Constructing magnetically recoverable CdS/CaFe2O4 P–N heterojunctions for enhanced photoelectrochemical properties towards H2 evolution reaction

A novel CdS/CaFe₂O₄ (CS/CFO) heterogeneous p-n junction was created by thermal deposition of CaFe₂O₄ nanoparticles on CdS rods. The CS/CFO hetero-structured photocatalysts exhibited increasingly efficient visible light harvesting compared to the bare CdS. The CS/CFO composites also presented higher photocurrent and slower decay of photoluminescence, suggesting a better separation of the photo-generated electrons and holes. The photocatalytic H₂ evolution quantity on the optimized CS/CFO composite from water in the presence of ethanol was up to 2200 μmol after 3-h visible light illumination, which is more than twice that of the pristine CdS. The chemical interaction between CdS and CaFe₂O₄ was confirmed by the shifts in the XPS peaks, which made it possible for the charge carriers to transfer across the p-n junction interface. This research highlights the importance of forming an interfacial p-n heterojunction between two semiconductors for efficient charge separation and improved photocatalytic performance.     

Design,simulation, elaboration and luminescence of Tb3+-doped Ba0.84Gd0.16F2.16 fluoroaluminosilicate scintillating glass ceramics

Extensive researches on scintillators have been executed to satisfy the excellent radiation detection materials in broad applications. However, practical application of conventional scintillators is limited due to the limitations of high cost, time-consuming fabrication process and insufficient radioluminescence. Herein, high density precursor glass doped with Tb³⁺ was designed to absorb X-ray efficiently and produce green emission. Molecular dynamics simulation was used to simulate the phase separation process in melting process. Then, Tb³⁺-doped Ba_0.84Gd_0.16F_2.16 glass ceramics (GCs) with excellent structural and optical properties were elaborated by melt quenching technic and further heat treating. Their structural properties, photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) were explored detailedly. The internal quantum efficiency of PL is 64 % in GCs. The XEL intensity is 192 % of that of Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ (BGO) commercial scintillator. Our results suggest that Ba_0.84Gd_0.16F_2.16:Tb³⁺ GCs might have potential application in X-ray detection.     

Cross-linked anion exchange membranes with flexible,long-chain,bis-imidazolium cation cross-linker

Herein, poly (phenylene) oxide (PPO)-based cross-linked anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with flexible, long-chain, bis-imidazolium cation cross-linkers are designed and synthesized. Although the cross-linked membranes possess high ion exchange capacity (IEC) values of up to 3.51–3.94 meq g⁻¹, they have a low swelling degree and good mechanical strength because of their cross-linked structure. Though the membranes with the longest flexible bis-imidazolium cation cross-linker (BMImH-PPO) possess the lowest IEC among these PPO-based AEMs, they show the highest conductivity (24.10 mS cm⁻¹ at 20 °C) and highest power density (325.7 mW cm⁻² at 60 °C) because of the wide hydrophilic/hydrophobic microphase separation in the membranes that promote the construction of ion transport channels, as confirmed by atom force microscope (AFM) images and the small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analyses. Furthermore, the BMImH-PPO samples exhibit good chemical stability (10% and 6% decrease in IEC and conductivity, respectively, in 2 M KOH at 80 °C for 480 h, and a 22% decrease in weight in Fenton's reagent at 60 °C for 120 h), making such cross-linked AEMs potentially applicable in alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells.     

Efficient estimation of extreme quantiles using adaptive kriging and importance sampling

This study considers an efficient method for the estimation of quantiles associated to very small levels of probability (up to O(10⁻⁹)), where the scalar performance function J is complex (eg, output of an expensive-to-run finite element model), under a probability measure that can be recast as a multivariate standard Gaussian law using an isoprobabilistic transformation. A surrogate-based approach (Gaussian Processes) combined with adaptive experimental designs allows to iteratively increase the accuracy of the surrogate while keeping the overall number of J evaluations low. Direct use of Monte-Carlo simulation even on the surrogate model being too expensive, the key idea consists in using an importance sampling method based on an isotropic-centered Gaussian with large standard deviation permitting a cheap estimation of small quantiles based on the surrogate model. Similar to AK-MCS as presented in the work of Schöbi et al., (2016), the surrogate is adaptively refined using a parallel infill criterion of an algorithm suitable for very small failure probability estimation. Additionally, a multi-quantile selection approach is developed, allowing to further exploit high-performance computing architectures. We illustrate the performances of the proposed method on several two to eight-dimensional cases. Accurate results are obtained with less than 100 evaluations of J on the considered benchmark cases.     

Artificial neural networks as alternative tool for minimizing error predictions in manufacturing ultradeformable nanoliposome formulations

This work was aimed at determining the feasibility of artificial neural networks (ANN) by implementing backpropagation algorithms with default settings to generate better predictive models than multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis. The study was hypothesized on timolol-loaded liposomes. As tutorial data for ANN, causal factors were used, which were fed into the computer program. The number of training cycles has been identified in order to optimize the performance of the ANN. The optimization was performed by minimizing the error between the predicted and real response values in the training step. The results showed that training was stopped at 10?000 training cycles with 80% of the pattern values, because at this point the ANN generalizes better. Minimum validation error was achieved at 12 hidden neurons in a single layer. MLR has great prediction ability, with errors between predicted and real values lower than 1% in some of the parameters evaluated. Thus, the performance of this model was compared to that of the MLR using a factorial design. Optimal formulations were identified by minimizing the distance among measured and theoretical parameters, by estimating the prediction errors. Results indicate that the ANN shows much better predictive ability than the MLR model. These findings demonstrate the increased efficiency of the combination of ANN and design of experiments, compared to the conventional MLR modeling techniques.     

