The state-of-art multifunctions of epoxy nanocomposites including magnetization, electrical and thermal conductivity and flame retardancy are critically reviewed.

Coelectrospinning and emulsion electrospinning are two main methods for preparing core-sheath electrospun nanofibers in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Here, physical phenomena and the effects of solution and processing parameters on the coaxial fibers are introduced. Coaxial fibers with specific drugs encapsulated in the core can exhibit a sustained and controlled release. Their exhibited high surface area and three-dimensional nanofibrous network allows the electrospun fibers to resemble native extracellular matrices. These features of the nanofibers show that they have great potential in drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Proteins, growth factors, antibiotics, and many other agents have been successfully encapsulated into coaxial fibers for drug delivery. A main advantage of the core-sheath design is that after the process of electrospinning and release, these drugs remain bioactive due to the protection of the sheath. Applications of coaxial fibers as scaffolds for tissue engineering include bone, cartilage, cardiac tissue, skin, blood vessels and nervous tissue, among others. A synopsis of novel coaxial electrospun fibers, discussing their applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering, is covered pertaining to proteins, growth factors, antibiotics, and other drugs and applications in the fields of bone, cartilage, cardiac, skin, blood vessel, and nervous tissue engineering, respectively. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2016, 8:654-677. doi: 10.1002/wnan.1391 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Fibrillar and particulate structure magnetic carbons (MCFs and MCPs) were prepared from the same precursor (polyacrylonitrile and Fe(NO 3 ) 3 •9H 2 O) by using a different method, displaying a significant morphology dependence on wastewater treatment. TEM, SEM, XPS, TGA, etc. were systematically carried out to characterize the carbon samples to verify the morphology difference between these two kinds of carbon adsorbents. The results demonstrated that, along with the increase of the Fe(NO 3 ) 3 •9H 2 O loading in the precursor from 10 to 40 wt %, the fibrillar nanoadsorbents displayed an improved activity from 12.6% to 51.4% Cr(VI) removal percentage with the initial Cr(VI) concentration at 4 mg/L. For the maximum removal capacity, the fibrillar sample (MCFs-40) demonstrated 3 times higher removing capacity (43.17 mg/g) than that of particulate nanoadsorbents (MCPs-40, 15.88 mg/g) for the Cr(VI) removal with pH at 1, demonstrating that the fibrillar sample was more favorable for the wastewater treatment than particulate sample. This enhanced removal was mainly attributed to higher specific surface area of the fibrillar sample, leading to more active sites for the adsorption of Cr(VI) and produced Cr(III) ions. The chemical adsorption of Cr(VI) ions over two kinds of adsorbents were disclosed in this removal process. There was a good stability of 5 recycles for the Cr(VI) removal in the neutral solution over MCFs-40 (about 1.4 mg/g) and MCPs-40 (about 0.41 mg/g) with initial Cr(VI) concentration at 4 mg/L. This work can provide an understanding for the rational design of adsorbent in wastewater treatment.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Selective aerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons undergoes a free‐radical chain reaction to yield corresponding value‐added products is the significant process in the chemical industry. Nanocarbons with heteroatoms doping as free‐metal catalysts have been proved to be excellent alternatives in various fields of reactions. In this work, nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) were applied for the aerobic oxidation of ethylbenzene (EB) in the liquid‐phase. The catalytic performance was unexpectedly suppressed, even lower than the control experiment, which is totally different from earlier publications. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that N doping would inhibit the abstraction of α‐H from EB molecule and end the radical propagation, thus suppressing the overall activity. Addition of TBHP would be helpful for the α‐H abstraction and forming alkyl radicals, which start the Franck‐Rabinowitch cage reaction and promote radical propagation in the presence of carbon catalysts. Herein, a higher catalytic efficiency with 46 % EB conversion and 72 % AcPO selectivity were obtained over NCNTs with O2 and TBHP as dual‐oxidants.

An incompletely covered CdS/ZnS core/shell is synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method. Due to the defect energy levels introduced by zinc vacancies, the typical type-I heterojunction of CdS/ZnS evolves to a type-II heterojunction and Z-scheme hybrid structure so that the ZnS shell can timely transfer and capture the photogenerated holes from the CdS core. The surface photovoltage (SPV) distribution caused by photogenerated charges on the surface of catalyst is visually presented by Kelvin probe force microscopy with synchronous illumination (microscope SPV). It intuitively proves the effective spatial separation of photogenerated holes from the CdS core to the ZnS shell, for the first time. Under optimal conditions, the highest hydrogen production rate of CdS/ZnS reached 24.1 mmol g–1 h–1 under visible light illumination. The average apparent quantum yield of 9.3% can be achieved for 9 h of illumination (λ = 420 ± 5 nm). It exhibits highly efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution with well stability.