Ionic Potential： A General Material Criterion for the Selection of Highly Efficient Arsenic Adsorbents

Arsenic is a highly toxic element and its contamination in water bodies is a worldwide problem. Arsenic adsorption with metal oxides/hydroxides-based adsorbents is an effective approach to remove arsenic species from water for the health of both human beings and the environment. However, no material criterion had been proposed for the selection of potential candidates. Equally puzzling is the fact that no clear explanation was available on the poor arsenic adsorption performance of some commonly used adsorbents, such as active carbon or silica. Furthermore, in-depth examination was also not available for the dramatically different competing adsorption effects of various anions on the arsenic adsorption. Through the arsenic adsorption mechanism study on these highly efficient arsenic adsorbents, we found that ionic potential could be used as a general material criterion for the selection of highly efficient arsenic adsorbents and such a criterion could help us to understand the above questions on arsenic adsorbents. This material criterion could be further applied to the selection of highly efficient adsorbents based on ligand exchange between their surface hydroxyl groups and adsorbates in general, which may be used for the prediction of novel adsorbents for the removal of various contaminations in water.     

HARQ–ARQ interaction method for LTE‐based mobile satellite communication system

Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) of the terrestrial long‐term evolution (LTE) system are designed considering the very short propagation delay of terrestrial environment. Therefore, when HARQ and ARQ are applied to the LTE‐based mobile satellite communication system, the inefficiency is caused by the long propagation delay of satellite environment. This paper proposes the interaction method between HARQ and ARQ for the decrease of inefficiency in the LTE‐based mobile satellite communication system. The existing concept of layered architecture about HARQ and ARQ is also maintained in our interaction method. Simulation results reveal that our proposed scheme can provide the larger spectrum efficiency than that of the non‐interaction scheme in all environments. The performance improvement can be up to 2.04 times through the interaction method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐Charged Conjugated Polyelectrolytes as a Versatile Work Function Modifier for Organic Electronic Devices

Despite the excellent work function adjustability of conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs), which induce a vacuum level shift via the formation of permanent dipoles at the CPE/metal electrode interface, the exact mechanism of electron injection through the CPE electron transport layer (ETL) remains unclear. In particular, understanding the ionic motion within the CPE ETLs when overcoming the sizable injection barrier is a significant challenge. Because the ionic functionality of CPEs is a key component for such functions, a rigorous analysis using highly controlled ion density (ID) in CPEs is crucial for understanding the underlying mechanism. Here, by introducing a new series of CPEs with various numbers of ionic functionalities, energy level tuning at such an interface can be determined directly by adjusting the ID in the CPEs. More importantly, these series CPEs indicate that two different mechanisms must be invoked according to the CPE thickness. The formation of permanent interfacial dipoles is critical with respect to electron injection through CPE ETL (≤ 10 nm, quantum mechanical tunneling limit), whereas electron injection through thick CPE ETL (20–30 nm) is dominated by the reorientation of the ionic side chains under a given electric field.     

Synthesis and photo‐polymerization of bio‐based furanic compounds functionalized by 2‐hydroxypropyl methacrylate group(s)

Bio‐based compounds (FmHPM and FdHPM) with a furan backbone and photo‐polymerizable 2‐hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPM) group(s) were synthesized from carbohydrate‐derived furanyl alcohols (furan‐2‐methanol and furan‐2,5‐dimethanol) and their photo‐polymerizing behaviors and mechanical properties after photo‐polymerization were investigated. Half time values (t_1/2) of bio‐based FmHPM and FdHPM were 10.4 s and 3.0 s and their shrinkage ratios were 3.0 and 6.1% during photo‐polymerization, respectively. Tensile‐shear strength of glass and polycarbonate joints bonded by bio‐based furanic compounds appeared in range of 0.2–0.6 MPa and pencil hardness of film coated by bio‐based furanic compounds after photo‐polymerization showed 2H–3H. Newly synthesized bio‐based furanic compounds allowed the feasibility to alternate petroleum‐based Bis‐GMA/TEGDMA, photo‐polymerizable composition widely utilized in a variety of applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Hydrogen from aluminium in a flow reactor for fuel cell applications

Aluminium appears to be a promising material for on-board hydrogen generation in fuel cell applications given the comparatively large amount of hydrogen produced per gram of aluminium in a safe system. A microfuel processor with aluminium and water as reactants is developed in a flow reactor for application in portable power sources. Two types of reactor are used. One reactor permits the direct feeding of liquid water in channels containing aluminium pellets, whereas the other utilizes the heat produced from the reaction to vapourize liquid water before entry into the reactor. Two additives, namely, calcium oxide (CaO) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), are used to enhance the reaction rate. A maximum conversion of 78.6% with respect to aluminium is achieved when the water entering in the reactor is vapourized partially. In the case of liquid water entering the reactor, the conversion is 74.4%.     

The design,synthesis and nonlinear optical properties of a novel,Y-type polyurethane containing tricyanovinylthiophene of high thermal stability

A novel, Y-type polyurethane containing 1-(2,4-dioxyethoxy)phenyl-2-{5-(2,2-dicyanovinyl)-2-thiophenyl}ethenes as nonlinear optical chromophores present within the polymer backbone, was prepared and characterized. The compound was soluble in common organic solvents and displayed thermal stability up to 260 °C and a glass transition temperature (T_g) of 163 °C. The second harmonic generation coefficient (d₃₃) of poled polymer films at the compound's fundamental wavelength of 1560 nm was ～3.72 × 10^?9 esu. Dipole alignment exhibited high thermal stability up to the T_g, and there was no decay in d₃₃ below 148 °C owing to the partial main-chain character of the polymer structure.     

A complementary codes pilot-based transmitter diversity technique for OFDM systems

This letter presents a complementary codes pilot-based space-time block code/orthogonal frequency division multiplex (STBC/OFDM) system. In this system, a pair of complementary codes transmitted in a pre-defined order with the OFDM data signals is used as the pilot signals in a two-antenna transmitter diversity system, and used to estimate the channels for optimal data detection at the receiver side. A complete receiver architecture has been designed and Monte Carlo simulations have been used to verify the performance of the system in mobile radio fading channels.     

A Closed Form Approximation of the Sum Rate Upperbound of Random Beamforming

In this letter, a closed form expression of the sum rate upperbound is derived for random beamforming. The proposed analytic solution provides a good approximation of the 'actual' sum rate performance, for which the conventional asymptotic analysis is less meaningful. Moreover, our result leads to an implication of the asymptotic growth rate of M log log K.     

Using a knowledge-based intelligent system to support dynamic design reasoning for a collaborative design community

Traditional computer-aided design (CAD) and product lifecycle management (PLM) tools have their limitations in supporting quick-to-market, mass-customized product development environments. The present paper proposes a general integrated framework of design knowledge representation and develops a knowledge-based intelligent system (KBIS) to facilitate dynamic design reasoning. Owing to the increasing complexity of product design, the traditional design (knowledge) rules can no longer help facilitate complex product development, which requires flexible design knowledge adoption and collaborators’ interaction during design inference processes. Therefore, this research enhances the abilities of smart collaborative design reasoning. A conceptual architecture for the KBIS is presented to enable a collaborative design community to reason feasible design parameters and to integrate all sub-system designs of a product. Finally, a case study of designing an air compressor and its sub-system (V-type belt) is presented to demonstrate the unique features of the KBIS.