanocomposite. Analysis of the absorption spectrum showed that the prepared nanocomposites degrade the MB organic dye completely (100%) after 2min of stirring in the dark, also experimenting with different pH showed that the best performance for the degradation of MB occurs in neutral and alkaline media. The Raman spectrum analysis showed that the Fe3O4/CdSe quantum dots (QDs) were correctly incorporated on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets. Zeta potential analysis showed that rGO/Fe3O4/CdSe has a large amount of negative charge on its surface and the surface charge increased by about 16 mV compared to the Fe3O4/CdSe compound. BET and BJH techniques were used to determine the effective surface area and pore size diameter, BET results to determine the effective surface area showed that by adding graphene to the compound, the specific surface area increased from 42.877 m2g-1 to 54.1896 m2g-1. The radical scavenger experiment showed that electrons play an essential role in the degradation process. VSM analysis showed that the prepared nanocomposites have excellent superparamagnetic behavior, this advantage enables the easy collection of nanocatalysts by magnets from wastewater after dye degradation.

Understanding the adsorption performance of hetero-nanocages (C12-B6N6, C12-Al6N6, and B6N6-Al6N6) towards hydroxyurea anticancer drug: a comprehensive study using DFT.

Cancer is a paramount health challenge to global health, which forms tumors that can invade nearby tissues and spread to neighboring cells. Recently, nanotechnology has been used to control the growth of cancer, in which anticancer drugs are delivered to cancerous cells via nanoparticles without damaging healthy tissues. In this study, DFT investigations were carried out to examine the adsorption behavior of C24, B12N12, and Al12N12 nanocages as well as their heterostructures C12-B6N6, C12-Al6N6, and B6N6-Al6N6 towards the hydroxyurea (HU) anticancer drug. In this regard, adsorption energy, interaction distance between the drug and nanocages, charge transfer, energy gap, dipole moment, quantum molecular descriptors, work function, and COSMO surface analysis were analyzed to understand their adsorption performance. Findings demonstrate that the adsorption energies of two hetero-nanocages on their hexagonal (SH) and tetragonal (ST) sites are favorable for the drug delivery process. The computed adsorption energy of B6N6-Al6N6 of the ST/AlN site is 183.59 kJ mol-1, which is higher than that of the C12-Al6N6 nanocage, including minimum adsorption distances. Negative adsorption energy with low adsorption distances implies an attractive interaction between the drug and nanocages. During the interaction, a significant amount of charge is transferred between the drug and nanocages. Furthermore, for both complexes, larger dipole moments were observed in water media compared to gas media. From DOS spectra, prominent peaks were found in the Fermi level after adsorption of HU on the nanocages, implying the reduction of the energy gap. Noticeable overlaps between the PDOS spectra of the nanocages and HU's close contact atom demonstrate the formation of chemical bonds between two specific atoms. Therefore, it can be concluded that among the nanocages, C12-Al6N6 and B6N6-Al6N6 may be suitable carriers for HU drug.

Interaction between underwater explosion bubbles and soil–water interface: A numerical and experimental study

To explore the interaction between underwater explosion bubbles and soil–water interface, a near soil–water interface underwater explosion model based on the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method was established in this work. The peak pressure of the shock wave, maximum bubble radius, and bubble evolution in free-field and bottom-charge underwater explosions determined from the proposed simulation were highly consistent with the experimental results, thereby validating the proposed numerical model. The effects of the explosion distance and amount of explosive charge on the bubble–soil surface interaction were evaluated. The results showed that the reflection coefficient of the soil–water interface was in the range of 1.204–1.250, suggesting that it was hardly affected by the explosion distance and amount of explosive charge. The attenuation coefficient of the saturated soil was found to be 1.058. With the decrease in the explosion distance, the period and maximum radius of the bubbles slightly increased, and soil deformation increased as the lower surface of the bubbles was closer to the soil surface. For explosion distances of 0.3 and 0.4 m, only an overall movement of the soil surface was observed. When the explosion distance was 0.2 m or lower, a powerful downward jet was generated upon the pulsation of the first bubble, resulting in craters and slender depressions in the soil. With the increase in the amount of explosive charge, the period and maximum radius of the bubbles increased, and soil deformation also increased. These findings are expected to help advance our understanding of underwater explosion dynamics.

