Yaru Ni

Solar-driven hydrogen evolution is limited by the poor ability of conventional photocatalysts to utilize the visible–near-infrared (Vis–NIR) region, which accounts for ~95% of the solar spectrum. Here, we design an upconversion-plasmonic Fabry–Pérot cavity (Al/NaYF₄:Yb³⁺,Tm³⁺/Au/TiO₂) to achieve cascaded photon upcycling for efficient solar hydrogen production. In this architecture, the NaYF₄:Yb³⁺,Tm³⁺ layer serves as the dielectric medium of the cavity, enabling multiple light reflections and enhanced NIR-to-UV/Vis upconversion. The upconverted photons, together with the incident light, are further concentrated by the adjacent Au layer via surface plasmon resonance, promoting hot-electron generation and injection into TiO₂. As a result, the optimized structure achieves a broadband absorption efficiency of 60.57% and a hydrogen evolution rate of 19.86 mmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹ from polylactic acid wastewater, 124 times higher than that of pristine TiO₂. This work provides a scalable strategy for broadband solar harvesting and plastic-waste-to-hydrogen conversion.

Thickness-controlled, easily patterned upconversion (UC) nanofilms are essential for high-precision optoelectronic devices, but challenges such as imprecise thickness control and low fluorescence intensity hinder their application. High-performance lanthanide-doped sodium yttrium fluoride UC materials are typically available in powder form, making direct integration into advanced devices difficult. Although physical vapor deposition (PVD) enables precise film formation, it often produces poor crystalline structures and weak fluorescence. To overcome these limitations, integrating non-noble plasmonic Ni with surface plasmon resonance to enhance fluorescence intensity is a promising yet understudied strategy, likely due to Ni’s ultraviolet resonant wavelength and oxidation susceptibility. This study introduces an integrated Ni-UC nanofilm design, combining an ultrathin Ni layer with a NaYF₄:Tm, Yb UC layer via PVD, followed by post-annealing. Annealing at 500 °C transforms the UC layer into a hexagonal-phase crystal structure while protecting the Ni layer from oxidation. The unannealed UC nanofilm showed no fluorescence, whereas the annealed UC nanofilm displayed clear peaks at 476, 648, and 699 nm. Notably, the integrated Ni-UC nanofilm exhibited fluorescence intensities 5.29, 4.43, and 4.29 times higher at these wavelengths, respectively. Additionally, the integrated design exhibited high transparency and stability, highlighting its protective benefits. These results underscore the potential of the integrated Ni-UC nanofilm for advanced optoelectronics and sensing technologies, offering enhanced fluorescence, micro-processing compatibility, and robust performance in a cost-effective, non-noble plasmonic system.

This research introduces magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) as a novel tool for the efficient extraction and detection of pesticide residues in food products. The MMIPs exhibit a notable adsorption capacity ranging from 15.70 to 23.57 mg g−1, showcasing their efficacy in preconcentrating multiple pesticides. By leveraging Low-Temperature Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LTP-MS) in conjunction with MMIP-based sample pretreatment, the study achieves rapid screening of 108 pesticides in agricultural products, boasting a detection sensitivity of 86.9%. The MMIPs demonstrate exceptional selectivity, enabling swift separation in an external magnetic field, thereby reducing reliance on chemical reagents and facilitating multiple reuses. Rigorous evaluation of the MMIPs’ binding properties, magnetic separation efficiency, and reusability underscores their potential for class-selective enrichment of pesticide residues. The MMIPs were meticulously characterized using a comprehensive array of analytical techniques, including FT-IR spectrometry, SEM, TEM, VSM, and UV–vis spectrophotometry. Remarkably, the MMIPs’ performance in pesticide extraction yielded promising results, with successful qualitative detection of 78 out of 87 identified pesticides in cucumber samples, 71 out of 85 identified pesticides in tomato samples, 55 out of 64 identified pesticides in cabbage samples, and 42 out of 48 identified pesticides in leek samples, achieving recovery rates within the range of 60.12% to 119.84% for 50.91% of the identified pesticides. The screening detection limit (SDL) for the 86 pesticides in the MMMIP-LTP-MS method was set according to the corresponding maximum residue limit (MRL) in the National Food Safety Standard of China (GB 2763-2021). The quantification limits of MMMIPs-LC-TQ-MS ranged from 0.000043 to 5.52 µg g−1, with recoveries between 60.12% and 119.84%. These findings underscore the significant impact of MMIP-based sample preparation in enhancing the precision and efficiency of high-throughput determination of pesticide residues in food products.

High-temperature adhesives find extensive application in diverse domains, encompassing repairs, production processes, and material joining. However, achieving their curing at ambient temperatures remains a formidable challenge due to the inherent requirement of elevated temperatures, typically exceeding 500 °C, for the curing reaction. To overcome this limitation, in this study, we developed a distinctive inorganic phosphate-based composite adhesive by incorporating dual-functional calcium monoaluminate (CA) into a traditional adhesive blend comprising Al(H₂PO₄)₃ and MgO. This distinctive approach significantly diminishes the curing temperature, enabling it to occur at room temperature. Firstly, CA’s facile hydration reaction effectively scavenges surrounding water molecules, thereby accelerating the dehydration curing process of Al(H₂PO₄)₃. Secondly, as hydration is an exothermic process, it locally generates heat around the Al(H₂PO₄)₃, fostering optimal conditions for its curing reaction. Moreover, the adhesive’s strength is substantially bolstered through the strategic inclusion of Nano-Al₂O₃ (enhancing the availability of reaction sites) and Nano-SiO₂ (improving overall stability). As a demonstration, the adhesive formulation with added CA containing 2% Nano-Al₂O₃ and 2% Nano-SiO₂ achieved a remarkable tensile strength of 32.48 MPa at room temperature, underscoring its potential as an efficient solution for various practical adhesive applications. The adhesive prepared in this study harnesses the hydration properties of CA to absorb moisture and release substantial heat, introducing a novel method for ambient temperature curing. This development promises to broaden its applications in refractory materials, coatings, and equipment repair.

Plasmonic absorbers with broadband angle-insensitive antireflection have attracted intense interests because of its wide applications in optical devices. Hybrid surfaces with multiple different sub-wavelength array units can provide broadened antireflection, while many of these antireflective surfaces only work for specific angles and require high complexity of nanofabrication. Here, a plasmonic asymmetric nanostructure composed of the moth-eye dielectric nanoarray partially modified with the top Ag nanoshell providing a side opening for broadband incident-angle-insensitive antireflection and absorption, is rationally designed by nanoimprinting lithography and oblique angle deposition. This study illustrates that the plasmonic asymmetric nanostructure not only excites strong plasmonic resonance, but also induces more light entry into the dielectric nanocavity and then enhances the internal scattering, leading to optimized light localization. Hence, the asymmetric nanostructure can effectively enhance light confinement at different incident angles and exhibit better antireflection and the corresponding absorption performance than that of symmetric nanostructure over the visible wavelengths, especially suppressing at least 16.4% lower reflectance in the range of 645–800 nm at normal incidence.Moreover, the reflectance variance of asymmetric nanostructure with the incident angle changing from 5° to 60° is much smaller than that of symmetric nanostructure, making our approach relevant for various applications in photocatalysis, photothermal conversion, and so on.