Iron oxide-Palladium core-shell nanospheres for ferromagnetic resonance-based hydrogen gas sensing

Interfaces of ferromagnetic transition metals such as Iron, Cobalt, and Nickel with non-magnetic palladium are of interest due to their unique magnetic and spintronic properties. These interfaces enable ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) based sensing of hydrogen gas. In the present work, we synthesized Fe₃O₄–Pd core-shell nanospheres via a one-pot synthesis method using the thermal decomposition of Fe³⁺ acetylacetonate in the presence of a reducing agent to produce the Fe₃O₄ core, followed by the reduction of a Pd²⁺ precursor to form the pure Pd shell. We found that our in-situ synthesized core-shell nanostructure is magnetically active and shows excellent H₂ gas sensing properties. The effect of reversible hydrogen gas absorption on the magnetism of Fe₃O₄–Pd core-shell nanospheres was investigated. The hydrogen-induced ferromagnetic-resonance (FMR) peak shift amounted to 30% of the peak linewidth for the virgin state of the sample. In addition, in the presence of hydrogen gas, we observed a fully reversible decrease in the FMR peak linewidth by about two times. This was accompanied by a nearly doubling of the FMR peak height. Response and recovery times of about 2 and 50 s, respectively, were extracted from the measurements. All the data was collected using a mix of just 3% hydrogen in a nitrogen carrier gas.     

Structural properties and sensing performance of CeTiO3 ceramic films as a solid-state pH sensor

In this paper, we have studied the impact of postannealing treatment on the structural properties and sensing characteristics of CeTiO₃ ceramic membranes deposited on Si substrate by sputtering for solid-state electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS) pH sensors. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy were used to study the chemical compositions, elemental depth profiles, film structures, and surface morphologies of CeTiO₃ ceramic membranes treated at three rapid thermal annealing (RTA) temperatures of 700, 800 and 900?°C. The sensing performance of the CeTiO₃ ceramic membranes annealed at three different RTA temperatures is strongly correlated to their structural properties. The CeTiO₃ EIS device after RTA at 800?°C exhibited the best sensing characteristics (pH sensitivity, hysteresis voltage and drift rate) among these RTA temperatures. We attribute this behavior to the optimal RTA temperature enhancing the Ce³⁺/Ce⁴⁺ ratio of CeTiO₃ ceramic membrane, reducing an interfacial layer at the CeTiO₃-Si interface, and increasing its surface roughness.     

Three-dimensional surface profile measurement of a cylindrical surface using a multi-beam angle sensor

To investigate the application of the multi-beam angle sensor (MBAS) to high-precision optical aspheric and freeform surfaces, which are critical components in optical systems, we present a method of using an MBAS to reconstruct an aspheric surface from angle data. The MBAS is based on a multi-autocollimator system with a microlens array, which can split the beam into several spots and can convert centroid detection of the light intensity into an angle measurement. The MBAS is designed to address the curvature-range problem via a circumferential scan better than other methods and automatically eliminates the tilt error caused by rotation of a workpiece. Using a tracking technique, the MBAS can automatically determine focal spot positions from the centroid measurement of the light intensity. This is directly related to the accuracy of the angular difference measurement. The experimental results confirm the feasibility of using an MBAS for 3D surface profile measurements of cylindrical surfaces.     

基于LoRa技术通信的采煤机姿态感知系统设计

为实现采煤机滚筒智能调高与远程控制记忆截割煤等功能,需获取采煤机精确姿态信息。设计一种基于LoRa技术通信的采煤机姿态感知系统。考虑井下工作条件恶劣、通信干扰因素多等特点,该系统采用抗振倾角传感器精确获取采煤机姿态信息,利用LoRa技术并结合滤波算法来提高系统的通信距离,实现采煤机滚筒智能调高和记忆截割煤的远程控制。通过在黄陵1#煤矿井下进行实际测试,结果表明,该系统在井下恶劣环境中获取的采煤机姿态信息精确,传输距离可达140 m,可以满足工作面远程控制需求。     

东峡煤矿主煤流运输系统智能化集控设计

通过对东峡煤矿主煤流运输系统的改造,设计了一套智能化集控系统,采用变频驱动,并结合料流传感器,增设无线基站、本安网络摄像仪和语音扩播终端等设备,实现了带式输送机载荷分布的自动调节,提高了系统的可靠性和运行效率,实现了减员、节能、增效的目的。     

波前传感器电铸镍层应力实时检测精度评估

目的 搭建电铸应力实时检测平台，评估其测量精度，并探明电化学沉积过程中镍层平均内应力的变化规律。方法 采用横向剪切波前传感器搭建电铸应力实时检测平台，通过测量在铸层应力作用下电铸基底弯曲的曲率半径，利用Stoney公式计算铸层平均应力。采用参考球面反射镜评估横向剪切波前传感器曲率半径的测量精度，并在0.5 A/dm2电流密度下进行电铸应力实时检测实验，对铸层平均应力测量极限进行评估，同时对检测误差进行分析。结果 横向波前传感器曲率半径测量精度为99.22%，在0.5 A/dm2电流密度下，所搭建的铸层应力实时检测平台可测量的最小厚度为5.1 μm，由曲率测量波动带来的应力检测误差为1.3 MPa。实验测得铸层平均应力随铸层厚度的增加而变大，当铸层厚度达到30 μm左右，铸层平均应力趋于稳定，应力大小为79.7 MPa。同时发现，当铸层厚度小于30 μm时，沿电铸基底长度方向的铸层平均应力明显大于宽度方向铸层平均应力，随铸层厚度的增加，两个方向的应力大小趋于等值。结论 采用横向剪切波前传感器搭建的电铸应力检测平台，能有效对铸层应力进行高精度的实时测量，为精密电铸过程中应力变化规律的研究提供了检测技术基础。     

