Symmetric and asymmetric membranes based on La0.5Sr0.5Fe0.7Ga0.3O3-δ perovskite with high oxygen semipermeation flux performances and identification of the rate-determining step of oxygen transport

This work focuses on identifying the rate-determining step of oxygen transport through La_0.5Sr_0.5Fe_0.7Ga_0.3O_3-δ membranes with symmetric and asymmetric architectures. The best oxygen semipermeation fluxes are 3.4 10⁻³ mol. m^-2.s^-1 and 6.3 10⁻³ mol. m^-2.s^-1 at 900 °C for the symmetric membrane and asymmetric membrane with a modified surface. The asymmetric membrane with a modified surface leads to an increase of approximately 7 times the oxygen flux compared to that obtained with the La_0.5Sr_0.5Fe_0.7Ga_0.3O_3-δ dense membrane without surface modification. This work also shows that the oxygen flux is mainly governed by gaseous oxygen diffusion through the porous support of asymmetric La_0.5Sr_0.5Fe_0.7Ga_0.3O_3-δ membranes.     

Manufacture of Multilayered Artificial Cell Membranes through Sequential Bilayer Deposition on Emulsion Templates

Efforts to manufacture artificial cells that replicate the architectures, processes and behaviours of biological cells are rapidly increasing. Perhaps the most commonly reconstructed cellular structure is the membrane, through the use of unilamellar vesicles as models. However, many cellular membranes, including bacterial double membranes, nuclear envelopes, and organelle membranes, are multilamellar. Due to a lack of technologies available for their controlled construction, multilayered membranes are not part of the repertoire of cell-mimetic motifs used in bottom-up synthetic biology. To address this, we developed emulsion-based technologies that allow cell-sized multilayered vesicles to be produced layer-by-layer, with compositional control over each layer, thus enabling studies that would otherwise remain inaccessible. We discovered that bending rigidities scale with the number of layers and demonstrate inter-bilayer registration between coexisting liquid–liquid domains. These technologies will contribute to the exploitation of multilayered membrane structures, paving the way for incorporating protein complexes that span multiple bilayers.     

Synthesis and characterization of superoleophobic fumed alumina nanocomposite coated via the sol-gel process onto ceramic-based hollow fibre membrane for oil-water separation

Oily wastewater treatment is a global challenge due to the substantial amount of effluent resulted from many industrial and domestic activities. To overcome the challenge of using existing treatment approach and fouling, superoleophobic coatings were fabricated. In this study, a superoleophobic membrane surface was obtained using the sol-gel technique with perfluorooctanoate (PFO), poly (diallyl dimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC), and nanoparticles as complex-polymer nanocomposites. The effects of coating cycles on the surface structure, chemical properties, surface chemistry, and oleophobicity of the surface were examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and oil contact angle measurement. The results showed that the coated layer successfully adhered to the substrate surface. However, the chemical stability with respect to oil contact angle (OCA) revealed a decline at pH 7 and pH 9 and maintained stability at pH 3. Besides, oil flux at 63.0 L/m². h was achieved for PDADMAC-Al₂O₃/44 wt% PFO and the highest separation efficiency of 98% was obtained. Furthermore, the oil rejection decreases as the oil concentration increases from 1 to 3 g/L. OCA of 155° was obtained after 5 coating cycles. Apart from mitigating substrate fouling, the superoleophobic and superhydrophilic coating can be applied to a ceramic-based hollow fibre membrane and efficiently used for the separation of oil from oily wastewater.     

Investigation of the piezoelectric and anti-reduction properties of (Ba,Ca) (Ti,Sn, Hf) textured ceramics prepared under low oxygen partial pressure conditions at low sintering temperatures

Multilayer piezoelectric ceramics must be sintered in a reducing atmosphere, preventing oxidation of the inner base metal. Plate-like textured (Ba, Ca)(Ti, Sn, Hf)O₃ ceramics with a <001> preferred orientation were successfully developed at a low oxygen partial pressure (PO₂:10^?8 atm) using a BaTiO₃ (BT) template with sintering temperatures < 1300 °C, which is beneficial for multilayer applications using base metal co-firing with ceramics. When adding the 3 wt% BT template, the proposed samples had a Lottgering factor of 84 %, piezoelectric coefficients d₃₃ = 324 pC/N, -d₃₁ = 122 (pC/N), and Q_m = 452, and the strain values increased from 0.07 % for the randomly oriented ceramics to 0.115 % at 20 kV/cm for the textured ceramics, confirming that the texturing behavior assisted the grain growth and improved both the soft and hard behaviors and insulation resistance of the proposed lead-free ceramics. These findings make a significant contribution to the production of high-power piezoelectric components.     

