Progressive NO2 Sensors with Rapid Alarm and Persistent Memory-Type Responses for Wide-Range Sensing Using Antimony Triselenide Nanoflakes

Antimony triselenide (Sb₂Se₃) nanoflake-based nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) sensors exhibit a progressive bifunctional gas-sensing performance, with a rapid alarm for hazardous highly concentrated gases, and an advanced memory-type function for low-concentration (<1 ppm) monitoring repeated under potentially fatal exposure. Rectangular and cuboid shaped Sb₂Se₃ nanoflakes, comprising van der Waals planes with large surface areas and covalent bond planes with small areas, can rapidly detect a wide range of NO₂ gas concentrations from 0.1 to 100 ppm. These Sb₂Se₃ nanoflakes are found to be suitable for physisorption-based gas sensing owing to their anisotropic quasi-2D crystal structure with extremely enlarged van der Waals planes, where they are humidity-insensitive and consequently exhibit an extremely stable baseline current. The Sb₂Se₃ nanoflake sensor exhibits a room-temperature/low-voltage operation, which is noticeable owing to its low energy consumption and rapid response even under a NO₂ gas flow of only 1 ppm. As a result, the Sb₂Se₃ nanoflake sensor is suitable for the development of a rapid alarm system. Furthermore, the persistent gas-sensing conductivity of the sensor with a slow decaying current can enable the development of a progressive memory-type sensor that retains the previous signal under irregular gas injection at low concentrations.     

Graphene-Based Heterostructure Composite Sensing Materials for Detection of Nitrogen-Containing Harmful Gases

Graphene-based heterostructure composite is a new type of advanced sensing material that includes composites of graphene with noble metals/metal oxides/metal sulfides/polymers and organic ligands. Exerting the synergistic effect of graphene and noble metals/metal oxides/metal sulfides/polymers and organic ligands is a new way to design advanced gas sensors for nitrogen-containing gas species including NH₃ and NO₂ to solve the problems such as poor stability, high working temperature, poor recovery, and poor selectivity. Different fabrication methods of graphene-based heterostructure composite are extensively studied, enabling massive progress in developing chemiresistive-type sensors for detecting the nitrogen-containing gas species. With the components of noble metals/metal oxides/metal sulfides/polymers and organic ligands which are composited with graphene, each material has its attractive and unique electrical properties. Consequently, the corresponding composite formed with graphene has different sensing characteristics. Furthermore, working ambient gas and response type can affect gas-sensitive characteristic parameters of graphene-based heterostructure composite sensing materials. Moreover, it requires particular attention in studying gas sensing mechanism of graphene-based heterostructure composite sensing materials for nitrogen-containing gas species. This review focuses on related scientific issues such as material synthesis methods, sensing performance, and gas sensing mechanism to discuss the technical challenges and several perspectives.     

智能电网中D2D网络的通信资源管理优化方案

当前在智能电网的应用中,各种智能终端的使用,使得移动数据流量空前增长,电力互联方式在面临海量数据传输的需求时,由于资源受限,信道间会产生一定的干扰,从而影响通信质量。为了解决通信资源管理这一问题,与常见的移动边缘计算(MEC)方法不同,文中提出了一种网络资源分配方法,优化链路选择和子信道分配,以实现能量效率的最大化。仿真结果表明,与没有卸载和部分优化的方法相比,此方法在能效方面有了很大的提高。     

Understanding on the hydrogen detection of plasma sprayed tin oxide/tungsten oxide (SnO2/WO3) sensor

