Publications

The most important ocean energy sources are wind energy and water wave energy, both of which are significant to carbon neutrality. Due to uneven distribution and random movement, the conversion efficiency from the two energies into electrical energy is limited, so the coupling of them is necessary. However, the current energy harvesting technologies generally target one certain type, or are simple mechanical coupling. Here, we propose a composite water wave energy harvesting scheme with wind excitation based on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). A rotation TENG driven by wind is introduced as a pump to inject charges into the main TENG. For the main TENG driven by water waves, a specially designed charge self-shuttling mode is applied (CSS-TENG). Under the pump excitation, the shuttling charge amount is increased by 11.8 times, and the peak power density reaches 33.0 W m−3, with an average power density of 2.4 W m−3. Furthermore, the CSS-TENG is expanded into an array by parallel connection, and the practical applications are demonstrated. This work organically couples the wind and water wave energy in the ocean scene, through the charge pumping and self-shuttling mode, providing a new pathway for the synergistic development of clean and renewable energy sources.

The recently introduced triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and the traditional electromagnetic induction generator (EMIG) are coherently integrated in one structure for energy harvesting and vibration sensing/isolation. The suspended structure is based on two oppositely oriented magnets that are enclosed by hollow cubes surrounded with coils, which oscillates in response to external disturbance and harvests mechanical energy simultaneously from triboelectrification and electromagnetic induction. It extends the previous definition of hybrid cell to harvest the same type of energy with multiple approaches. Both the sliding-mode TENG and contact-mode TENG can be achieved in the same structure. In order to make the TENG and EMIG work together, transformers are used to match the output impedance between these two power sources with very different characteristics. The maximum output power of 7.7 and 1.9 mW on the same load of 5 kΩ was obtained for the TENG and EMIG, respectively, after impedance matching. Benefiting from the rational design, the output signal from the TENG and the EMIG are in phase. They can be added up directly to get an output voltage of 4.6 V and an output current of 2.2 mA in parallel connection. A power management circuit was connected to the hybrid cell, and a regulated voltage of 3.3 V with constant current was achieved. For the first time, a logic operation was carried out on a half-adder circuit by using the hybrid cell working as both the power source and the input digit signals. We also demonstrated that the hybrid cell can serve as a vibration isolator. Further applications as vibration dampers, triggers, and sensors are all promising.

The global power by waves breaking around the coastlines worldwide has been estimated to be 2-3TW, and if wave energy is collected on open oceans, the global wave power is estimated to be one order of magnitude larger[1]. The water wave energy could turn out to be an even more benign source of power than wind, due to its abundance in the ocean [2]. Although it is a promising prospect for harvesting wave energy, most technologies for capturing wave power still remain in the testing phase. Currently, traditional devices usually harvest wave energy with complex hydraulic or mechanical structures and they drive an electromagnetic generator by transforming the energy from the water waves into rotary motion or linear reciprocal motion. However, these current oceans wave energy apparatuses exhibit unsatisfactory energy harvesting efficiency, high cost, and other methods of harvesting energy would have to be implemented [3-4]. In this work, a high-power density triboelectric nanogenerator (HPD-TENG) is designed and systematically investigated.This HPD-TENG is designed to be built by multiple units made of PTFE balls and 3D printed arc surface coated with melt adhesive reticulation nylon film. The integration of power generation model together with the kinetic model for the HPD-TENG is proposed and studied. The HPD-TENG can effectively transform arbitrary directional wave energy into electrical energy by utilizing charged balls rolling on optimized arc surface induced by ocean wave excitation. Furthermore, with the power generation units increases from 1 to 10 in one block, the power density increases linearly from 1.03 W/m 3 to 10.6 W/m 3 . This indicates that the power density of the HPD-TENG increases proportionally with the number of units connected in parallel without rectifiers due to its distinctive mechanism and structure. Hence the design of HPD-TENG can be regarded as an innovative and effective approach for large-scale blue energy harvesting through integrating more units to form HPD-TENG networks. References: Wang, Z. L. “Toward the blue energy dream by triboelectric nanogenerator networks,” Nano Energy 2017, 06.035 Tollefson, J. “Power from the Oceans: Blue Energy,” Nature 2014, 508, 302-304. Schiermeier, Q.; Tollefson, J.; Scully, T. “Electricity without Carbon,” Nature 2008, 454, 816-823. Zhang, S. L.; Xu, M.; Zhang, C.; Wang, Y.-C.; Zou, H.; He, X.; Wang, Z.; Wang, Z. L. “Rationally Designed Sea Snake Structure Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Effectively and Efficiently Harvesting Ocean Wave Energy with Minimized Water Screening Effect,” Nano Energy 2018, 48, 421-429

