Hydrogen production through the catalytic pyrolysis of low-value organic solid waste offers a promising low-carbon and environmentally friendly pathway. However, the design of efficient hydrogen-producing catalysts remains a significant challenge. Herein, NiO/Al₂O₃ as a catalyst precursor was utilized to investigate the effects of reduction temperature gradients (300–800 °C) on the distribution of three-phase products and the composition of gaseous products during the pyrolysis of waste textiles. Compared to unreduced NiO/Al₂O₃, increasing the reduction temperature (300–700 °C) led to a gradual decrease in liquid-phase products and a notable increase in gas-phase products, with the latter rising by 10.59% at 700 °C. Most strikingly, hydrogen gas production increased by 6.42% under the same conditions. Multi-characterization analyses, including XRD, TEM, and H₂-TPR, revealed significant aggregation of highly dispersed Ni species in NiO/Al₂O₃ at higher reduction temperatures. The emergence of XRD characteristic peaks and the (111) crystal face of metallic Ni (Ni⁰) became apparent at 700 °C. More importantly, the XPS test inferred that the increasement of hydrogen-rich gas production was ascribed to the appropriate Ni⁰/Ni²⁺ ratio, and the highest hydrogen yield of 41.50% was achieved as the Ni⁰/Ni²⁺ ratio reached about 1.57. This work not only provides an effective solution for the consumption of waste textiles, but also converts it into high value-added hydrogen-rich gas.

A method using derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTG) was proposed for estimating the activation energy for the desorption of low volatile compounds on activated carbon. For such purposes, a fast Fourier-transform (FFT) filter was adapted to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the DTG response curve. A series of TG experiments were carried out to determine the respective TG spectra of dibenzofuran and 1-hexanol desorbed from NORIT RB1, NORIT PK and Chemviron BPL activated carbons, from which DTG curves were calculated. DTG spectra filtered using FFT allowed the corresponding activation energies for the desorption of dibenzofuran and 1-hexanol from the three activated carbons to be estimated. A relationship with the microporosity was found indicating that the narrower the mean pore diameter of an activated carbon, the higher was the activation energy for desorption.

This study employed high-pressure ultrasonic-microwave-assisted extraction (HP-UMAE) to extract gingerols from ginger. The extraction yield and total polyphenol content of the extracts were determined. Their antioxidant activity was assessed by DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays, and compared with extracts obtained by leaching extraction, reflux extraction, ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), and ultrasonic-microwave-assisted extraction (UMAE). The results demonstrated that HP-UMAE achieved the highest extraction yield and the strongest ABTS radical scavenging activity among the evaluated methods. Furthermore, HP-UMAE extracts exhibited the highest concentrations of key gingerol constituents: 6-gingerol (14.29 mg/L), 8-gingerol (0.38 mg/L), 10-gingerol (1.95 mg/L), and 6-shogaol (4.32 mg/L). This enhanced efficacy is attributed to the synergistic combination of ultrasonic cavitation and microwave-induced thermal effects under elevated pressure. This synergy creates conditions promoting cellular wall disruption, facilitating the release of intracellular components, while concurrently enhancing solvent penetration and gingerol solubility. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis confirmed the significant structural damage inflicted on ginger cell walls following HP-UMAE treatment. The process parameters for HP-UMAE were optimized using single-factor experiments. The optimal extraction conditions were determined as follows: microwave power 800 W, ultrasonic power 1000 W, liquid-to-solid ratio 55:1, and temperature 100 °C (corresponding pressure 2 MPa). Under these optimized parameters, the extraction yield and ABTS radical scavenging rate reached their peak performance, yielding values of 4.52% and 43.23%, respectively.

