Quality assessment of commercial paprikas

Several quality parameters of smoked, oven‐dried and sun‐dried paprikas were studied. Smoked paprikas showed the highest American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) units and pigment concentrations, whereas oven‐dried paprikas showed the best browning index and red/yellow pigment ratio, and sun‐dried paprikas had the highest redness for reflected colour. The colour stability results showed drastic overall colour change (ΔE) and decreased redness and ASTA units of the sun‐dried and oven‐dried paprikas after two and 5 days of UV exposure. Degradation of the smoked paprika colour parameters was progressive, and they showed less degradation even after 30 days. The evaluation of the antioxidant activity showed higher DPPH radical‐scavenging capacity in the smoked samples. The profiles of volatile phenolic compounds of the smoked samples are responsible for the differences in the antioxidant capacity. The great differences in colour stability and antioxidant activity make smoked paprika the best choice for use in the food industry.     

Microstructure and thermal stability of low-oxygen SiC fibers prepared by an economical chemical vapor curing method

Continuous SiC fibers (SiC-CVC fibers) with low oxygen content (~2 wt%) were prepared by pyrolysis of polycarbosilane (PCS) fibers cured with chemical vapor curing (CVC). PCS fibers were cured by cyclohexene vapor as curing agent. Their structure and properties were compared with those of SiC fibers obtained from electron beam irradiation curing (SiC-EB fibers). SiC-CVC fibers were similar to SiC-EB fibers, with distinctly better thermomechanical stability than that of fibers cured by thermal oxidation curing (commercial KD-I fibers). CVC is a more economical and practicable approach for preparing high-performance SiC fibers than other strategies.     

A necessary and sufficient condition for input-to-state stability of quantised feedback systems

For zooming-out/in method used in the design of quantised feedback systems, the property of the duration of zoom-out mode (this duration is defined as capture time) is essential to input-to-state stability (ISS) of systems. This paper shows that a necessary and sufficient condition of achieving ISS with respect to external disturbances for quantised feedback systems is that capture time under the proposed coding scheme is uniformly bounded. It further shows that the coding scheme under which capture time is only bounded and not uniformly bounded cannot guarantee ISS of systems. A coding scheme is designed for uniformly bounded capture time and therefore achieves ISS of systems.     

Optimization of Green Multiple Emulsions Processing to Improve Their Physical Stability

The effect of processing protocol on physical stability and the microstructure of water‐in‐oil‐in‐water multiple emulsions containing a mixture of two amphiphilic copolymers with opposed hydrophilic‐lipophilic balance as emulsifiers and a green solvent, 2‐ethylhexyl lactate, as the dispersed phase, has been assessed. Emulsions were obtained in at least two steps: a homogenization step by using a rotor‐stator device, followed by one or two homogenization steps carried out in a high‐pressure device that used microfluidizer technology. To study the microstructure and physical stability of these emulsions, a combination of different techniques, such as transmitted‐light optical microscopy, globule size distribution, viscous flow tests, and multiple light scattering measurements, were performed.     

支链化聚铵盐及其在压裂和酸化作业中的应用

制备了支链化聚铵盐系列化合物,评价了其在清水、胍胶液和盐酸溶液中对粘土膨胀的抑制作用,并对微观结构进行了分析。结果显示:在最佳制备条件下0.5%BPM-7溶液中90min时粘土的线性膨胀率为50.0%;BPM-7与胍胶的配伍性良好,能够强化胍胶液的抑制性,在酸液中也有较强的粘土稳定作用。支链化聚铵盐可通过离子交换取代粘土中原有的金属阳离子进入粘土层间,从而抑制水分子水化分散粘土,保持粘土层间距和颗粒的结构。作为粘土稳定剂应用于某气田酸化作业,能有效保护储层,作业后产气量显著提升。     

Microstructural changes and mechanical behaviour of a near lamellar γ-TiAl alloy during long-term exposure at 700 °C

Ti-44Al-5Nb-1W-1B with a near lamellar microstructure was exposed at 700 °C for up to 10000 h in air. The changes in microstructure were investigated using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. It has been found that the combined addition of Nb and W can restrict parallel decomposition of α₂ lamellae into ultrafine γ lamellae, but causes prevalent precipitation of fine β(B2+ω) particles from α₂ lamellae and precipitation/growth of ω particles from β(B2) grains. However, although 3/4 of α₂ lamellae dissolved and majority of them transformed to β(B2+ω), tensile ductility is reduced only by 30% while the strengths remain essentially unchanged for the thermally exposed alloy. This is attributed to the widespread distribution of β(B2+ω) particles. On the other hand, fatigue limit was found to decrease during the first 5000-h exposure but finally increased by 11% after 10000-h exposure. The reasons for the decrease and increase of fatigue strength at different exposure stages are discussed by considering two contradictory effects on the exposed alloy: 1) exposure-induced embrittlement due to microstructural changes (harmful); 2) annealing of fatigue samples in a warm air environment for prolonged time (beneficial).     

