Less noble: The Co0.30Au0.35Pd0.35 nanoalloy supported on carbon is reported as a stable, low‐cost, and highly efficient catalyst for the CO‐free hydrogen generation from formic acid dehydrogenation at room temperature (see picture). The method may strongly encourage the practical application of formic acid as a hydrogen storage material for fuel cells.

Here, a smart fluid-controlled surface is designed, via the rational integration of the unique properties of three natural examples, i.e., the unidirectional wetting behaviors of butterfly's wing, liquid-infused "slippery" surface of the pitcher plant, and the motile microcilia of micro-organisms. Anisotropic wettability, lubricated surfaces, and magnetoresponsive microstructures are assembled into one unified system. The as-prepared surface covered by tilted microcilia achieves significant unidirectional droplet adhesion and sliding. Regulating by external magnet field, the directionality of ferromagnetic microcilia can be synergistically switched, which facilitates a continuous and omnidirectional-controllable water delivery. This work opens an avenue for applications of anisotropic wetting surfaces, such as complex-flow distribution and liquid delivery, and extend the design approach of multi-bioinspiration integration.

We studied the effects of H 2 O 2 oxidation without metal catalysts and under neutral conditions on morphologies and structures of the multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The formation of surface functional groups and changes in nanotube structures, morphology, and thermal stability during oxidation were analysized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectra, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Several functional groups such as carboxylic (-COOH), carbonyl (-CdO), and hydroxyl (-OH) groups were formed on the surface of MWNTs; however, hydroxyl groups were preferentially formed and reached a maximum atomic concentration of about 46% in 4 days of oxidation. The graphitization degree decreased in the first day of oxidation; however, it readily increased in the continued oxidation days.

Water is the driving force of all nature. Securing freshwater has been one of the most important issues throughout human history, and will be important in the future, especially in the next decade. Fog is ubiquitous in nature and is therefore considered as an alternative and sustainable freshwater resource. Nature has long served as a source of inspiration to develop new fog‐harvesting technologies. However, the collection of freshwater from static fog is still a challenge for the existing bio‐inspired fog‐harvesting systems. Herein, magnetically induced fog harvesting under windless conditions through the integration of cactus‐inspired spine structures and magnetically responsive flexible conical arrays is reported. Under an external magnetic field, static fog can be spontaneously and continuously captured and transported from the tip to the base of the spine due to the Laplace pressure difference. This work demonstrates the advantage of collecting fog water, especially in windless regions, which provides a new avenue for fog harvesting and can serve as a source of inspiration to further optimizations of existing fog‐water‐harvesting strategies.

The Gangdese batholith, southern Tibet, was part of an Andean-type arc at the southern margin of Asia prior to the collision of India and Asia at approximately 50 to 40 Ma. Fission-track and 4øAr/39Ar analyses of 28 rocks from 10Gangdese granitoid plutons along an -250 km length of the batholith in the Lhasa region provide a detailed understanding of the age and the postcrystallization erosional and tectonic history of these rocks. These data suggest a range of ages for these plutons of 94 to 42 Ma, with the majority being of Tertiary age. The postcrystallization cooling histories of all of these plutons are characterized by marked discontinuities. We conclude that most of these discontinuities, and all of them after 40 Ma, reflect tectonic changes that produced brief pulses of rapid erosion which were distributed in both space and time. In addition to the initial cooling of hot magma against cold country rock, all of the rocks we studied showed evidence for at least one subsequent episode of rapid cooling, dropping many tens of degrees in a few million years. Conversely, these plutons all experienced intervals during which they cooled very slowly or not at all; these slow-cooling intervals lasted from 5 to 50 million years. Our data indicate that since the collision between India and Asia began, response to continued convergence has been quite variable in even this relatively small area. The data reported here are consistent with a recentlyproposed model of Oligo-Miocene crustal shortening along the Gangdese Thrust system in this area. Copyfight 1995 by the Amefiean Geophysical Union.Paper number 94TC01676. 0278-7407/95/94TC-01676510.00 of modes by which continents respond to plate motions places a premium on knowing the timing and duration of each deformation mechanism. The contributions of radiogenic isotope investigations to the understanding of the evolution of mountain belts are both direct, such as determining the timing of fault motion, and inferential, such as deducing the timing of crustal thickening from denudation rates. The Tertiary Indo-Asian orogeny presents a unique opportunity to use both direct and inferential evidence to examine active and ancient manifestations of the collision of two continental masses. Before the start of the collision betweenIndia and Asia at about 50 Ma the southern margin of Asia was marked by a Andean-type arc, known as the Gangdese or Transhimalayan batholith. The batholith marking the roots of this arc, which lies 100 to 200 km north of the Himalaya and stretches E-W for over 2000 km across southern Tibet and northern India, varies between 20 and 60 km wide (Figure 1). In many places the suture marking the closure of the Tethyan ocean lies immediately to the south of the batholith. The plutonic rocks of the Gangdese batholith have a range of crystallization ages from -120 Ma to 40 Ma [Harris et al., 1988b; Schiirer and Allbgre, 1984] and a wide variation in composition including gabbro, granite, and tonalite; the average composition is granodiorite [Debon et al., 1986]...