Abstract Background Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is a common complication of liver cirrhosis, yet there are fewer studies about predictors of PVT recanalization. We aimed to further explore the predictors of recanalization in cirrhotic PVT to facilitate accurate prediction of patients’ clinical status and timely initiation of appropriate treatment and interventions. To further investigate the benefits and risks of anticoagulant therapy in cirrhotic PVT patients. Methods A retrospective cohort study of patients with cirrhotic PVT in our hospital between January 2016 and December 2022, The primary endpoint was to analyze predictors of PVT recanalization by COX regression. Others included bleeding rate, liver function, and mortality. Results This study included a total of 82 patients, with 30 in the recanalization group and 52 in the non-recanalization group. Anticoagulation therapy was the only independent protective factor for portal vein thrombosis recanalization and the independent risk factors included massive ascites, history of splenectomy, Child-Pugh B/C class, and main trunk width of the portal vein. Anticoagulation therapy was associated with a significantly higher rate of PVT recanalization (75.9% vs. 20%, log-rank P < 0.001) and a lower rate of PVT progression (6.9% vs. 54.7%, log-rank P = 0.002). There was no significant difference between different anticoagulation regimens for PVT recanalization. Anticoagulation therapy did not increase the incidence of bleeding complications( P = 0.407). At the end of the study follow-up, Child-Pugh classification, MELD score, and albumin level were better in the anticoagulation group than in the non-anticoagulation group. There was no significant difference in 2-year survival between the two groups. Conclusion Anticoagulation, massive ascites, history of splenectomy, Child-Pugh B/C class, and main portal vein width were associated with portal vein thrombosis recanalization. Anticoagulation may increase the rate of PVT recanalization and decrease the rate of PVT progression without increasing the rate of bleeding. Anticoagulation may be beneficial in improving liver function in patients with PVT in cirrhosis.

To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have explored the relationship between visceral obesity and malnutrition. Therefore, this study has aimed to investigate the association between them in patients with rectal cancer.Patients with rectal cancer who underwent proctectomy were included. Malnutrition was defined according to the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM). Visceral obesity was measured using computed tomography (CT). The patients were classified into four groups according to the presence of malnutrition or visceral obesity. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate risk factors for postoperative complications. Univariate and multivariate cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the risk factors for overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank tests were performed for the four groups.This study enrolled 624 patients. 204 (32.7%) patients were included in the well-nourished non-visceral obesity (WN) group, 264 (42.3%) patients were included in the well-nourished visceral obesity (WO) group, 114 (18.3%) patients were included in the malnourished non-visceral obesity (MN) group, and 42 (6.7%) patients were included in the malnourished visceral obesity (MO) group. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), MN, and MO were associated with postoperative complications. In the multivariate cox regression analysis, age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, tumor differentiation, tumor node metastasis (TNM), and MO were associated with worsened OS and CSS.This study demonstrated that the combination of visceral obesity and malnutrition resulted in higher postoperative complication and mortality rates and was a good indicator of poor prognosis in patients with rectal cancer.

Stretchable electronic devices nowadays have become more and more necessary in our daily lives, and most of the present electronic devices are based on inorganic materials. The obtained electronic devices can hardly bear various deformations in practical applications because of the poor flexibility and stretchability of these conventional inorganic materials. However, the biggest challenge for producing flexible and stretchable electronic devices is that each component of the device should endure deformations, and in the meantime, ensure that the whole electronic devices not only have excellent flexibility and stretchability, but also maintain excellent electrical output performances even under the situation of being deformed. In this work, a kind of super-stretchable, self-healable, and conductive hydrogel which could bear about sixty times stretching compared with its original state (∼ 6000%) is prepared; it could self-heal in about 10 min after being cut. More importantly, the hydrogel can greatly enhance the output performances of the TENG compared with the conventional copper foil as the electrode. Furthermore, when used as the electrode in flexible TENGs, relatively stable and excellent electrical output performances could be maintained even after being seriously stretched. Consequently, this study provides an ideal candidate for the electrode material of electric devices.