基于跨临界CO2热泵的茶叶生产能源系统负荷削减潜力

乡村产业中的化石能源设备逐渐被电能技术替代，引起了乡村负荷波动增大、部分时段产生集中高负荷的问题。为了解决以上问题，将低品位清洁能源应用至乡村的茶叶生产中，针对烘茶全过程的工艺要求提出了跨临界CO₂热泵烘茶技术；并以某茶叶生产乡村为对象，对其代表台区的全年日用电量及产茶日负荷进行了分析，得出采用CO₂热泵烘茶后其负荷得到大幅度削减，整体可降低至原负荷的39.6%~46.8%，峰值负荷与平时负荷的比值由原本的13.6降至5.4~6.2。跨临界CO₂热泵应用至农产品生产中可有效缓解乡村供电压力。     

螺旋弹簧断裂失效分析

采用扫描电子显微镜、金相显微组织观察分析、硬度测试、喷丸覆盖率检测和材质的化学成分分析等,对断裂失效的弹簧进行分析。检测结果表明:弹簧在试验前已经裂开,如控制好回火条件,可减少缺陷产生的可能。     

Effect of different control strategies on rapid cold start-up of a 30-cell proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack

Many places experience extreme temperatures below −30 °C, which is a great challenge for the fuel cell vehicle (FCV). The aim of this study is to optimize the strategy to achieve rapid cold start-up of the 30-cell stack at different temperature conditions. The test shows that the stack rapidly starts within 30 s at an ambient temperature of −20 °C. Turning on the coolant at −25 °C show stability of the cell voltage at both ends due to the end-plate heating, however, voltage of intermediate cells fluctuates sharply, and successful start-up is completed after 60 s. The cold start strategy changes to load-voltage cooperative control mode when the ambient temperature reduced to −30 °C, the voltage of multiple cells in the middle of the stack fluctuate more drastic, and start-up takes 113 s. The performance and consistency of the stack did not decay after 20 cold start-up experiments, which indicates that our control strategies effectively avoided irreversible damage to the stack caused by freeze-thaw process.     

A rapid method to quantify casein in fluid milk by front-face fluorescence spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

Casein in fluid milk determines cheese yield and affects cheese quality. Traditional methods of measuring casein in milk involve lengthy sample preparations with labor-intensive nitrogen-based protein quantifications. The objective of this study was to quantify casein in fluid milk with different casein-to-crude-protein ratios using front-face fluorescence spectroscopy (FFFS) and chemometrics. We constructed calibration samples by mixing microfiltration and ultrafiltration retentate and permeate in different ratios to obtain different casein concentrations and casein-to-crude-protein ratios. We developed partial least squares regression and elastic net regression models for casein prediction in fluid milk using FFFS tryptophan emission spectra and reference casein contents. We used a set of 20 validation samples (including raw, skim, and ultrafiltered milk) to optimize and validate model performance. We externally tested another independent set of 20 test samples (including raw, skim, and ultrafiltered milk) by root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP), residual prediction deviation (RPD), and relative prediction error (RPE). The RMSEP for casein content quantification in raw, skim, and ultrafiltered milk ranged from 0.12 to 0.13%, and the RPD ranged from 3.2 to 3.4. The externally validated error of prediction was comparable to the existing rapid method and showed practical model performance for quality-control purposes. This FFFS-based method can be implemented as a routine quality-control tool in the dairy industry, providing rapid quantification of casein content in fluid milk intended for cheese manufacturing.     

Remaining useful life prediction of PEMFC based on cycle reservoir with jump model

Accurate prognosis of limited durability is one of the key factors for the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) on a large scale. Thanks to ignoring the structure of the PEMFC and simplifying the prognostic process, the data-driven prognostic approaches was the commonly used for predicting remaining useful life (RUL) at present. In this paper, the proposed cycle reservoir with jump (CRJ) model improves the ESN model, changes the connection mode of neurons in the reservoir and speeds up the linear fitting process. The experiment will verify the performance of CRJ model to predict stacks voltage under static current and quasi-dynamic current conditions. In addition, the reliability of the CRJ model is verified with different amount of data as the training and test sets. The experimental results demonstrate that the CRJ model can achieve better effect in the remaining useful life prognosis of fuel cells.     

Iron-doped metal-organic framework with enhanced oxygen evolution reaction activity for overall water splitting

Water electrolysis is an energy conversion technology to provide green and clean hydrogen energy. Developing a high-efficient and durable electrocatalyst is a critical material for water electrolysis. Therefore, we synthesize a series of iron-doped metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) by a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. In the conventional three-electrode-cell, the Co/Fe (1:1)-MOF catalyst exhibits an overpotential of 317 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Furthermore, the electrolysis performance of Co/Fe (1:1)-MOF catalyst is further evaluated in a home-made anion-exchange-membrane water electrolysis cell. With the Co/Fe (1:1)-MOF as the OER catalyst and commercial Pt/C as the hydrogen-evolution-reaction catalyst, the cell presents an overpotential of 490 mV at a large current density of 500 mA cm⁻², which is superior to the benchmark cell with commercial IrO₂ as the OER catalyst in the alkaline media. Theoretical calculation demonstrates that the introduction of Fe dopant into MOFs significantly reduces the binding energy of 1O and 1OOH intermedium during the OER progress. Consequently, the electrocatalytic activity is increased, which is perfectly consistent with the experimental results. This work suggests that the iron-doped MOFs structure significantly improves the electrocatalytic activity and provides a facile strategy to produce hydrogen at a large current density for industrial water electrolysis.