Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences最新文献

{"title":"A reactor for <i>in situ</i>, time-resolved neutron diffraction studies of microwave-induced rapid solid-state chemical reactions.","authors":"Ross George Bell McFadzean, Ronald Smith, Timothy David Drysdale, Duncan H Gregory","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0065","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0065","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Utilizing direct microwave- (MW)-induced heating in solid-state synthesis yields the clear benefits of greatly reduced reaction times and lower energy requirements as compared with conventional methods. Here, we describe a bespoke single-mode cavity (SMC) MW reactor designed to operate within a neutron beamline that allowed powder diffraction data to be collected from materials <i>in situ</i> as they were heated using MWs. The unique set-up was used to investigate the rapid solid-state synthesis of the binary metal chalcogenide thermoelectric (TE) materials Bi₂Se₃, Bi₂Te₃, Sb₂Se₃ and Sb₂Te₃. The resultant time-resolved diffraction data from each synthesis were time-sliced post-reaction into segments covering periods of tens of seconds, enabling the reaction progression to be visualized as colourmap plots. This technique enabled the accurate tracking of polycrystalline structure formation and a quantitative analysis of phase fractions during the accelerated heating and subsequent cooling stages of each reaction. Our investigations have also revealed some of the present limitations of rapid <i>in situ</i> neutron diffraction techniques and how these might be remedied.This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'Microwave science in sustainability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2297","pages":"20240065"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12096107/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144120413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On the potential of microwave heating to convert waste into added-value chemicals and materials: a review.","authors":"Emmanuel Dan, Alan J McCue, Davide Dionisi, Claudia Fernández Martín","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0071","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0071","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microwave (MW) heating represents a superior alternative to conventional heating techniques due to its unique ability for rapid, selective, uniform and volumetric heating. However, challenges such as temperature non-uniformity, especially in certain materials and processing conditions, can limit its widespread application. Nevertheless, this heating method can enhance the physicochemical properties and performance of materials produced, making it a vital tool in sustainable material processing to produce valuable porous carbons for CO₂ capture, essential for climate change mitigation through carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) strategies. MW heating significantly reduces processing time, energy consumption and operational costs, providing an efficient, green and cost-effective processing option. In this review we explore the use of MW heating in converting biomass, plastics and materials such as tyres and electronic waste into biofuels, bioenergy and hydrogen through biological and thermochemical processes. We highlight MW heating for producing solid adsorbents such as activated carbons from waste, their role in carbon capture and regeneration after CO₂ exposure. We also examine the principles of MW heating, its unique processing advantages and diverse applications across fields. In addition, we emphasize the life cycle assessment (LCA) of MW-assisted treatment for biomass and plastics while addressing the limitations of MW processing in material applications.This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'Microwave science in sustainability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2297","pages":"20240071"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12096103/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144120451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rapid anchoring of iron-carbon nanoparticles on carbon spheres using microwave heating.","authors":"Suguang Yang, Minghui Lyu, Xiaxin Jiao, Na Wang, Kai Liu, Hong Li, Zhenyu Zhao, Xin Gao","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2024.0070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite excellent performance of iron/carbon materials in microwave absorbing field, the synthesis of these composites faces challenges, involving prolonged processing times and the aggregation of iron nanoparticles. Here, an efficient microwave-induced preparation method is proposed to overcome this problem. First, carbon spheres with uniform particle size were synthesized as support for iron deposition. By employing ultrafast pyrolysis of ferrocene, iron nanoparticles were anchored on the surface of carbon spheres, where a comparative analysis of the microstructure and composition of Fe/C materials synthesized via microwave heating and conventional heating was conducted, alongside a quantitative investigation into the correlation between ferrocene addition and complex dielectric constant. The mechanism of microwave enhancing dispersion of iron particles was elucidated, indicating that microwave induced local overheating of carbon spheres rapidly decomposes ferrocene, facilitating uniform deposition of iron nanoparticles on the carbon sphere surfaces. Consequently, compared with Fe/C materials synthesized via conventional methods, microwave heating improves the dispersion of supported iron nanoparticles, reducing reaction time from hours to 2 min. In addition, an optimal multi-step strategy for promoting the efficient deposition of iron nanoparticles was developed, where a variety of different absorbing materials, the highest real and imaginary parts of which, obtained at 2.45 GHz, were 87.15 and 68.81, respectively.This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'Microwave