INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
·
2024
·
IF 3.8
Qiang Jiang,Yu Shi,Yichao An,Liang Zhang,Jun Li,Xun Zhu,Qiang Liao
The all-aqueous thermally regenerative battery has the advantages of high open-circuit voltage, high power density, and high Coulombic efficiency, providing a promising way for low-temperature waste heat recovery. In this study, a passive membraneless thermally regenerative flow battery driven by capillary force and gravity is proposed to reduce the cost of construction and operation. The feasibility of power generation and the influence of key parameters (height difference, support electrolyte concentration, etc.) on the battery performance are studied. The results showed that a laminar flow induced by a fiber-based microfluidic reactor could effectively separate the catholytes and anolytes, and the battery could achieve long-term power production and obtain a maximum power density of 15.2 mW cm–2. The performance of the battery first increased and then decreased with the inlet height, and the optimal height was 3 mm. This is mainly due to the fact that the inlet height affects the flow rate of the electrolyte, which affects the mass transfer and laminar flow effect in the porous electrode. Within a certain range, as the concentration of the supporting electrolyte increases, the conductivity of the electrolyte is significantly improved, although the flow rate decreases to a certain extent due to the increase in viscosity, resulting in a further improvement in the battery performance. Through the above optimization, the maximum power density of the battery obtained in this study is 24.9 mW cm–2, and the maximum theoretical thermal efficiency can reach 1.26% (the relative Carnot efficiency can reach 10.6%).
研究领域:
能源科学
·
环境工程
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA
·
2017
·
IF 4.798
Zhibin Wang,Yingying Lin,Rong Chen,Qiang Liao,Xun Zhu,Liang An,Xuefeng He,Wei Zhang
In present study, a micro membrane-less photoelectrochemical cell (μML-PEC) is developed for simultaneous hydrogen and electricity productions in the presence of methanol, in which the photoanode of a TiO 2 film is consisted of a compact layer at the bottom and a porous layer on the top. The experimental results indicate the PEC miniaturization, and the membrane elimination, and the addition of a compact layer can enhance the mass, electron and photon transfer, which eventually boosts the performance. The performance of the developed μML-PEC is also evaluated under various operating conditions, including the light intensity, methanol and electrolyte concentrations and flow rate . It is shown that the maximum power density increases and the fill factor (FF) and solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency (STH) decrease with increasing the light intensity. For the electrolyte concentration, the maximum power density and STH and FF all increases with increasing the electrolyte concentration. Once the electrolyte is high enough, its effect become insignificant. Besides, the increase of the methanol concentration and the decrease of the flow rate are beneficial for the improvement in the performance. The obtained results reveal that the μML-PEC developed in this work shows the promising potential for simultaneously producing electricity and hydrogen in the presence of methanol.
研究领域:
能源科学
·
环境科学
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
DESALINATION
·
2014
·
IF 3.96
Wenqiu Su,Tianjun Li,Xiaping Jiang,Xueming Chen
Membrane-free electrodeionization (MFEDI) has been tested successfully for high purity water production in our previous work. However, in order to prevent the constant backward migration of cationic or anionic ions, to achieve equally effective regeneration for both the cationic and anionic resins, and to get neutral concentrate, the electrodes had to be reversed during regeneration. This not only complicated the regeneration process, but also decreased the water recovery and the electrode lifetime. In this work, we improved the resin layer structure and investigated the regeneration performance of MFEDI without electrode polarity reversal . A total of 30 operational cycles were examined. Effective regeneration was achieved. The effluent conductivity was 0.055–0.060 μS/cm only; the average pH value of the concentrate was 7.2; the water recovery was 90%; and the energy consumption was 0.71 kWh/m 3 water.
