Exploring the influences of the counterpart materials on friction and wear behaviors of atmospheric plasma-sprayed YSZ coating

Sliding wear behaviors of atmospheric plasma-sprayed Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) coating mated with four metallic or ceramic counterparts (Si₃N₄, Al₂O₃, GCr15 and ZrO₂) were investigated. It has been found that YSZ coatings in contact with Si₃N₄ and GCr15 show better tribological performances than the other cases, which is due to the formation of the tribolayer mainly consisting of Si₃N₄ and Fe₂O₃ respectively on the worn surfaces. In the case of YSZ coating-Al₂O₃ and YSZ coating-ZrO₂ tribopairs, the wear debris are more irregular and larger in size, resulting in severe abrasive wear and brittle fracture of debris particles. In particular, the specific wear rate of YSZ coating sliding against GCr15 is negative due to the significant material transfer of the tribo-oxide layer, while that of YSZ coating sliding against ZrO₂ is the highest. Amorphization of the wear particles appears in the four cases due to the repeated mechanical action. It has been demonstrated that the wear of YSZ coating deteriorates with the increased flash temperature between the contact surfaces during rubbing process.     

The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.     

Partitioning of rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) in five coal-fired power plants in Guizhou,Southwest China

As indispensable strategic materials for high-tech industries, rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) have become particularly important in recent years, raising the demand of developing new approaches for reclamation of REY from REY-rich materials such as coal combustion products (CCPs). In this study, five coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in Guizhou of southwest China were selected for investigating REY concentrations of solid samples, atmospheric emissions, and recovery potentials. REY concentrations of feed fuels are higher in this study (147.2–468.6 mg/kg) than what have been reported previously for coals in China and the world. REY atmospheric emissions are extremely low (38.70–180.11 mg REY/t coal). REY are enriched in bottom ash and fly ash, with average of 658 ± 296 mg/kg and maximum of 1257 mg/kg from the five CFPPs. Relative enrichment factors (REF) of REY in bottom ash and fly ash compared with the feed fuel are 0.86–1.02 and 0.91–1.04, respectively. REY concentrations in desulfurized gypsum are very low (6–17 mg/kg), and that is mostly inherited from limestone. Critical REY (Nd, Eu, Tb, Dy, Y, and Er) in bottom/fly ash account for 34%–39% of the total REY and the outlook coefficients (C_outl) are in the range of 0.89–1.11. This study indicates a promising prospect to reclaim REY from REY-rich CCPs (bottom and fly ash) in CFPPs in Guizhou, especially in the central-north Guizhou, although such practices require further technology advancement.     

Single image dehazing using a new color channel

Images with hazy scene suffer from low-contrast, which reduces the visible quality of the scene, thus making object detection a more challenging task. Low-contrast can result from foggy weather conditions during image acquisition. Dehazing is a process of removal of haze from the photography of a hazy scene. Single-image dehazing based on dark channel priors are well-known techniques in this field. However, the performance of such techniques is limited to priors or constraints. Moreover, this type of method fails when images have sky-region. So, a method is proposed, which can restore the visibility of hazy images. First, a hazy image is divided into blocks of size 32 × 32, then the score of each block is calculated to select a block having the highest score. Atmospheric light is calculated from the selected block. A new color channel is considered to remove atmospheric scattering, obtained channel value and atmospheric light are then used to calculate the transmission map in the second step. Third, radiance is computed using a transmission map and atmospheric light. The illumination scaling factor is adopted to enhance the quality of a dehazed image in the final step. Experiments are performed on six datasets namely, I-HAZE, O-HAZE, BSDS500, FRIDA, RESIDE dataset and natural images from Google. The proposed method is compared against 11 state-of-the-art methods. The performance is analyzed using fourteen quantitative evaluation metrics. All the results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms 11 state-of-the-art methods in most of the cases.     

