Found 492 results
Open Access
Article
07 March 2025WO3 Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Applications
WO3 layers were prepared by spray pyrolysis of a peroxotungstic acid solution on FTO/glass substrates. Investigated parameters were layer thickness and influence of post-annealing in air. Films deposited at 250 °C were amorphous. Post-annealing at 550 °C for 2 h resulted in the formation of monoclinic crystalline structure. A comprehensive account of electrochemical efficiency in terms of IPCE for WO3 films as a function of the three parameters (wavelength, thickness and direction of light incidence) fully characterizing the photoelectrodes is presented here for the first time. The highest improvement in crystallinity and also the highest photocurrent response was found for WO3 layers deposited at 250 °C and post-annealed at 550 °C, namely 1.9 mA/cm2 (in 0.1 M HClO4 at 1.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl) under irradiation with a solar simulator (AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm2) and IPCE = 0.5 at 369 nm (front side irradiation), which is comparable with values obtained by other deposition techniques (e.g., hydrothermal or sol gel). Spray pyrolysis as a method of fabricating WO3 electrodes has the advantage of being able to produce large electrodes for use in practical applications.
Open Access
Review
07 March 2025Unravelling the Role of Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Co-Catalysts in Photocatalytic Water Splitting: Mechanistic Insights and Material Strategies
The reliance on fossil fuels has led to a substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions, presenting a critical environmental challenge. Addressing this issue necessitates the adoption of alternative renewable energy sources, with green hydrogen emerging as a promising candidate due to its high gravimetric energy density and absence of harmful emissions. Among the various hydrogen production techniques, photocatalytic technology has garnered significant attention for its dual potential to produce green hydrogen and degrade pollutants, thereby addressing both energy and climate crises. Efforts to scale photocatalytic technology for industrial applications have identified cocatalyst integration as a pivotal strategy, as it enhances reaction kinetics by lowering the activation energy and mitigating charge carrier recombination. This review comprehensively examines the hydrogen economy, the underlying principles of photocatalysis, recent technological advancements, key factors influencing photocatalytic reactions, the role of catalysts in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) surface mechanisms, strategies for cocatalyst optimization, and future directions for the field.
Open Access
Article
03 March 2025Harmony between Humanity and Nature in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration during Decadal Development
Building harmony between humanity and nature
(HHN) migrates the conflict between social-economic development and
eco-environmental conservation, promoting the coordination and balance between
economic development and ecological protection, and then achieving the state of harmonious coexistence
between humanity
and nature. Here, taking advantage of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban
agglomeration as the research region, this study aimed to evaluate the changes
in comprehensive level of economic, social, and ecological development, as well
as the coupling coordination degree of HHN from 2014 to 2021, and to identify
their spatio-temporal evolution patterns. The findings reveal that from 2014 to
2021, the comprehensive development level of HHN in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
urban agglomeration exhibits a linearly increasing pattern, with significant
differences in time and space.
The comprehensive development level of HHN in the northern region of the
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration has always been higher than that in
the southern region. By
2021, all the cities had basically reached a middle development level. And the
coordination degree of the comprehensive development of HHN showed a healthy
development trend. In 2021, the coordination degree of HHN in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration was at
transitional development, with an average annual increase of 3%. In the future, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration should
prioritize coordinated development of HHN, enhance eco-environment protection
and management, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, explore new
development modes and ecological resource transformation strategies, and
establish a modern capital region characterized by high-level ecological
civilization development.
Open Access
Article
27 February 2025Deciphering How Promoting Flower-Viewing Economy for Construction of Harmonious-Villages in Mountainous and Hilly Areas
Sustainable development in mountainous and hilly regions is a critical component of global sustainability efforts. These regions are facing numerous challenges, including ecological fragility, labor migration, and resource scarcity and imbalance. Addressing these issues is imperative for sustainable development; this study identifies two primary conditions necessary for sustainable development in mountainous regions: achieving human and nature’s sustainable development, which provides reliable material support and social support for achieving the same in the mountainous and hilly regions. The flower-viewing economy, derived from transforming China’s mountain agriculture, is an efficient new format for mountainous and hilly regions. To verify these primary conditions, this study constructed a flower-viewing economy from three dimensions: material support, subject relationship, and expectation, using the peach blossom festival in Tingzi Village, Taihe Town of Chongqing City, as an example. Here, we explained that a sustainable development model focused on benefiting farmers is an endogenous, farmer-centered pathway to sustainable development, highly relevant to promoting sustainable development in developing countries’ mountain villages.
Open Access
Article
26 February 2025Autopsies in Poland 1971–2023
Autopsies, depending on their purpose, can be described as forensic or clinical. Both types are intended to determine the cause of death, but their goal is different. For forensic autopsies, this goal is to provide expertise with evidential value in various legal proceedings. For clinical autopsies, they have historically been seen as a tool in the development and investigation of disease processes. The aim of the study was to determine how the percentage of autopsies changed in Poland in the years 1971–2023. Research material was data obtained from the Polish Central Statistical Office. On the basis of this data, we showed changes in the population number, the number of deaths, and the number of autopsies in the indicated period. It was shown that in Poland, the percentage of autopsies in relation to all deaths in the period from 1971 to 2023 (53 years) fell about 4-fold from the initial level of approximately 16% to only approximately 4% now. This downward trend is consistent with the trends in other EU countries.
