Platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) with uniform size and high dispersion have been successfully assembled on poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) functionalized graphene oxide via a sodium borohydride reduction process. The loading concentration of Pt NPs on graphene can be adjusted in the range of 18À78 wt %. The obtained Pt/graphene nanocomposites are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis. The results show that the Pt NPs with sizes of approximate 4.6 nm uniformly disperse on graphene surface for all Pt loading densities. Electrochemical studies reveal that the Pt/graphene nanocomposites with electrochemically active surface area of 141.6 m 2 /g show excellent electrocatalytic activity toward methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction. The present method is promising for the synthesis of high performance catalysts for fuel cells, gas phase catalysis, and sensors.

With the sharp increase in population and modernization of society, environmental pollution resulting from petroleum hydrocarbons has increased, resulting in an urgent need for remediation. Petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria are ubiquitous in nature and can utilize these compounds as sources of carbon and energy. Bacteria displaying such capabilities are often exploited for the bioremediation of petroleum oil-contaminated environments. Recently, microbial remediation technology has developed rapidly and achieved major gains. However, this technology is not omnipotent. It is affected by many environmental factors that hinder its practical application, limiting the large-scale application of the technology. This paper provides an overview of the recent literature referring to the usage of bacteria as biodegraders, discusses barriers regarding the implementation of this microbial technology, and provides suggestions for further developments.

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Graphene oxide (GO) is a highly effective adsorbent, and its absorbing capability is further enhanced through its in situ reduction with sodium hydrosulfite as the reductant. Acridine orange is the selected target to eliminate with GO as the adsorbent.Under identical conditions, GO without the in situ reduction showed a maximum adsorption capacity of 1.4 g g -1 , and GO with the in situ reduction provided a maximum adsorption capacity of 3.3 g g -1 . Sodium hydrosulfite converts carbonyl groups on GO into hydroxyl groups, which function as the key sites for the adsorption enhancement.

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The shear thinning of a lubricant significantly affects lubrication film generation at high shear rates. The critical shear rate, defined at the onset of shear thinning, marks the transition of lubricant behaviors. It is challenging to capture the entire shear-thinning curve by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations owing to the low signal-to-noise ratio or long calculation time at comparatively low shear rates (10-10 s), which is likely coincident with the shear rates of interest for lubrication applications. This paper proposes an approach that correlates the shear-thinning phenomenon with the change in the molecular conformation characterized by the radius of gyration of the molecule. Such a correlation should be feasible to capture the major mechanism of shear thinning for small- to moderate-sized non-spherical molecules, which is shear-induced molecular alignment. The idea is demonstrated by analyzing the critical shear rate for squalane (CH) and 1-decene trimer (CH); it is then implemented to study the behaviors of different molecular weight poly-α-olefin (PAO) structures. Time-temperature-pressure superpositioning (TTPS) is demonstrated and it helps further extend the ranges of the temperature and pressure for shear-thinning behavior analyses. The research leads to a relationship between molecular weight and critical shear rate for PAO structures, and the results are compared with those from the Einstein-Debye equation.

Graphene oxide (GO) was immobilized on the surfaces of acrylic yarns through a conventional dyeing approach. The GO dyed yarns and/or the fabric were immersed in an aqueous sodium hydrosulfite solution at around 363 K for 30 minutes, which converted the GO into graphene. The graphene created a graphitic-coloured and

This paper considers a network of a multiple antenna array access points serving multiple single antenna downlink users with the assistance of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). The reflecting coefficients of the RIS can be programmed to ensure that the signals reflected from the RIS elements add coherently at the users. The joint design of these programmable reflecting coefficients and transmit beamforming to maximize the users' worst rate is addressed. Under either proper Gaussian signaling (PGS) or improper Gaussian signaling (IGS), the design poses a very computationally challenging nonconvex problem. Based on their exactly penalized optimization reformulation, which incorporates the computationally intractable unit-modulus constraints on the reflecting coefficients into the optimization objectives, new iterative algorithms of low computational complexity, which converge at least to a locally optimal solution, are developed. The provided simulations show not only the benefit of using RIS, but also the advantage of IGS over PGS in delivering higher rates to users.