高功率光纤激光器光纤器件封装应力影响研究

高功率激光器无源器件制作过程中封装不当引入的应力,会导致信号光光束质量劣化和光纤温升,为了解决此问题,理论分析了光纤形变对信号光模式分布的影响,利用有限元方法建立包层光导致光纤发热模型,实验研究了不同封装方式对光纤发热情况和信号光光束质量的影响。实验表明,应力导致的光纤形变会造成信号光M2值在受力方向上略微变小而其垂直方向上变大,在输出100 W信号光时,施加应力导致的M2值的变化最高为0.39,与仿真结果相符。在光纤温升方面,相比于使用硬质胶水带来的12 ℃温升,使用硅橡胶封装的剥离器将温升控制在5 ℃以内,且其封装应力引入的M2值的变化在0.05以内。     

Dynamic response of ferrofluidic deformable mirrors using elastomer membrane and overdrive techniques

The experimental results obtained with a ferrofluidic deformable mirror controlled by electro-magnet actuators are presented here. Using a step input through a single actuator, we obtained a steady-state settling time of 100?ms; however, different combinations of overdrive inputs can be used to decrease it to 25?ms. A new technique which consists of laying down an elastomer membrane, coated with an aluminum film, on the ferrofluid is also discussed. By adding the membrane on the ferrofluid, it further decreases the time response by a factor of 2. Furthermore, the thin aluminum layer improves the reflectivity of the mirror. Finally, using the membrane and the overdrive techniques combined, the time response is improved by a factor of 20. Numerical simulations show that ferrofluidic mirrors using membranes and improved electronics should reach settling times of the order of a millisecond. Presumably, even lower settling times could be possible.     

New exact solutions of the Tzitzéica-type equations in non-linear optics using the expa function method

One specific class of non-linear evolution equations, known as the Tzitzéica-type equations, has received great attention from a group of researchers involved in non-linear science. In this article, new exact solutions of the Tzitzéica-type equations arising in non-linear optics, including the Tzitzéica, Dodd–Bullough–Mikhailov and Tzitzéica–Dodd–Bullough equations, are obtained using the exp_a function method. The integration technique actually suggests a useful and reliable method to extract new exact solutions of a wide range of non-linear evolution equations.     

超快激光在纳米溶液中的超连续光丝光谱技术

为了产生宽谱带超连续白光光谱，将飞秒激光聚焦到纳米溶液中形成光丝，最终产生出400～950 nm的超连续白光光谱。采用集成CCD的显微镜装置对伴随光丝的气泡进行拍摄，并研究了气泡定向运动的规律。计算表明，气泡的运动速度可以达到0.16 m/s，这表明水流也可以达到相应的速度。这种由光丝导致的高速水流，可对微流控技术的研究起到积极的作用。     

Comparison of Laguerre-Gaussian and Donut modes for MDM-WDM in OFDM-Ro-FSO transmission system

Radio-over-free-space-optics (Ro-FSO) technology may pave the way towards a ubiquitous platform for seamless integration of radio and optical networks without expensive optical fiber cabling. In this paper, to increase the capacity of Ro-FSO, mode division multiplexing (MDM) of two modes has been capitalized in a three-channel WDM system spaced by 1 nm over a FSO link of 80 km, resulting in a 120 Gbps six-channel Ro-FSO system. The SNR and received power of MDM of two Laguerre-Gaussian modes LG00 and LG01 is compared with respect to MDM of two transverse donut modes. The performance of four-level quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) of radio subcarriers in the WDM-MDMs system is investigated for mitigation of frequency-selective fading under strong atmospheric turbulence.     

Design and Synthesis of Novel Chromophore with Multi-Carboxyl Groups

In order to explore the application of organic conjugated small molecules in bioimaging, a novel functional chromophore with A-π-D-π-A structure (Cr-3) was synthesized through Knoevenagel condensation reaction, consisting of carbazole unit as electron donor and cyanoacetic acid as electron acceptor groups. To improve the water solubility of this conjugated molecule, three carboxyl groups were introduced to chromophore Cr-3. Compared to the traditional D-π-A chromophores, chromophore Cr-3 showed the great improvement in water with the solubility of 2000 ppm. Also, the thermal stability of chromophore Cr-3 was also studied. The thermal decomposition temperature (Td) of Cr-3 was approximately 180°C, which was attributed to the dehydration of the carboxyl groups. Though the second harmonic generation (SHG) effect was not very high, it is large enough for the detection of SHG signal in water solution (0.28 pm/V).