No abstract

The structures of Tibet were generated during the accretion on to the Asian plate, firstly of the Qiangtang Terrane during the Triassic, then the Lhasa Terrane during the Jurassic -Cretaceous and finally the Indian continent during the Palaeogene. The southern Kunlun mountains show intense deformation associated with the accretion of deep water sediments on to an active plate margin .The deformation was essentially by footwall propagation of thrusts, though there was pronounced out-of sequence thrusting with the deformation of basins above the main thrust zone, and the back steepening and back thrusting of earlier structures. The Jinsha Suture probably represents the southern edge of this zone. The Banggong Suture between the Qiangtang and Lhasa Terranes is characterized by pre-collisional ophiolite obduction for over 100 km to the south across the Lhasa T errane, plus local intense intracratonic deformation of parts of the Lhasa Terrane. However, for this collision there is now very little evidence for intense deformation along the line of the suture and the Qiangtang Terrane itself remained only weakly deformed throughout. Post—Middle Cretaceous, pre-Tertiary deformation of the Lhasa region produced upright- to north-verging folds which decrease in in tensity north wards. They may have been formed at the margin of the Gangdise batholith, or they may have originated from early collisional phases along the line of the Indus-Zangbo Suture. However this deformation is approximately synchronous with the more intense deformation of the Xigatse flysch on the accretionary prism and is therefore probably subduction-related, predating collision. Tertiary deformation is relatively widespread across Tibet, producing SSE-directed thrusts across the Fenghuo Shan region of the Qiangtang Terrane and across the northern part of the Lhasa Terrane. Several hundred kilometres shortening can be estimated to have occurred during this deformation, probably reworking older Mesozoic structures. How ever this shortening is insufficient to provide all of that estimated from palaeo magnetic work or from a study of displacement rates of the Indian plate, and much of the displacement of India into Asia during the Tertiary must be taken up on strike-slip faults in Tibet or on thrusts an d strike-slip faults in central Asia north o the Tibetan Plateau. The Tertiary shortening cannot account for all the thickening o f the Tibetan crust.

A highly efficient hydrogen generation from formic acid/sodium formate aqueous solution catalyzed by in situ synthesized Pd/C with citric acid has been successfully achieved at room temperature. Interestingly, the presence of citric acid during the formation and growth of the Pd nanoparticles on carbon can drastically enhance the catalytic property of the resulted Pd/C, on which the conversion and turnover frequency for decomposition of formic acid/sodium formate system can reach the highest values ever reported of 85% within 160 min and 64 mol H2 mol−1 catalyst h−1, respectively, at room temperature. The present simple, low cost, but highly efficient CO-free hydrogen generation system at room temperature is believed to greatly promote the practical application of formic acid system on fuel cells.