研究领域:
环境科学
·
水处理技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
·
2022
·
IF 4.326
Tong Zhang,Chuhe Yu,Xun Zhu,Yang Yang,Dingding Ye,Rong Chen,Qiang Liao
Membraneless microfluidic fuel cells (MMFCs) remove the physical membrane in conventional fuel cells and are considered one of the promising micropower supplies for portable electronic devices. However, a co-laminar flow pattern should be maintained to avoid fuel crossover, which goes against the integration of the cell and its applicability. Herein, we adopt activated carbon (AC) as the cathode catalyst to trigger the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and construct a novel single-flow MMFC (SF-MMFC). Benefitting from the selective catalytic property, the unfavorable fuel-crossover issue is successfully avoided, and device construction is extremely simplified. One single reactant solution containing both fuel and electrolyte can successfully maintain SF-MMFC stable operation. The device delivers a volumetric power density of 218.6 mW cm–3; nevertheless, the ORR catalytic performance for AC powders is poorer than that of commercial Pt/C cathode. More importantly, the capital power production per unit cathode cost is 200 W $c–1. The utilization of catalyst with selective catalytic performance can accelerate the application potential of MMFC technology in powering portable electronic devices.
研究领域:
能源技术
·
材料科学
·
化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Cell Reports
·
2023
·
IF 8.8
Kaiming Cao,Shixuan Li,Yu Wang,Hongze Hu,Sijia Xiang,Qianling Zhang,Yangzhong Liu
Bacterial cells were long thought to be "bags of enzymes" with minimal internal structures. In recent years, membrane-less organelles formed by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins or nucleic acids have been found to be involved in many important biological processes, although most of them were studied on eukaryotic cells. Here, we report that NikR, a bacterial nickel-responsive regulatory protein, exhibits LLPS both in solution and inside cells. Analyses of cellular nickel uptake and cell growth of E. coli confirm that LLPS enhances the regulatory function of NikR, while disruption of LLPS in cells promotes the expression of nickel transporter (nik) genes, which are negatively regulated by NikR. Mechanistic study shows that Ni(II) ions induces the accumulation of nik promoter DNA into the condensates formed by NikR. This result suggests that the formation of membrane-less compartments can be a regulatory mechanism of metal transporter proteins in bacterial cells.
研究领域:
微生物学
·
分子生物学
·
细胞生物学
✓ 已验证
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA
·
2015
·
IF 4.504
Lin Li,Shao Xue,Rong Chen,Qiang Liao,Xun Zhu,Zhibin Wang,Xuefeng He,Hao Feng,Xiao Cheng
In this work, a membraneless photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) with a solar responsive photoanode and an air-breathing cathode was developed to simultaneously degrade the wastewater and generate electricity. The performance characteristics of the developed PFC was examined for the real application purpose. Particular attention was paid to investigate the effect of the fuel and electrolyte types on the cell performance. Experimental results showed that the alkaline electrolyte yielded the maximum power density of 4.1 mW cm −2 , which was much better than the neutral electrolyte with the maximum power density of 0.5 mW cm −2 . Long-term performance measurements also showed that the cell performance was rather stable under the alkaline electrolyte but dramatically reduced under the neutral electrolyte in the 3-hour constant current density operation. Regarding the fuel types, the PFC exhibited appreciable performance for both alcohols and saccharides . Methanol and glycerol produced the maximum power densities of 4.08 and 2.58 mW cm −2 , while D-glucose and D-xylose generated the maximum power densities of 3.92 and 3.67 mW cm −2 , respectively. The difference in the cell performance can be attributed to the difference in the molecular structure, i.e., the fuel with a simpler molecular structure and a shorter carbon chain could yield better performance. Besides, the PFCs also showed favorable performances in some complex wastes, such as artificial sewage, Coca Cola and urine. For the air-breathing cathode design, the oxygen concentration effect on the PFC performance was also studied. It was found that increasing the oxygen concentration from 5% to pure oxygen led to the improvement of the maximum power density from 3.5 to 5.2 mW cm −2 .