Experimental and numerical study on bubble pulsation characteristics of underwater explosions with multiple charges

This study examines the processes of expansion, merging, and collapse of multiple underwater explosion bubbles through experimental and numerical methods. A small-scale underwater explosion experiment was conducted in a water tank. The behaviors of three and four bubbles during expansion, merging, and collapse were captured using high-speed photography, and the effects of the quantity and spacing of the explosive charge on the bubble dynamics were analyzed. The results indicate that the evolution of bubble behavior in multiple charge underwater explosions, including the bubble period and radius, is significantly influenced by the spacing between charges. With a decrease in the ratio of the charge spacing to the bubble radius, the period of the merged bubble increases progressively. Independent small bubbles do not interact when the distance between charges exceeds 1.3 times the bubble radius. Furthermore, when the ratio of the spacing to the initial bubble radius (L/rb) is between 1.0 and 1.3, multiple bubbles merge during the contraction phase. When the spacing is less than the maximum radius of the bubbles, multiple bubbles inevitably merge, with fusion occurring during the expansion phase.

Attraction behavior induces the aggregation and precipitation of organic dyes: Improving efficiency through co-treatment strategy

Organic dyes harm the environment through bioaccumulation, toxicity, water contamination, and persistence. Organic dyes are commonly charged species, while limited works reported the interaction behavior between the charges. In this study, seven typical organic dyes are selected to investigate the general rules of the aggregation-precipitation behaviors between cationic and anionic organic dyes at molecular scale. The maximum precipitation rates of organic dyes reached 96.0 % when the amount of positive charges of cationic dyes was stoichiometric to the negative charges of anionic dyes. The aggregation process is reversible in ethanol solvent and insensitive to temperature, indicating the aggregation behavior is a physical process. The aggregation behavior of cationic and anionic dyes in water and ethanol solvents was simulated at molecular scale. 94.9 % of water molecules dispersed out of the dye clusters within 20 picoseconds in the simulation, while only 0.8 % of ethanol dispersed under the same conditions. The inter-molecule van der Waals force of the ethanol-solvent system was higher than that of the water-solvent system, resulting in the failure of dyes aggregation in ethanol. This study proposed a concise strategy of mixing cationic and anionic dyes in charge balance to cause aggregation and co-precipitation of dyes to improve removal efficiency.

Air blast resistance of ARMOX 500T Steel plates with standard thickness: Experimental and numerical consideration

The numerical and experimental examinations in the behavior of ARMOX 500 T steel plates of a standard thickness under blast loading are presented in this study. Furthermore, the dynamic reaction of the steel plate is crucial, particularly when subjected to blast loads produced by various explosive forms and at a certain stand-off distance (SoD). This study conducted experimental and numerical simulation tests on steel plates under the close-range air blast loads generated by 150 g TNT cylindrical explosives, which are the most widely used explosives in the military and engineering fields. In order to investigate the failure modes of steel plates, close-range air blast load experiments were conducted at a 400 mm SoD. Pressure gauges were positioned at equal distances, and the impact of these tests on the failure deformation and dynamic response of the steel plate was quantitatively examined. Ultimately, the properties of shock waves produced by cylindrical explosives were examined in order to ascertain how SoD and charge quantity affected the shock waves' spatial dispersion.

Enhanced performance of cyclone separator through coupling of centrifugal force, electrostatic force and particle pre-charge

The electrostatic enhancement can effectively improve the performance of cyclone separator at low load or high-temperature, but its application is limited owing to the reduction of spark voltage in high-temperature. Aiming at this question, a new technology coupling centrifugal force, electrostatic force and particle pre-charge was proposed. The characteristics of particles charging and agglomeration were analyzed, and the influence of different factors on the change of particle partition number concentration and total removal efficiency of cyclone separator were studied. The results showed that, increasing the charge generator voltage and decreasing the main pipe gas velocity can increase the particles charge quantity and improve agglomeration, which is benefit for the efficiency improvement of either cyclone separator or electrostatic cyclone separator, especially at low inlet gas velocity. Higher charge generator voltage and lower inlet gas velocity, more obvious efficiency improvement. The total removal efficiency can be increased by up to 10 % and 9 % respectively for the cyclone separator and electrostatic cyclone separator because of particle pre-charge at 10 m/s of inlet gas velocity, and the removal efficiency of fine particles can also be effectively improved. Comparing with the electrostatic cyclone separator, achieving the same total removal efficiency, the internal voltage can be reduced 16 kV through particle pre-charge. The electrostatic force and centrifugal force were the main factor of the small particles and big particles removal, respectively.

