Fabrication of abrasion-resistant micro-nano hierarchical structure on glass surface by a hydrothermal corrosion method

When applying an additional coating method to fabricate micro-nano hierarchical structure required for superhydrophobic function on glass surface, the hierarchical structure does generally not have good abrasion resistance, due to the weak adhesion between coating and glass surface. However, glass itself is a material with good abrasion resistance. A micro-nano hierarchical structure with honeycomb-shaped micro-armor protection on glass surface by a two-step hydrothermal corrosion method has been constructed: the first step of hydrothermal corrosion in water to construct micro-armor structure, and the second step of hydrothermal corrosion in sodium citrate aqueous solution to fabricate micro-nano hierarchical structure. The advantages of this new method are: the treatment process is simple, and there is no need to apply additional coatings. The micro-nano hierarchical structure constructed on glass surface by this method has a great abrasion resistance. After 1,000 cycles of abrasion under harsh conditions, the nano-structure on glass surface can still be remained intact. It provides a new method for fabricating abrasion-resistant micro-nano hierarchical structure on glass surface, as well as a new approach to the preparation of abrasion-resistant superhydrophobic glass.     

Hierarchical NiCo2O4 and NiCo2S4 nanomaterials as electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction

In this work, Ni foam supported hierarchical NiCo₂O₄ nanomaterials are successfully prepared through a hydrothermal process and subsequent calcination process, then the hierarchical NiCo₂O₄ is converted to hierarchical NiCo₂S₄ through a hydrothermal anion exchange process. The hierarchical nanomaterials are constructed by a nanorod core and nanoribbons shell. The morphology evolution mechanism of the hierarchical NiCo₂O₄ is studied by exploratory experiments, the results show that the morphology evolution from nanorod to hierarchical nanostructure undergo a solid–solid process, and the calcination temperature is crucial for the formation of the hierarchical nanostructure. The hierarchical NiCo₂O₄ and NiCo₂S₄ nanomaterials are both used as electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction in alkaline electrolyte, and the electrocatalytic activity of the NiCo₂S₄ is higher than that of the NiCo₂O₄. Cycling test shows the good stability of the NiCo₂S₄, and the slight loss of activity during cycling is caused by the surface oxidation of NiCo₂S₄ in alkaline electrolyte. This work indicate that the hierarchical NiCo₂S₄ is a promising non-noble metal electrocatalyst for direct methanol fuel cells.     

Pore-scale study of effects of different Pt loading reduction schemes on reactive transport processes in catalyst layers of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Reducing the Platinum (Pt) loading while maintaining the performance is highly desired for promoting the commercial use of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Different methods have been adopted to fabricate catalyst layers (CLs) with low Pt loading, including utilizing lower Pt/C catalysts (MA), mixing high Pt/C catalysts with bare carbon black particles (MB), and reducing CL thickness while maintaining high Pt/C ratio (MC). In this study, self-developed pore-scale model is adopted to investigate the performance of the three Pt reduction methods. It is found that MA shows the best performance while MB shows the worst. Then, effects of Pt dispersion are further explored. The results show that denser Pt sites will result in higher local oxygen flux and thus higher local transport resistance. Therefore, MA method, which shows the better Pt dispersion, leads to improved performance. Third, CLs with quasi-realistic structures are investigated. Higher tortuosity resulting from the random pores produces higher bulk resistance along the thickness direction, while MA still exhibits the best performance. Finally, improved CL structures are investigated by designing perforated CL structures. It is found that adding perforations can significantly reduce the bulk transport resistance and can improve the CL performance. It is demonstrated that CL structure plays important roles on performance, and there are still huge potentials to further improve CL performance by increasing Pt dispersion and optimizing CL structures.     

Design and synthesis of side-chain optimized poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)-g-poly(styrene sulfonic acid) as proton exchange membrane for fuel cell applications: Balancing the water-resistance and the sulfonation degree

Side-chain optimized poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)-g-poly (styrene sulfonic acid) (PPO-g-PSSA) is designed with balanced water-resistance and sulfonation degree. The PPO-g-PSSA is synthesized by controlled atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) from brominated poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO-xBr) and ethyl styrene-4-sulfonate and followed by hydrolysis. A series of PPO-g-PSSA are prepared possessing different bromination degree (x) of PPO-xBr and polymerization degree (m) of the side-chains and the water-resistances of the fabricated membranes are investigated. The results show that a PPO-g-PSSA at relatively low x (x < 0.2) and high m (m > 4) exhibits good balance between the water-resistance and the sulfonation degree. Namely, it displays suitable proton conductivity with compromised water-resistance. Moreover, a maximum ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 3.24 mmol g^?1 is reached without the sacrifice of water-resistance. In addition, PPO-g-0.08PSSA-13 and PPO-g-0.14PSSA-4 are chosen characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, proton conductivities and mechanical properties. At 90% RH, the optimized PPO-g-0.08PPSA-13 possesses a proton conductivity of 37.9 mS cm^?1 at 40 °C and 45.5 mS cm^?1 at 95 °C, respectively.     

