The increasingly massive accumulation of plastic waste is triggering a global pollution crisis, causing severe economic and health issues. As an effective strategy to realize synchronous environmental remediation and value‐added chemical production, the catalytic upcycling of plastics has received extensive attention. Among the upcycling approaches, the emerging photothermal catalysis outstands with features of high conversion efficiency and mild reaction conditions. Herein, the advancements of photothermal catalysis in plastic waste upcycling are reviewed for the first time. The general limitations of the traditional thermocatalytic and photocatalytic upcycling of plastics are first discussed. Subsequently, the photothermal catalytic approaches to upcycling of plastics are classified into three categories depending on the catalytic mechanism, and discussed in depth. Finally, the current challenges in the field are appraised, and several suggestions concerning the investigation of the mechanisms and practical applications for the conversion of plastics into valuable chemicals are highlighted.
The application of 2D materials-based flexible electronics in wearable scenarios is limited due to performance degradation under strain fields. In contrast to its negative role in existing transistors or sensors, herein, we discover a positive effect of strain to the ammonia detection in 2D PtSe 2 . Linear modulation of sensitivity is achieved in flexible 2D PtSe 2 sensors via a customized probe station with an in situ strain loading apparatus. For trace ammonia absorption, a 300% enhancement in room-temperature sensitivity (31.67% ppm −1 ) and an ultralow limit of detection (50 ppb) are observed under 1/4 mm −1 curvature strain. We identify three types of strainsensitive adsorption sites in layered PtSe 2 and pinpoint that basal-plane lattice distortion contributes to better sensing performance resulting from reduced absorption energy and larger charge transfer density. Furthermore, we demonstrate state-of-the-art 2D PtSe 2 -based wireless wearable integrated circuits, which allow real-time gas sensing data acquisition, processing, and transmission through a Bluetooth module to user terminals. The circuits exhibit a wide detection range with a maximum sensitivity value of 0.026 V•ppm −1 and a low energy consumption below 2 mW.
A Cu–Ni-based
alloy with a high power factor is a commercially
utilized metallic thermocouple material. However, the high thermal
conductivity has been a major limitation to achieving thermoelectric
performance in semiconductor materials. Herein, this work presents
a 76.1% reduced thermal conductivity (∼7.7 W m–1 K–1) in Cu70Ni30, which
is one of the lowest reported values in the literature. Such suppression
of thermal conductivity can be attributed to the varied frequency
phonon scattering by the interfacial potential barrier, built from
micron-scale defects formed via sintering melt-spun ribbons. However,
the defects simultaneously reduce the charge carrier concentration,
mobility, and thus the electrical conductivity. The lowest thermal
conductivity leads to the highest zT and ZT
avg in the sample sintered at 673 K under 15
MPa. The values are 0.24 (@573 K) and 0.15 (323–573 K), respectively,
which are 130.3 and 140.0% higher than the values of the pristine
counterpart. Our work demonstrates that improved thermoelectric performance
in Cu–Ni-based alloys can be obtained by creating various interfacial
defects even at micron scales, which paves the way to suppress thermal
conductivity largely in metallic thermoelectric materials via melt-spinning
(MS) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) synthesis.
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