Tailoring the chemical heterogeneity of Mn-modified 0.75BiFeO3-0.25BaTiO3 ceramics for piezoelectric sensor applications

The Mn-modified 0.75BiFeO₃-0.25BaTiO₃ (75BFBTMn) piezoelectric ceramic possesses a high depolarization temperature of 500 °C and a large piezoelectric coefficient of 110 pC/N, showing the potential for high temperature piezoelectric sensors. However, 75BFBTMn ceramic usually suffers dielectric degradation and abrupt drop of piezoelectric coefficient in the range of 300 °C to 500 °C. Combined the high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction analysis with Backscatter-SEM results, it is demonstrated that the electrical thermal instability is owing to the existence of chemical inhomogeneity. The Air-annealing treatment is able to decrease the volume fraction of pseudo-cubic phase and the lattice distortion, removes the chemical inhomogeneity in the grain and free Bi₂O₃ at grain boundary, and then eliminates dielectric anomalies and piezoelectric degradation with temperature. These results indicate that air-annealing is a simple but effective method to eliminate the chemical inhomogeneity in 75BFBTMn ceramics, thereby improving the property thermal stability for high temperature piezoelectric sensor applications.     

Structure and the enhanced ferromagnetism in single phase Sr4Fe5CoO13-δ ceramic

Oxides with superstructure have attracted special attention for their great tolerance in structure and composition regulation, which enables them to have great potential in energy conversion devices, electromagnetic regulation devices, spintronic devices, and so on. Here, we successfully prepared a superstructure oxide Sr₄Fe₅CoO_13-δ via combustion method. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and soft X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) analysis suggest that Co dopant could improve the amount of oxygen vacancies in oxides. Unlike the thermal activated electrical conducting behavior of Sr₄Fe₆O_13-δ, Sr₄Fe₅CoO_13-δ demonstrates an electrical behavior in line with the Mott's variable range hopping (VRH) model at low temperatures, implying the localization of electrons. Sr₄Fe₅CoO_13-δ shows a ferromagnetic property with a high Curie temperature of 771 K, which should be attributed to the new formed Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (D-M) interaction of Fe–O–Co, the increased lattice distortion and the increased amount of oxygen vacancies induced by Co dopant. These properties render it a broadened working temperature range and may contribute to explore high temperature spintronic devices.     

In situ synthesis of Al2O3–SiC powders via molten-salt-assisted aluminum/carbothermal reduction method

Al₂O₃–SiC composite powder (ASCP) was successfully synthesized using a novel molten-salt-assisted aluminum/carbothermal reduction (MS-ACTR) method with silica fume, aluminum powder, and carbon black as raw materials; NaCl–KCl was used as the molten salt medium. The effects of the synthesis temperature and salt-reactant ratio on the phase composition and microstructure were investigated. The results showed that the Al₂O₃–SiC content increased with an increase in molten salt temperature, and the salt–reactant ratio in the range of 1.5:1–2.5:1 had an impact on the fabrication of ASCP. The optimum condition for synthesizing ASCP from NaCl–KCl molten salt consisted of maintaining the temperature at 1573 K for 4 h. The chemical reaction thermodynamics and growth mechanism indicate that the molten salt plays an important role in the formation of SiC whiskers by following the vapor-solid growth mode in the MS-ACTR treatment. This study demonstrates that the addition of molten salt as a reaction medium is a promising approach for synthesizing high-melting-point composite powders at low temperatures.     

Early hydration properties and microstructure evolutions of MgO-activated slag materials at different curing temperatures

This study reports on the early hydration properties and microstructure evolutions of MgO-activated slag at five curing temperatures (20 °C, 40 °C, 50 °C, 60 °C, and 80 °C) and three MgO types (S-MgO, M ? MgO, and R-MgO). The results indicated that high-temperature curing substantially increased the compressive strength of the specimens. Particularly, the highest strength was obtained at 40 °C and 60 °C for the S-MgO and M-MgO-activated slag specimens, respectively, and the high curing temperature for the R-MgO-activated slag specimen was 40 °C. We focused on the relationship between the mechanical properties, pore structure characteristics, and hydration products. The combination of calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) gel and Al increased under high-temperature curing conditions. XRD, FT-IR, TG-DTG, and ²⁷Al MAS-NMR results showed a high Al content in the formation of calcium silicate hydrate with Al in its structure (C-A-S-H gel) for the R-MgO-activated slag pastes under high-temperature curing; however, the microstructure was loose owing to the formation of excessive brucite. For the S-MgO-activated slag specimen, the Ca/Si ratio was high, with more Mg²⁺ penetrating the C-S-H gel interlayer, forming more hydrotalcite-like phases and increasing the chain length of the C-S-H gel. The microstructure showed good compatibility of the hydration products interweaving to form dense microstructures.     

Rational Designs for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with Low Electrolyte/Sulfur Ratio

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) are considered a promising next-generation energy storage device owing to their high theoretical energy density. However, their overall performance is limited by several critical issues such as lithium polysulfide (PS) shuttles, low sulfur utilization, and unstable Li metal anodes. Despite recent huge progress, the electrolyte/sulfur ratio (E/S) used is usually very high (≥20 µL mg⁻¹), which greatly reduces the practical energy density of devices. To push forward LSBs from the lab to the industry, considerable attention is devoted to reducing E/S while ensuring the electrochemical performance. To date, however, few reviews have comprehensively elucidated the possible strategies to achieve that purpose. In this review, recent advances in low E/S cathodes and anodes based on the issues resulting from low E/S and the corresponding solutions are summarized. These will be beneficial for a systematic understanding of the rational design ideas and research trends of low E/S LSBs. In particular, three strategies are proposed for cathodes: preventing PS formation/aggregation to avoid inadequate dissolution, designing multifunctional macroporous networks to address incomplete infiltration, and utilizing an imprison strategy to relieve the adsorption dependence on specific surface area. Finally, the challenges and future prospects for low E/S LSBs are discussed.     

