Optimization-based cosmetic formulation: Integration of mechanistic model,surrogate model,and heuristics

Multiple functional and hard-to-quantify sensorial product attributes that can be satisfied by a large number of cosmetic ingredients are required in the design of cosmetics. To overcome this problem, a new optimization-based approach for expediting cosmetic formulation is presented. It exploits the use of a hierarchy of models in an iterative manner to refine the search for creating the highest-quality cosmetic product. First, a systematic procedure is proposed for optimization problem formulation, where the cosmetic formulation problem is defined, design variables are specified, and a set of models for sensorial perception and desired product properties are identified. Then, a solution strategy that involves iterative model adoption and two numerical techniques (i.e., generalized disjunctive programming reformulation and model substitution) is applied to improve the efficiency of solving the optimization problem and to find better solutions. The applicability of the proposed procedure and solution strategy is illustrated with a perfume formulation example.     

Thermally activated giant piezoelectricity and enhanced interface elastic strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling

Perovskite materials with compositions in the vicinity of the steep morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) exhibit various intriguing properties including giant piezoelectricity and large dielectric constant. Aside from composition, the phase configuration of the perovskites is also strongly related to the ambient temperature. Here, we report a giant piezoelectricity of 10 980 pm/V at 93°C in the 0.7Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-0.3PbTiO₃ (PMN-PT) single crystals which is more than five times larger than that at room temperature. The enhanced piezoelectricity can be attributed to the instability of the thermally induced tetragonal phase which can be converted to the orthorhombic phase by the external electric field in the <011> oriented single crystal. The transverse piezoelectricity has been investigated by measuring the electric-field-dependent ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) field in the CoFeB/PMN-PT magnetoelectric (ME) heterostructures. The ME coupling coefficient has been increased from 49.3 to 476 Oe cm/kV as temperature increased from 25 to 90°C. The findings reveal that both longitudinal and transverse piezoelectricity in the PMN-PT single crystals can be greatly enhanced by proper setting of ambient temperature, indicating an effective route for the design of strain-mediated tunable devices with ultralow driving voltage.     

Electromagnetic wave absorbing properties of Cr2AlB2 powders and the effect of high-temperature oxidation

The electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing properties of Cr₂AlB₂ powders and those after high-temperature oxidation were investigated. Coupling of magnetic and dielectric loss enables Cr₂AlB₂ with good absorption properties. The minimum reflection loss (RL) value is −44.9 dB at 8.5 GHz with a thickness of 2.7 mm, and the optimized effective absorption bandwidth (E_AB) is 4.4 GHz (13.0-17.4 GHz) with a thickness of 1.6 mm. After oxidation at 750, 900, and 1000°C for 2 h, the minimum RL values, respectively, are −23.9 dB (17.5 GHz, 1.5 mm), −41.4 dB (16.5 GHz, 1.5 mm), and −39.5 dB (8.0 GHz, 3.0 mm); and the corresponding E_AB values, respectively, are 3.8 GHz (13.6-17.4 GHz, 1.7 mm), 4.1 GHz (13.5-17.6 GHz, 1.6 mm), and 4.4 GHz (13.0-17.4 GHz, 1.7 mm). With an absorber thickness of 1.5-4.0 mm, the E_AB with a RL value of less than −10 dB can be tuned in a broad-frequency range 5.0-18.0 GHz, which basically covers C (4-8 GHz), X (8-12 GHz), and Ku (12-18 GHz) bands. These results demonstrate that Cr₂AlB₂, as a high-efficient and oxidation-resistant absorber, is a promising candidate for microwave absorption applications and can retain good EM wave absorbing properties after high-temperature oxidation.     

Simultaneously achieved high-energy storage density and efficiency in (K,Na)NbO3-based lead-free ferroelectric films

With the development of advanced electrical and electronic devices and the requirement of environmental protection, lead-free dielectric capacitors with excellent energy storage performance have aroused great attention. However, it is a great challenge to achieve both large energy storage density and high efficiency simultaneously in dielectric capacitors. This work investigates the energy storage performance of sol-gel-processed (K,Na)NbO₃-based lead-free ferroelectric films on silicon substrates with compositions of 0.95(K_0.49Na_0.49Li_0.02)(Nb_0.8Ta_0.2)O₃-0.05CaZrO₃-x mol% Mn (KNN-LT-CZ5-x mol% Mn). The appropriate amount of Mn-doping facilitates the coexistence of orthorhombic and tetragonal phases, suppresses the leakage current, and considerably enhances the breakdown strengths of KNN-LT-CZ5 films. Consequently, large recoverable energy storage density up to 64.6 J cm⁻³ with a high efficiency of 84.6% under an electric field of 3080 kV cm⁻¹ are achieved in KNN-LT-CZ5-5 mol% Mn film. This, to the best of our knowledge, is superior to the majority of both the lead-based and lead-free films on silicon substrates and thus demonstrates great potentials of (K,Na)NbO₃-based lead-free films as dielectric energy storage materials.     

Bismuth-activated,narrow-band,cyan garnet phosphor Ca3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+ for near-ultraviolet-pumped white LED application

Herein, a novel Bi³⁺-activated Ca₃Y₂Ge₃O₁₂ (CYGO) narrow-band cyan-emitting phosphor was synthesized. It can be excited from 320–420 nm, and the strongest excitation peak is located at 370 nm, which is suitable for current near-ultraviolet (NUV) chips perfectly. The full width at half maximum is at 52 nm. By analyzing the crystal structure of the sample, we infer that the Bi³⁺ ions replace the Y³⁺ site to form a highly symmetrical BiO₆ octahedron. The time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) spectra of CYGO: Bi³⁺ reveal that the only a single emission center exists in the host lattice. A warm white light–emitting diode (WLED) device with a low correlated color temperature (3148 K) and a high color rendering index (90.2) was fabricated by using the as-prepared sample, and the significant thermal stability of CYGO: Bi³⁺ guarantees its potential application in WLEDs. It is verified that the structure with only one crystallographic Y site for Bi³⁺ dopant occupation and highly symmetrical and dense structure is conducive to realize narrow-band emission, which will provide experience for researchers to explore more Bi³⁺-activated phosphors used for high-end lighting.     