Experiments on the performance of low temperature air source heat pump based on parallel connection of evaporators

An air source heat pump experimental bench with evaporators connected in parallel at low ambient temperatures is established to investigate the key parameters and operating performance after this retrofit. Experimental tests are conducted on the novel heat pump unit to study the optimal refrigerant charge, heat production capacity and COP at different ambient temperatures, to observe the frost condition in the operation of the unit, and to optimise the control logic. Results show that the optimum refrigerant charge amount after retrofit is 26 kg. Further experiments show that under the condition of −12 °C, heat production capacity of the retrofitted unit is increased by 5.39%, the COP is increased by 4.13%, and the evaporating temperature is increased by 1.50 °C; under the condition of 2 °C, the heat production capacity of the retrofitted unit is increased by 5.72%, the heating COP is increased by 2.51%, and the evaporating temperature is increased by 2.93 °C. At the same operating time, the modified unit has less frost on the evaporator surface. The optimum suction superheat after the modification is 1 °C, and it is at this point that the unit has the highest heating COP, which is 7% higher than at 0 °C suction superheat. The heat production and COP are less affected by the supplement gas superheat. Through the modification of the parallel evaporator, the overall heating performance and frost prevention ability of the unit are greatly improved.

Nature of Charge Transfer Effects in Complexes of Dopamine Derivatives Adsorbed on Graphene-Type Nanostructures

Continuing the investigation started for dopamine (DA) and dopamine-o-quinone (DoQ) (see, the light absorption and charge transfer properties of the dopamine zwitterion (called dopamine-semiquinone or DsQ) adsorbed on the graphene nanoparticle surface is investigated using the ground state and linear-response time-dependent density functional theories, considering the ωB97X-D3BJ/def2-TZVPP level of theory. In terms of the strength of molecular adsorption on the surface, the DsQ form has 50% higher binding energy than that found in our previous work for the DA or DoQ cases (−20.24 kcal/mol vs. −30.41 kcal/mol). The results obtained for electronically excited states and UV-Vis absorption spectra show that the photochemical behavior of DsQ is more similar to DA than that observed for DoQ. Of the three systems analyzed, the DsQ-based complex shows the most active charge transfer (CT) phenomenon, both in terms of the number of CT-like states and the amount of charge transferred. Of the first thirty electronically excited states computed for the DsQ case, eleven are purely of the CT type, and nine are mixed CT and localized (or Frenkel) excitations. By varying the adsorption distance between the molecule and the surface vertically, the amount of charge transfer obtained for DA decreases significantly as the distance increases: for DoQ it remains stable, for DsQ there are states for which little change is observed, and for others, there is a significant change. Furthermore, the mechanistic compilation of the electron orbital diagrams of the individual components cannot describe in detail the nature of the excitations inside the complex.

Recoverable Zigzag N4 Chains in High‐Pressure Synthesized Cerium Polynitride

AbstractMetal polynitrides have raised significant interest for their applications as potential high‐energy‐density materials (HEDMs). Despite extensive research on energetic polynitrogen species, reducing synthesis pressures and realizing their recovery at ambient conditions remain challenging. Here, for the first time, the zigzag N4 chains are successfully stabilized in the new polynitride Ce2N6 and recovered to ambient pressure and temperature by introducing cerium nitride as a precursor. The stable mechanism of the recoverable N4 chain originates from the large quantity of charge captured, the favorable bonding environment, and low structural enthalpy. This study reveals the crucial role of precursors in stabilizing and recovering polynitrogen species, providing an alternative route to design and prepare novel HEDMs.

Phase Dependence of Surface Charge Measurement on Epoxy Insulator in C4F7N/CO2 under AC Voltage.

The application of binary gas mixtures consisting of heptafluorobutyronitrile (C4F7N) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in AC GIS is currently attracting much attention. Therefore, the evaluation of the gas-solid interface charge distribution characteristics of epoxy resin is indispensable. Additionally, the phase-dependency of the charging behavior remains not fully understood. We simulated coaxial electrode structure in GIS and investigated the surface charge distribution on a down-scaled epoxy insulator. The influence of the truncated phase angle and duration of AC voltage on charge behavior were analyzed, and the charge transport mechanism under AC voltage was theoretically analyzed. The results showed that there was a noticeable negative charge speckle with the presence of the metal particle and the accumulated negative charge on the insulator surface far exceeded that of the positive charge. The maximum surface charge density and the amount of surface charge accumulated first increased and then decreased over time. It was found that the phase angle has a negligible influence on the surface charge distribution at the cut-off moment.

Pollination ecology in Centrosema brasilianum (L.) Benth. (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae): bee size influences pollen deposition

Here, were observed the interaction between Centrosema brasilianum (Fabaceae, Papilionoideae) and their floral visitors and quantified pollen removal and visitor traits. Aims: for to determine whether the behavior, quantity, and location of deposited pollen on the body of visiting bees differs according to the body size of bees. Methods: the morphological and behavioral attributes of floral and bees observed in interaction were measured in 20 individuals of C. brasilianum. The place of deposit and the amount of polinic charge in each bee were identified. The relationship between the attributes of the interactants and of pollen deposited was determined using simple linear models. Results: Bee behavior and pollen deposition on the body varied according to bee body size. Larger-sized bees with long tongues raised floral keels during visits and pollen deposition occurred on their heads and dorsal surfaces. Smaller individuals with short tongues did not raise the keel, and pollen was deposited on the dorsal surface, but mostly over the wings. Additionally, larger bees had twice as many pollen grains deposited on their body surfaces than smaller bees. Conclusions: we assumed that larger bees may provide a more effective pollination service than smaller bees in C. brasilianum. Implications: Future evaluations should be conducted that include more morphological and behavioral attributes in a larger sample number, which would provide a more nuanced understanding of pollination efficiency, the relationship between different behaviors and body sizes of bees, and the consequences of differential pollen deposition on the reproductive success of C. brasilianum.

Analysis of the influence of charge liner on the penetration effect of shaped charge jet assisted window sidetracking

In order to improve the efficiency and success rate of sidetracking in high-strength thick-walled casing, we use shaped charge jet to penetrate the casing to reduce the milling workload of milling cone. This paper established a model of shaped charge jet penetrating casing, and analyzed the effects of charge liner structures, charge quantity, and charge liner material. The results show that with the decrease of standoff distance, the velocity attenuation rate of the jet will increase in the process of penetrating the casing. Under standoff distance of 1D, the velocity attenuation rate of the trumpet-shaped liner (TSL) is the smallest, the TSL has a good ability to expand the aperture, and can form a funnel-shaped hole with a large diameter at the front end, and has the largest penetration volume. The charge quantity does not directly affect the penetration volume. The 70-1D charge combination has the largest penetration depth, the largest front diameter of the hole, and the larger penetration volume. The jet velocity of aluminum and titanium is much higher than that of other materials; tungsten and titanium have the largest penetration volume. When the material density in the charge liner's truncation is greater than that of the curve section, such combination material charge liners achieve better penetration effects. The titanium-tungsten charge liner exhibits the best penetration performance on the casing, forming a hole with a volume of 11369.2 mm3 and an outlet diameter of 18.8 mm on the TP110TS casing. In summary, at standoff distance of 1D, the TSL with 70-1D charge combination and titanium-tungsten material combination has the best penetration effect on casing. This study has certain guiding significance for the application of shaped charge jet assisted window sidetracking technology.

Quantifying physical degradation alongside recording and stimulation performance of 980 intracortical microelectrodes chronically implanted in three humans for 956-2246 days.