Open Access
Article
21 February 2025Porous Cu(Mn)-Doped ZnO-MgO Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Applications
Porous Cu(Mn):ZnO-MgO composites synthesized by polymeric sol-gel method were characterized. The crystal structure, morphology, spectral properties, the ability of the photogeneration of chemically active singlet oxygen under external visible irradiation, photocatalytic and antibacterial properties of porous composites were studied. Obtained composites consist of small ZnO and MgO crystals having size less than 20 nm. It was found that Cu2+ and Mn2+ ions are embedded into the lattices of ZnO and MgO crystals, altering their crystal cell parameters. The band gap values of obtained composites are 3.41 ÷ 3.42 eV which are slightly higher than the band gap of pure ZnO. Prepared materials demonstrate a high ability of photogeneration of chemically active singlet oxygen under blue light (λ = 405 nm) irradiation. It was found that dependencies of the intensity of singlet oxygen photogeneration from the power density of visible irradiation are linear. Photocatalytic decomposition of the diazo dye Chicago Sky Blue in solutions under UV and blue light irradiation proceeds rapidly in the presence of the prepared composites (constants rate of photocatalytic dye decomposition under UV irradiation are 0.024 min−1 and 0.025 min−1 for ZnO-MgO composites doped with Cu and Mn, correspondingly). Porous composites demonstrate superior antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria. These materials are promising for practical application in medicine and photocatalytic technologies of air and water cleaning.
Open Access
Article
19 February 2025Adaptive Event-Triggered Control for Multi-Quadrotor Systems under Aperiodically Intermittent Communications
A novel adaptive event-triggered control strategy is proposed for multi-quadrotor systems under intermittent communications, addressing the leader-follower consensus-seeking problem where the leader has an unknown bounded input. Firstly, an activation time ratio condition is proposed, eliminating the reliance on the maximum time interval of intermittent communication. Secondly, a compensation term related to the leader’s unknown bounded input is designed in the controller to compensate for the error caused by intermittent communication in each period. Meanwhile, a prediction method is developed to eliminate the dependence on continuous information of neighboring quadrotors. Zeno behavior is strictly excluded, and communication among quadrotors is efficiently reduced with the designed event-triggering condition. Finally, numerical simulations verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control strategy.
Open Access
Article
19 February 2025The Effect of Polyethylene Glycol on Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles Prepared Using Sonochemical Synthesis
In this work, Cobalt oxide nanoparticles (Co3O4·NPs) were synthesized via a simple sonochemical reaction by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a surfactant. Structural, morphological and spectroscopic analysis of obtained powder (Co3O4·NPs) was investigated by X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The nanocrystalline nature of the sample was confirmed by XRD, which exhibits the cubic face-centered normal spinel structure of (Co3O4·NPs) and the space group of Fd-3m with the average crystallite size around 15 nm. FTIR spectrum shows two strong absorption bands of (Co+2–O) and (Co+3–O) which confirm the spinel structure of Co3O4·NPs. Moreover, SEM micrographs showed that the agglomeration of the nanoparticles was reduced by the addition of (PEG) surfactant and UV-Vis was used to study the synthesized material’s optical properties. The Co3O4 band gap ranged around 2.2 and 3.5 eV.
Open Access
Review
18 February 2025Digital Twin and Artificial Intelligence in Machining: A Bibliometric Analysis
The past decade has witnessed an exodus toward smart and lean manufacturing methods. The trend includes integrating intelligent methods into sustainable manufacturing systems purposely to improve the machining efficiency, reduce waste and also optimize productivity. Manufacturing systems have seen transformations from conventional methods, leaning towards smart manufacturing in line with the industrial revolution 4.0. Since the manufacturing process encompasses a wide range of human development capacity, it is essential to analyze its developmental trends, thereby preparing us for future uncertainties. In this work, we have used a Bibliometric analysis technique to study the developmental trends relating to machining, digital twins and artificial intelligence techniques. The review comprises the current activities in relation to the development to this area. The article comprises a Bibliometric analysis of 464 articles that were acquired from the Web of Science database, with a search period until November 2024. The method of obtaining the data includes retrieval from the database, qualitative analysis and interpreting the data via visual representation. The raw data obtained were redrawn using the origin software, and their visual interpretations were represented using the VOSviewer software (VOSviewer_1.6.19). The results obtained indicate that the number of publications related to the searched keywords has remarkably increased since the year 2018, achieving a record maximum of over 80 articles in 2024. This is indicative of its increasing popularity. The analysis of the articles was conducted based on the author countries, journal types, journal names, institutions, article types, major and micro research areas. The findings from the analysis are meant to provide a bibliometric explanation of the developmental trends in machining systems towards achieving the IR 4.0 goals. Additionally, the results would be helpful to researchers and industrialists that intend to achieve optimum and sustainable machining using digital twin technologies.
Open Access
Review
18 February 2025The Intersection between Immune System and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis—A Concise Review
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is marked by progressive alveolar destruction, impaired tissue regeneration, and relentless fibrogenesis, culminating in respiratory failure and death. A diverse array of resident and non-resident cells within the lung contribute to disease pathogenesis. Notably, immune cells, both resident and recruited, respond to cues from sites of lung injury by undergoing phenotypic transitions and producing a wide range of mediators that influence, initiate, or dictate the function, or dysfunction, of key effector cells in IPF pathology, such as alveolar epithelial cells, lung fibroblasts, and capillary endothelial cells. The role of the immune system in IPF has undergone an interesting evolution, oscillating from initial enthusiasm to skepticism, and now to a renewed focus. This shift reflects both the past failures of immune-targeting therapies for IPF and the unprecedented insights into immune cell heterogeneity provided by emerging technologies. In this article, we review the historical evolution of perspectives on the immune system’s role in IPF pathogenesis and examine the lessons learned from previous therapeutic failures targeting immune responses. We discuss the major immune cell types implicated in IPF progression, highlighting their phenotypic transitions and mechanisms of action. Finally, we identify key knowledge gaps and propose future directions for research on the immune system in IPF.
