A high-throughput chaotic advection microreactor for preparation of uniform and aggregated barium sulfate nanoparticles

A high-throughput (105.5 g/h) passive four-stage asymmetric oscillating feedback microreactor using chaotic mixing mechanism was developed to prepare aggregated Barium sulfate (BaSO₄) particles of high primary nanoparticle size uniformity. Three-dimensional unsteady simulations showed that chaotic mixing could be induced by three unique secondary flows (i.e., vortex, recirculation, and oscillation), and the fluid oscillation mechanism was examined in detail. Simulations and Villermaux–Dushman experiments indicate that almost complete mixing down to molecular level can be achieved and the prepared BaSO₄ nanoparticles were with narrow primary particle size distribution (PSD) having geometric standard deviation, σ_g, less than 1.43 when the total volumetric flow rate Q_total was larger than 10 ml/min. By selecting Q_total and reactant concentrations, average primary particle size can be controlled from 23 to 109 nm as determined by microscopy. An average size of 26 nm with narrow primary PSD (σ_g = 1.22) could be achieved at Q_total of 160 ml/min.     

Study on the removal of olefins from naphtha by clay loaded with trifluoromethanesulfonic acid

Journal of Porous Materials - In this work, a trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFOH) modified clay (TFOH-Clay) was developed for the removal of trace olefins in heavy naphtha. 5%TFOH-Clay can...     

Eco-friendly approach for preparation of hybrid silica aerogel via freeze drying method

Journal of Materials Science - In this paper, an eco-friendly method of producing hybrid silica aerogels by freeze-drying method (FD) is proposed. In the freeze-drying system, deionized water was...     

Surface Modification of Co3O4 Nanosheets to Promote Peroxymonosulfate Activation for Degradation of Atrazine

Catalysis Letters - This study proposed a new facile route to rational creating oxygen-vacancy (Vo)-rich surface of Co3O4 nanosheets by acetic acid leaching. The acid leached Co3O4 nanosheets was...     

Applications of analytical electron microscopy to guide the design of boron carbide

Compositional analysis of boron carbide on nanometer length scales to examine or interpret atomic mechanisms, for example, solid-state amorphization or grain-boundary segregation, is challenging. This work reviews advancements in high-resolution microanalysis to characterize multiple generations of boron carbide. First, ζ-factor microanalysis will be introduced as a powerful (scanning) transmission electron microscopy ((S)TEM) analytical framework to accurately characterize boron carbide. Three case studies involving the application of ζ-factor microanalysis will then be presented: (1) accurate stoichiometry determination of B-doped boron carbide using ζ-factor microanalysis and electron energy loss spectroscopy, (2) normalized quantification of silicon grain-boundary segregation in Si-doped boron carbide, and (3) calibration of a scanning electron microscope X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS) system to measure compositional homogeneity differences of B/Si-doped arc-melted boron carbides in the as-melted and annealed conditions. Overall, the improvement and application of advanced analytical tools have helped better understand processing–microstructure–property relationships and successfully manufacture high-performance ceramics.     

Surface energies in high-entropy carbides with variable carbon stoichiometry

The carbon vacancy in high-entropy carbides (HECs) has a significant impact on their physical and chemical properties, yet relevant studies have still been relatively few. In this study, we investigate the surface energies of HECs with variable carbon vacancies through first-principles calculations. The results show that the surface energy of the (1 0 0) surface of the stoichiometric HECs is significantly lower than that of (1 1 1) surface. With the decrease in carbon stoichiometry, the surface energies of both (1 0 0) and (1 1 1) surfaces increase gradually, which is mainly due to the weakening of covalent bonding and the decrease of metal Hirshfeld-I (HI) charges. However, the surface energy of (1 0 0) surface increases more quickly than that of (1 1 1) surface and will exceed that of (1 1 1) surface when the carbon stoichiometry decreases to a certain extent, which is primarily attributed to the greater decrease rate of metal HI charges of (1 0 0) surface.     

基于重要度排序的配电自动化终端优化布局方法

针对配电自动化终端优化布局问题，提出了一种基于重要度排序的终端优化布局方法。首先以等年值综合费用为目标函数，供电可靠性和投入产出比为双重约束建立了配电自动化终端优化布局模型。然后通过分析配电自动化终端对供电可靠性提升的影响，给出各个节点的“二遥”及“三遥”终端安装重要度定义及计算公式。最后采用枚举法确定最优终端安装数量，基于节点终端安装重要度排序确定终端的最优安装位置。该方法考虑了已布局节点对剩余节点终端安装重要度的影响，能够在降低计算量的同时兼顾布局合理性。运用所提方法RBTS-BUS2系统及扩充模型进行终端优化布局并与智能优化算法的布局结果进行对比，验证了本文方法的有效性及优越性。