science in sustainability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2297","pages":"20240070"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144120465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Highly efficient and rapid dechlorination of polyvinyl chloride via microwave pyrolysis.","authors":"Chai Siah Lee, Mohamed Adam, John P Robinson, Eleanor R Binner","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0064","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0064","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waste recycling is challenging due to its high chlorine content, which generates hazardous chlorinated pollutants if treated improperly. A safe and promising PVC dechlorination method is urgently needed to address this issue. Several dechlorination methods have been reported at the laboratory scale; however, each method has its downsides, and none has been proven at the commercial scale. We present, for the first time in the literature, an effective microwave pyrolysis process that can dechlorinate PVC rapidly without the requirement of a solvent/microwave absorber. High dechlorination efficiency up to 99.6% was achieved within 96 s. This process releases hydrogen chloride and generates hydrocarbon-containing liquid and a dechlorinated residue. Dielectric analysis revealed that the untreated PVC was readily heated under microwaves due to the polar chlorine group in its structure. Thermogravimetric analysis confirmed that there were two pyrolysis stages and dechlorination was achieved after the first pyrolysis stage. Fourier-transform infrared (IR) analysis showed that all the bands corresponding to the stretching of C-Cl bonds were not detected in the dechlorinated residue. All these results prove that microwave pyrolysis is a promising process for PVC dechlorination, and it could be the game changer that makes PVC recycling commercially viable.This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'Microwave science in sustainability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2297","pages":"20240064"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12096105/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144120418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preface to 'Microwave science in sustainability'.","authors":"Daniel R Slocombe, Adrian Porch","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0075","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsta.2024.0075","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2297","pages":"20240075"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12096100/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144120462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diamond thin films: a twenty-first century material. Part 2: a new hope.","authors":"Paul W May, Ramiz Zulkharnay","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2023.0382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2023.0382","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nearly a quarter of a century ago, we wrote a review paper about the very new technology of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of diamond thin films. We now update this review and bring the story up to date by describing the progress made-or not made-over the intervening years. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, there was enormous excitement about the plethora of applications that were suddenly possible now that diamonds could be fabricated in the form of thin films. Diamond was hailed as the ultimate semiconductor, and it was believed that the few remaining problems would be quickly solved, leading to a new 'diamond age' of electronics. In reality, however, difficulty in making large-area diamond wafers and the elusiveness of a useful <i>n</i>-type dopant slowed progress substantially. Unsurprisingly, over the following decade, the enthusiasm and funding for diamonds faded, while competing materials forged ahead. But in the early 2010s, several new game-changing applications for diamonds were discovered, such as electrochemical electrodes, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre defect that promised room-temperature quantum computers, and methods to grow large single-crystal gemstone-quality diamonds. These led to a resurgence in diamond research and a new hope that diamond might <i>finally</i> live up to its promise.This article is part of the theme issue 'Science into the next millennium: 25 years on'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2296","pages":"20230382"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12059586/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144037449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transitioning enzyme catalysis towards photocatalysis.","authors":"Nigel Scrutton, Sam Hay, Derren Heyes","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2023.0380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2023.0380","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Enzyme biocatalysis is being industrialized at a phenomenal rate. Biocatalysis offers routes to chemical transformations that avoid the use of expensive metal catalysts, high temperatures and pressures, while providing impressive enantio-, regio- and chemo-selectivities. Working individually or as cascades, in live cells or cell-free preparations, to manufacture everyday chemicals, materials, healthcare products, fuels and pharmaceuticals and in diagnostic and industrial sensing applications, enzymes are key enablers in a circular bioeconomy. An ability to exploit and tailor biocatalysts rapidly and predictably requires knowledge of structure-mechanism relationships and the physical chemistry of enzyme action. This knowledge has advanced since our millennium article on this topic (Sutcliffe and Scrutton <i>Phil Trans R. Soc. Lond. A</i>. 2000. 