A novel intramolecular charge transfer blue fluorophor for high color stability hybrid di-chromatic white organic light-emitting diodes

A novel intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) based blue fluorophor, 5,11-di(40-dimesitylboronphenyl)indolo[3,2-b]carbazole(DDBICZ), possessing a high fluorescent quantum yield of 0.52, a high triplet energy level (2.59 eV), and an intriguing bipolar charge transporting ability, was used as a highly efficient blue fluorophor and a host for a yellow phosphor. Doping a yellow phosphor(bis(2-(3-trifluoromethyl-4-fluorophenyl)-4-methylquinolyl)(acetyl-acetonate)iridium(III) (Ir(ffpmq)₂(acac)) in the host DDBICZ, a simplified fluorescence/phosphorescence (F/P)-based hybrid white organic light-emitting diode (WOLED) with a symmetrical BYB-EML of DDBICZ (10 nm)/DDBICZ: 6 wt% Ir(ffpmq)₂(acac) (10 nm)/DDBICZ (10 nm) is demonstrated. The hybrid WOLED exhibits excellent high color stability and good color quality. Under wide operating voltage range from 5 V to 10 V, the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of the hybrid WOLED only change from (0.35, 0.36) to (0.34, 0.35), with a high color rending index (CRI) of 79–81. The high color stability is due to the fact that the BYB-EML effectively offsets the change of emission intensity from different emitters caused by the shift of carrier recombination zone with the increase of voltage. In addition, the hybrid WOLED also reveals a considerable current efficiency of 24.4 cd/A. These results demonstrate that efficient F/P hybrid WOLEDs with high color stability could be achieved by such simple BYB-EML structure using single-dopant strategy.     

Effect of strain-induced martensitic phase transformation on the formability of nitrogen-alloyed metastable austenitic stainless steels

Strain-induced martensitic phase transformation and its influence on the formability of newly developed nitrogen-alloyed metastable austenitic stainless steels were systematically investigated. Yield strength for the asreceived steels bearing lownickel content was around 300 MPa and their elongation ratios varied from 55. 2% to61. 7%. Erichsen numbers of these samples differed from 13. 82 to 14. 57 mm. Although its Cu content was lower than that of other samples,steel D2 exhibited better plasticity and formability,which was attributed to γ→α'martensitic phase transformation. EBSD,XRD,and magnetism tests showed that increases in deformation ratio gradually increased the α' martensite phase of a sample,thereby contributing to its strain and inducing the optimal transformation-induced plasticity effect. An M_(d30/50) temperature of around 20 ℃,which is close to the deformation temperature,provided the austenite with adequate stability and gradually transformed it into martensite,thereby endowing lean ASS with better formability.     

Non-fullerene organic solar cells with 7% efficiency and excellent air stability through morphological and interfacial engineering

We report on the fabrication of the poly{[4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl][3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophenediyl]} (PTB7) and poly{[N,N-9-bis(2-octyldodecyl)- naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-diyl]-alt-5,59-(2,29-bithiophene)}(P(NDI2OD-T2)) active layer combination employing air brush spray coating technique in 2-methyl anisole. Optical absorption characteristics of the blend layer were examined utilizing UV–visible spectra in the wavelength sweep varying from 300 to 900 nm. Atomic force microscopy was utilized to analyze the surface characteristics of the fabricated active layer. Under the radiance of simulated solar light with 100 mW cm⁻² (AM 1.5G), the current density voltage (J-V) characteristics were determined by employing a solar simulator. Fullerene-free organic solar cells were build using a combination of P(NDI2OD-T2) acceptor and a polymer donor PTB7 with SnO₂ acting as an interlayer, which showed power conversion efficiency (PCEs) of more than 7.0%, which is considered as the best PCEs been reported for the chosen donor and the acceptor. The device is extremely stable, holding 75% of its unique effectiveness subsequent to being put away in air for 72 days even without encapsulation. These outcomes demonstrate that the spray-coated film is a feasible contrasting option to the vacuum-deposited ITO film in terms of cost for mass production and for roll-to-roll based organic solar cells.     

60 Coγ射线处理对山核桃贮藏品质及稳定性的影响

以去除水分的新鲜山核桃坚果为原料,经~(60)Coγ射线分别在0、0.8、2.0、5.0、8.0 k Gy剂量下辐照处理,然后置于温度(2±0.5)℃、湿度(RH)70%~80%的环境中密闭贮藏。期间对山核桃果肉主要营养成分(粗脂肪、粗蛋白质、油中脂肪酸、维生素E),氧化稳定性(酸值、过氧化值、O~-_2·生成速率、氧化诱导温度、氧化诱导时间)的动态变化进行跟踪监测。结果表明:5.0、8.0 k Gy辐照处理显著加剧了山核桃贮藏期间酸值、过氧化值、O~-_2·生成速率的升高,降低了粗脂肪、不饱和脂肪酸和维生素E含量,降低了氧化诱导温度和氧化诱导时间;与对照组及其他辐照组相比,2.0 k Gy剂量组较好地在贮藏期间保持了不饱和脂肪酸及维生素E含量,对山核桃氧化稳定性影响较小,有助于保持山核桃营养和延长山核桃贮藏期。