Investigating the effect of synthesis selection on O3-sodium layered oxide structural changes and electrochemical properties

Transition metal (TM) layered oxides constitute a promising family of materials for use in Na-ion battery cathodes. Here O3-Na (Ni1/3Mn1/3Fe1/3) O2 was synthesised using optimised sol-gel and solid-state routes, and the physico- and electrochemical natures of the resulting materials were thoroughly studied. Significant differences in electrochemical behaviour were observed, and the use of in operando XRD determined this stemmed from the suppression of the P3 phase in the sol-gel material during cycling. This was attributable to differences in the degree of transition metal migration in the materials ensuing from the selection of synthetic route. This demonstrates that not only the choice of material, but also that of synthesis route, can have dramatic impact on the resulting structural and electrochemical nature, making such considerations critical in the future development of advanced Na-ion cathode materials.

Integration with MoO3 microrods as precursors for hierarchical polyaniline microtubes and composites for anionic dye removal in water treatment

PANI microtubes were well constructed with MoO₃ microrods as a sacrificing template, and exhibited excellent performance for dye removal. Moreover, the PANI microtubes can be a good support to synthesize multifunctional PANI-based composites.

Chemoselective reduction of nitro and nitrile compounds using an Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag nanocomposite as a reusable catalyst

Chemoselective reductions by an Fe₃O₄-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag nanocomposite.

Tailoring hydrophobic branch in polyzwitterionic resin for simultaneous capturing of Hg(II) and methylene blue with response surface optimization

A new highly efficient cross-linked polymer was synthesized via cyclotetrapolymerization of hydrophilic [(diallylamino)propyl]phosphonic acid hydrochloride (72 mol%), hydrophobic N,N-diallyl-1-[6-(biphenyl-4-yloxy)hexylammonium chloride (18 mol%), cross-linker 1,1,4,4-tetraallylpiperazinium dichloride (10 mol%) with an equivalent amount of alternating SO₂ units (100 mol%). The pH-responsive resin chemically tailored with the aminopropylphosphonate chelating ligand and hydrophobic chain of (CH₂)₆OC₆H₄-C₆H₅ is designed to capture toxic metal ions and organic contaminants simultaneously. The developed resin was used for the remediation of Hg(II) ions and methylene blue from aqueous solutions as models. The experimental conditions were optimized utilizing the response surface methodology as an environmentally friendly method. The adsorption efficiency for Hg(II) was ≈100% at 10 ppm initial concentration at pH 5 at 25 °C, while it was 80% for removal of the dye in a single pollutant system. Interestingly, the resin demonstrated its remarkable efficacy in the simultaneous and complete removal of Hg(II) and the dye from their mixture. Increased removal of the dye (≈100%) in the presence of Hg(II) was attributed to the synergistic effect. The equilibrium data were evaluated by employing the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models.

Highly efficient simultaneous ultrasonic-assisted adsorption of methylene blue and rhodamine B onto metal organic framework MIL-68(Al): central composite design optimization

In this work, metal organic framework (MIL-68(Al)), was synthesized by a simple, fast and low-cost process for simultaneous removal of methylene blue and Rhodamine B, regarded to be toxic and even carcinogenic, from aqueous solution.