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Silicon has attracted much attention as a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical capacity and rich resource abundance. However, the practical battery use of Si is challenged by its low conductivity and drastic volume variation during the Li uptake/release process. Tremendous efforts have been made on shrinking the particle size of Si into nanoscale so that the volume variation could be accommodated. However, the bare nano-Si material would still pulverize upon (de)lithiation. Moreover, it shows an excessive surface area to invite unlimited growth of solid electrolyte interface that hinders the transportation of charge carriers, and an increased interparticle resistance. As a result, the Si nanoparticles gradually lose their electrical contact during the cycling process, which accounts for poor thermodynamic stability and sluggish kinetics of the anode reaction versus Li. To address these problems and improve the Li storage performance of nano-Si anode, proper structural design should be applied on the Si anode. In this perspective, we will briefly review some strategies for improving the electrochemistry versus Li of nano-Si materials and their derivatives, and show opinions on the optimal design of nanostructured Si anode for advanced LIBs.

It is a great challenge to fabricate electrode with simultaneous high activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a high‐performance bifunctional electrode formed by vertically depositing a porous nanoplate array on the surface of nickel foam is provided, where the nanoplate is made up by the interconnection of trinary Ni–Fe–Mo suboxides and Ni nanoparticles. The amorphous Ni–Fe–Mo suboxide and its in situ transformed amorphous Ni–Fe–Mo (oxy)hydroxide acts as the main active species for HER and OER, respectively. The conductive network built by Ni nanoparticles provides rapid electron transfer to active sites. Moreover, the hydrophilic and aerophobic electrode surface together with the hierarchical pore structure facilitate mass transfer. The corresponding water electrolyzer demonstrates low cell voltage (1.50 V @ 10 mA cm−2 and 1.63 V @ 100 mA cm−2) with high durability at 500 mA cm−2 for at least 100 h in 1 m KOH. A high‐performance bifunctional electrode in the form of a porous nanoplate array vertically aligned on nickel foam for overall water splitting is provided. The porous nanoplate is built by the interconnection of trinary Ni–Fe–Mo suboxides and Ni nanoparticles, which is featured with amorphous active material and rapid electron/mass transfer.

The paper treats an agent-based model with averaging dynamics to which we refer as the K-averaging model. Broadly speaking, our model can be added to the growing list of dynamics exhibiting self-organization such as the well-known Vicsek-type models (Aldana et al. in: Phys Rev Lett 98(9):095702, 2007; Aldana and Huepe in: J Stat Phys 112(1–2):135–153, 2003; Pimentel in: Phys. Rev. E 77(6):061138, 2008). In the K-averaging model, each of the N particles updates their position by averaging over K randomly selected particles with additional noise. To make the K-averaging dynamics more tractable, we first establish a propagation of chaos type result in the limit of infinite particle number (i.e. N→∞ ) using a martingale technique. Then, we prove the convergence of the limit equation toward a suitable Gaussian distribution in the sense of Wasserstein distance as well as relative entropy. We provide additional numerical simulations to illustrate both results.

Ensuring nuclear safety has become of great significance as nuclear power is playing an increasingly important role in supplying worldwide electricity. β-ray monitoring is a crucial method, but commercial organic scintillators for β-ray detection suffer from high temperature failure and irradiation damage. Here, we report a type of β-ray scintillator with good thermotolerance and irradiation hardness based on a two-dimensional halide perovskite. Comprehensive composition engineering and doping are carried out with the rationale elaborated. Consequently, effective β-ray scintillation is obtained, the scintillator shows satisfactory thermal quenching and high decomposition temperature, no functionality decay or hysteresis is observed after an accumulated radiation dose of 10 kGy (dose rate 0.67 kGy h −1 ). Besides, the two-dimensional halide perovskite β-ray scintillator also overcomes the notorious intrinsic water instability, and benefits from low-cost aqueous synthesis along with superior waterproofness, thus paving the way towards practical application. Efficient radiation monitoring ensures safety in nuclear power, but beta-ray scintillators should be developed for use near a highly radioactive and hot reactor. Here, the authors report a two-dimensional halide perovskite-based beta-ray scintillator with high irradiation hardness and thermotolerance.

MXene‐based thermal camouflage materials have gained increasing attention due to their low emissivity, however, the poor anti‐oxidation restricts their potential applications under complex environments. Various modification methods and strategies, e.g., the addition of antioxidant molecules and fillers have been developed to overcome this, but the realization of long‐term, reliable thermal camouflage using MXene network (coating) with excellent comprehensive performance remains a great challenge. Here, a MXene‐based hybrid network comodified with hyaluronic acid (HA) and hyperbranched polysiloxane (HSi) molecules is designed and fabricated. Notably, the presence of appreciated HA molecules restricts the oxidation of MXene sheets without altering infrared stealth performance, superior to other water‐soluble polymers; while the HSi molecules can act as efficient cross‐linking agents to generate strong interactions between MXene sheets and HA molecules. The optimized MXene/HA/HSi composites exhibit excellent mechanical flexibility (folded into crane structure), good water/solvent resistance, and long‐term stable thermal camouflage capability (with low infrared emissivity of ≈0.29). The long‐term thermal camouflage reliability (≈8 months) under various outdoor weathers and the scalable coating capability of the MXene‐coated textile enable them to disguise the IR signal of various targets in complex environments, indicating the great promise of achieved material for thermal camouflage, IR stealth, and counter surveillance. A high‐performance thermal camouflage material is designed and successfully fabricated by decorating MXene network with hyaluronic acid (HA) and hyperbranched polysiloxane (HSi). Besides excellent mid‐infrared (IR) thermal camouflage, such material also integrates multiple advantages into itself, including being large‐scale, mechanically flexible, weather‐resistant, and thus showing great potential for stealth applications.

