The main challenges to the commercial viability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells are (i) the high cost associated with using large amounts of Pt in fuel cell cathodes to compensate for the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction, (ii) catalyst degradation, and (iii) carbon-support corrosion. To address these obstacles, our group has focused on robust, carbon-free transition metal nitride materials with low Pt content that exhibit tunable physical and catalytic properties. Here, we report on the high performance of a novel catalyst with low Pt content, prepared by placing several layers of Pt atoms on nanoparticles of titanium nickel binary nitride. For the ORR, the catalyst exhibited a more than 400% and 200% increase in mass activity and specific activity, respectively, compared with the commercial Pt/C catalyst. It also showed excellent stability/durability, experiencing only a slight performance loss after 10,000 potential cycles, while TEM results showed its structure had remained intact. The catalyst's outstanding performance may have resulted from the ultrahigh dispersion of Pt (several atomic layers coated on the nitride nanoparticles), and the excellent stability/durability may have been due to the good stability of nitride and synergetic effects between ultrathin Pt layer and the robust TiNiN support.

BackgroundExchange of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data between systems from different suppliers is a major challenge. EHR communication based on archetype methodology has been developed by openEHR and CEN/ISO. The experience of using archetypes in deployed EHR systems is quite limited today. Currently deployed EHR systems with large user bases have their own proprietary way of representing clinical content using various models. This study was designed to investigate the feasibility of representing EHR content models from a regional EHR system as openEHR archetypes and inversely to convert archetypes to the proprietary format.MethodsThe openEHR EHR Reference Model (RM) and Archetype Model (AM) specifications were used. The template model of the Cambio COSMIC, a regional EHR product from Sweden, was analyzed and compared to the openEHR RM and AM. This study was focused on the convertibility of the EHR semantic models. A semantic mapping between the openEHR RM/AM and the COSMIC template model was produced and used as the basis for developing prototype software that performs automated bi-directional conversion between openEHR archetypes and COSMIC templates.ResultsAutomated bi-directional conversion between openEHR archetype format and COSMIC template format has been achieved. Several archetypes from the openEHR Clinical Knowledge Repository have been imported into COSMIC, preserving most of the structural and terminology related constraints. COSMIC templates from a large regional installation were successfully converted into the openEHR archetype format. The conversion from the COSMIC templates into archetype format preserves nearly all structural and semantic definitions of the original content models. A strategy of gradually adding archetype support to legacy EHR systems was formulated in order to allow sharing of clinical content models defined using different formats.ConclusionThe openEHR RM and AM are expressive enough to represent the existing clinical content models from the template based EHR system tested and legacy content models can automatically be converted to archetype format for sharing of knowledge. With some limitations, internationally available archetypes could be converted to the legacy EHR models. Archetype support can be added to legacy EHR systems in an incremental way allowing a migration path to interoperability based on standards.

Bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass bioconversion is a promising alternative to fossil fuels. Pretreatment plays an important role in this bioconversion. Recyclable ferric chloride was employed for pretreating three kinds of biomass species, including bagasse, rice straw, and wood fiber, in this study to make a comparison. The results showed that FeCl3 was suitable for pretreating biomass species, especially the rice straw, which contains a high hemicellulose content and has a weak matrix structure. The enzymatic saccharification of rice straw pretreated by FeCl3 could reach 95.1% with the highest ratio (83.3%) of removed hemicellulose to raw cellulose. A favorable conversion (81.9%) of cellulose could be attained; the pretreated rice straw was conducted in high solid loading (20%, w/v) hydrolysis. At the same cost with a lower pretreatment combined severity factor (CSF), FeCl3 pretreated rice straw could achieve a higher conversion than HCl. Meanwhile, FeCl3 could realize more than 90% recovery during the pretreatment, resulting in low environmental pollution. This suggests that FeCl3 pretreatment was competitive for biomass bioconversion.

A core–shell structured catalyst exhibits high activity and stability.