Passivity and synchronisation of complex dynamical networks with multiple derivative couplings

Two network models with multiple derivative couplings and different dimensions of output and input vectors are investigated in this paper. The problem of passivity for the proposed network models is analysed by utilising some inequality techniques and Lyapunov functional method, and several synchronisation conditions for complex dynamical networks with multiple derivative couplings (CDNMDC) are given. Moreover, by employing adaptive state feedback control strategy, some sufficient conditions for guaranteeing passivity and synchronisation of CDNMDC are obtained. In the end, we give two examples to verify the effectiveness of the results.     

On monitoring the process mean of autocorrelated observations with measurement errors using the w-of-w runs-rules scheme

Runs-rules have been widely used since the 1950s in industrial and nonindustrial process monitoring applications to improve the performance of basic and other traditional monitoring schemes. However, none of the studies on runs-rules have accounted for a process with a combined effect of measurement errors and autocorrelation. Hence, in this paper, the use of the w-of-w runs-rules to improve the performance of the Shewhart $\overline{X}$ scheme using an additive model with a constant variance and a first-order autoregressive model is proposed. To reduce the combined negative effect of measurement errors and autocorrelation, we implement a sampling strategy based on rational subgroups in which (a) multiple measurements per item are taken (instead of a standard single measurement) and (b) non-neighboring observations are gathered. Moreover, the latter sampling strategy is incorporated into the values of probability elements of a Markov chain matrix which is used to derive some closed-form expressions for the zero- and steady-state run-length distribution. The main finding of this study is that, with respect to some overall performance measures, the proposed scheme outperforms the existing Shewhart $\overline{X}$ scheme by a significant margin. A real-life example is used to illustrate the practical implementation of the proposed scheme.     

来瓦希尔骨架材料MIL-53(Al)填充PEBA膜渗透汽化分离水中苯胺

将来瓦希尔骨架材料MIL-53(Al)引入到聚醚共聚酰胺（PEBA-2533）高分子相中制备了不同填充量的PEBA/MIL-53(Al)杂化膜并用于渗透汽化分离水中微量苯胺。X-射线衍射结果证实MIL-53(Al)被成功合成。扫描电镜和激光粒度分析结果表明所制备MIL-53(Al)颗粒粒径在纳米尺度范围内。采用扫描电镜、红外光谱、X-射线衍射、差示扫描量热和水接触角对杂化膜进行了表征，并考察了杂化膜的溶胀行为和分离性能。结果表明，所得杂化膜的热稳定性较好。当MIL-53(Al)质量分数小于20%时，MIL-53(Al)在高分子相中分散均匀，继续增大填充量出现团聚现象。杂化膜的结晶度随MIL-53(Al)填充量的增加而降低。MIL-53(Al)的引入增强了杂化膜的疏水性和溶胀度。在料液温度为60℃、膜下游压力400Pa、料液苯胺质量分数为3.6%时，MIL-53(Al)质量分数为20%的杂化膜（M-20）综合分离性能最优，渗透通量达到2.15kg/(m²·h)，分离因子为264。12天的稳定性测试结果表明所得杂化膜分离性能无显著变化，能够满足渗透汽化应用要求。     

Development and performance test of a miniature movable mixed-refrigerant liquid nitrogen generator

In order to cover long-term but small quantity liquid nitrogen requirements of laboratory or field users, a miniature movable mixed-refrigerant liquid nitrogen generator (MRLN) was developed and tested here, based on a precooled mixed-refrigerant J-T (MRJT) refrigerator. With the full air-cooled, skid-mounted structure, this MRLN was built utilizing off-the-shelf refrigeration components like commercial single-stage oil-lubricated compressors to reduce construction cost greatly. Bottled pure N₂, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit and mini cryogenic rectification column could be employed to supply N₂ in different operation modes respectively. In pure N₂ mode, N₂ was directly liquefied by the MRJT refrigerator. With feed N₂ at 0.8 MPa, the specific power consumption (SPC) was 1.79 kWh L⁻¹, and figure of merit (FOM) was 6.27%. The estimated SPC in PSA mode was 2.68 kWh L⁻¹. For column mode, the SPC was 4.59 kWh L⁻¹, with FOM of 3.38%. A closed N₂ cycle could convey cooling capacity between flammable refrigerant and air. This MRLN could be a convenient and low-costing choice for some liquid nitrogen users.     

High‐performance printable paper‐like composites derived from plastic flexible film wastes

Owing to lack of proper recycling methods, plastic flexible film wastes are usually directly discarded or incinerated, which brings about severe environmental pollution. Therefore, converting plastic wastes into value‐added products has received more and more attention in recent years. In this work, paper‐like composites derived from plastic flexible film wastes were prepared via the thermally induced phase separation method by adding polyethylene‐graft‐maleic anhydride (PE‐g‐MAH) as a compatibilizer and fumed silica as an additive. The resulting paper‐like composites were characterized by SEM and infrared spectroscopy. Other properties such as mechanical properties, thermal properties, whiteness, printability and adsorption performance were also tested in detail. It was found that remarkable enhancements in mechanical, thermal and printable properties of the paper‐like composites were obtained when nano‐SiO₂ loading was 2.5–3 wt%. Uniformly distributed holes that can endow good printability by providing space for ink or other functional molecules were observed by using SEM. Furthermore, the CIE whiteness value of the resulting composites can reach 91.6%–96.7% on adding nano‐SiO₂. Additionally, the paper‐like composites integrating nano‐SiO₂ and PE‐g‐MAH exhibited good solid ink affinity and high water or oil adsorption capacity. Thus, according to this research, high‐performance printable paper‐like composites used as major components of multifunctional papers can be prepared based on plastic flexible film wastes. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry