Browsing by Author "Cui Y"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Enhanced denitrification driven by a novel iron-carbon coupled primary cell: chemical and mixotrophic denitrification
    (Springer, 2024-01-10) Wu R; Jeyakumar P; Nanthi B; Zhai X; Wang H; Pan M; Lian J; Cheng L; Li J; Hou M; Cui Y; Yang X; Dai K
    Iron-carbon micro-electrolysis system is a promising method for promoting electron transfer in nitrate removal. However, many traditional approaches involving simple physical mixing inevitably suffered from the confined iron-carbon contact area and short validity period, leading to the overuse of iron. Here, a ceramsite-loaded microscale zero-valent iron (mZVI) and acidified carbon (AC) coupled-galvanic cell (CMC) was designed to support chemical, autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification. Long-term experiments were conducted to monitor the nitrogen removal performance of denitrification reactors filled with CMC and thus optimized the denitrification performance by improving fabrication parameters and various operating conditions. The denitrification contributions test showed that the chemical denitrification pathway contributed most to nitrate removal (57.3%), followed by autotrophic (24.6%) and heterotrophic denitrification pathways (18.1%). The microbial analysis confirmed the significant aggregation of related denitrifying bacteria in the reactors, while AC promoted the expression of relevant nitrogen metabolism genes because of accelerated uptake and utilization of iron complexes. Meanwhile, the electrochemical analysis revealed a significantly improved electron transfer capacity of AC compared to pristine carbon. Overall, our study demonstrated the application of a novel mZVI-AC coupled material for effective nitrate removal and revealed the potential impact of CMC in the multipathway denitrification process. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
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    How Reproducible are Surface Areas Calculated from the BET Equation?
    (Wiley-VCH GmbH, 2022-05-23) Osterrieth JWM; Rampersad J; Madden D; Rampal N; Skoric L; Connolly B; Allendorf MD; Stavila V; Snider JL; Ameloot R; Marreiros J; Ania C; Azevedo D; Vilarrasa-Garcia E; Santos BF; Bu X-H; Chang Z; Bunzen H; Champness NR; Griffin SL; Chen B; Lin R-B; Coasne B; Cohen S; Moreton JC; Colón YJ; Chen L; Clowes R; Coudert F-X; Cui Y; Hou B; D'Alessandro DM; Doheny PW; Dincă M; Sun C; Doonan C; Huxley MT; Evans JD; Falcaro P; Ricco R; Farha O; Idrees KB; Islamoglu T; Feng P; Yang H; Forgan RS; Bara D; Furukawa S; Sanchez E; Gascon J; Telalović S; Ghosh SK; Mukherjee S; Hill MR; Sadiq MM; Horcajada P; Salcedo-Abraira P; Kaneko K; Kukobat R; Kenvin J; Keskin S; Kitagawa S; Otake K-I; Lively RP; DeWitt SJA; Llewellyn P; Lotsch BV; Emmerling ST; Pütz AM; Martí-Gastaldo C; Padial NM; García-Martínez J; Linares N; Maspoch D; Suárez Del Pino JA; Moghadam P; Oktavian R; Morris RE; Wheatley PS; Navarro J; Petit C; Danaci D; Rosseinsky MJ; Katsoulidis AP; Schröder M; Han X; Yang S; Serre C; Mouchaham G; Sholl DS; Thyagarajan R; Siderius D; Snurr RQ; Goncalves RB; Telfer S; Lee SJ; Ting VP; Rowlandson JL; Uemura T; Iiyuka T; van der Veen MA; Rega D; Van Speybroeck V; Rogge SMJ; Lamaire A; Walton KS; Bingel LW; Wuttke S; Andreo J; Yaghi O; Zhang B; Yavuz CT; Nguyen TS; Zamora F; Montoro C; Zhou H; Kirchon A; Fairen-Jimenez D
    Porosity and surface area analysis play a prominent role in modern materials science. At the heart of this sits the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) theory, which has been a remarkably successful contribution to the field of materials science. The BET method was developed in the 1930s for open surfaces but is now the most widely used metric for the estimation of surface areas of micro- and mesoporous materials. Despite its widespread use, the calculation of BET surface areas causes a spread in reported areas, resulting in reproducibility problems in both academia and industry. To prove this, for this analysis, 18 already-measured raw adsorption isotherms were provided to sixty-one labs, who were asked to calculate the corresponding BET areas. This round-robin exercise resulted in a wide range of values. Here, the reproducibility of BET area determination from identical isotherms is demonstrated to be a largely ignored issue, raising critical concerns over the reliability of reported BET areas. To solve this major issue, a new computational approach to accurately and systematically determine the BET area of nanoporous materials is developed. The software, called "BET surface identification" (BETSI), expands on the well-known Rouquerol criteria and makes an unambiguous BET area assignment possible.
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    Mercury records from natural archives reveal ecosystem responses to changing atmospheric deposition.
    (Oxford University Press, 2024-11-19) Chen Q; Wu Q; Cui Y; Wang S
    Global ecosystems face mercury contamination, yet long-term data are scarce, hindering understanding of ecosystem responses to atmospheric Hg input changes. To bridge the data gap and assess ecosystem responses, we compiled and compared a mercury accumulation database from peat, lake, ice and marine deposits worldwide with atmospheric mercury deposition modelled by GEOS-Chem, focusing on trends, magnitudes, spatial-temporal distributions and impact factors. The mercury fluxes in all four deposits showed a 5- to 9-fold increase over 1700-2012, with lake and peat mercury fluxes that generally mirrored atmospheric deposition trends. Significant decreases in lake and peat mercury fluxes post-1950 in Europe evidenced effective environmental policies, whereas rises in East Asia, Africa and Oceania highlighted coal-use impacts, inter alia. Conversely, mercury fluxes in marine and high-altitude ecosystems did not align well with atmospheric deposition, emphasizing natural influences over anthropogenic impacts. Our study underscores the importance of these key regions and ecosystems for future mercury management.