Modulation of electrical transport in calcium cobaltite ceramics and thick films through microstructure control and doping

Ca₃Co₄O₉ is a promising p-type thermoelectric oxide material having intrinsically low thermal conductivity. With low cost and opportunities for automatic large scale production, thick film technologies offer considerable potential for a new generation of micro-sized thermoelectric coolers or generators. Here, based on the chemical composition optimized by traditional solid state reaction for bulk samples, we present a viable approach to modulating the electrical transport properties of screen-printed calcium cobaltite thick films through control of the microstructural evolution by optimized heat-treatment. XRD and TEM analysis confirmed the formation of high-quality calcium cobaltite grains. By creating 2.0 at% cobalt deficiency in Ca_2.7Bi_0.3Co₄O_9+δ, the pressureless sintered ceramics reached the highest power factor of 98.0 μWm^?1 K^-2 at 823 K, through enhancement of electrical conductivity by reduction of poorly conducting secondary phases. Subsequently, textured thick films of Ca_2.7Bi_0.3Co_3.92O_9+δ were efficiently tailored by controlling the sintering temperature and holding time. Optimized Ca_2.7Bi_0.3Co_3.92O_9+δ thick films sintered at 1203 K for 8 h exhibited the maximum power factor of 55.5 μWm^?1 K^-2 at 673 K through microstructure control.     

基于滚动摩擦作用下玉米颗粒在模拟筒仓卸料中的力链分析（网络首发、推荐阅读）

针对颗粒滚动摩擦作用对筒仓中玉米颗粒的力链空间分布进行研究，通过EDEM离散元软件建立筒仓模型与仿真玉米颗粒模型进行卸粮仿真模拟，并与筒仓卸料实验作流态对比，验证模型与仿真结果的准确性。通过对模拟仓进行切片观察和数据处理，对比分析了不同摩擦情况下力链的细观参数随时间演化规律。模拟结果表明：颗粒间摩擦系数越大，卸粮完成的最终时间越长；颗粒间滚动摩擦系数越小，颗粒由整体流转变为管状流的时间越早。对于有漏斗的筒仓来说，减小颗粒间摩擦会改变整体流和管状流之间的极限，从而增加产生管状流的面积。标准滚动摩擦系数下玉米颗粒在卸料过程中会出现起拱-塌陷效应；减小滚动摩擦，玉米颗粒卸料较稳定，未出现起拱的应力突增、以及拱塌陷的应力衰减；增大颗粒间滚动摩擦不但会增加拱效应，且出现成拱高度距离漏斗口更高。     

Analysis of operating limits and combustion state regulation for low-calorific value gases in industrial burners

The effective and efficient utilization of low-calorific value (LCV) gases has gained increasing attention in scientific research and industrial fields. In this study, the combustion characteristics of three LCV gases in practical devices are analyzed by using a nonadiabatic perfectly stirred reactor model. The complete steady-state solution in the temperature-residence time parameter space is obtained with arc-length continuation. The stable operation region is quantified by the eigenvalue analysis. The transition of solution curves is quantified with heat loss coefficient. Five key system parameters are systematically investigated on their effects on stability limits. With the combustion performance being quantified by a combustion state index, a combustion state regulation method is proposed to find the optimal regulation path of system parameters. Active subspace method is further applied to shorten the regulation step by identifying the active direction. The proposed method and findings are useful for optimal regulation of burning LCV gases in industrial burners.     

Description of the thermodynamic properties and fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of linear,branched, and cyclic amines

The SAFT-γ Mie group-contribution equation of state is used to represent the fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of a variety of linear, branched, and cyclic amines. New group interactions are developed in order to model the mixtures of interest, including the like and unlike interactions between alkyl primary, secondary, and tertiary amine groups (NH₂, NH, N), cyclic secondary and tertiary amine groups (cNH, cN), and cyclic methine-amine groups (cCHNH, cCHN) with water (H₂O). The group-interaction parameters are estimated from appropriate experimental thermodynamic data for pure amines and selected mixtures. By taking advantage of the group-contribution nature of the method, one can describe the fluid-phase behavior of mixtures of molecules comprising those groups over broad ranges of temperature, pressure, and composition. A number of aqueous solutions of amines are studied including linear, branched aliphatic, and cyclic amines. Liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) bounded by lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) have been reported experimentally and are reproduced here with the SAFT-γ Mie approach. The main feature of the approach is the ability not only to represent accurately the experimental data employed in the parameter estimation, but also to predict the vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid, and vapor–liquid–liquid equilibria, and LCSTs with the same set of parameters. Pure compound and binary phase diagrams of diverse types of amines and their aqueous solutions are assessed in order to demonstrate the main features of the thermodynamic and fluid-phase behavior.     