Neural network-based learning and estimation of battery state-of-charge: A comparison study between direct and indirect methodology

Faced with the ever-increasing urban environmental pollution, the electric vehicles (EVs) have received increasing attention in the automotive industry. Lithium-ion batteries, serving as electrochemical power storage, have been extensively used in EVs because of the lightweight, no local pollution and high power density. The increasing awareness on the safe operation and reliability of the battery requires an efficient battery management system (BMS), among the parameters monitored by which, state-of-charge (SOC) is critical in preventing overcharge, deep discharge, and irreversible damage. This article investigates the neural network (NN)-based modeling, learning, and estimation of SOC by comparing two different methodologies, that is, direct structure with SOC as network output and indirect structure with voltage as output. Firstly, the nonlinear autoregressive exogenous neural network (NARX-NN) is introduced, in which SOC is directly deemed as an NN output for learning and estimation. Secondly, a radial basis function (RBF)-based NN with unscented Kalman filter (RBFNN-UKF) is proposed, in which the terminal voltage is used as output. Instead, SOC is deemed as an internal state which would be estimated indirectly based on the feedback error of voltage. Experimental results demonstrate that both estimators can achieve accurate SOC estimation for regular cases, in spite of the inaccurate initial conditions. However, the direct NN structure is revealed as not capable of dealing with the cases with sensor bias, which, however, can be well accommodated in the indirect structure by extending the sensor bias as an augmented state. Benefiting from the uncertainty augmentation and feedback compensation, the indirect RBFNN-UKF shows superiority over the direct estimation in the practical experiments, depicting a promising prospect in the future onboard EV-BMS application.     

Evaluating hydrogen detection performance of an electrospun CuZnFe2O4 nanofiber sensor

CuZnFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (<50 nm) are successfully synthesized and incorporated in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to fabricate nanofibers via electrospinning technique followed by calcination process under various temperatures. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to observe the morphological characteristics of both nanoparticles and nanofibers. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermo-gravimetric (TG) analyses along with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) analysis are conducted to evaluate structure and composition of the nanofibers, respectively. The results exhibit that the calcination temperature is substantially effective on nanofiber morphology and sensing performance in the context of forming grains (beads) on the nanofibers. The highest response and recovery performance values (response and recovery time of about 6.5 s) are obtained at the calcination temperature of 500 °C and sensor working temperature of 250 °C at 500 ppm of H2 gas concentration which also corresponds to 30% increment in detection performance compared to 300 °C-calcined nanofiber sensor. The sensor selectivity against various gases is also analyzed to compare the detection performance in air.     

Fabrication of high-fracture-strength and gas-tightness PDC films via PIP process for pressure sensor application

High-fracture-strength and high-gas-tightness thin-film gas-pressure sensors were fabricated using a silicon oxycarbonitride polymer-derived-ceramic (SiCNO-PDC) material via a multiple polymer-infiltration-pyrolysis (PIP) process. To obtain dense SiCNO ceramic films, two types of liquid polyvinylsilazane (PVSZ) precursors were chosen; a high-ceramic-yield precursor with high viscosity (PVSZ-1) was designed to construct the skeleton of ceramic film, whereas a relatively high-ceramic-yield precursor with low viscosity (PVSZ-2) was designed to infiltrate in ceramic defects. The results confirmed that the PVSZ-2 can effectively fill both intergranular and intragranular defects of ceramic films pyrolyzed by the PVSZ-1, and produce the sponge-like structures with nanosized pores. Although the density of the ceramic films only increased by 2.2%-5.2% after PIP process, the gas tightness was fundamentally improved, and all ceramic films after PIP process could keep gas-tight condition without loss of pressure after 72 hours. Similarly, the fracture strengths of the ceramic films after PIP cycles have also been improved, and the value could reach 108 MPa after only three PIP cycles. In addition, because a linear relationship among the load, resonant frequency, and deflection was detected in our ceramic films, the wireless passive gas-pressure sensors with high-sensitivity and high-temperature resistance have been fabricated. It strongly indicates that the ceramic films obtained by our PIP process have real potential to be used as thin-film gas-pressure sensing elements in high-temperature and high-pressure fields.     

Hydrogen ion sensing characteristics of Na3BiO4–Bi2O3 mixed oxide nanostructures based EGFET pH sensor

In the present paper, Na₃BiO₄–Bi₂O₃ films have been tested for hydrogen ion sensing. Na₃BiO₄–Bi₂O₃ mixed oxide nanostructures were deposited on the Indium–Tin-Oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate using a low-cost electrodeposition technique at room temperature. The nanostructures have been characterized using FESEM and XPS to study their morphology and composition, respectively. Vertically aligned nanostructures (thickness~90 nm) with well-defined edges were seen in FESEM studies. XPS analysis indicates the presence of Na₃BiO₄ and Bi₂O₃. The crystallinity and the mixed phase of the film were further confirmed by X-ray diffraction study. These nanostructures were explored as a potential candidate for pH sensing using them as a sensing film for Extended-Gate Field-Effect Transistor (EGFET). A sensitivity of 49.63 mV/pH has been observed with good linearity. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time vertically aligned Na₃BiO₄–Bi₂O₃ mixed oxide nanostructures are demonstrated as an EGFET-based (Hydrogen ion) pH sensor.