358, 367-386). Here, we discuss an emerging frontier-enzyme photobiocatalysis. Photoenzymes are rarely found in nature. This limits 'difficult-to-achieve' reactions in biology that are generally accessible to chemical photocatalysts. We discuss here the emergence of photobiocatalysis as a new frontier. We review knowledge of natural photoenzymes and identify challenges and limitations in their use as photobiocatalysts. We consider emerging reports on repurposing natural enzymes as photobiocatalysts. We also discuss prospects for de novo design of photobiocatalysts which as a general concept would transform catalysis science.This article is part of the theme issue 'Science into the next millennium: 25 years on'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2296","pages":"20230380"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12059584/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144005680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Computational modelling of biological systems now and then: revisiting tools and visions from the beginning of the century.","authors":"Axel Loewe, Peter J Hunter, Peter Kohl","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2023.0384","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsta.2023.0384","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since the turn of the millennium, computational modelling of biological systems has evolved remarkably and sees matured use spanning basic and clinical research. While the topic of the peri-millennial debate about the virtues and limitations of 'reductionism and integrationism' seems less controversial today, a new apparent dichotomy dominates discussions: mechanistic versus data-driven modelling. In light of this distinction, we provide an overview of recent achievements and new challenges with a focus on the cardiovascular system. Attention has shifted from generating a universal model of <i>the</i> human to either models of individual humans (digital twins) or entire cohorts of models representative of clinical populations to enable <i>in silico</i> clinical trials. Disease-specific parametrization, inter-individual and intra-individual variability, uncertainty quantification as well as interoperable, standardized and quality-controlled data are important issues today, which call for open tools, data and metadata standards, as well as strong community interactions. The quantitative, biophysical and highly controlled approach provided by <i>in silico</i> methods has become an integral part of physiological and medical research. <i>In silico</i> methods have the potential to accelerate future progress also in the fields of integrated multi-physics modelling, multi-scale models, virtual cohort studies and machine learning beyond what is feasible today. In fact, mechanistic and data-driven modelling can complement each other synergistically and fuel tomorrow's artificial intelligence applications to further our understanding of physiology and disease mechanisms, to generate new hypotheses and assess their plausibility, and thus to contribute to the evolution of preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.This article is part of the theme issue 'Science into the next millennium: 25 years on'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2296","pages":"20230384"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12105733/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144037844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Touchdown-singularity formation and criticality in the thin-film equation.","authors":"John King, Mark Bowen","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2023.0375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2023.0375","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The thin-film equation (TFE), [Formula: see text], is significant physically in the description of surface-tension-driven flows of thin films of viscous liquids and has served an important role mathematically in elucidating the properties and challenges of high-order degenerate parabolic equations. Long-standing open questions nevertheless remain, of which perhaps the most important is the identification of the critical value of the exponent [Formula: see text] above which film rupture is not possible. Here, we apply a combination of analytical and numerical methods to further the understanding of this issue, uncovering new types of touchdown behaviour that lead to concrete conjectures regarding the role of [Formula: see text] in this type of criticality.This article is part of the theme issue 'Science into the next millennium: 25 years on'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2296","pages":"20230375"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12059582/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144038011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantum gravity: are we there yet?","authors":"Shahn Majid","doi":"10.1098/rsta.2023.0377","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsta.2023.0377","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The turn of the millennium was a time of optimism about an approach to non-commutative geometry inspired by rich mathematical objects called 'quantum groups' and its applications to quantum spacetime. The idea was to model quantum gravity effects as non-commutativity of spacetime coordinates and arguably solve quantum gravity itself. This required, however, a 20-year development of a suitable formalism of <i>quantum Riemannian geometry</i> (QRG) to handle such coordinates, which I outline here. I then provide new results for state-of-the-art fuzzy sphere and [Formula: see text]-gon 'baby quantum gravity' models in this approach and some possible features of quantum gravity that these models suggest. Also discussed are the critical conceptual and mathematical elements that are still missing to more fully achieve this goal.This article is part of the theme issue 'Science into the next millennium: 25 years on'.</p>","PeriodicalId":19879,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"383 2296","pages":"20230377"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12178179/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144028159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}