The plasma spray technique was well proven in producing metal oxide based gas sensors in the last two decades using different powder feedstocks. However, limited research was made to fabricate hydrogen gas sensor from tin oxide layer coated over tungsten oxide layer. This paper attempts to interpret the hydrogen gas sensing performances of plasma sprayed coating derived by depositing tin oxide layer over tungsten oxide (SnO₂/WO₃) layer. Plasma sprayed SnO₂/WO₃ sensor showed maximum response of 90% at 150 °C in contrast to stand-alone WO₃ (89% at 350 °C) and stand-alone SnO₂ (89% at 250 °C). The lower operating temperature of SnO₂/WO₃ sensor without compromising gas response was attributed to the WO₃–SnO₂ hetero-junction. SnO₂/WO₃ sensor showed selective sensing towards hydrogen with respect to carbon monoxide and methane gases. This sensor also possessed repeatable characteristics after 39 days from the initial measurement. In a nut-shell, plasma spayed SnO₂/WO₃ sensor showed stability of base resistance, repeatability after successive response and recovery cycles, selective sensing towards 500 ppm H₂ with significant magnitude of gas response of 90%, response time of 35 s and recovery time of 269 s at a temperature of 150 °C.     

Manufacturing catalyst-coated membranes by ultrasonic spray deposition for PEMFC: Identification of key parameters and their impact on PEMFC performance

This study deals with the manufacturing of catalyst-coated membranes (CCMs) for newcomers in the field of coating. Although there are many studies on electrode ink composition for improving the performance of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), there are few papers dealing with electrode coating itself. Usually, it is a know-how that often remains secret and constitutes the added value of scientific teams or the business of industrialists. In this paper, we identify and clarify the role of key parameters to improve coating quality and also to correlate coating quality with fuel cell performance via polarization curves and electrochemical active surface area measurements. We found that the coating configurations can affect the performance of lab-made CCMs in PEMFCs. After the repeatability of the performance obtained by our coating method has been proved, we show that: (i) edge effects, due to mask shadowing - cannot be neglected when the active surface area is low, (ii) a heterogeneous thickness electrode produces performance lower than a homogeneous thickness electrode, and (iii) the origin and storage of platinum on carbon powders are a very important source of variability in the obtained results.     

Investigation of corrosion properties with Ni–P/TiNO coating on aluminum alloy bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Aluminum alloy bipolar plates have unique application potential in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) due to the characteristics of lightweight and low cost. However, extreme susceptibility to corrosion in PEMFC operation condition limits the application. To promote the corrosion resistance of aluminum alloy bipolar plates, a Ni–P/TiNO coating was prepared by electroless plating and closed field unbalanced magnetron sputter ion plating (CFUMSIP) technology on the 6061 Al substrate. The research results show that Ni–P interlayer improves the deposition effect of TiNO outer layer and increase the content of TiN and TiO_xN_y phases. Compared to Ni–P and TiNO single-layer coatings, the Ni–P/TiNO coating samples exhibited the lowest current density value of (1.10 ± 0.02) × 10^?6 A·cm^?2 in simulated PEMFC cathode environment. Additionally, potential cyclic polarization measurements were carried out aiming to evaluate the durability of the aluminum alloy bipolar plate during the PEMFC start-up/shut-up process. The results illustrate that the Ni–P/TiNO coating samples exhibit excellent stability and corrosion resistance.     

Numerical study on laminar burning velocity of ammonia flame with methanol addition

The combustion characteristics of ammonia/methanol mixtures were investigated numerically in this study. Methanol has a dramatic promotive effect on the laminar burning velocity (LBV) of ammonia. Three mechanisms from literature and another four self-developed mechanisms constructed in this study were evaluated using the measured laminar burning velocities of ammonia/methanol mixtures from Wang et al. (Combust.Flame. 2021). Generally, none of the selected mechanisms can precisely predict the measured laminar burning velocities at all conditions. Aiming to develop a simplified and reliable mechanism for ammonia/methanol mixtures, the constructed mechanism utilized NUI Galway mechanism (Combust.Flame. 2016) as methanol sub-mechanism and the Otomo mechanism (Int. J. Hydrogen. Energy. 2018) as ammonia sub-mechanism was optimized and reduced. The reduced mechanism entitled ‘DNO-NH3’, can accurately reproduce the measured laminar burning velocities of ammonia/methanol mixtures under all conditions. A reaction path analysis of the ammonia/methanol mixtures based on the DNO-NH3 mechanism shows that methanol is not directly involved in ammonia oxidation, instead, the produced methyl radicals from methanol oxidization contribute to the dehydrogenation of ammonia. Besides, NO_x emission analysis demonstrates that 60% methanol addition results in the highest NO_x emissions. The most important reactions dominating the NO_x consumption and production are identified in this study.     

