Highly sensitive H2S sensors based on ultrathin organic single-crystal microplate transistors

Based on ultrathin dinaphtho[3,4-d:3′,4′-d′]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (Ph5T2) single-crystal microplates, the highly sensitive organic field-effect H₂S sensors are realized at room temperature. The response is as high as 1.2 × 10⁶% in 50 ppm H₂S. This value is extremely high for H₂S sensors, and is three orders of magnitude higher than that of the most reported semiconductor gas sensors. The response/recovery time is respectively as low as 2 min and 1 min in 50 ppm H₂S. The detect limitation is as low as 0.5 ppm. The ultrathin single-crystal microplates provide direct and efficient ways for the analytes' activities within the conducting channel, and therefore mainly account for the improved sensing performance. The excellent sensing performance of ultrathin Ph5T2 single-crystal microplate transistors reveals the capacity of developing highly sensitive room-temperature sensors.     

Reduced water vapor transmission rates of low-temperature-processed and sol-gel-derived titanium oxide thin films on flexible substrates

Sol-gel-derived, crack-free, and condensed TiO_x thin films with improved barrier properties were successfully fabricated on polymeric substrates with a simple two-step heat treatment at low temperatures. To assess the barrier properties of the TiO_x thin films, Ca corrosion tests were conducted and their water vapor transmission rates (WVTRs) were measured. We found that the two-step heat treatment (at 45 °C for 90 min and 110 °C for 60 min) produces a close-packed TiO_x structure that substantially reduces the WVTRs of the coated polymeric substrates. The WVTRs of 86 nm thick TiOx thin films on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates at a relative humidity (RH) of 90% were found to be 0.133 g m⁻² day⁻¹ at 38 °C and 0.0387 g m⁻² day⁻¹ at 25 °C. In addition, the WVTR value of the TiO_x thin films on PEN substrates are stable with respect to bending: it was found to increase by only ∼13% after 100 repetitions of bending with a 20 mm radius.     

Nanonecklace of CdO through simple solution chemistry

CdO nanonecklace like structure with interconnected nanobeads were produced by air annealed Cd(OH)₂ nanowire structure thin film at 290 °C. Simple and low cost chemical route has been successfully employed for the synthesis of Cd(OH)₂ nanowires on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrates at room temperature (27 °C). Structural analysis confirmed the conversion of hydroxide phase to the oxide phase by annealing which also leads to change in optical band gap from 3.5 to 2.34 eV. The necklace like nanostructure represent unique surface morphology which can be emerged as a potential candidate towards wide range of applications in different fields of nanotechnology such as solar cell, gas sensor, supercapacitor and photo-catalyst.     

HNCP: A many-core microprocessor ASIC approach dedicated to embedded image processing applications

Highly regular many-core architectures tend to be more and more popular as they are suitable for inherently highly parallelizable applications such as most of the image and video processing domain. In this article, we present a novel architecture for many-core microprocessor ASIC dedicated to embedded video and image processing applications. We propose a flexible many-core approach with two architectures one implemented in CMOS 65 nm technology containing 16 open-source tiles and the other implemented in CMOS FD-SOI 28 nm technology containing 64 open-source tiles. Each tile of these architectures can choose its communication links depending on the most relevant overall parallelism scheme for a targeted application. Both chips are fully functional in simulation. The layouts are presented with frequency, area and power consumption results. Various case studies are presented to illustrate the proposed flexible many-core architectures and enable to focus on architecture exploration, instantiated scheme of parallelization and timing performance.     

An agent based modeling approach in the strategic human resource Management,including endogenous and exogenous factors

Human Resource (HR) takes a dominate place in the life of an organization knowing that it becomes one of the competitive factors, it is also considered an important preoccupation of governments who try to control the wage bill and the HR structure evolution. The current trend in HRM is to enhance it to the strategic level.The HR field is a complex system, its management is affected by the HR behavior in the way that it is very tough to predict or analyze the preferences and decisions of an employee; HRM is a dynamic discipline highly linked with people behavior, which interact freely without anyone's guidance. This analysis named bottom-up starts by focusing on the characteristics of each agent at a micro-level, because the agents behaviors and interactions each other and with the external environment lead to new laws and changes that occur on the macro-level.For this reason an Agent Based Modeling (ABM) is proposed in this paper to integrate this property (behaviorism) in modeling the HR structure evolution. This approach takes into consideration the endogenous conditions of an employee in his work and the exogenous shocks that can affect his behavior; the goal is to get closer to the HRM aspects reality and predict the future patterns of the HR structure.     

Effect of sintering temperature on mechanical properties of magnesia partially stabilized zirconia refractory

The optimized sintering conditions for a 3.5 wt% magnesia partially stabilized zirconia (Mg-PSZ) refractory were proposed in our recent research. The influence of the sintering temperature on the development of phase composition, microstructure, densification, thermal expansion and mechanical strength was studied in detail by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), He-pycnometer, high temperature dilatometry and three-point bending test. The samples sintered at 1670 °C had the highest bend strength, the maximum densification, the lowest thermal expansion coefficient (CTE), a homogeneous microstructure and a linear change in thermal expansion.     

The national and international impacts of coal-to-gas switching in the Chinese power sector

We evaluate the national and international impacts—on energy consumption and production, trade, and economic activity—of Chinese coal-to-gas switching in the electric power sector. We find that assumptions about growth rates in electricity generation from renewables are the key determinant in evaluating the economic consequences for coal-to-gas switching in China. The ability to supplement natural gas generation with renewables leads to smaller reductions in Chinese and global economic activity than the alternatives.     

Structural,elastic, phononic,optical and electronic properties investigation of two-dimensional XIS (X=Al,Ga, In) for photocatalytic water splitting

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been widely developed due to their attractive properties. Here, by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, for the first time, we explore potential applications of the novel XIS (X = Al, Ga, In) monolayer 2D materials on photocatalytic water splitting. A series of simulations were carried out to predict and study the structural, elastic, phononic, optical and electronic properties of 2D XIS materials. The results show that GaIS and InIS demonstrate low thermal conductivity. For optical properties, AlIS shows strong light absorption coefficients and refractive index only under ultraviolet (UV) light, while GaIS and InIS show stronger performance under both visible light and UV light with the band edge positions spanned the redox potential of water. The reasonable band positions and bandgaps make them promising photocatalysts for water splitting. This work reveals the potential applications of monolayer 2D XIS in thermal, electronic, and photocatalytic water splitting.     

Coal char gasification for co-production of fuel gas and methane decomposition catalysts

Partial gasification of coal char was conducted with addition of metal oxides for co-production of fuel gas and methane decomposition catalysts. Effect of the metal composition (Ni, Co and Fe based mono- or bi-metals) was investigated on the fuel gas production and the resultant catalyst surface and textural properties, morphology and performance in catalytic methane decomposition (CMD). Besides H₂-rich fuel gas production (the combustion energy up to 11.03–23.42 MJ/kg_char) from the gasification, the gasification residue can directly serve as the effective and efficient catalyst for CMD. The Fe and Fe–Co composite oxides were found to be better among the mono- and bi-metallic oxides for the fuel gas production during the gasification, respectively. The Ni-based mono-/bi-metallic catalysts could display high and stable methane conversion (up to 80%) during the 600-min CMD test at 850 °C. Promotional role of the second metal in CMD was discussed on the carbon diffusion, metal mobility and reducibility, formation and growth of the deposited carbons. The formed carbon morphology after CMD was analyzed based on the Kirkendall effect and Tammann temperature and further correlated to the potential catalyst deactivation.