No abstract

Crops grown in heavy metal contaminated soils are an important avenue for these toxic pollutants entering the human food chain. Information on how crops respond to soil contaminations of single versus multiple metals is scarce and much needed. This study investigated the accumulation of Cd by 24 cultivars of asparagus bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. Sesquipedalis L., family Fabaceae) under a low level (0.8 mg kg-1) and a high level (11.8 mg kg-1) of Cd exposure in a garden experiment, and that in a field experiment with Cd, Pb, and Zn (1.2, 486, and 1114 mg kg-1, respectively) contaminated soil. Both experiments showed that there were highly significant variations among the tested cultivars in Cd accumulation by roots, stems, leaves, and fruits of asparagus bean. In the garden experiment, all cultivars under the low Cd exposure and 41.7% of the tested cultivars under the high Cd exposure bore fruits (pods) whose Cd concentrations were lower than 0.05 mg kg-1 fw and therefore were safe for consumption. In addition, the fruit Cd concentrations of cultivars with black seed coats were significantly lower than those with red or spotted seed coats. These results suggest that asparagus bean is a hypo-accumulator to Cd pollutant and the trait of Cd accumulation is genetic-dependent among cultivars. In the field experiment, correlation between fruit Cd and Pb concentrations was significantly positive (p < 0.05). Additional correlation analyses between two experiments showed that fruit Cd concentrations in the field experiment were significantly correlated with those exposed to the high level of Cd stress, instead of to the low level of Cd stress in the garden experiment. This suggests that the presence of other toxic heavy metals in the soil might have facilitated the accumulation of Cd in fruits, and the selection of pollution-safe-cultivars (PSC) in multi-metal polluted condition could refer to the PSCs selected under a high level exposure of a single heavy metal.

This review summarizes recently developed Li–S batteries with novel interlayers based on carbon materials.

The electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2RR) to CH4 stands as one of the promising paths for resourceful CO2 utilization in meeting the imminent “carbon‐neutral” goal of the near future. Yet, limited success has been witnessed in the development of high‐efficiency catalysts imparting satisfactory methane selectivity at a commercially viable current density. Herein, a unique category of CO2RR catalysts is fabricated with the yolk–shell nanocell structure, comprising an Ag core and a Cu2O shell that resembles the tandem nanoreactor. By fixing the Ag core and tuning the Cu2O envelope size, the CO flux arriving at the oxide‐derived Cu shell can be regulated, which further modulates the *CO coverage and *H adsorption at the Cu surface, consequently steering the CO2RR pathway. Density functional theory simulations show that lower CO coverage favors methane formation via stabilizing the intermediate *CHO. As a result, the best catalyst in the flow cell shows a high CH4 Faraday efficiency of 74 ± 2% and partial current density of 178 ± 5 mA cm−2 at −1.2 VRHE, ranking above the state‐of‐the‐art catalysts reported today for methane production. These findings mark the significance of precision synthesis in tailoring the catalyst geometry for achieving desired CO2RR performance.