Yttrium doped covalent triazine frameworks as promising reversible hydrogen storage material: DFT investigations

Through Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations, we have explored the possibility of yttrium (Y) doped Triazine (Covalent Triazine Frameworks i.e., CTF-1) to be a promising material for reversible hydrogen storage. We have found that Y atom strongly bonded on Triazine surface can adsorb at the most 7H₂ molecules with an average binding energy of ?0.33 eV/H₂. This boosts the storage capacity of the system to 7.3 wt% which is well above the minimum requirement of 6.5 wt% for efficient storage of hydrogen as stipulated by the US Department of Energy (DoE). The structural integrity over and above the desorption temperature (420 K) has been entrenched through Molecular Dynamics simulations and the investigation of metal-metal clustering has been corroborated through diffusion energy barrier computation. The mechanism of interactions between Y and Triazine as well as between H₂ molecules and Y doped Triazine has been explored via analyses of the partial density of states, charge density, and Bader charge. It has been perceived that the interplay of H₂ molecules with Y on Triazine is Kubas-type of interaction. The above-mentioned analysis and outcomes make us highly optimistic that Y doped Triazine could be employed as reversible hydrogen storage material which can act as an environmentally friendly alternate fuel for transport applications.     

Gluten–starch interface characteristics and wheat dough rheology—Insights from hybrid artificial systems

Referring to the total surface existing in wheat dough, gluten–starch interfaces are a major component. However, their impact on dough rheology is largely unclear. Common viewpoints, based on starch surface modifications or reconstitution experiments, failed to show unambiguous relations of interface characteristics and dough rheology. Observing hybrid artificial dough systems with defined particle surface functionalization gives a new perspective. Since surface functionalization standardizes particle–polymer interfaces, the impact on rheology becomes clearly transferable and thus, contributes to a better understanding of gluten–starch interfaces. Based on this perspective, the effect of particle/starch surface functionality is discussed in relation to the rheological properties of natural wheat dough and modified gluten–starch systems. A competitive relation of starch and gluten for intermolecular interactions with the network-forming polymer becomes apparent during network development by adsorption phenomena. This gluten–starch adhesiveness delays the beginning of non-linearity under large deformations, thus contributing to a high deformability of dough. Consequently, starch surface functionality affects the mechanical properties, starting from network formation and ending with the thermal fixation of structure.     

Role of exchange coupling between the hard and soft magnetic phases on the absorption of microwaves by SrFe10Al2O19/Co0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 nanocomposite

(1-x)SrFe₁₀Al₂O₁₉/(x)Co_0.6Zn_0.4Fe₂O₄-(SFAO/CZFO) hard/soft nanocomposite ferrite materials were synthesized by ‘one-pot’ self-propagating combustion route. The co-existence of the two magnetic phases were confirmed by XRD, FESEM, EDS and VSM. The prepared nanocomposite samples were also characterized by TGA/DSC, Raman spectroscopy and VNA. Exchange coupling between the hard and the soft magnetic grains was observed by determining the switching field distribution (SFD) curve. As a result of the competing effects of exchange interaction and dipolar interaction, magnetic parameters were observed to be sensitive to the incorporation of soft magnetic phase into the nanocomposite. Results showed that with the inclusion of soft magnetic phase, exchange coupling behaviour between the hard and the soft ferrite phases had significant influence on the microwave absorption capacity of the samples. Related electromagnetic parameters and impedance matching ratio of the nanocomposite system were discussed. A minimum reflection loss of ?42.9 dB with an absorber thickness of 2.5 mm was attained by the nanocomposite (90 wt%)SrFe₁₀Al₂O₁₉/(10 wt %)Co_0.6Zn_0.4Fe₂O₄ at a matching frequency of 11.45 GHz. This assured the candidacy of SrFe₁₀Al₂O₁₉/Co_0.6Zn_0.4Fe₂O₄ nanocomposite as a promising microwave absorption material in the X-band (8–12 GHz).