Desalination of seawater with zero-liquid discharge is a major challenge. Here we developed a three-dimensional "umbrella" architecture to evaporate hypersaline brines of up to 20 wt% using solar-driven interfacial evaporation. By controlling the water pathway and the thickness of the evaporator films to manipulate the salt capacitance of the system, a stable evaporation rate of >2.6 kg m À2 h À1 was achieved over 4-day operation in the laboratory environment with minimized salt accumulation on evaporation surfaces. By placing the system in an outdoor environment with natural wind, the peak evaporation rate was improved to 9.05 kg m À2 h À1 . After a 4-day outdoor test, the total evaporated water by the umbrella system was 3.7Â more than the natural evaporation from a bulk water surface under identical environmental conditions. The predesigned water flow also controlled the local salt accumulation, resulting in easier salt removing and collection, which is highly desired for accelerated salt mining applications.

A class of monomeric nuphar analogues that are either epimeric at C1 and C1' or lack the naturally occurring methyl group at those positions were synthesized and evaluated for biological activity. The syntheses feature enantioselective vinylogous Mukaiyama-Mannich (vM-Mannich) reactions catalyzed by chiral phosphoric acids that proceed with excellent diastereoselectivity. Biological assays reveal that both the desmethyl and C1-epimeric monomeric nuphar analogous are able to induce rapid apoptosis.

Electrical energy storage (EES) has emerged as a key enabler for access to electricity in remote environments and in those environments where other external factors challenge access to reliable electricity. In cold climates, energy storage technologies face challenging conditions that can inhibit their performance and utility to provide electricity. Use of available energy storage technologies has the potential to improve Army installation resilience by providing more consistent and reliable power to critical infrastructure and, potentially, to broader infrastructure and operations. Sustainable power, whether for long durations under normal operating conditions or for enhancing operational resilience, improves an installation’s ability to maintain continuity of operations for both on- and off-installation missions. Therefore, this work assesses the maturity of energy storage technologies to provide energy stability for Army installations in cold regions, especially to meet critical power demands. The information summarized in this technical report provides a reference for considering various energy storage technologies to support specific applications at Army installations, especially those installations in cold regions.

We reveal a three-dimensional “umbrella” architecture to evaporate hypersaline brines using solar-thermal effects. A stable evaporation rate of >2.6 kg m-2h-1 was achieved over a 4-day operation with minimized salt accumulation on evaporation surfaces.