Petal-like NiCoP sheets on 3D nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber network as a robust bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting

Searching high-active, stable and abundant bifunctional catalysts to replace noble metals for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) is desired. Herein, petal-like NiCoP sheets were synthesized on carbon paper covered with a 3D nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber network (NiCoP/CNNCP) by a simple hydrothermal process followed by phosphorization. The HER overpotential in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ and OER overpotential in 1 M KOH of the NiCoP/CNNCP electrode only required 55 mV and 260 mV to drive a current density of 10 mA cm^?2, respectively, which was comparable or even better than most nickel-and cobalt-based phosphide catalysts. The overall water-splitting electrolyzer with an asymmetric electrolyte system assembled using NiCoP/CNNCP as bifunctional electrodes required an extremely low cell voltage of 1.04 V to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^?2, which was much lower than almost all alkaline electrolysis systems.     

Microstructure,mechanical, tribological,and oxidizing properties of AlCrSiN/AlCrVN/AlCrNbN multilayer coatings with different modulated thicknesses

Multilayer structure design is one of the most promising methods for improving the comprehensive performance of AlCrN-based hard coatings applied to cutting tools. In this study, four types of AlCrSiN/AlCrVN/AlCrNbN multilayer coatings, with different modulated thicknesses, were deposited to investigate their microstructure, mechanical, tribological, and oxidizing properties. All multilayer coatings exhibited grain growth along the crystallographic plane of (200) with a NaCl-type face-centered cubic (FCC) structure. The results show that, as the modulation thickness decreases from ～35 nm to ～10 nm, (1) the grain refinement effect is increasingly evident; (2) all multilayer coatings show a hardness of >30 GPa and an elastic modulus of >300 GPa. Both the ability to resist elastic strain to failure and the plastic deformation of multilayer coatings increase. In addition, their resistance to cracking reduces; (3) the wear rates of these multilayer coatings reduce successively from 1.78 × 10^?16 m³ N^?1 m^?1 to 7.7 × 10^?17 m³ N^?1 m^?1. This is attributed to an increase in self-lubricating VO_x and a decrease in adhesives from the counterparts; (4) the best high-temperature oxidation resistance was obtained for the multilayer coating with a modulated thickness of ～15 nm.     

Experimental investigation on gasification characteristics of polycarbonate (PC) microplastics in supercritical water

In order to solve the problem of marine microplastics and realize the harmless resource utilization of plastics, the gasification experiments of polycarbonate (PC) microplastics were carried out in supercritical water and a novel seawater gasification of microplastic experiment was investigated. In this paper, the effects of different operating conditions (temperature, time, feedstock concentration, pressure) on gasification performance were discussed. The gasification kinetic of microplastics in supercritical water was calculated. The experimental results showed that the increase in gasification temperature and time enhanced the cracking reaction and free radical reaction of the microplastics to increase the gasification efficiency, while the reduction in feedstock concentration improved the gasification efficiency by increasing the gasification level of unit feedstock. The change in pressure had no significant effect on gasification due to the fact that the properties of the supercritical water were not significantly changed. It was found that the valuable results that all alkali metal salts in seawater promote hydrogen conversion, while in terms of carbon conversion, only KCl, CaCl₂, NaHCO₃ and seawater had a significant catalytic effect on the gasification. Seawater gasification of microplastics was a potential resource utilization method. Finally, it was considered that the PC plastic gasification conformed to the random nucleation and subsequent growth model (n = 3), and the reaction activation energy was 230.45 kJ/mol, which was smaller than that of traditional pyrolysis.     