The clinical success of brain-machine interfaces depends on overcoming both biological and material challenges to ensure a long-term stable connection for neural recording and stimulation. Therefore, there is a need to quantify any damage that microelectrodes sustain when they are chronically implanted in the human cortex. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we imaged 980 microelectrodes from Neuroport arrays chronically implanted in the cortex of three people with tetraplegia for 956-2246 days. We analyzed eleven multi-electrode arrays in total: eight arrays with platinum (Pt) electrode tips and three with sputtered iridium oxide tips (SIROF); one Pt array was left in sterile packaging, serving as a control. The arrays were implanted/explanted across three different clinical sites surgeries (Caltech/UCLA, Caltech/USC and APL/Johns Hopkins) in the anterior intraparietal area, Brodmann's area 5, motor cortex, and somatosensory cortex.Human experts rated the electron micrographs of electrodes with respect to five damage metrics: the loss of metal at the electrode tip, the amount of separation between the silicon shank and tip metal, tissue adherence or bio-material to the electrode, damage to the shank insulation and silicone shaft. These metrics were compared to functional outcomes (recording quality, noise, impedance and stimulation ability). Despite higher levels of physical degradation, SIROF electrodes were twice as likely to record neural activity than Pt electrodes (measured by SNR), at the time of explant. Additionally, 1 kHz impedance (measured in vivo prior to explant) significantly correlated with all physical damage metrics, recording, and stimulation performance for SIROF electrodes (but not Pt), suggesting a reliable measurement of in vivo degradation.We observed a new degradation type, primarily occurring on stimulated electrodes ("pockmarked" vs "cracked") electrodes; however, tip metalization damage was not significantly higher due to stimulation or amount of charge. Physical damage was centralized to specific regions of an array often with differences between outer and inner electrodes. This is consistent with degradation due to contact with the biologic milieu, influenced by variations in initial manufactured state. From our data, we hypothesize that erosion of the silicon shank often precedes damage to the tip metal, accelerating damage to the electrode / tissue interface. These findings link quantitative measurements, such as impedance, to the physical condition of the microelectrodes and their capacity to record and stimulate. These data could lead to improved manufacturing or novel electrode designs to improve long-term performance of BMIs making them are vitally important as multi-year clinical trials of BMIs are becoming more common.

Self-Coagulation Theory and Related Comet- and Semi-Circle-Shaped Structures in Electronegative and Gaseous Discharging Plasmas in the Laboratory

In this work, the two-dimensional fluid models for two types of inductively coupled plasma, Ar/O2 and Ar/SF6, are numerically solved by the finite element method. Four interesting phenomena revealed by the simulations are reported: (1) comet-shaped and semi-circle-shaped structures in Ar/O2 and Ar/SF6 plasmas, respectively; (2) blue sheaths that surround the two structures; (3) the collapse and dispersion of semi-circle-shaped structures of certain Ar/SF6 plasma cations and anions when they are observed separately; and (4) the rebuilding of coagulated structures by minor cations in the Ar/SF6 plasma at the discharge center. From the simulation detail, it was found that the cooperation of free diffusion and negative chemical sources creates the coagulated structure of anions, and the self-coagulation theory is therefore built. The advective and ambipolar types of self-coagulation are put forth to explain the co-existence of blue sheath and internal neutral plasma, among which the advective type of self-coagulation extends the Bohm’s sheath theory of cations to anions, and the ambipolar type of self-coagulation originates from the idea of the ambipolar diffusion process, and it updates the recognition of people about the plasma collective interaction. During the ambipolar self-coagulation, each type of Ar/SF6 plasma cations and anions is self-coagulated, and the coagulated plasma species are then modeled as mass-point type (or point-charge type, more precisely). When the charge amounts of two point-charge models of plasma species with the same charge type are equal, the expelling effect caused by the Coulomb’s force of them leads to the collapse or dispersal of heavily coagulated species. The simulation shows that the lighter the species is, the easier it self-coagulates and the more difficult its coagulation is broken, which implies the inertia effect of density quantity. Moreover, the collapse of cation coagulation creates the spatially dispersed charge cloud that is not shielded into the Debye’s length, which indicates the anti-collective behavior of electronegative plasmas when they are self-coagulated. The rebuilt coagulated structure of minor Ar/SF6 plasma species at the discharge center and the weak coagulation of electrons in the periphery of the main coagulated structure that is under the coil are caused by the monopolar and spontaneous (non-advective) type of self-coagulation. The analysis predicts an intensity order of physically driven coagulation force, chemical self-coagulation force, and ambipolar self-coagulation force. The popular coagulated structure of the electronegative ICP sources is urgently needed to validate the experiment.

Performance and Economic Analysis of Two Types of High-Temperature Heat Pump Based on New Refrigerants

This paper proposes, for the first time, the research concept of comparing energy and economy between transcritical cycle high-temperature heat pumps and subcritical cycle high-temperature heat pumps with new refrigerants. Experiments and simulations are conducted to compare the system performance and economy of two heat pumps, and the effects of different factors on the performance of two heat pumps are analyzed. The results show that R744/R1234yf (90/10) and R515-1 are the preferred refrigerants for transcritical cycle heat pumps and subcritical cycle heat pumps, respectively. The COP of the R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump is generally higher than that of the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump, and compared to the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump, the cost recovery period of the R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump is about 9–15 years. Therefore, it is recommended that users who use heat pumps for a long time choose transcritical cycle heat pumps. Meanwhile, with the change of evaporation temperature, the system COP of the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump and R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump increases by 61.11% and 65.91%, respectively. In addition, the optimal charge amount for the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump is 81.8% of that of the R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump.