A single-phase algorithm for mining high utility itemsets using compressed tree structures

Mining high utility itemsets (HUIs) from transaction databases considers such factors as the unit profit and quantity of purchased items. Two-phase tree-based algorithms transform a database into compressed tree structures and generate candidate patterns through a recursive pattern-growth procedure. This procedure requires a lot of memory and time to construct conditional pattern trees. To address this issue, this study employs two compressed tree structures, namely, Utility Count Tree and String Utility Tree, to enumerate valid patterns and thus promote fast utility computation. Furthermore, the study presents an algorithm called single-phase utility computation (SPUC) that leverages these two tree structures to mine HUIs in a single phase by incorporating novel pruning strategies. Experiments conducted on both real and synthetic datasets demonstrate the superior performance of SPUC compared with IHUP, UP-Growth, and UP-Growth+ algorithms.     

高熔体流动速率薄壁注塑聚丙烯专用料的结构与性能分析

采用多种分析测试方法，对3类高熔体流动速率薄壁注塑聚丙烯（PP）专用料的熔融结晶性能、光学性能、分子量分布、力学性能、毛细管流变性能、热收缩性能进行了分析研究。结果表明，K1860与2种市售主流PP1、PP2各项性能相当，其中K1860分子量分布相对PP1、PP2较窄，弯曲性能、拉伸性能更优，可满足大型薄壁注塑制品的生产要求。     

The thermochromic characteristics of Zn-doped VO2 that were prepared by the hydrothermal and post-annealing process and their polyurethane composite films

In this paper, Zn-doped VO₂ nanoparticles have been successfully fabricated by a two-step hydrothermal-annealing process, and the thermally induced visible light transmittance enhancement of Zn-doped VO₂ has been studied for the first time. It is found that Zn-doped VO₂ not only exhibits excellent solar modulation ability (ΔT_sol = 15.27%) but also can reduce the phase transition temperature and increase the visible light transmittance after the heat-induced phase transition (ΔT_lum=+5.78%). Moreover, with the increase of Zn doping concentration, the phase transition temperature (T_c) and phase transition hysteresis (ΔT) both decrease. It is shown that the Zn-doped VO₂-PU films not only have good solar light modulation ability and properties of improving visible light transmission after phase transition, but also have good durability. The research result is of great significance for improving the visible light transmittance after phase transition and realizing the practical application of VO₂ in the field of smart windows.     

Anisotropic effects of oxygen vacancy defects on the electrical properties of highly oriented bismuth titanate ferroelectric ceramics

Bismuth titanate (Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂, BIT) exhibits a high Curie temperature and anisotropic electrical performance owing to its layered perovskite structure, and hence, it is an important ferroelectric material for high-temperature piezoelectric applications. It is crucial to understand the effects of the anisotropy in BIT-based ferroelectrics for developing novel high-temperature piezoelectric materials. In this study, a highly textured BIT ceramic was fabricated using the tape-casting technique from highly grain-oriented BIT platelets prepared by the molten salt method. The textured BIT ceramic showed a dense microstructure and high grain orientation along the (00l) plane with a texturing degree F_00l = 0.86. It exhibited significant anisotropy in the electrical properties along the directions parallel and perpendicular to the axis of the tape-casting plane. Double ferroelectric hysteresis P–E loops and normal ferroelectric P–E loops were observed in the parallel and perpendicular samples, respectively. In addition to the layered crystal structure and domains, the anisotropy in the arrangement of the oxygen vacancy defects and their transport in the structure led to a significant anisotropy in the ferroelectric properties of the textured BIT ceramics. This work demonstrates the anisotropic arrangement of the oxygen vacancy defects and its effect on the electrical properties of high-temperature bismuth layer-structured ferroelectrics.     

Dual-mode optical thermometry based on Bi3+/Eu3+ co-activated BaGd2O4 phosphor with high sensitivity and signal discriminability

A series of BaGd₂O₄:Bi³⁺,Eu³⁺ phosphors with dual-emitting centers were prepared by high-temperature solid-state method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), fluorescence spectroscopy, lifetime decay curve and variable temperature emission spectroscopy were used to systematically study the structure, luminescence performance and temperature characteristics. Under ultraviolet (UV) excitation, the BaGd₂O₄:Bi³⁺,Eu³⁺ phosphor showed a broad-band emission in the blue region corresponding to transitions of Bi³⁺ ions and the sharp red light emission corresponding to Eu³⁺ ions. The Bi³⁺ and Eu³⁺ ion emission peaks were well-separated, which meets a prerequisite for efficient temperature signal resolution measurement. The fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technique was used to measure the different temperature response characteristics between Bi³⁺ blue emission and Eu³⁺ red emission. When the temperature varies from 293 K to 473 K, the relative temperature sensitivity (S_r) of BaGd₂O₄:Bi³⁺,Eu³⁺ phosphors is obtained, was determined as 1.0182%K⁻¹. In addition to calculating the relative sensitivity by FIR technology, we can also obtain the value of S_r through experiments and formulas related to the decay life, and found to be 1.0651%K⁻¹. Therefore, BaGd₂O₄: Bi³⁺,Eu³⁺ phosphor is an excellent non-contact optical temperature measurement material.