Improved Performance and Stability of Quasi-Two-Dimensional Perovskite Solar Cells by Post-treatment with Acetaminophen.

Recently, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) perovskites have drawn more attention due to their excellent stability, although their efficiencies are still lower than those of 3D ones. Here we applied post-treatment of 2D perovskite GAMA5Pb5I16 (GA = guanidinium, MA = methylammonium) films with acetaminophen (AMP) to improve their performance. The efficiency of the solar cells with 2 mg/mL AMP post-treatment increased to 18.01% from 16.72% for those without post-treatment. The efficiency improvement results from the enlarged grain size, reduced trap state density, and better energy level matching after AMP post-treatment. In addition, the stability of the solar cells is improved. The solar cells with AMP post-treatment maintain 91% of the original power conversion efficiency value after aging for 30 days in the atmosphere. This work opens a new approach for the efficiency and stability enhancement of quasi-2D PSCs.

Effect of microencapsulation of egg yolk immunoglobulin Y by sodium alginate/chitosan/sodium alginate on the growth performance, serum parameters, and intestinal health of broiler chickens.

OBJECTIVE: Egg yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) is an antibiotic alternative to prevent and fight intestinal pathogenic infections. This study aimed to investigate the effects of sodium alginate/chitosan/sodium alginate IgY microcapsules on the growth performance, serum parameters, and intestinal health of broiler chickens. METHODS: One-day-old broilers (Ross 308) were divided into five treatments, each with 10 replicates of five chickens. The dietary treatments were maintained for 28 days and consisted of a basal diet (NC), basal diet + 500 mg chlortetracycline/kg diet (CH), basal diet + 50 mg non-microencapsulated IgY/kg diet (NM), basal diet + 600 mg low levels microencapsulated IgY/kg diet (LM), and basal diet + 700 mg high levels microencapsulated IgY/kg diet (HM). RESULTS: Throughout the 28-day trial period, the NM, LM, HM, and CH groups increased average daily gain compared with the NC group (p<0.05), and the HM group reduced feed conversion ratio compared with the CH group (p<0.05). The LM and HM groups increased relative organ weights of thymus and spleen compared with the CH and NM groups (p<0.05). The HM group improved the duodenal, jejunal and ileum villi height (VH) and villus height to crypt depth ratio (VH:CD) compared with the CH and NM groups (p<0.05). Compared with the CH group, the HM group increased serum immunoglobulin (IgA), immunoglobulin G (IgG), superoxide dismutase, total antioxidant capacity, and glutathione peroxidase levels (p<0.05), and decreased serum malondialdehyde levels (p<0.05). Compared with the NC group, the NM, LM, HM, and CH groups reduced colonic Escherichia coli and Salmonella levels (p<0.05). and the HM group promoted the levels of lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria compared with the CH group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Microencapsulation could be considered as a way to improve the efficiency of IgY. The 700 mg high levels microencapsulated IgY/kg diet could potentially be used as an alternative to antibiotics to improve the immune performance and intestinal health, leading to better performance of broiler chickens.

Visual-SLAM Classical Framework and Key Techniques: A Review.

With the significant increase in demand for artificial intelligence, environmental map reconstruction has become a research hotspot for obstacle avoidance navigation, unmanned operations, and virtual reality. The quality of the map plays a vital role in positioning, path planning, and obstacle avoidance. This review starts with the development of SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and proceeds to a review of V-SLAM (Visual-SLAM) from its proposal to the present, with a summary of its historical milestones. In this context, the five parts of the classic V-SLAM framework-visual sensor, visual odometer, backend optimization, loop detection, and mapping-are explained separately. Meanwhile, the details of the latest methods are shown; VI-SLAM (Visual inertial SLAM) is reviewed and extended. The four critical techniques of V-SLAM and its technical difficulties are summarized as feature detection and matching, selection of keyframes, uncertainty technology, and expression of maps. Finally, the development direction and needs of the V-SLAM field are proposed.

The preparation of a novel iron/manganese binary oxide for the efficient removal of hexavalent chromium [Cr(vi)] from aqueous solutions.

To remove hexavalent chromium Cr(vi) efficiently, a novel Fe-Mn binary oxide adsorbent was prepared via a "two-step method" combined with a co-precipitation method and hydrothermal method. The as-prepared Fe-Mn binary oxide absorbent was characterized via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zeta potential, BET and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicated that the morphology of the adsorbent was rod-like with length of about 100 nm and width of about 50-60 nm, specific surface area was 63.297 m2 g-1, has the composition of α-Fe2O3, ß-MnO2 and MnFe2O4 and isoelectric point was observed at pH value of 4.81. The removal of Cr(vi) was chosen as a model reaction to evaluate the adsorption capacity of the Fe-Mn binary oxide adsorbent, indicating that the Fe-Mn binary oxide adsorbent showed high adsorption performance (removal rate = 99%) and excellent adsorption stability (removal rate > 90% after six rounds of adsorption). The adsorption behavior of the Fe-Mn binary oxide was better represented by the Freundlich model (adsorption isotherm) and the pseudo-second-order model (adsorption kinetic), suggesting that the adsorption process was multi-molecular layer chemical adsorption. The possible adsorption mechanism of the Fe-Mn binary oxide for the removal of Cr(vi) included the protonation process and the electrostatic attraction interactions.