Dynamic Growth of Macroscopically Structured Supramolecular Hydrogels through Orchestrated Reaction-Diffusion

Living organisms are capable of dynamically changing their structures for adaptive functions through sophisticated reaction-diffusion processes. Here we show how active supramolecular hydrogels with programmable lifetimes and macroscopic structures can be created by relying on a simple reaction-diffusion strategy. Two hydrogel precursors ...

Large-Area and Visible-Light-Driven Heterojunctions of In₂O₃/Graphene Built for ppb-Level Formaldehyde Detection at Room Temperature

Achieving convenient and accurate detection of indoor ppb-level formaldehyde is an urgent requirement to ensure a healthy working and living environment for people. Herein, ultrasmall In₂O₃ nanorods and supramolecularly functionalized reduced graphene oxide are selected as hybrid components of visible-light-driven (VLD)...

A Plant-inspired Light Transducer for High-performance Near-infrared Light Mediated Gas Sensing

Constructing near-infrared light (NIR) light-enhanced room temperature gas sensors is becoming more promising for practical application. In this study, learning from the structure and photosynthetic process of chlorophyll thylakoid membranes in plants, the first “Thylakoid membrane” structural formaldehyde (HCHO) sensor is constructed by...

The Effect of Wet Treatment on the Distribution and Leaching of Heavy Metals and Salts of Bottom Ash from Municipal Solid Waste Incineration

One of the main challenges of bottom ash reutilization is heavy metal and salts' leaching potential. The effect of wet treatment on chemical composition and leaching toxicity of bottom ash were investigated in this study to mitigate this leaching potential. Batch leaching and column leaching tests were first conducted to investigate the...

Railway ballast layer inspection with different GPR antennas and frequencies

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a popular technology for inspecting railway ballast layer, mainly on the ballast fouling level. However, different GPR antennas with different frequencies are suitable for different inspection emphasis and diverse railway lines (weather and sub-structure). In addition, the full-scale track model (with...

Reactive Transport Modelling of Chloride Ingress in Saturated Coral Aggregate Concrete

Utilizing coral aggregate concrete (CAC) for construction on remote islands can significantly reduce construction cost and period, CO₂ emission, and consumption of non-renewable energy. The durability of reinforced CAC structures is critically influenced by their resistance to chloride attack. In this study, a reactive transport...

Impressed current cathodic protection of chloride-contaminated RC structures with cracking: A numerical study

Impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) is an effective and direct method for controlling the corrosion of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. However, few investigations related to ICCP in cracked RC structures have been reported. In this study, the effect of cracks in concrete cover on ICCP of chloride-contaminated RC structures was...

Perovskite solar cells with embedded homojunction via nonuniform metal ion doping

A long photoluminescence decay lifetime has been regarded as a generic indication of long charge carrier recombination lifetime in semiconductors such as metal halide perovskites (MHPs), which have shown tremendous success in solar cells. Here, we report that MHP polycrystalline films with extrinsic metal ions have a very long charge...

Preparation of a poly(acrylic acid) based hydrogel with fast adsorption rate and high adsorption capacity for the removal of cationic dyes

A biocompatible Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel was prepared through copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate substituted dextran (Dex-MA) with acrylic acid (AA), which was applied as the adsorbent to remove cationic dyes from aqueous solutions. Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel presented a fast adsorption rate and the removal efficiency of Methylene Blue (MB) and...

Chitosan cross-linked poly(acrylic acid) hydrogels: drug release control and mechanism

Chitosan has been used to cross-link poly(acrylic acid) to give three pH-sensitive hydrogels designed to control the release of the drugs amoxicillin and meloxicam. The extent of cross-linking and solution pH was found to dominate the swelling behavior of these hydrogels as shown by scanning electron microscopy and swelling time dependencies....

Spherical polyelectrolyte nanogels as templates to prepare hollow silica nanocarriers: observation by small angle X-ray scattering and TEM

Hollow silica nanoparticles were prepared through generating a silica layer in spherical polyelectrolyte nanogels (SPN), which consisted of a solid core of polystyrene (PS) and a shell of crosslinked poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), followed by removing the PS core via solvent dissolution. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) in combination with TEM...