Unveiling the impacts of salts on halotolerant bacteria during filtration: A new perspective on membrane biofouling formation in MBR treating high-saline organic wastewater

In recent decades, membrane bioreactor (MBR) has been prevalently employed to treat high-saline organic wastewater, where the halotolerant microorganisms should be intensively utilized. However, limited works were devoted to investigating the biofouling characteristics from the perspective of the relationship between halotolerant bacteria and salts. This work filled the knowledge gap by exploring the biofouling formation mechanisms affected by high salinity. The results showed that the amount of negative charge on halotolerant bacteria surface was significantly reduced by high content of NaCl, probably leading to the obvious cell agglomeration. Despite the normal proliferation, the halotolerant bacteria still produced substantial EPS triggered by high salinity. Compared with the case of control without salt addition, the enhanced biofouling development was observed under high-saline conditions, with the fouling mechanism dramatically transformed from cake filtration to intermediate blocking. It was inferred that the halotolerant bacteria initially adhered on membrane created an extra filter layer, which contributed to the subsequent NaCl retention, resulting in the simultaneous occurrences of pore blockage and cake layer formation because of NaCl deposition both on membrane pores as well as on biofilm layer. Under high-saline environment, remarkable salt crystallization occurred on the biofilm layer, with more protein secreted by the attached halotolerant bacteria. Consequently, the potential mechanisms for the enhanced biofouling formation influenced by high salinity were proposed, which should provide new insights and enlightenments on fouling control strategies for MBR operation when treating high-saline organic wastewater.

Charge self-shuttling triboelectric nanogenerator based on wind-driven pump excitation for harvesting water wave energy

The most important ocean energy sources are wind energy and water wave energy, both of which are significant to carbon neutrality. Due to uneven distribution and random movement, the conversion efficiency from the two energies into electrical energy is limited, so the coupling of them is necessary. However, the current energy harvesting technologies generally target one certain type, or are simple mechanical coupling. Here, we propose a composite water wave energy harvesting scheme with wind excitation based on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). A rotation TENG driven by wind is introduced as a pump to inject charges into the main TENG. For the main TENG driven by water waves, a specially designed charge self-shuttling mode is applied (CSS-TENG). Under the pump excitation, the shuttling charge amount is increased by 11.8 times, and the peak power density reaches 33.0 W m−3, with an average power density of 2.4 W m−3. Furthermore, the CSS-TENG is expanded into an array by parallel connection, and the practical applications are demonstrated. This work organically couples the wind and water wave energy in the ocean scene, through the charge pumping and self-shuttling mode, providing a new pathway for the synergistic development of clean and renewable energy sources.

Experimental and theoretical study on corrosion mechanism of aluminium alloy in different corrosive solutions

A detailed comparison of the corrosion behaviour of Al–O (1 1 1) surfaces on 7A46 aluminium alloy in 1.0 M hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid solutions was conducted using electrochemical, surface analysis, and density function theory calculations. The results show that the corrosion current density is around 80.62 μA.cm−2 in HCl solution and 104.21 μA.cm−2 in H2SO4 solution. Uncovered defects in the oxide film on the alloy surface can contribute to local erosion and degradation during the corrosion process. In addition, the amounts of charge transferred from the surface of the alloy to Cl− and O2− were 0.811 and 0.178e, respectively, suggesting the formation of an Al–O bond on the surface, which expedites the corrosion process in the HCl solution. In contrast to HCl, the O atoms on the surface of the aluminium alloy obtained 2.032 e and 1.611 e electrons from Al on the Al–O (1 1 1) surfaces and S atoms in H2SO4 solution, respectively, indicating a strong adsorption affinity for SO42−. Both Cl–Al and S–Al bonds form covalent bonds. It is worth mentioning that the resonance peaks in the HCl adsorption system was between −6 eV and 2 eV, whereas that in the H2SO4 adsorption system show a more pronounced shift to the right (−10 eV to 0 eV), suggesting heightened system activity and increased electronic interactions among the atoms in H2SO4 adsorption system. This research contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the surface corrosion behaviour of aluminium alloys, providing valuable insights for the design and application of aluminium alloys across diverse environmental contexts.