An approach to the industrial-scale conversion of CO2 through electrolysis is realized in this work. Such a device is fully based on alkaline polymer electrolytes, both as the membrane and the ionomer inside electrodes, and works only with pure water. Typical current density is 500 mA cm−2 @ 3V 60 °C, with the faradaic efficiency of CO production over 90%.

Fullerene modified C3N4 (C60/C3N4) composites with efficient photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation were fabricated by a simple adsorption approach. The as-prepared C60/C3N4 composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-vis diffuse reflectance absorption spectra (DRS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and photoluminescence spectra (PL). The photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) by the C60/C3N4 composites was investigated and optimized, suggesting that the optimal amount of C60 in the composites was 1 wt%. The significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the efficient separation of photogenerated electrons and holes in the C60/C3N4 composites. A possible mechanism of C60/C3N4 composites as photocatalysts was proposed.

Synchrotron FTIR (S-FTIR) microspectroscopy was used to monitor both protein secondary structures (conformations) and their orientations in single cocoon silk fibers of the Chinese Tussah silk moth ( Antheraea pernyi ). In addition, to understand further the relationship between structure and properties of single silk fibers, we studied the changes of orientation and content of different secondary structures in single A. pernyi silk fibers when subjected to different strains. The results showed that the content and orientation of β-sheet was almost unchanged for strains from 0 to 0.3. However, the orientation of α-helix and random coil improved progressively with increasing strain, with a parallel decrease in α-helix content and an increase in random coil. This clearly indicates that most of the deformation upon stretching of the single fiber is due to the change of orientation in the amorphous regions coupled with a conversion of some of the α-helix to random coil. These observations provide an explanation for the supercontraction behavior of certain animal silks and are likely to facilitate understanding and optimization of postdrawing used in the conjunction with the wet-spinning of silk fibers from regenerated silk solutions. Thus, our work demonstrates the power of S-FTIR microspectroscopy for studying biopolymers.

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