Effect of carbon nanotubes on structure and properties of the antifriction coatings produced by plasma cladding

Abstract

Due to their high antifriction characteristics, the Sn-Sb-Cu alloys (referred to as babbits) are widely used to coat sliding bearings. However, some limitations of the present techniques for applying such coating materials cause a decrease in their fatigue strength because of the reinforcing phase particles growth. As a technique for restricting the increasing of the reinforcing particle sizes, this paper proposes plasma surface cladding with multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) as modifiers. The dry sliding friction tests performed according to the “pin-on-disk” scheme using as a counterface a steel 100Cr6 (DIN 17230) disk have shown that adding to the coating 0.25%wt of CNTs significantly improves the friction stability (the coefficient of friction process stability decreases twice with reducing the friction coefficient and wear resistance by 5% on the average). An attempt to reveal the mechanism for the MWNT influence on the structure and performance of the babbit-based coatings was undertaken. Studies of the coatings metal structure by soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy and also by the metallographic and fractographic analysis involving electron-microscopy have shown that MWNTs remain stable during plasma cladding process and save into the coating.     

A Novel Beam Search to Improve Neural Machine Translation for English-Chinese

Neural Machine Translation (NMT) is an end-to-end learning approach for automated translation, overcoming the weaknesses of conventional phrase-based translation systems. Although NMT based systems have gained their popularity in commercial translation applications, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Being the most popular search algorithm in NMT, beam search is vital to the translation result. However, traditional beam search can produce duplicate or missing translation due to its target sequence selection strategy. Aiming to alleviate this problem, this paper proposed neural machine translation improvements based on a novel beam search evaluation function. And we use reinforcement learning to train a translation evaluation system to select better candidate words for generating translations. In the experiments, we conducted extensive experiments to evaluate our methods. CASIA corpus and the 1,000,000 pairs of bilingual corpora of NiuTrans are used in our experiments. The experiment results prove that the proposed methods can effectively improve the English to Chinese translation quality.     

Redox‐Active Polymers Connecting Living Microbial Cells to an Extracellular Electrical Circuit

Microbial electrochemical systems in which metabolic electrons in living microbes have been extracted to or injected from an extracellular electrical circuit have attracted considerable attention as environmentally‐friendly energy conversion systems. Since general microbes cannot exchange electrons with extracellular solids, electron mediators are needed to connect living cells to an extracellular electrode. Although hydrophobic small molecules that can penetrate cell membranes are commonly used as electron mediators, they cannot be dissolved at high concentrations in aqueous media. The use of hydrophobic mediators in combination with small hydrophilic redox molecules can substantially increase the efficiency of the extracellular electron transfer process, but this method has side effects, in some cases, such as cytotoxicity and environmental pollution. In this Review, recently‐developed redox‐active polymers are highlighted as a new type of electron mediator that has less cytotoxicity than many conventional electron mediators. Owing to the design flexibility of polymer structures, important parameters that affect electron transport properties, such as redox potential, the balance of hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity, and electron conductivity, can be systematically regulated.     

Advance application of Raman spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of noncrystalline components in thin films of poly(ε-caprolactone)/poly(butadiene) blends

A quantitative analysis method for the distribution of noncrystalline poly(butadiene) component in poly(ε-caprolactone)/poly(butadiene) (PCL/PB) binary blends have been analyzed by advance application of Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. Thin films of different compositions of PCL/PB binary blends were prepared from solution and isothermally crystallized at a certain temperature. After calibration with real data, quantitative analyses by Raman spectroscopy revealed the amorphous PB are trapped inside the PCL crystals. Polarized optical microscopy and real time atomic force microscopy were used to collect data for the crystal morphology and crystal growth rate. For pure PCL crystals, a morphology of truncated lozenge shape was observed, independent of crystallization temperature and regardless of the blends compositions. For the pure PCL and their blends, almost unique crystal growth rate was found. The miscibility behaviors using DSC were drawn through melting point depression method. The Hoffman-Weeks extrapolations of the blends were found to be linear and identical with those of the neat PCL. The interaction parameter for the blends indicating that the PCL and PB blends have no intermolecular interaction, confirming the blends are immiscible. Despite the immiscibility of the blend, the PCL crystals do not bend during the growth process and do not reduce the growth rate as they do for miscible blend systems.     