Using a hydrothermal synthesis approach, large scale and laterally bridged nanowires have been grown across trenched Au∕Si, Au∕SiO2∕Si, and ZnO∕Si electrodes. This technique shows a low temperature (80°C) approach for growing ZnO nanowires on a prepatterned substrate, showing its potential for integrating with silicon based technology. The I-V characteristics of the nanowires have been measured and their nonlinear behavior has been analyzed. It is suggested that the nonlinear behavior might be due to the dominant phonon scattering and the impurity involved grain boundaries in the multinanowire bridges. The bridged nanowire arrays could be useful for fabricating gas, chemical, or biochemical nanosensor arrays.

ABSTRACT Real‐time monitoring of microscopic chemical reactions offers valuable insight into reaction mechanisms, intermediate species, and the reaction kinetics involved. Mainstream electrochemical and chromatographic techniques are often complex, low‐sensitivity, failing to capture transient phenomena or distinguish similar chemical species within the reaction, limiting their accessibility for real‐time and continuing monitoring. Here, high‐resolution interface charge transfer mapping (ICTM) generated by liquid–solid contact electrification is used in situ for continuously monitoring potential chemical changes in the reactions. As liquid reactants slide dropwise over time along an insulating reclined plane, the ICTMs along the sample trajectory over time are recorded and is used to analysis chemical changes within the reactions. By means of time‐resolved ICTM measurements at statically charged dielectric surface, we have probed the dynamic evolution of redox reactions, tracked the organocatalytic reactions, and evaluated the agglomeration state of metal catalysts with a time resolution on the scale of seconds.

As an impact source localization technique, Lamb waves are commonly used to detect low velocity impacts in composite structures. However, the performance of Lamb waves is susceptible to vibration conditions. In this paper, vibration effects on Lamb waves are explored, and an adaptive-filtering enhanced multiple signal classification (AF-MUSIC) method is proposed to generate a relative robust impact source localization method. The response sensor array signals are contaminated by noises, which makes the traditional multiple signal classification (MUSIC) method unable to localize impact sources. In present method, the adaptive-filtering is utilized to reduce vibration induced noises of array data, then the impact position represented by the angle and distance in polar coordinates are finally estimated by scanning the whole monitoring area using MUSIC. The experimental results show that the present method can relatively robust localizes impact sources effectively, especially for the vibration conditions.

Abstract Background: More and more studies have shown that cognitive dysfunction is one of the main complications of diabetes. The disorder of glucose and lipid metabolism seriously damages brain function and accelerates the conversion to dementia. At present, there are no drugs that can directly treat diabetic cognitive dysfunction. All drugs for the treatment of this disease achieve the purpose of treatment through strict control of blood sugar levels. This method has great limitations. Traditional Chinese patent medicines (TCPMs) work through multiple targets and multiple pathways, which can not only effectively correct the state of glucose and lipid metabolism disorders, but also significantly improve cognitive ability, but there is a lack of systematic evaluation of their effectiveness and safety. We use the method of network meta-analysis to systematically and comprehensively compare the effectiveness and safety of different Chinese patent medicines. Methods: We will comprehensively search the following databases, including Web of Science, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, Wanfang database and China BioMedical Literature. We will include all randomized controlled trials that meet the inclusion criteria, starting from the establishment of the database until September 2021. Two researchers will independently screen the literature based on inclusion criteria. While extracting data, we also assess the risk of bias in the included studies. All the data and evidence obtained will be evaluated by the method of Bayesian network meta-analysis. Results: This study will evaluate the effectiveness and safety of various TCPMs for diabetic cognitive dysfunction. Conclusion: The results of this study will provide valuable references for the clinical application of TCPMs, and assist clinicians in formulating more reasonable diagnosis and treatment strategies. Ethics and dissemination: This study does not require ethical approval. International Platform of Registered Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols registration number: INPLASY202190008.

Abstract The ability to effectively transfer photoexcited electrons and holes is an important endeavor toward achieving high‐efficiency solar energy conversion. Now, a simple yet robust acid‐treatment strategy is used to judiciously create an amorphous TiO 2 buffer layer intimately situated on the anatase TiO 2 surface as an electron‐transport layer (ETL) for efficient electron transport. The facile acid treatment is capable of weakening the bonding of zigzag octahedral chains in anatase TiO 2 , thereby shortening staggered octahedron chains to form an amorphous buffer layer on the anatase TiO 2 surface. Such amorphous TiO 2 ‐coated ETL possesses an increased electron density owing to the presence of oxygen vacancies, leading to efficient electron transfer from perovskite to TiO 2 . Compared to pristine TiO 2 ‐based devices, the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with acid‐treated TiO 2 ETL exhibit an enhanced short‐circuit current and power conversion efficiency.