Quantum Henry gas solubility optimization algorithm for global optimization

Engineering with Computers - In this article, the lightweight design problems of Timoshenko composite beams with and without considering the uncertainties of input data (i.e., the geometry of beam,...     

HDI trimer based fluorine containing urethane methacrylates for hydrophobic photocured coatings

In this work, hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) trimer based two urethane methacrylates were synthesized by reacting 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and a fluoroalcohol with HDI trimer. Due to the high viscosity of the fluorinated methacrylates, they were applied onto glass substrates after mixing with tripropylene glycol diacrylate (TPGDA). The performance of the fluorinated resins were compared to a fluorine free HDI trimer based trimethacrylate. The TPGDA diluted formulations were better in terms of surface wettability than the neat resins. TPGDA diluted fluorinated resins exhibited a water contact angle of 109°± 2. All coatings exhibited high surface hardness (4H and 5H) and good adhesion.     

B-Phase solid solutions in Er- and Y-SiAlON glass–ceramics

Glasses with cation composition of M:Si:Al = 3.45:3:2 (where M = Er and Y) with varying nitrogen contents (0, 5, 8, 15 and 22 eq.%) have been prepared by ball milling in alcohol media. These Er- and Y-sialon glasses were heat-treated at temperatures in the range of 950–1200 °C for 10 h to study the crystal phase(s) obtained. Samples were characterised by SEM and XRD and obtained data from XRD were further analysed to obtain unit cell parameters of some phases. It is shown that it is possible to obtain B-phase (Y₂SiAlO₅N) from these glass compositions with relatively low nitrogen contents (5 and 8 eq.%N) but with different unit cell parameters (i.e. a = 3.77–3.81 Å and c = 9.83–9.97 Å) to those reported previously in the literature, suggesting that there are some compositional differences between B-phases obtained from different nitrogen content glasses as well as different modifier cations. Long-term heat treatment studies revealed that the stability range of temperature for Er–B-phase is more extensive than its Y–B-phase equivalent.     

Novel approach with polyfluorene/polydisulfide copolymer binder for high-capacity silicon anode in lithium-ion batteries

In this study, as a novel design with the collaboration of a fluorene and sulfide-based copolymer for Li-ion battery application is presented. Polyfluorene-co-polydisulfide is prepared with desired functional groups to yield a conductivity and good adhesion. These critical and important features are performed by preparing polymers with proper functional groups. The preparation process is accomplished via Suzuki coupling process under Pd catalyst by combining separately synthesized 4,4′-dibromodiphenyl disulfide in combination with 9,9-dioctylfluorene-2,7-bis(trimethylborate). The fully obtained capacity of the silicon particles, that is, at C/10 with the capacity of 1250 mAh g⁻¹ after the 500th cycle, approves the good performance by preserving capacity stability till 600th cycles. The designed and synthesized polymer binder with different functionalities and carbon nanotube additive show better characteristics such as conductivity, high polarity, and binding adhesion. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48303.     

Anaerobic mesophilic co-digestion of sugar-beet processing wastewater and beet-pulp in batch reactors

In this study, biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay was conducted to investigate the effect of waste mixing and F/M ratio on the co-digestion of wastewater and beet-pulp, in addition to the digestion of the wastes separately. In the studied F/M range (0.51–2.56 g COD/g VSS), observed treatment efficiencies (63.7–87.3% COD removal and 69.6–89.3% VS reduction) were indications of high biodegradability for both wastewater and beet-pulp, which decreased with increasing F/M. It was evident that the extent of biomethanation of wastewater was higher than beet-pulp, owing to the inherent soluble carbohydrates in wastewater. When the co-digestion of the wastes was evaluated, it came up with the result that, major outcome of wastewater addition was to increase methane production rate of beet-pulp, rather than increasing its ultimate biodegradability. Indeed, modeled first-order rate functions indicated that rate constants (k values) differentiated in the ranges between 0.081 and 0.143 day^?1 and 0.028–0.050 day^?1 respectively for wastewater added and non-added reactors. These results indicated that anaerobic co-digestion of wastewater and beet-pulp is promising since wastewater addition significantly increases the rate of biomethanation of beet-pulp.     

User assisted disparity remapping for stereo images

This study concentrates on user assisted disparity remapping for stereo image footage, i.e. the disparity of an object of interest is altered while leaving the remaining scene unattended. This application is useful in the sense that it provides a method for emphasizing/de-emphasizing an object on the scene by adjusting its depth with respect to the camera. The proposed technique can also be used as a post-processing step for retargeting stereoscopic footage on different display sizes and resolutions. The proposed technique involves an MRF-based energy minimization step for interactive stereo image segmentation, for which user assistance on only one of the stereo pairs is required for determining the location of stereo object pair. A key contribution of the proposed study is elimination of dense disparity estimation step from the pipeline. This step is realized through a sparse feature matching technique between the stereo pairs. Moreover, by the help of the proposed technique, novel disparity adjusted views are synthesized using the produced stereo object segments and background information for the images. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the generated segments and the disparity adjusted images prove the functionality and superiority of the proposed technique.     

The synthesis and characterization of Cu(II) phthalocyanine bearing peripheral monoazacrown ethers and a spectral investigation of its film forming character

The synthesis, liquid crystalline behavior and self-organizing properties of Cu(II)Pc bearing monoazacrown ether moieties that contain long alkyloxyphenyl N-pivotal groups are described. The Cu(II) phthalocyanine derivative has a hexagonal, columnar structure; optical absorption and vibrational spectroscopy revealed a predominantly co-facial interaction between the chromophores and their orientation parallel to a NaCl surface. It is proposed that such homeotropic alignment is attributable to the ability of the pendant monoazacrown ether groups to coordinate the Na⁺ ions within the NaCl surface.