肇庆市固体废物产业发展方向探索

本文以肇庆市固体废物产业发展为实例,阐明全市固体废物产业发展现状以及发展方向,并提出了相应的策略。     

Patterns in environmental priorities revealed through government open data portals

The ways in which environmental priorities are framed are varied and influenced by political forces. One technological advance--the proliferation of government open data portals (ODPs)--has the potential to improve governance through facilitating access to data. Yet it is also known that the data hosted on ODPs may simply reflect the goals and interests of multiple levels of political power. In this article, I use traditional statistical correlation and regression techniques along with newer natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze the corpus of datasets hosted on government ODPs (total: 49,066) to extract patterns that relate scales of governance and political liberalism/conservatism to the priorities and meaning attached to environmental issues. I find that state-level and municipal-level ODPs host different categories of environmental datasets, with municipal-level ODPs generally hosting more datasets pertaining to services and amenities and state-level ODPs hosting more datasets pertaining to resource protection and extraction. Stronger trends were observed for the influences of political conservatism/liberalism among state-level ODPs than for municipal-level ODPs.     

An active balancer with rapid bidirectional charge shuttling and adaptive equalization current control for lithium-ion battery strings

This article proposes an active balancer, which features bidirectional charge shuttling and adaptive equalization current control, to fast counterbalance the state of charge (SOC) of cells in a lithium-ion battery (LIB) string. The power circuit consists of certain bidirectional buck-boost converters to transfer energy among the different cells back and forth. Owing to the characterization of the open-circuit voltage (OCV) vs SOC in LIB being relatively smooth near the SOC middle range, the SOC-inspected balance strategy can achieve more precise and efficient equilibrium than the voltage-based control. Accordingly, a compensated OCV-based SOC estimation is put forward to take into account the discrepancy of SOC estimation. Besides, the varied-duty-cycle (VDC) and curve-fitting modulation (CFM) methods are devised herein to tackle the problems of slow equalization rate and low balance efficacy, which arise from the diminution in balancing current as the SOC difference between the cells decreases in the later duration of equalization especially. The proposed strategies have taken the battery nonlinear characteristic and circuit parameter nonideality into account and can adaptively modulate the duty cycle with the SOC difference to keep balancing current constant throughout the balancing cycle. Simulated and experimental results are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the same prototype constructed. Compared with the fixed duty cycle and the VDC methods, the proposed CFM has the best balancing efficiency of 81.4%, and the balance time is shortened by 27.1% and 18.6%, respectively.     

Self-assembled cubic-hexagonal perovskite nanocomposite as intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell cathode

Self-assembly is an emerging strategy for preparing composite cathodes with good oxygen electrochemical reduction activity and congenital chemical compatibility for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC). Here we report that a self-assembled BaCo_0.6Zr_0.4O_3-δ (BZC-BC) nanocomposite is prepared through one-pot glycine-nitrate process and exhibits high cathode performance. The BZC-BC nanocomposite is composed of 62 mol% cubic perovskite BaZr_0.82Co_0.18O_3-δ (BZC) as an ionic conductor and 38 mol% hexagonal perovskite BaCo_0.96Zr_0.04O_2.6+δ (12H-BC) as a mixed ionic and electronic conductor. The BZC-BC nanocomposite has the pomegranate-like particles aggregated with a larger number of nanoparticles (50-100 nm) which greatly enlarge the three-phase boundary sites. The BZC-BC nanocomposite exhibits a thermal expansion coefficient of 12.89 × 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ well-matched with that of Ce_0.8Gd_0.2O_3-δ (12.84 × 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹) electrolyte. The high electro-catalytic activity of BZC-BC nanocomposite cathode for oxygen reduction is reflected by the low polarization resistances of oxygen ions incorporation at cathode/electrolyte interface (0.02823 Ω cm²), oxygen species diffusion (0.03702 Ω cm²) and oxygen adsorptive dissociation (0.07609 Ω cm²) at 700 °C. The single cell with BZC-BC nanocomposite cathode achieves the maximum power density of 1094 mW cm⁻² at 650 °C and shows good stability under 25 h run.     

热处理对挤压态Mg-6Gd-5Y-1Zn合金组织与性能的影响

通过对Mg-6Gd-5Y-1Zn(质量分数,%)合金在固溶和时效处理状态下显微组织和力学性能的研究发现,α-Mg基体、沿挤压方向分布的条状18R-LPSO相、少量的Mg₂₄(GdYZn)₅ 相以及细层片状的14H-LPSO相构成了挤压态合金的组成相。挤压态合金经固溶(T4)处理后,一部分18R-LPSO相溶入基体,并且基体中的14H-LPSO相伸长同时粗化。挤压态合金经过固溶加时效(T6)处理后,大量β′相从α-Mg基体中析出。T6态合金的室温力学性能最好,其屈服强度、抗拉强度及伸长率分别为272 MPa、406 MPa和6.1%。β′相沉淀也发生在挤压态合金的直接人工时效(T5)处理过程,但相比于T6处理,14H-LPSO相和β′相在基体中的体积分数均偏低。