The production of waste textiles has increased rapidly in the past two decades along with the rapid development of the economy, the majority of which has been either landfilled or incinerated, resulting in energy loss and environmental pollution. Microwave pyrolysis, which can transform heterogeneous and complex waste feedstocks into value-added products, is considered one of the most competitive technologies for processing waste textiles. However, achieving selective product formation during the microwave pyrolysis of waste textiles remains a significant challenge. Herein, sodium acetate, potassium acetate, and nickel acetate were introduced into waste textiles through an impregnation method as raw materials to improve the pyrolysis efficiency. The optimized process parameters indicated that nickel acetate had the most favorable promotional effect of the three acetates. Notably, the waste textiles containing 1.0% Ni exhibited the highest gas production rate, with the hydrogen-containing combustible gas reaching 81.1% and 61.0%, respectively. Using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy to characterize the waste textiles before and after pyrolysis, it was found that nickel acetate was converted into metallic nickel (Ni⁰) during microwave pyrolysis. This active site significantly enhanced the pyrolysis process, and as the gas yield increased, the disorder of the resulting pyrolytic carbon also rose. The proposed Ni⁰-enhanced microwave pyrolysis mediated by nickel acetate offers a novel method for the efficient disposal and simultaneous resource recovery of waste textiles.

Temperature is a physical quantity that represents the degree of heat or cold of an object and has significant application value across various fields. Traditional contact temperature measurement technologies, such as thermocouples and infrared thermometers, suffer from limitations like poor environmental adaptability and low spatial resolution, which makes it difficult to meet the temperature measurement requirements for micro-/nano-devices and extreme environments. In recent years, non-contact optical temperature measurement technology based on the luminescence characteristics of rare earth ions has garnered widespread attention due to its high sensitivity, strong interference resistance, and good environmental adaptability. In addition to inorganic luminescent materials, lanthanide-based molecular and coordination-complex thermometers have also become an important branch of this field; however, this paper focuses on inorganic rare earth luminescence thermometry. This paper provides a systematic review of the mechanisms of temperature measurement using rare earth ion luminescence, including single-energy-level luminescence intensity measurement and luminescence intensity ratio measurement based on thermally coupled levels (TCLs) and non-thermally coupled levels (NTCLs). It analyzes the principles of various technologies, performance parameters (such as absolute sensitivity S_a, relative sensitivity S_r, and temperature resolution δT), and their application progress in fields such as biomedical imaging, high-temperature aerospace environments, and the integration of micro-/nano-devices. Special attention is paid to emerging research directions, including Stark sublevel engineering for enhanced sensitivity, negative thermal expansion (NTE) host design for anti-thermal quenching, multi-modal collaborative thermometry, and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted material design and data processing. The article also discusses the challenges currently faced by the technology, such as high-temperature fluorescence quenching and signal interference, and looks forward to future development directions, including artificial intelligence-assisted material design and multi-modal cooperative temperature measurement, aiming to provide a reference for the research and application of rare earth luminescence temperature sensing technology.

Garnet-structured compounds have long been recognized as versatile host platforms for luminescent phosphors, owing to their robust chemical stability and highly tunable cationic sublattices. Conventional aluminate and gallate garnets, however, generally face intrinsic limitations, including severe concentration quenching at high dopant levels, relatively high phonon energy, and unsatisfactory efficiency for long-wavelength near-infrared (NIR) emission. In recent years, sodium-based germanate garnets, constructed by introducing aliovalent Na⁺ into dodecahedral sites combined with Ge⁴⁺ substitution in tetrahedral frameworks, have emerged as a promising branch of garnet phosphors. The aliovalent Na+ incorporation brings unique structural effects, including energy migration blocking, coordination environment distortion, and defect level modulation, which endow the materials with advantages in mitigating concentration quenching, boosting energy transfer efficiency, and enhancing thermal stability. This review systematically summarizes the crystal structure classification and luminescence fundamentals of sodium-based germanate garnet systems, and introduces mainstream synthesis techniques represented by the high-temperature solid-state method. Focusing on representative host systems, the luminescence characteristics and energy transfer mechanisms of both rare earth- and transition metal-doped systems are elaborated in detail, followed by a summary of four representative performance regulation strategies: cationic disorder engineering, crystal field engineering, defect engineering and dual-site cooperative regulation. The multifunctional applications of these materials in white light-emitting diodes, plant growth lighting, fluorescence temperature sensing, NIR imaging, and information encryption are also presented. Finally, existing challenges and future research perspectives are proposed to provide guidance for the development of high-performance garnet phosphors.