Investigation of packaging adhesive properties by molecular dynamics and experiments

Adhesive polymer is a common and important material used for packaging of microelectronics and microsystem by attaching dies onto packaging shell, and its mechanical property plays a vital role in isolating dies from the thermal stress of substrate. Therefore, it is extremely significant to evaluate the polymer property in a specific packaging process. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is conducted in this article to investigate the material properties of the cross-linked epoxy resin formed by epoxy resin component diglycidyl ether bisphenol A (DGEBA) and curing agent 1,6-Diaminohexane. The polymer network with conversion up to 87.5% is successfully generated and simulated by constant pressure-constant temperature ensemble (NPT) and canonical ensemble (NVT) at different temperatures of curing process. Glass transition temperature (T_g) and Young's modulus are extracted and the predicted material properties are in great agreement with the experimental data. The conclusion provides a guideline to design the special curing process for different adhesive requirements.     

Thin-film composite forward osmosis membrane prepared from polyvinyl chloride/cellulose carbamate substrate and its potential application in brackish water desalination

Synthesized by the reaction between α-cellulose and m-tolyl isocyanate (MTI), cellulose carbamate (CC) was blended with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to fabricate substrates for thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes. The introduction of CC into substrates improved both membrane structure and performance. The substrates exhibited higher porosity and hydrophilicity, and better connective pore structure; while rejection layer exhibited better morphology but limited cross-linked degree decrease after the introduction of CC. According to the results, the CC blend ratio of 10% was the optimal ratio. With this blend ratio, the TFC-10 membrane presented favorable water permeability (1.86 LMH/bar) and structure parameter (337 μm), which resulted in excellent FO performance (water flux with a value of 40.40 LMH and specific salt flux with a value of 0.099 g/L under rejection layer faces draw solution [DS] mode when 1 M NaCl and deionized water were utilized as DS and feed solution). In addition, the TFC-10 membrane showed good water flux and low-sulfate ion leakage in the potential application of brackish water desalination.     

Preparation of treelike and rodlike carboxymethylated nanocellulose and their effect on carboxymethyl cellulose films

In this work, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with low substitution degree, followed by different posttreatments, was applied to prepare treelike CMC nanofibrils (CMCNFs) and rodlike CMC nanocrystals (CMCNCs), and their performance in CMC composite film was evaluated simultaneously. From transmission electron microscopy results, it was found that the treelike CMCNCFs exhibited a lager aspect ratio compared to the rodlike CMCNCs. As for reinforcing CMC film, 4 wt% was the best adding amount, at this time, the tensile strength of CMC/CMCNFs and CMC/CMCNCs composite films was increased by 72.1% and 47.3%, respectively. Moreover, adding these nanofillers to CMC also could enhance the thermal stability of composite films slightly, while the transmittance of composite films was reduced at the same time. In addition, CMC/CMCNFs film was designed as a packaging box to determine its performance. Therefore, this study could reveal the differences of properties for composites with different types of nanocellulose and provide a foundation for further application of nanocellulose.     

Facile preparation of homogenous waterborne poly(urethane/acrylate) composites and the correlation between microstructure and improved properties

Homogenous waterborne polyurethane/polyacrylate emulsions were synthesized based on the prepared polyurethane and polyacrylate through a facile process. The attention was attracted to the miscibility and performance of waterborne polyurethane and polyacrylate. The structures and properties of waterborne polyurethane and waterborne polyurethane/polyacrylate samples were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer, thermogravimetric, and so forth, as well as solid content and tensile testing. The results showed that the micro morphology of waterborne polyurethane/polyacrylate emulsion presented single-phase structure with the stoichiometric polyacrylate content increasing from 33% to 80% to waterborne polyurethane. The waterborne polyurethane/polyacrylate films surface is rich in polyacrylate phase. Meanwhile, waterborne polyurethane/polyacrylate composites showed significant improvement in thermal stability and elongation at break, smaller particle size and narrower particle size distribution comparing with waterborne polyurethane.     

Aramid fiber reinforced EPDM microcellular foams: Influence of the aramid fiber content on rheological behavior,mechanical properties,thermal properties,and cellular structure

In this paper, aramid fiber (AF)/ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) microcellular foams added with different content of AF are prepared by the supercritical foaming method. The effect of the AF content on the rheological behavior, mechanical properties, thermal properties and cellular structure of the AF/EPDM microcellular foams has been systematically studied. The research illustrates that compared with pure EPDM, the AF/EPDM matrix has greater viscosity and modulus, which is conducive to reduce the cell size and increase its density. And the thermal stability of EPDM foams is improved with the addition of aramid fiber. Meanwhile, when the content of AF is added to 1 wt%, the AF/EPDM microcellular foam exhibits a relatively low thermal diffusion coefficient and apparent density with the thermal conductivity to 0.06 W/mK. When the AF is added to 5 wt%, the tensile strength of the AF/EPDM microcellular foam increases to 1.95 MPa, which is improved by 47% compared with that of the pure EPDM foam. Furthermore, when the compressive strain reaches to 50%, the compressive strength of the AF/EPDM microcellular foam is 0.48 MPa, improved by 296% compared with that of the pure EPDM foam.