退火工艺对激光选区熔化成形Ti6Al4V合金组织及室温力学性能的影响

以Ti6Al4V球形粉末为原料,利用激光选区熔化成形方法制备了Ti6Al4V合金试样,采用光学显微镜、扫描电镜及力学性能测试等手段,研究了退火工艺对Ti6Al4V合金室温力学性能及组织的影响规律。结果表明: SLM成形沉积态Ti6Al4V合金室温抗拉强度超过1200 MPa,而平均断后伸长率仅为4.0%;在650 ℃下进行真空退火处理,合金的抗拉强度仍保持在1200 MPa左右,规定塑性延伸强度R_p0.2高于1150 MPa,但试样的断后伸长率<10%;而在750及800 ℃下进行真空退火处理,合金试样的抗拉强度降至1100 MPa左右,规定塑性延伸强度高于1050 MPa,伸长率达到甚至超过10%,材料的综合强韧性得到明显提升。随着真空退火加热温度和保温时间的增加,SLM成形Ti6Al4V合金原始β晶界逐渐变模糊,晶粒趋向于等轴化。与此同时,快速冷却转变的α′针状马氏体未出现明显地粗化。     

毫米波波束管理的设计与研究

毫米波是第五代移动通信系统的重要通信技术,因其频谱特性可以利用大带宽承载大量信息,有效提升系统的吞吐量。高频段毫米波传输具有高损耗性,且受环境影响较大,为了支持非视距和移动性,必须支持准确且实时的波束跟踪以确保信号传输质量。波束管理的目的是使得基站与终端之间发送与接收波束对准以提高链路的性能。文中根据3GPP协议规范设计了波束管理方案,包括以下几方面的内容:波束扫描、波束测量、波束上报、波束指示、波束失败恢复。     

高能量离子束诊断质谱仪的研制及性能表征

本研究开发了一台应用于高能量离子束诊断的直线式飞行时间质谱仪，实现了其与高能真空弧放电离子源的联用。该仪器加速电压30 kV，飞行腔有效飞行距离1.5 m，通过短脉冲离子门精确截取，ICCD高速相机优化聚焦，仪器分辨率优于90 FWHM，对放电过程中产生的等离子体可实现不同时间的离子成分分析。将该方法用于真空弧放电离子源放电过程中离子成分的检测，放电2 μs时，电离成分以气态离子C⁺、O⁺、C²⁺、O²⁺为主；放电6 μs后，除气体成分外，还可以检测到Fe⁺、Cu⁺及其同位素金属离子峰。该仪器能够给出离子源放电产生离子的种类、价态以及相对含量等信息，可实现整个放电过程产生离子成分信息的准确诊断。     

Coupling in situ experiments and modeling – Opportunities for data fusion,machine learning,and discovery of emergent behavior

This paper reviews recent studies, that not only includes both experiments and modeling components, but celebrates a close coupling between these techniques, in order to provide insights into the plasticity and failure of polycrystalline metals. Examples are provided of studies across multiple-scales, including, but not limited to, density functional theory combined with atom probe tomography, molecular dynamics combined with in situ transmission electron miscopy, discrete dislocation dynamics combined with nanopillars experiments, crystal plasticity combined with digital image correlation, and crystal plasticity combined with in situ high energy X-ray diffraction. The close synergy between in situ experiments and modeling provides new opportunities for model calibration, verification, and validation, by providing direct means of comparison, thus removing aspects of epistemic uncertainty in the approach. Further, data fusion between in situ experimental and model-based data, along with data driven approaches, provides a paradigm shift for determining the emergent behavior of deformation and failure, which is the foundation that underpins the mechanical behavior of polycrystalline materials.     

Seeing is believing? When scanning electron microscopy (SEM) meets clinical dentistry: The replica technique.

In restorative dentistry, the in situ replication of intra‐oral situations, is based on a non‐invasive and non‐destructive scanning electron microscopy (SEM) evaluation method. The technique is suitable for investigation restorative materials and dental hard‐ and soft‐tissues, and its interfaces. Surface characteristics, integrity of interfaces (margins), or fracture analysis (chipping, cracks, etc.) with reliable resolution and under high magnification (from ×50 to ×5,000). Overall the current study aims to share detailed and reproducible information about the replica technique. Specific goals are: (a) to describe detailed each step involved in producing a replica of an intra‐oral situation, (b) to validate an integrated workflow based on a rational sequence from visual examination, to macrophotography and SEM analysis using the replica technique; (c) to present three clinical cases documented using the technique. A compilation of three clinical situations/cases were analyzed here by means the replica technique showing a wide range of possibilities that can be reached and explored with the described technique. This guidance document will contribute to a more accurate use of the replica technique and help researchers and clinicians to understand and identify issues related to restorative procedures under high magnification.