移动床活性焦烟气净化工艺中废活性焦的形成与特征分析

移动床活性焦低温干法烟气多污染物脱除技术在钢铁烧结烟气脱硫脱硝工艺中具有良好的适用性，但烟气净化过程中活性焦的损耗成为制约该技术推广应用的关键因素之一。以宝钢烧结烟气脱硫脱硝工艺中所产生的废活性焦为研究对象，通过考察其比表面积、孔容结构、灰分中重金属及碱金属含量、表面官能团特征及脱硫脱硝性能，探究烟气净化过程中活性焦组成、结构及表面性质的变化。结果表明，与新鲜活性焦相比，废活性焦粒度集中分布在0.2?5 mm，其表面的氮、氧、硫元素及过渡金属氧化物含量显著增加，比表面积由191.0 m2/g增加至499.0 m2/g，使废活性焦颗粒在150℃下脱硝率由20%提升到70%，120℃下穿透硫容由0.27 mg SO2/g提升至11.08 mg SO2/g，显示了良好的再利用潜力。     

An Opportunistic Directional MAC Protocol with Pulse/Tone Exchange in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - This paper proposes a Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol using directional antennas in wireless ad-hoc networks, which achieves frame-collision reduction,...     

Elastic Properties and Stacking Fault Energies of Borides,Carbides and Nitrides from First-Principles Calculations

Owing to the excellent elastic properties and chemical stability, binary metal or light element borides, carbides and nitrides have been extensively applied as hard and low-compressible materials. Researchers are searching for harder materials all the time. Recently, the successful fabrication of nano-twinned cubic BN(Tian et al. Nature 493:385–388, 2013) and diamond(Huang et al. Nature 510:250–253, 2014) exhibiting superior properties than their twin-free counterparts allows an efficient way to be harder. From this point of view, the borides, carbides and nitrides may be stronger by introducing twins, whose formation tendency can be measured using stacking fault energies(SFEs). The lower the SFEs, the easier the formation of twins. In the present study, by means of first-principles calculations, we first calculated the fundamental elastic constants of forty-two borides, seventeen carbides and thirty-one nitrides, and their moduli, elastic anisotropy factors and bonding characters were accordingly derived. Then, the SFEs of the {111} 112 glide system of twenty-seven compounds with the space group F43 m or Fm3m were calculated. Based on the obtained elastic properties and SFEs, we find that(1) light element compounds usually exhibit superior elastic properties over the metal borides, carbides or nitrides;(2) the 5 d transitionmetal compounds(ReB_2, WB, OsC, RuC, WC, OsN_2, TaN and WN) possess comparable bulk modulus( B) with that of cBN( B = 363 GPa);(3) twins may form in ZrB, HfN, PtN, VN and ZrN, since their SFEs are lower or slightly higher than that of diamond(SFE = 277 mJ/m~2). Our work can be used as a valuable database to compare these compounds.     

The digital twin of the quality monitoring and control in the series solar cell production line

With the development of intelligent manufacturing (IM), the Digital twin (DT) has become an important means to the evolution mechanism of the process. Many researchers pay attention on the realization of DT in different industries. Based on the DT and Digital Twin Shop Floor (DTS) model, a novel, high throughput metrology method is proposed in the process quality monitoring and control of the Series Solar Cell Production Line (SSCPL) for detailed performance analysis. The variance of individual loss parameters and their impact on quality performance are quantified and mapped into the virtual space. The nature of their distributions and correlations provide great insights about quality loss mechanisms in process monitoring, helping to prioritize efforts for optimizing the control of the SSCPL in the physical space. Additionally, the parameters can be tied back to the physical space, allowing the data to be used directly for the control in the manufacturing. The data-loop of “Autonomous perception of process parameters - Dynamic behaver mapping - Online monitoring - Online data analysis - Parameters configuration & control” can be obtained in the model. This paper provides an application paradigm for DT and IM.     

Heat capacities and standard entropies and enthalpies of some compounds essential for steelmaking and refractory design approximated by Debye-Einstein integrals

Heat capacity data for compounds located in the binary CaO–SiO₂, CaO–Al₂O₃ and MgO–Al₂O₃ systems are fitted by Debye-Einstein integrals. Starting from the fitted heat capacities, the standard values of the thermodynamic functions of these compounds are calculated. In almost all cases investigated, the derived standard entropies are within the uncertainties of the values provided in literature. The Debye-Einstein coefficients obtained in this thermodynamic assessment can be used to approximate the heat capacities, enthalpies and entropies of these compounds in the temperature range from 0 to 298.15 K.