Using “intercalation bridging” to effectively improve the electrothermal properties of sheet graphite / ultrafine carbon powder conductive paste for screen printing

Electrothermal materials can easily and controllably convert electric energy into heat energy, and are widely used in many electrothermal fields. In this paper, a series of conductive pastes were simply prepared by ball milling, and their rheological and electrothermal properties were studied. Phenolic resin was used as curing agent of epoxy resin and rheological modifier, which could make the paste have very good printing applicability. Ultrafine carbon(UC) powder has excellent dispersion effect. Sheet carbon materials such as graphite powder(GP), graphite nanosheet(GS) and graphene(GE) would improve the performance of paste using only UC as conductive filler. It was proved that GE with the smallest thickness has the most obvious lifting effect. UC was gathered around the graphene sheet, as a bridge between graphene sheets. GE could also be connected with each other to build a more effective and denser conductive path. The electrothermal film could reach 199°C under 30 V voltage, increasing by 254.7% compared with the electrothermal film with only UC as conductive filler. The electrothermal film had a short response time, good recyclability and excellent flexibility. The electrothermal film also had certain electromagnetic shielding efficiency. The electromagnetic shielding efficiency SE could reach about 20 dB at 30–1500 MHz, and the ratio of field strength before and after attenuation SE_% could reach 97%?+?. This electrothermal film has simple preparation process, good printing applicability, controllable film resistance, excellent flexibility, fast response speed and good recyclability. It is suitable for large-scale preparation and has broad application prospects in many scenarios.

     

An active balancer with rapid bidirectional charge shuttling and adaptive equalization current control for lithium-ion battery strings

This article proposes an active balancer, which features bidirectional charge shuttling and adaptive equalization current control, to fast counterbalance the state of charge (SOC) of cells in a lithium-ion battery (LIB) string. The power circuit consists of certain bidirectional buck-boost converters to transfer energy among the different cells back and forth. Owing to the characterization of the open-circuit voltage (OCV) vs SOC in LIB being relatively smooth near the SOC middle range, the SOC-inspected balance strategy can achieve more precise and efficient equilibrium than the voltage-based control. Accordingly, a compensated OCV-based SOC estimation is put forward to take into account the discrepancy of SOC estimation. Besides, the varied-duty-cycle (VDC) and curve-fitting modulation (CFM) methods are devised herein to tackle the problems of slow equalization rate and low balance efficacy, which arise from the diminution in balancing current as the SOC difference between the cells decreases in the later duration of equalization especially. The proposed strategies have taken the battery nonlinear characteristic and circuit parameter nonideality into account and can adaptively modulate the duty cycle with the SOC difference to keep balancing current constant throughout the balancing cycle. Simulated and experimental results are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the same prototype constructed. Compared with the fixed duty cycle and the VDC methods, the proposed CFM has the best balancing efficiency of 81.4%, and the balance time is shortened by 27.1% and 18.6%, respectively.     

Lactobacillus plantarum ZLC-18 fermentation improve tyrosinase inhibition activity and antioxidant capacity in soybean hulls

Soybean hulls, the main byproduct in soybean processing, have many biological activities. However, the value of this byproduct is still far from being fully exploited. In this study, we investigated the anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant capacities in soybean hulls fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum ZLC-18 (L. plantarum ZLC-18). We found that L. plantarum ZLC-18 fermentation could markedly improve the anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant activities of soybean hulls. The anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant activities were positively correlated with the total phenolic and flavonoid contents. UPLC–MS analysis suggested that phenolic compounds (daidzin, genistin, vanillic acid and so on) were increased in soybean hulls after fermentation, and some of these compounds were shown to have anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant activities. Our study demonstrates that fermentation is an efficient strategy to enhance the bioactive function of soybean hulls. Moreover, this study provides evidence that soybean hulls can be used as a kind of functional food ingredient, thereby improving their economic benefits.     

Ultralight and robustly compressible silica aerogel enhanced by AC/C sponge with high oil/water separation

Journal of Porous Materials - In recent years, oil spills and industrial organic pollutants have caused irreparable damage to the environment and biological ecosystems. Therefore, the treatment of...     

Simultaneous fractionation of multiple classes of polyphenols from honeybush tea using solid-phase extraction

The structural diversity of polyphenols and the inherent limitations of current extraction techniques pose a challenge to extract polyphenols using a simple and green method. Hence, in this study, a method was developed to simultaneously fractionate multiple classes of polyphenols by only varying ethanol-water solutions. Honeybush tea, which is rich in polyphenols, was selected as a model for this study. Solvent extraction followed by solid-phase extraction (SPE) was developed to obtain a polyphenol-rich fraction from six honeybush samples. Based on a gradient elution programme (10%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 90% (v/v) ethanol-water solution) of SPE, the Strata X cartridge showed a better recovery of most targeted polyphenols under 0.9 mL of the drying volume and 1 mL min⁻¹ of the dispensing speed. The elution programme for fractionating most polyphenols was as follows: single elution with 50% ethanol, followed by twice elution with 70% ethanol. The antioxidant capacity was used to analyse the differences among the polyphenol-rich fractions from six honeybush samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that unfermented C. genistoides (GG) has the greatest antioxidant capacity among the honeybush species studied. Additionally, mangiferin, isomangiferin and vicenin-2 were the main contributors to the antioxidant capacity in six honeybush fractions according to the correlation study.     

Adaptive response and tolerance to weak acids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii: a metabolomics approach

Weak acids inhibit the growth of probiotics, such as Saccharomyces boulardii. We explored the tolerance of S. boulardii to different weak acids. S. boulardii had better fermentation ability under lactic acid conditions compared with acetic and butyric acid conditions; however, the budding of S. boulardii was significantly stronger than that of Saccharomyces cerevisiae under acetic acid conditions. Although the surface structure of S. boulardii was destroyed, it produced more daughter cells. S. boulardii metabolites were also significantly different from S. cerevisiae under acidic stress. The growth of S. boulardii under weak acid conditions differed significantly from that of S. cerevisiae. S. boulardii-mediated fingerprints under weak acid conditions were identified as latent biomarkers, related to fructose and mannose metabolism, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and the glycolysis pathway. Identified biomarkers will aid in the genetic engineering of S. boulardii and other Saccharomyces strains for improved acid resistance and biomass yield.