Here, we report, for the first time, hydrogenated TiO2 nanocrystals as a novel and exciting microwave absorbing material, based on an innovative collective-movement-of-interfacial-dipole mechanism which causes collective-interfacial-polarization-amplified microwave absorption at the crystalline/disordered and anatase/rutile interfaces. This mechanism is intriguing and upon further exploration may trigger other new concepts and applications.

The physical filtration mechanism of a traditional face mask has a low removal efficiency of ultrafine particulates in the size range of 10-1000 nm, which are badly harmful to human health. Herein, a novel self-powered electrostatic adsorption face mask (SEA-FM) based on the poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun nanofiber film (PVDF-ESNF) and a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) driven by respiration (R-TENG) is developed. The ultrafine particulates are electrostatically adsorbed by the PVDF-ESNF, and the R-TENG can continually provide electrostatic charges in this adsorption process by respiration. On the basis of the R-TENG, the SEA-FM shows that the removal efficiency of coarse and fine particulates is higher than 99.2 wt % and the removal efficiency of ultrafine particulates is still as high as 86.9 wt % after continually wearing for 240 min and a 30-day interval. This work has proposed as a new method of wearable air filtration and may have great prospects in human health, self-powered electronics, and wearable devices.

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A degradable triboelectric generator based on an alginate film has been proposed, which can be used to harvest water wave energy.

11Aiming at an atomistic mechanism of heavy metal cation complexing on clay surfaces, we 12 carried out systematic first principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) simulations to investigate the 13 structures, free energies and acidity constants of Ni(II) complexes formed on edge surfaces of 14 2:1 phyllosilicates. Three representative complexes were studied, including monodentate 15 complex on the ≡SiO site, bidentate complex on the ≡Al(OH) 2 site, and tetradentate complex on 16 the octahedral vacancy where Ni(II) fits well into the lattice. The complexes structures were 17 characterized in detail. Computed free energy values indicate that the tetradentate complex is 18 significantly more stable than the other two. The calculated acidity constants indicate that the 19 tetradentate complex can get deprotonated (pKa=8.4) at the ambient conditions whereas the other 20 two hardly deprotonate due to extremely high pKa values. By comparing with the 2 Site 21 Protolysis Non Electrostatic Surface Complexation and Cation Exchange (2SPNE SC/CE) model, 22 Peacock and Sherman, 2005; Tan et al. Tournassat et al., 2013). In the past two decades, 48 the 2SPNE SC/EC (i.e., 2 site protolysis non electrostatic surface complexation and cation 49 exchange) model has been extensively and successfully applied to characterize the sorption of 50 many metal cations (e.g., Ni(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), Fe(II), Eu(III), Cm(III)) on 2:1-type clay 51 minerals Bradbury and Baeyens, 1997 Bradbury 52 et al., 2005;Soltermann et al., 2014;Soltermann et al., 2013). For the complexation on edge 53 surface, in the modelling of sorption isotherm, two types of edge sites have been used to fit the 54 adsorption data, commonly referred to be the strong site (S S OH) and the weak site (S W1 OH) 55 . The strong site has a high binding affinity and a low site capacity 56(2 mmol/kg), while the weak site has a lower affinity and a higher site capacity (40 mmol/kg) 57 . 58 Advanced spectroscopic methods have been broadly used to derive possible complexing sites 59 for heavy metal cations. For example, Schlegel et al. (1999) investigated the sorption of Co(II) 60 on edge surfaces of hectorite by polarized EXAFS (extended X-ray absorption fine structure) 61 technique and found the formation of mononuclear complexes (Schlegel et al., 1999). EXAFS 62 study indicated that Ni(II) formed inner-sphere mononuclear complexes at montmorillonite 63 edges via corner-sharing pattern between Si tetrahedra and Ni(II) octahedra and edge-sharing 64 pattern between Al octahedra and Ni(II) octahedra (Dähn et al., 2003). By modelling Zn(II) 65 sorption isotherm with the 2SPNE SC/EC model and measuring EXAFS spectra, Dähn et al. 66have demonstrated the existence of two types of edge complexing sites, which agrees with the 67 concept of the strong/weak site (Dähn et al., 2011). Atomistic simulations and measured EXAFS 68 spectra suggested that Zn(II) was incorporated into the octahedra on clay edges at low loading 69 and formed inner-sphere complexes on octahedral sites at medium loading (...

Nonlinear optical (NLO) materials are currently the focus of intensive research efforts because of their potential civilian and military applications in signal processing, ultrafast optical communication, data storage, optical limiting, logic devices, optical switching, image transmission, and optical computing. [1,2] Research advances in this field depend critically on the development of new materials with strong NLO capabilities. [1][2][3][4][5] Heterometallic clusters have proven to be one of the best candidates for third-order NLO materials, as they possess extensive dp-pp delocalized systems and dp-dp conjugated systems, and may introduce two different d-orbital levels into the molecular system.[6] The NLO properties of discrete heterometallic clusters with various cluster skeletons and diverse electronic characters have been extensively studied. [6][7][8] In contrast, only a few multidimensional (2D or 3D) cluster polymers have been prepared thus far, while heterometallic cluster polymers possessing strong NLO properties are very rare, [9] particularly those with a 3Dcluster-organic framework; [10] as a result, correlations between cluster structure and NLO function for these frameworks are yet to be established. The origin of NLO properties is delocalization of the p-electron cloud. [1g,6a,11] In heterometallic clusters this delocalization is derived mainly from the heavy metal atoms that comprise the cluster core and the organic ligands that support the cluster skeleton. Previous studies have demonstrated the significance of heavy metal atoms in determining the NLO properties of these clusters; as yet, there has been no study on the importance of the connecting backbone ligands for the NLO behavior of cluster polymers.[7a] Understanding the effects of the subtle interplay of heavy metal atoms and backbone connecting ligands on the NLO performance of cluster polymers is crucial, not only for a theoretical elucidation of the NLO mechanism of these functionalized clusters but also for the development of a rational synthetic strategy towards new NLO materials for practical applications. Herein, we report the use of nest-shaped heterometallic [WOS 3 Cu 3 ] þ clusters as building units to construct a layer, and CN/bipy/bpee (bipy ¼ 4,4'-bipyridine, bpee ¼ 1,2-(E)-bis (4-pyridyl)ethene) as pillar ligands, which have afforded the related prototype structures 3

The top of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) arrays was coated with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by the facile spin-coating method. The resulting SiNWs/rGO composite exhibits enhanced photoelectrochemical properties, with short-circuit photocurrent density more than 4 times higher than that of the pristine SiNWs and more than 600 times higher than that of planar Si/rGO composite. The trapping and recombination of photogenerated carriers at the surface state of SiNWs were reduced after the application of rGO. The results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements suggest that the reduction of trapping and recombination of photogenerated carriers as well as remarkably enhancement of photoelectrochemical properties can be attributed to the low charge transfer resistance at the SiNWs-rGO interface and rGO-electrolyte interface. The method and results shown here indicate a convenient and applicable approach to further exploitation of high activity materials for photoelectrochemical applications.