One-dimensional (1D) MnO2 was widely applied in areas of enzyme biosensors, industrial sieves, and energy storage materials owing to its excellent thermal, optical, magnetic, and chemical features. However, its practical application into energy storage devices is often hindered by the bad electronic conductivity (from 10(-5) to 10(-6) S cm(-1)). As is widely known, doping with hetero elements is an efficient way to enhance the electronic conductivity of metal oxides. Herein, a novel and simple molten-salt method is developed to achieve a large-scale preparation of 1D MnO2 nanowires. Such an approach also realizes the easy tuning of electrical properties through doping with different transition metal ions. On the basis of first-principle calculation as well as four-probe measurement, we determined that the conductivity of the doped MnO2 nanowires can be promoted efficiently by utilizing such protocol. Meanwhile, a possible doping route is discussed in detail. As a result, a superior electrochemical performance can be observed in such metal ions (M(+))-doped nanowires. Such high-quality M(+)-doped MnO2 nanowires can satisfy a broad range of application needs beyond the electrochemical capacitors.

In this study, a facile method has been developed to prepare high performance thin film composite forward osmosis membranes, which was conducted by coating the surface of a polysulfone substrate with polydopamine prior to the interfacial polymerization.

2015): Preparation of modified cellulose acetate membranes using functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes for forward osmosis, Desalination and Water Treatment, A B S T R A C TNovel modified cellulose acetate (CA) membranes using functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized by phase inversion via immersion precipitation technique. Carboxylated functionalized MWCNTs (F-MWCNTs) were used as additives into the casting solution of CA, 1, 4-dioxane, acetone, lactic acid, and methanol to enhance the forward osmosis (FO) membranes performance. Different contents of F-MWCNTs (0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 wt.%) were added into the casting solution. The novel synthesized CA/F-MWCNTs membranes were characterized by various methods in terms of membranes structure and surface properties, as well as FO performance, and then compared with traditional CA membrane and commercial FO membrane. The surface hydrophilicity, porosity, and tensile strength of CA/F-MWCNTs membranes were improved with the increment of the content of F-MWCNTs in the casting solution. The morphological studies showed that the addition of F-MWCNTs significantly changed the surface properties of the modified CA membranes. The FO performance was evaluated using purified water as feed solution and 1 M NaCl solution as draw solution. The CA/F-MWCNTs membranes showed higher water permeability and salt rejection in the range of 0.01-0.1 wt.% F-MWCNTs content than CA membrane and the commercial FO membrane. These encouraging results suggested that CA/F-MWCNTs membranes showed superior potential to be further developed for FO applications.

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