Oxygen vacancies (OVs) dominate the physical and chemical properties of metal oxides, which play crucial roles in the various fields of applications. Density functional theory calculations show the introduction of OVs in TiO2(B) gives rise to better electrical conductivity and lower energy barrier of sodiation. Here, OVs evoked blue TiO2(B) (termed as B‐TiO2(B)) nanobelts are successfully designed upon the basis of electronically coupled conductive polymers to TiO2, which is confirmed by electron paramagnetic resonance and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The superiorities of OVs with the aid of carbon encapsulation lead to higher capacity (210.5 mAh g−1 (B‐TiO2(B)) vs 102.7 mAh g−1 (W‐TiO2(B)) at 0.5 C) and remarkable long‐term cyclability (the retention of 94.4% at a high rate of 10 C after 5000 times). In situ X‐ray diffractometer analysis spectra also confirm that an enlarged interlayer spacing stimulated by OVs is beneficial to accommodate insertion and removal of sodium ions to accelerate storage kinetics and preserve its original crystal structure. The work highlights that injecting OVs into metal oxides along with carbon coating is an effective strategy for improving capacity and cyclability performances in other metal oxide based electrochemical energy systems.

Nanostructured black anatase titania with oxygen vacancies (OVs) is efficiently obtained and employed as an anode in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) for the first time. The incorporation of OVs into TiO2 is demonstrated to render considerably enhanced-rate performances, higher initial capacities, and an accelerated electrochemical activation process during cycling, derived from the boosted intrinsic electric conductivity and improved kinetics of Na uptake. Bestowed with the integrated merits of OVs and shortened Na ion diffusion length in the nanostructure, black titania delivers a reversible specific capacity of 207.6 mAh g(-1) at 0.2 C, retains 99.1% over 500 cycles at 1 C stably, and still maintains 91.2 mAh g(-1) even at the high rate of 20 C. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the lower sodiation energy barrier of anatase with OVs enables a more favorable Na intercalation into black anatase. Thus, it is of great significance to introduce OVs into TiO2 to stimulate ultrafast and durable sodium-storage properties, which also offers a potential strategy to project more superior electrodes, utilizing internal defects.

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The significance of ANME-2d in methane sink in the environment has been overlooked, and there was no any study evaluating the distribution of ANME-2d in the environment. New primers were thus needed to be designed for following research. In this paper, a pair of primers (DP397F and DP569R) was designed to quantify ANME-2d. The specificity and amplification efficiency of this primer pair were acceptable. PCR amplification of another pair of primers (DP142F and DP779R) generated a single, bright targeted band from the enrichment sample, but yielded faint, multiple bands from the environmental samples. Nested PCR was conducted using the primers DP142F/DP779R in the first round and DP142F/DP569R in the second round, which generated a bright targeted band. Further phylogenetic analysis showed that these targeted bands were ANME-2d-related sequences. Real-time PCR showed that the copies of the 16s ribosomal RNA gene of ANME-2d in these samples ranged from 3.72 × 10(4) to 2.30 × 10(5) copies μg(-1) DNA, indicating that the percentage of ANME-2d was greatest in a polluted river sample and least in a rice paddy sample. These results demonstrate that the newly developed real-time PCR primers could sufficiently quantify ANME-2d and that nested PCR with an appropriate combination of the new primers could successfully detect ANME-2d in environmental samples; the latter finding suggests that ANME-2d may spread in environments.