研究领域:
环境科学
·
能源技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
·
2025
·
IF 9
Qin-Hua Xu,Yuxin Li,Junyue Bao,Zeting Li,Yaofeng Cai,Yanbin Xu
The widespread adoption of anaerobic digestion in manure management necessitates handling discharged ammonia–nitrogen (NH 4 + -N)-rich digestate, where electrochemical ammonia recovery is a viable solution but is limited by the cost of membrane fouling. Here, we present a membrane-free ion enrichment electrolyzer (MIEE) engineered with an electrode spatially decoupled structure, enabling NH 4 + and OH – ion enrichment in the anaerobic digestate for further ammonia recovery. Through in-situ measurements, we identify electrochemically induced relative concentration gradients of ions as the pivotal mechanism driving ion enrichment. MIEE maintains electroneutrality by migrating ions, and the effect is close to electrodialysis below ∼50 % migration of NH 4 + ions. Cathode effluent treated by MIEE achieves ∼80 % ratio of NH 4 + -N recovery in the stripping process, coupled with carbon mitigation. The cost of OH – ions supplied by MIEE is ∼50 % compared to directly dosing NaOH. The anode effluent neutralizes the stripping effluent pH from 9.3 to 8.6 and optimizes the organic carbon/nitrogen molar ratio from 1.5 to more than 3, enhancing compatibility with the bioprocess. This study presents a novel strategy for enriching ions without ion exchange membranes, which reduces the cost of membranes and stripping pretreatment in the ammonia recovery.
研究领域:
环境工程
·
化学工程
·
电化学
·
废弃物管理
·
可持续技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Cell Reports
·
2025
·
IF 6.9
Sijia Xiang,Zhuanghao Hou,Yu Wang,Yang Yang,Hongze Hu,Chang Yin,Guangming Huang,Kaiming Cao,Yangzhong Liu
Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of biomolecules is a crucial mechanism in regulating cellular functions through dynamic formation of membrane-less organelles. The assembly of nucleation seeds is a key step that triggers LLPS; however, it is challenging to precisely study its assembly mechanism due to the complexity of the condensation process. Recently, metal ions have been found to play important roles in inducing LLPS. To elucidate the assembling mechanism, a small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) protein was employed as a model protein to study metal-induced condensation. The results indicate that SUMO possesses two weak Cu(II)-binding sites across the protein surface, enabling intermolecular bridging among SUMO molecules. The formation of assembling seeds is confirmed by mass photometry analysis, showing the Cu(II)-induced dynamic clusterization of SUMO at nanoscale. Increasing the Cu(II) binding affinity of SUMO significantly promotes the protein condensation, underscoring the pivotal role of Cu(II) coordination in LLPS. This work provides insights into the protein assembly mechanism through non-specific intermolecular metal coordination.
研究领域:
生物物理学
·
分子生物学
·
生物化学
·
结构生物学
·
细胞生物学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
·
2015
·
IF 3.091
Jiayuan Hu,Zhixing Fang,Xiaping Jiang,Tianjun Li,Xueming Chen
A promising membrane-free electrodeionization (MFEDI) process has been proposed for high purity water (HPW) production in our previous work. However, the employ of a large number of weak-acid resins in MFEDI limits this process for purifying the reverse osmosis (RO) permeate of tap water with a pH value below 6.0. In this work, a MFEDI system filled only with mixed strong-acid and strong-base resins was tested to desalinate the synthetic acidic RO permeate. Results demonstrated that the resins regeneration was achieved mainly by electrically enhancing water dissociation after a high current density was imposed to the resin layer. Both good purification and effective regeneration were achieved. The conductivity of effluent was 0.060–0.062 μS/cm only. The energy consumption fluctuated in the range of 0.35–0.41 kW h/m 3 water and the water recovery reached 93.1%. The mixed concentrate collected during regeneration, with an average conductivity of 145 μS/cm and a pH value of 6.5, could be returned to a pretreatment unit for recovery. No chemical was needed and no wastewater was produced. Repetitive experimental results showed the MFEDI system could work stably.
