Zinc-graphite composite coating for anti-fouling application

In this paper, an anti-fouling composite coating was fabricated by blending zinc-graphite alloy powders with epoxy-silicone resin and characterized by EDS, SEM, XRD and ion titration. Compared with stainless steel and epoxy-silicone resin coating, the composite coating significantly inhibited the deposition of CaCO₃ fouling. Only a small amount of fouling was observed on the surface of composite coating after it was immersed in CaCl₂/NaHCO₃ solution. The galvanic corrosion of zinc-graphite powders could release Zn²⁺ ions, which can reduce partially the nucleation and crystal growth rate of CaCO₃ on the surface of composite coating. It was found that the morphologies of CaCO₃ fouling changed from calcite to aragonite as the existence of composite coating. Meanwhile, CaCO₃ fouling was prone to precipitate in bulk solution rather than on the surface of composite coating.     

Template-free mechanochemical route to prepare crystalline and electroactive polydiphenylamine nanostructures

A facile and sustainable mechanochemical route for the synthesis of undoped polydiphenylamine (PDPA) and inorganic acid doped nanostructures are reported. Field emission scanning electron microscopic (FESEM) images highlighted the formation of distinctly different nanostructures for each of the inorganic acid doped PDPA. Elemental analysis carried out for the polymers revealed the presence of more repeating units in their backbone. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results of the as-prepared PDPA nanostructures indicated the high degree of crystallinity ever reported for PDPA. Spectroscopic profile of the polymers showed that the prepared PDPA is in a doped conducting form. Electrochemical studies performed for the polymeric particles ascertained the redox behaviour and the good electrochemical activity of obtained PDPA samples. The probable mechanistic aspect behind the formation of PDPA nanostructures through this simple and efficient route is discussed.     

Innovative methodologies of circuit edit by focused ion beam (FIB) on wafer-level chip-scale-package (WLCSP) devices

As packaging technology advances to wafer level chip scale packaging (WLCSP) to enable reduced chip size and manufacturing cost, circuit edit has become a critical issue for the fully packaged integrated circuits (ICs). These advanced package types cannot be rebuilt on a single chip; therefore, function testing after circuit edit of WLCSP faces challenges. Furthermore, there are routings at the redistribution layer of WLCSP ICs. Circuit edit was applied on both the chip and the package level. In this paper the focused ion beam was applied to mill the organic material of the package structure to expose underlying ICs, instead of chemically destroying the packaging. Metal line cutting and conductive path deposition were also developed by a beam-based technique. These new approaches make the direct edit of electrical circuitry possible not only in ICs but also at package level. Therefore, for the debug process and for failure analysis, the WLCSP ICs have negligible damage and negligible signal integrity loss by retaining the original packaging structure.     

Effect of Sn-doping on the sintering process of MgB<Subscript>2</Subscript> and its superconductive properties

Bulk (Mg_1.02B₂)_1−x Sn _x samples (x = 0.0, 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05) were synthesized by in situ sintering at 850 °C for one hour. Based on the phase identification and microstructure observation, the Mg₂Sn and Sn impurities are found as the main impurities in Sn-doped samples. According to the magnetization measurements, the low doping level of Sn was observed to have small influence on the grain connectivity, and thus a high critical current density was maintained at low field. However, the values of the critical current density at high field in the Sn-doped samples show a little decrease.     

Interfacial assembly of sandwich mixed (Phthalocyaninato)(Porphyrinato) rare earth triple-decker complexes: Effect of in situ coordination

Interfacial assembly of sandwich mixed (phthalocyaninato)(porphyrinato) rare earth triple-decker complexes [(Pc)Eu(Pc)Eu(TPyP)] (1) and [(TPyP)Sm(Pc)Sm(TPyP)] (2) (Pc = phthalocyaninate, TPyP = meso-tetrakis(4-pyridyl)porphyrinate) has been comparatively studied at the air/pure water and the air/CdCl₂ aqueous solution subphase interfaces. Surface pressure-area isotherms revealed the remarkable increase of limiting mean molecular area of the triple-deckers with the presence of Cd²⁺, suggesting the occurrence of in situ interfacial coordination. The formation of coordination bonds between the pyridyl groups of TPyP macrocycles in the triple-deckers and Cd²⁺ ions from the subphase was further supported by FT-IR spectroscopic data. Electronic absorption measurements showed the formation of J-aggregates of the triple-decker molecules in the interfacial assembled films.     

On the equivalence of linear codes

Certain equivalent conditions are given for the equivalence of linear codes using the properties of the relative subcodes derived from the relative generalized Hamming weight.     

Computational uncertainty analysis in multiresolution materials via stochastic constitutive theory

A stochastic constitutive theory is proposed in this work to propagate microstructure uncertainties in computational multiscale continuum models to bulk multiresolution material behavior. Ubiquitous fine resolution uncertainty sources influencing prediction of material properties based on their structures are categorized in detail, and this research transmits these uncertainties to coarser material resolutions by introducing a stochastic constitutive theory deduced from volume element simulations. To implement the stochastic upscaling process, two advanced uncertainty quantification methods are examined: statistical copula functions and random process polynomial chaos expansion. Both methods confront the mathematical difficulty in randomizing constitutive laws by capturing the marked correlation among constitutive parameters seen in complex materials, thus the results proffer a more accurate probabilistic estimation of constitutive material behavior. The contribution of this work is twofold: uncertainty is propagated from heterogeneous material “structure” to material “property” via the stochastic constitutive theory, and rigorous, data-driven mathematics are formalized to represent complicated dependence structures in multivariate statistical distributions. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work in multiresolution mechanics that presents an approach to computationally derive correlation functions from numerical experiments, as opposed, for instance, to assuming one a priori. The method put forth in this research, though quite general, is applied to a mathematical example and plastic, high strength steel alloy for demonstration. Results include stochastic constitutive curve confidence intervals for the material stress–strain response and qualitative comparisons of the two stochastic methods detailed herein.