Hierarchical Learning Water Cycle Algorithm

In order to improve the global searching ability of Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA), the hierarchical learning concept is introduced and the Hierarchical Learning WCA (HLWCA) is proposed in this paper. The underlying idea of HLWCA is to divide the solutions into collections and give these collections with hierarchy differences. One of the collections has a higher hierarchy than others and utilizes an exploration-inclined updating mechanism. The solutions in this high hierarchy collection are the exemplars of other collections. The other collections are sorted according to the exemplars’ function value and the solutions in these collections actively choose whether to follow their own exemplar or not. Through different updating mechanisms of collections, the global searching ability is improved while the fast convergence and strong local search ability of WCA are retained. The proposed HLWCA is firstly experimented on IEEE CEC 2017 benchmark suite to testify its performance on complex numerical optimization tasks. Then, it is tested on four practical design benchmark problems to verify its ability of solving real-world problems. The experimental results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

Numerical study of flow distribution uniformity for the optimization of gradient porosity configuration of porous copper fiber sintered felt for hydrogen production through methanol steam reforming micro-reactor

A macroscopic numerical method is proposed to study the flow distribution uniformity of a novel porous copper fiber sintered felt (PCFSF), which has gradient porosities and was developed as the methanol steam reforming micro-reactor catalyst support for hydrogen production for fuel cell applications. The macroscopic porous media developed by the ANSYS/FLUENT software is used to represent the PCFSF. Our results indicate that the gradient porosity can reshape the flow distribution of PCFSFs greatly, thus producing significant influence on their performance. It is further revealed that, for a PCFSF with a determined gradient porosity configuration but different reactant feed directions, the velocity uniformity can be used as a quantitative criterion to evaluate the performance of hydrogen production. Furthermore, new gradient PCFSFs are produced according to the flow distribution of original gradient PCFSFs. The preliminary experimental results of the new gradient PCFSFs of 0.8-0.9-0.7 and 0.7-0.9-0.8 exhibit better methanol conversion and H₂ flow rate. This indicates that the numerical method can be used for the optimization of PCFSFs' gradient porosity configuration, which consists of the shape and position of the interfaces between different porosity portions, the number of interfaces and the porosity distribution in different portions.     

Fabrication and properties of lightweight SiOC fiber-based assembly aerogels with hierarchical pore structure

Here we report a novel aerogel material assembled by the electrospun SiOC fibers with a hierarchical pore structure. The fibrous aerogels were successfully fabricated by the gel-casting and freeze-drying method using the SiOC fibers as the matrix and the silica sols as the binders. The effect of the SiOC fiber content and the silica sol content on the properties of the samples were investigated. The SiOC fibrous aerogels after calcined at 1000?°C exhibited low densities of 46.87–128.48?mg/cm³, low thermal conductivities of 0.0302–0.0440?W/m?K, high compressive strengths of 18–167?kPa and relatively high specific surface areas of 12.48–34.87?m²/g. Such unique fibrous aerogel materials are foreseen as the promising high-temperature insulators, absorbents and supports.     

充气膜承冰壳结构形态设计及其建造实践

充气膜承冰壳结构是通过对充气 膜喷溅液体材料，待其凝结成型后撤除充气 膜形成的冰壳结构，该技术始于20世纪40年 代的充气膜承薄壳混凝土结构。文章通过比 对混凝土薄壳和冰壳的差异性，梳理充气膜 承薄壳结构的发展主线，对其形态设计方法 进行总结。结合“2017哈尔滨国际冰雪建造 节”相关建造实践，从施工方案的拟定与实 践、施工材料的选择与工艺以及施工工法的 对比与分析三方面对充气膜承冰壳结构形态 设计与建造实践进行总结与备忘，并对其后 期维护相关条件与技术进行讨论。     

起·承·转·合 ——解读巍宝山长春洞空间布局的结构章法

长春洞是巍宝山保存最完整的宫 观，虽占地不到两亩①，却在有限的空间中 创造出九楼十院的空间格局。本文以长春洞 空间布局序列为研究对象，从知觉体验的 连续性入手，提出了空间变化对参观者情感 的影响，论述了在建筑空间布局序列中参观 者知觉体验逐层递进的控制机制，探讨了以 “起、承、转、合”为结构，以“知觉体验”为 章法的动态空间布局设计手法，希望为道教 建筑空间与其他超越日常的精神空间的研 究提供启示。