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Ammonia is an important indicator among environmental monitoring parameters. In this work, thin-core fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer deposited with poly (acrylic acid) (PAA), poly (allyamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs-COOH) sensing film for the detection of ammonia gas has been presented. The thin-core fiber modal interferometer was made by fusion splicing a small section of thin-core fiber (TCF) between two standard single mode fibers (SMF). A beam propagation method (BPM) is employed for the design of proposed interferometer and numerical simulation. Based on the simulation results, interferometer with a length of 2 cm of thin-core fiber is fabricated and experimentally studied. (PAH/PAA)2 + [PAH/(PAA + SWCNTs-COOH)]8 film is deposited on the outer surface of thin-core fiber via layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technique. The gas sensor coated with (PAH/PAA)2 + [PAH/(PAA + SWCNTs-COOH)]8 film towards NH3 gas exposure at concentrations range from 1 to 960 ppm are analyzed and the sensing capability is demonstrated by optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). Experimental results show that the characteristic wavelength shift has an approximately linear relationship in the range 1–20 ppm, which is in accordance with the numerical simulation. Thus, this paper reveals the potential application of this sensor in monitoring low concentration NH3 gas.

Solar water evaporation is a promising and environment-friendly approach to relieve global water scarcity issues. Currently, many reports show that the voids and porous structure are beneficial to the absorption of solar energy to generate water steam. Herein, carbon nanospheres with central cavity structures are rationally designed by the one-step NaN 3 / fluorinated graphite deflagration method. The Na clusters derived from NaN 3 deflagration are not only provided as the hollow templates but also react with fluorinated graphite to release heat, further boosting the formation of hollow carbon nanospheres (HCSs). Benefiting from the diversity of carbon nanomaterials, rough surface, unique hollow structures, and numerous micron/ submicron holes, the light absorption ability, heat localization, and water supply capacity of HCSs have been significantly enhanced. Because of these advantages, the HCS-3 exhibits an excellent water evaporation efficiency of 92.7% at 1 kW m −2 , which is much higher than that of carbon nanospheres, graphene oxide, and even most of the previous carbon materials. In addition, we demonstrated that the HCSs have a long-term stability and high efficiency of production of drinkable water and purifying various types of wastewater, including seawater, strong acid/alkaline water, and water containing dyes. To sum up, the deflagration synthetic technology as a facile and ultrafast process can be a new insight for future photothermal material design.

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A linear polystyrene‐isopropenyl phosphonic acid (PS‐IPPA) copolymer was newly synthesized by free radical reaction in solution with isopropenyl phosphonic acid (IPPA) and styrene. Zirconium poly(styrene‐isopropenyl phosphonate)‐phosphate acid (ZPS‐IPPA) was also synthesized. The benzene rings of ZPS‐IPPA were hydroxylated and then further reacted with Mn(salen)Cl. Thus the heterogeneous catalyst, Mn(salen) axially immobilized onto ZPS‐IPPA was synthesized. These substances were characterized by IR spectra, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), SEM, TEM, NMR, thermogravimetric analysis, and AAS. The catalyst showed good activity to epoxidation of styrene, which is close to that of the corresponding homogeneous catalyst. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.