Metal Micropatterning by Triboelectric Spark Discharge

Metal micropatterns play critical roles in flexible electronics. However, the lack of versatile strategies for micropatterning of diverse metal materials on various thin, flexible or stretchable substrates has limited the rapid development of flexible electronics. Here, a metal micropatterning method by triboelectric spark discharge under atmospheric environment is developed, where a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is employed to precisely and safely control the voltage, current, and frequency of the spark discharges. Micropatterns of metal films like gold, silver, copper, aluminum and platinum are successfully fabricated on substrates of polyimide, polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl chloride, polydimethylsiloxane, paper or latex, even on ultrathin substrates (5 μm thick) without damage, where the feature sizes of metal patterns are controllable from 20 μm to 1 mm. Experimental insights into the triboelectric spark discharge behaviors and the pattern feature sizes control are discussed. A straightforward fabrication of metal patterns on the balloon surface or human skin through “handwriting” by a pencil as discharge electrode is realized. Besides metals, extended processibility of conductive materials like carbon nanotubes, graphene, MXene, graphite, carbon fibers, and conductive polymers are also demonstrated. This work proves the possibility of microfabrication by TENG, which is of simplicity and attractiveness for flexible electronics.     

Fast medical concept normalization for biomedical literature based on stack and index optimized self-attention

Neural Computing and Applications - Medical concept normalization aims to construct a semantic mapping between mentions and concepts and to uniformly represent mentions that belong to the same...     

Updates on the development of nanostructured transition metal nitrides for electrochemical energy storage and water splitting

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Ultrathin Co3O4 nanosheets highly dispersed on reduced graphene oxide: An efficient bi-functional catalyst for Li-O2 battery

Ultrathin Co₃O₄ nanosheets grown on the reduced graphene oxide (Co₃O₄/rGO) was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method and was investigated as a cathode in a Li-O₂ battery. Benefited from the synergistic effect between Co₃O₄ and rGO, the hybrid exhibits a high initial capacity of 10,528 mAh g^?1 along with a high coulombic efficiency (84.4%) at 100 mA g^?1. In addition, the batteries show an enhanced cycling stability and after 113 cycles, the cut-off discharge voltage remains above 2.5 V. The outstanding performance is intimately related to the high surface area of rGO, which not only provide carbon skeleton for the uniform distribution of Co₃O₄ nanosheets but also facilitate the reversible formation and decomposition of insoluble Li₂O₂. The results of electrochemical tests confirm that the Co₃O₄/rGO hybrid is a promising candidate for the Li-O₂ batteries.     

Crystallographic analysis on small fatigue crack propagation behaviour of a nickel-based single crystal superalloy

In situ observations by scanning electron microscopy show that small fatigue cracks in a nickel-based single crystal superalloy are inclined to the loading direction and propagate in dominant crystallographic manners. In order to evaluate the driving forces for inclined crack propagation, three-dimensional anisotropic linear elastic finite-element analysis is conducted. The plastic zone size on the dominant slip plane has been calculated and proposed to correlate the fatigue crack growth. It is shown that this parameter takes into account both material anisotropy and octahedral fracture modes, and it can effectively characterize small crack propagation behaviour.     

A Change-Point Approach for Phase-I Analysis in Multivariate Profile Monitoring and Diagnosis

Process monitoring and fault diagnosis using profile data remains an important and challenging problem in statistical process control (SPC). Although the analysis of profile data has been extensively studied in the SPC literature, the challenges associated with monitoring and diagnosis of multichannel (multiple) nonlinear profiles are yet to be addressed. Motivated by an application in multioperation forging processes, we propose a new modeling, monitoring, and diagnosis framework for phase-I analysis of multichannel profiles. The proposed framework is developed under the assumption that different profile channels have similar structure so that we can gain strength by borrowing information from all channels. The multidimensional functional principal component analysis is incorporated into change-point models to construct monitoring statistics. Simulation results show that the proposed approach has good performance in identifying change-points in various situations compared with some existing methods. The codes for implementing the proposed procedure are available in the supplementary material.     

Tensile Strength Evolution and Damage Mechanisms of Al–Si Piston Alloy at Different Temperatures

The Al–Si piston alloys always bear different temperatures because of its peculiar component structure and service condition. Therefore, the tensile strength, elongation to fracture, and corresponding damage mechanisms of Al12SiCuNiMg piston alloys (ASPA) have been investigated with in situ technique at different temperatures. The tensile properties show two‐stage tendencies: the former stage (25–280 °C) is determined by easily broken phases with inherent brittleness (such as primary Si), and the fracture behavior presents rapid brittle fracture after reaching the critical stress (about 430 MPa, based on in situ technique and the elastic stress field model). The later one (280–425 °C) is dominated by particles debonding and θphase coarsening. The plastic deformation behavior, dynamic recovery, and flow process become more significant on account of thermal activation. The Considère criterion h = K indicates that the transition of damage behaviors from insufficient local strength to insufficient matrix strength and the corresponding failure model shifts from brittle to ductile fracture. Based on the damage mechanisms, the elastic field model and thermal activation relation model have been established to characterize the strength of the ASPA at different temperature ranges.

     

The Influence of Carbon Nitride Nanosheets Doping on the Crystalline Formation of MIL‐88B(Fe) and the Photocatalytic Activities

In this research, bulk graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C₃N₄) is exfoliated and transferred to the carbon nitride nanosheets (CNNSs), which are then coupled with MIL‐88B(Fe) to form the hybrid. From the results of the powder X‐ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis, it is found that the doping of CNNSs on the surface of MIL‐88(Fe) could maintain the basic structure of MIL‐88B(Fe), and the smaller dimension of CNNSs might influence the crystallization process of metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) compared to bulk g‐C₃N₄. Besides, the effects of the CNNSs incorporation on photocatalysis are also investigated. Through the photoluminescence spectra, electrochemical measurements, and photocatalytic experiments, the hybrid containing 6% CNNSs is certified to possess the highest catalytic activity to degrade methylene blue and reduce Cr(VI) under visible light. The improvement of the photocatalytic performance can be attributed to the matched energy level which favors the formation of the heterojunctions. Besides, it promotes the charge migration such that the contact between MOFs and CNNSs is more intimate, which can be inferred from the electronic microscopy images. Finally, a possible photocatalytic mechanism is put forward by the relative calculation and the employment of the scavengers to trap the active species.