Effects of Particle Size and Molecular Weight of Polyethylenimine on Properties of Nanoparticulate Silicon Dispersions

The effect of particle size on the zeta potential and rheology of nanoparticulate SiO₂ dispersions stabilized with the polymer polyethylenimine (PEI) was investigated experimentally. The particle size and molecular weight of the polymer had only a small influence on the amount of PEI needed and the achieved zeta potential of the suspensions. The polymer concentration range within which a stable dispersion could be produced was very narrow for the smallest particle size. Higher-molecular-weight PEI was more suitable to stabilize small particle dispersions. Under optimum conditions, Newtonian flow behavior was achieved for dispersions of 20 nm particles with a solids content as high as 25 vol%.     

如何降低手机生产测试成本

对于手机产品,要想使价格具有竞争力,在设计时采用低成本元器件仅仅是第一步。生产过程成本,特别是最终测试过程中所发生的成本对于最终产品价格有同样重要的影响。而且,设计工程师经常会低估生产过程所增加的成本。由于这些原因,生产工程师和设计工程师必须密切协作才能保证准确达到生产成本目标。     

An in-depth analytical approach to the mechanism of the RAFT process in acrylate free radical polymerizations via coupled size exclusion chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (SEC-ESI-MS)

Coupled size exclusion chromatography (SEC)-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) was applied to carefully map the product spectrum of a series of acrylate free radical polymerizations mediated via the reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) process. The product stream of a significantly rate retarded RAFT system (i.e. n-butyl acrylate (BA)/cumyl dithiobenzoate (CDB)) was compared with the less rate retarded RAFT polymerizations of BA mediated by cumyl phenyl dithioacetate (CPDA) and methyl acrylate (MA)/CPDA. In each case excellent agreement between the theoretical and experimental masses, as well as the simulated isotopic peak distributions, of polymeric species in the product stream was observed. Although conventional disproportionation and combination bimolecular termination products were clearly identified within the product spectra, the presence of irreversibly terminated RAFT intermediates, i.e. 3-armed star polymers, was not observed. The mass spectroscopic results are compared to modeling estimations (carried out via the PREDICI^® program package) of the concentration ratios of 3-armed stars vs. conventional termination products. It is demonstrated that the occurrence of conventional termination products should be accompanied by a significant product stream associated with 3-armed star polymer material if cross termination was operational—at least under the current reaction conditions. The absence of three armed star polymer products in the polymers stream suggests that irreversible cross termination reactions may be of minor importance in the present systems.     

Freely Suspended,van der Waals Bound Organic Nanometer‐Thin Functional Films: Mechanical and Electronic Characterization

Determining the electronic properties of nanoscopic, low‐dimensional materials free of external influences is key to the discovery and understanding of new physical phenomena. An example is the suspension of graphene, which has allowed access to their intrinsic charge transport properties. Furthermore, suspending thin films enables their application as membranes, sensors, or resonators, as has been explored extensively. While the suspension of covalently bound, electronically active thin films is well established, semiconducting thin films composed of functional molecules only held together by van der Waals interactions could only be studied supported by a substrate. In the present work, it is shown that by utilizing a surface‐crystallization method, electron conductive films with thicknesses of down to 6 nm and planar chiral optical activity can be freely suspended across several hundreds of nanometers. The suspended membranes exhibit a Young's modulus of 2–13 GPa and are electronically decoupled from the environment, as established by temperature‐dependent field‐effect transistor measurements.     

Numerical solution of a multi-ion one-potential model for electroosmotic flow in two-dimensional rectangular microchannels

A new more general numerical model for the simulation of electrokinetic flow in rectangular microchannels is presented. The model is based on the dilute solution model and the Navier-Stokes equations and has been implemented in a finite-element-based C++ code. The model includes the ion distribution in the Helmholtz double layer and considers only one single electrical' potential field variable throughout the domain. On a charged surface(s) the surface charge density, which is proportional to the local electrical field, is imposed. The zeta potential results, then, from this boundary condition and depends on concentrations, temperature, ion valence, molecular diffusion coefficients, and geometric conditions. Validation cases show that the model predicts accurately known analytical results, also for geometries having dimensions comparable to the Debye length. As a final study, the electro-osmotic flow in a controlled cross channel is investigated.     

Phasing segmented mirrors: a modification of the Keck narrow-band technique and its application to extremely large telescopes

Future telescopes with diameters greater than 10 m, usually referred to as extremely large telescopes (ELTs), will employ segmented mirrors made up of hundreds or even thousands of segments, with tight constraints on the piston errors between individual segments. The 10-m Keck telescopes are routinely phased with the narrow-band phasing technique. This is a variation of the Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor in which the signal is the correlation between individual subimages and simulated images. We have investigated the applicability of this technique to ELTs, and in the process we have developed what to our knowledge is a new algorithm in which each subimage provides on its own a piston-dependent value. We also discuss an alternative algorithm to resolve the lambda ambiguity that allows detection of problematic cases, and a modification of the singular-value-decomposition procedure used to phase the whole mirror, using weightings on individual measurement errors. By means of simulations we show that the modified technique shows improved performance and that it can work with sufficient precision on telescopes as large as 100 m.     

A NEW APPROACH FOR THE INCREMENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF RETRIEVAL FUNCTIONS FOR CBR

We present a new approach to the effective development of complex retrieval components for case-based reasoning systems (CBR). Our approach goes beyond the traditional CBR approach by allowing an incremental refinement of an existing retrieval knowledge base during routine use of the system. The refinement takes place through a direct expert-system interaction while the expert is accomplishing their given tasks. We lend ideas from ripple-down rules (RDR), a proven method for the very effective and efficient acquisition of classification knowledge during the routine use of a knowledge-based system (KBS).

In our approach the expert is only required to provide explanations of why, for a given problem, a certain case should be retrieved. Incrementally a complex retrieval knowledge base as a composition of many simple retrieval functions is developed. This approach is effective with respect to both the development of highly tailored and complex retrieval knowledge bases for CBR as well as providing an intuitive and feasible approach for the expert. The approach has been implemented in our CBR system MIKAS (Menu construction using an Incremental Knowledge Acquisition System) that allows to automatically construct a menu that is strongly tailored to the individual requirements and food preferences of a client.     

Tracking control with prescribed transient behaviour for systems of known relative degree

Tracking of a reference signal (assumed bounded with essentially bounded derivative) is considered for multi-input, multi-output linear systems satisfying the following structural assumptions: (i) arbitrary—but known—relative degree, (ii) the “high-frequency gain” matrix is sign definite—but of unknown sign, (iii) exponentially stable zero dynamics. The first control objective is tracking, by the output y, with prescribed accuracy: given λ>0 (arbitrarily small), determine a feedback strategy which ensures that, for every reference signal r, the tracking error e=y-r is ultimately bounded by λ (that is, e(t)<λ for all t sufficiently large). The second objective is guaranteed output transient performance: the evolution of the tracking error should be contained in a prescribed performance funnel (determined by a function ). Both objectives are achieved by a filter in conjunction with a feedback function of the filter states, the tracking error and a gain parameter. The latter is generated via a feedback function of the tracking error and the funnel parameter . Moreover, the feedback system is robust to nonlinear perturbations bounded by some continuous function of the output. The feedback structure essentially exploits an intrinsic high-gain property of the system/filter interconnection by ensuring that, if (t,e(t)) approaches the funnel boundary, then the gain attains values sufficiently large to preclude boundary contact.