研究领域:
环境工程
·
化学工程
·
水处理技术
·
电化学
·
可持续水资源管理
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
·
2021
·
IF 7.312
Xuejiao Zhang,Shijun Deng,Huachang Jin,Yang Yu,Shuai Liao,Xueming Chen
Previously, we invented and investigated membrane-free electrodeionization (MFEDI), a novel deionization technique that uses ion exchange resins as the critical material, for the production of high-purity water. However, the functional materials used in MFEDI are common resins that cannot simultaneously achieve effective adsorption, easy electrical regeneration, and good conductivity. For instance, strong acid resin, a cation exchange resin commonly used in MFEDI, cannot be easily electrically regenerated; weak acid resin can be easily regenerated, but has poor conductivity and adsorption properties. There are currently no available resins that can meet all of the requirements of conductivity, adsorption and regeneration properties. In this study, a novel amphoteric resin was prepared and characterised. This amphoteric resin contained much more cationic functional groups than anionic functional groups, behaving as a medium-strength acid resin due to the introduction of anionic functional groups. The prepared amphoteric resin exhibited better purification property than weak acid resin, and could be electrically regenerated more easily than strong acid resin. When the amphoteric resin was coupled with strong base resin and the conductivity of the purified water was kept below 0.10 µs/cm, the water recovery and energy consumption were 74.60% and 0.84 kWh/m 3 water, respectively. By contrast, the energy consumption and water recovery were 40.74% and 2.65 kWh/m 3 water for strong acid resin, and 64.44% and 1.53 kWh/m 3 water for weak acid resin under similar conditions. Clearly, the developed amphoteric resin significantly improves the MFEDI properties.
研究领域:
环境科学
·
水处理
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CARBON
·
2018
·
IF 7.082
Guang Li,Qingfeng Yi,Xiaokun Yang,Yao Chen,Xiulin Zhou,Gang Xie
Ni-Co-N doped honeycomb carbon (HC) nano-composites Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC (Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC-20, Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC-30 and Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC-40 with respective metal mass percentage of 20%, 30% and 40%) with a regular hexagonal structure have been fabricated by using the simple polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) emulsion template method . The side length of the carbon hexagon is ca. 100 nm for the honeycomb carbon (HC). For the Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC catalysts, the NiCo nanoparticles and the nanocarbon tubes derived from dicyandiamide are uniformly dispersed on HCs. The as-synthesized Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC catalysts exhibit efficient electroactivity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline medium and possess excellent tolerance to the alcohols (ethanol, n -propanol and iso -propanol). Based on these results, a membrane-less direct alcohol fuel cell has been assembled with the Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC as the cathodic catalyst, the ternary Pd 7 Ag 2 Sn 2 /CNT as the anodic catalyst and alcohol (ethanol, n -propanol or iso -propanol) as the fuel. The fuel cell with the Ni 3 Co 1 -N/HC-40 as the cathodic catalyst displays the open circuit voltage of 0.79 V and maximum power density of 42.2 mW cm −2 for the ethanol fuel , 0.60 V and 33.3 mW cm −2 for the n -propanol fuel, and 0.43 V and 14.4 mW cm −2 for the iso -propanol fuel. The membrane-less fuel cell also presents stable discharge performance at different discharging current densities.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
电化学
·
能源技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
·
2023
·
IF 15.1
Xueyu Yuan,Jing Jiang,Zihao Zhou,Hongyu Pan,Chengwei Wang,Chor Yong Tay,Jinhua Hu,Li Liu,Bing Li,Yufeng Cai,Ming Liu
The designed thermally responsive polyionic liquid (TPIL)/ poly (diallyl dimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) hydrogel with a semi-interpenetrating (semi-IPN) structure, containing highly charged chloride anions, was fabricated to explore the comprehensive capabilities of solar driven membrane-free osmotic desalination. Introducing linear PDDA polyelectrolyte with higher charge density has effectively excluded salt ions from entering the TPIL hydrogel matrix due to the strong charge concentration gradient established between the hydrogel and the saline reservoir. Meanwhile, the thermo-sensitivity of the polyionic liquid/PDDA semi-IPN (PNCl) hydrogel enabled the release of absorbed salt-depleted water at a temperature above the Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST). The multiple purification process established by partial submersion of PNCl hydrogel in saline enabled continual reduction of the salt ion concentration during the upwards transportation of water along the polyelectrolyte network. Moreover, a mushroom-shaped hydrogel demonstrated enhanced the effectiveness in long-term cyclic desalination. The “mushroom cap” was loaded with photo-thermal conversion fillers (Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene) to achieve higher photo-thermal conversion efficiency for water recovery. A record high salt rejection rate of more than 93% was obtained for membrane-free osmotic desalination. More importantly the whole desalination/water absorption/release process was solely supported by gently heating the PNCl hydrogel under the illumination of renewable solar energy.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
环境工程
·
水处理
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）