This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese. In this study, 76 junior Dutch students were split into two different groups based on level and were tested at two time periods (T1 and T2) for L2 Chinese fluency, which included the control variables of repetition repair, expansion, grammar, and phonological repair. The latent growth model was utilized to analyze the data. The predictive effects of the initial level and development rate of L2 oral fluency on self-repair were investigated after controlling for relevant variables. We also used diversity analysis to explore oral fluency. The univariate latent growth model was employed to examine the direction of influence among L2 Chinese oral fluency and the four types of self-repair variables, and the autoregression control model was utilized to analyze the beginner level. Gray relational analysis was used to explore the relationship among the above variables for the more advanced level group. Based on our results, the regression model performed best for predicting the relationship between the variables in the first oral fluency test as well the second. The results showed that the grammar repair skills seen in the first assessment can positively predict oral fluency (B = 0.373, p = .001 < .05) in the second; the first expansion repair (B = −0.250, p = .025 < .05) can negatively predict oral fluency in the second test. Specifically, by analyzing the relationship between self-repair types and second-language oral fluency, our study can enrich the theories related to conversational repair. At the same time, our study is helpful in improving learners’ oral communicative competence, teachers’ adjustment of teaching strategies, and learners’ efficient acquisition of Chinese. Plain Language Summary This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese By analyzing the relationship between self-repair types and second-language oral fluency, our study can enrich the theories related to conversational repair. At the same time, our study is helpful in improving learners’ oral communicative competence, teachers’ adjustment of teaching strategies, and learners’ efficient acquisition of Chinese.

HighlightsGraphene oxide-based hybrid networks were fabricated via introducing multi-amino molecule with triple roles (i.e., cross-linker, fire retardant and reducing agent).The optimized hybrid network with mechanically robust, exceptional intumescent effect and ultra-sensitive fire alarm response (~ 0.6 s) can be used as desirable smart fire alarm sensor materials.Exceptional fire shielding performances, e.g., ~ 60% reduction in peak heat release rate and limiting oxygen index of ~ 36.5%, are achieved, when coated such hybrid network onto combustible polymer foam.Smart fire alarm sensor (FAS) materials with mechanically robust, excellent flame retardancy as well as ultra-sensitive temperature-responsive capability are highly attractive platforms for fire safety application. However, most reported FAS materials can hardly provide sensitive, continuous and reliable alarm signal output due to their undesirable temperature-responsive, flame-resistant and mechanical performances. To overcome these hurdles, herein, we utilize the multi-amino molecule, named HCPA, that can serve as triple-roles including cross-linker, fire retardant and reducing agent for decorating graphene oxide (GO) sheets and obtaining the GO/HCPA hybrid networks. Benefiting from the formation of multi-interactions in hybrid network, the optimized GO/HCPA network exhibits significant increment in mechanical strength, e.g., tensile strength and toughness increase of ~ 2.3 and ~ 5.7 times, respectively, compared to the control one. More importantly, based on P and N doping and promoting thermal reduction effect on GO network, the excellent flame retardancy (withstanding ~ 1200 °C flame attack), ultra-fast fire alarm response time (~ 0.6 s) and ultra-long alarming period (> 600 s) are obtained, representing the best comprehensive performance of GO-based FAS counterparts. Furthermore, based on GO/HCPA network, the fireproof coating is constructed and applied in polymer foam and exhibited exceptional fire shielding performance. This work provides a new idea for designing and fabricating desirable FAS materials and fireproof coatings.

It is important for China’s green innovation productivity and sustainable development to study the effect of heterogeneous environmental regulation on microenterprise innovation activities. Based on the panel data of high-tech enterprises in China from 2012 to 2017, the article studies the incentive effect of heterogeneous environmental regulation on technological innovation and the mediation of innovation input and explores whether different types of environmental regulations have interactive effects on enterprise innovation. The results reveal that compared with the command-controlled environmental regulation, the incentive effect of market-incentive environmental regulation and voluntary environmental regulation on enterprise innovation is more significant, where the innovation input fully plays its role as a mediating effect. Further research finds that there is an interactive effect between command-controlled environmental regulation and other two regulatory tools, but no interactive effect between market-incentive environmental regulation and voluntary environmental regulation, which shows that the control-based regulatory tools and more flexible regulatory tools have a complementary effect on enterprise innovation. Through revealing the internal mechanism of environmental regulation on enterprise innovation, the article displays the process of technological innovation, and it also finds that flexible regulation tools and the combination of rigid and flexible tools are more conducive to encourage enterprises to carry out innovation activities.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) have gained significant interest in the agricultural and food industry as a means of killing or reducing the activity of microorganisms. The antibacterial properties of ZnO-NPs may improve food quality, which has a direct impact on human health. ZnO-NPs are one of the most investigated inorganic nanoparticles and have been used in various related sectors, with the potential to rapidly gain attention and increase interest in the agriculture and food industries. In this review, we describe various methods for preparing ZnO-NPs, their characterizations, modifications, applications, antimicrobial activity, testing procedures, and effects, including bactericidal and bacteriostatic mechanisms. It is hoped that this review could provide a better understanding of the preparation and application of ZnO nanoparticles in the field of food and agriculture, and promote their development to advance the field of food and agriculture.