Effects of Solvent Mixtures on Dispersion of Lanthanum-Modified Lead Zirconate Titanate Tape Casting Slurries

The effects of xylenes/ethanol solvent mixtures on lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) nonaqueous suspensions were investigated by measuring sediment height, viscosity, and adsorption of dispersant. Well-dispersed colloidal suspensions were obtained in xylene-rich solvents with a minimum amount of menhaden fish oil as a dispersant. It was also shown that adsorption of dispersant on particle surfaces strongly depends on selection of solvent(s). The ratio of solvent mixture affects PLZT solids content of unfired tapes, in which using insufficient as well as excess dispersant could decrease the packing density of particles. Solubility of other organic additives, such as binder, was also considered when selecting a xylene/ethanol ratio.     

Prediction of Biomass Pyrolysis Mechanisms and Kinetics: Application of the Kalman Filter

In order to predict the pyrolysis mechanisms of four different biomasses (Asbos (Psilocaulon utile), Kraalbos (Galenia africane), Scholtzbos (Pteronia pallens), and palm shell), a novel method called Kalman filter was investigated and the results were compared by regression analysis. Both analyses were applied to five different generalized biomass pyrolysis models consisting of parallel and serial irreversible-reversible reaction steps. The models consisting of reversible reactions in addition to parallel pyrolysis steps demonstrated a better fit with the experimental results. The pyrolysis step from biomass to bio-oil has the highest reaction rates compared with the other pyrolysis steps defined in the models. The Kalman filter is thus defined as a promising filtering and prediction method for the estimation of detailed pyrolysis mechanisms and model parameters, using minimum experimental data.     

Electrochemical and optical properties of new soluble dithienylpyrroles based on azo dyes

Two dithienylpyrroles based on azo dyes, namely 2,5′-dimethyl-[4-(2,5-di-thiophen-2-yl-pyrrol-1-yl)-phenyl]azobenzene (SNS-AB2) and 2,5′-dimethyloxy-[4-(2,5-di-thiophen-2-yl-pyrrol-1-yl)-phenyl]azobenzene (SNS-AB3), were synthesized and their corresponding polymers (PSNS-AB2 and PSNS-AB3) were successfully obtained via electropolymerization. The monomers have lower oxidation potentials (0.75 V and 0.80 V vs. Ag/AgCl for SNS-AB2 and SNS-AB3, respectively) when compared to their analogous. Both monomers exhibited photoisomerism properties under irradiation at 360 nm. During the irradiation process, for example, the color of SNS-AB3 changes from yellow to greenish yellow. The electroactive polymer films have well defined and reversible redox couples with a good cycle stability in both aqueous and organic solutions. The polymer films also exhibited electrochromic behaviors; color changes from yellowish green to dark green for the PSNS-AB2 (λ_max = 435 nm and E_g = 2.31 eV) and from mustard color to green for PSNS-AB3 (λ_max = 430 nm and E_g = 2.34 eV). Furthermore, the soluble polymers demonstrated different hues of yellow and green colors.     

The effect of welding parameters on fracture toughness of resistance spot-welded galvanized DP600 automotive steel sheets

The aim of this study was to evaluate the fracture toughness of resistance spot welded (RSW) lap joints of galvanized DP600 steels. RSW lap joints galvanized DP600 steel sheets were performed on spot welded in a pneumatic, phase-shift-controlled, and 0–9?kA effective weld current capable AC spot welding machine. Defect-free RSW lap joints were produced on galvanized DP600 steel sheets. Fracture toughness of RSW lap joints were calculated from the results of shearing tensile tests: the dependence of fracture toughness to welding current, welding time, and hardness of welding zone for galvanized DP600 steel sheets. According to the experimental data, the fracture toughness increases as welding current and welding time increase up to a certain value, then the fracture toughness starts to decrease. Also, it was seen that the fracture toughness varies with the hardness of the welding zone. This variation is related to welding current.     

Experimental investigation of machining characteristics and chatter stability for Hastelloy-X with ultrasonic and hot turning

Ultrasonic-assisted machining is a machining operation based on the intermittent cutting of material which is obtained through vibrations generated by an ultrasonic system. This method utilizes low-amplitude vibrations with high frequency to prevent continuous contact between a cutting tool and a workpiece. Hot machining is another method for machining materials which are difficult to cut. The basic principle of this method is that the surface of the workpiece is heated to a specific temperature below the recrystallization temperature of the material. This heating operation can be applied before or during the machining process. Both of these operations improve machining operations in terms of workpiece-cutting tool characteristics. In this study, a novel hybrid machining method called hot ultrasonic-assisted turning (HUAT) is proposed for the machinability of Hastelloy-X material. This new technique combines ultrasonic-assisted turning (UAT) and hot turning methods to take advantage of both machining methods in terms of machining characteristics, such as surface roughness, stable cutting depths, and cutting tool temperature. In order to observe the effect of the HUAT method, Hastelloy-X alloy was selected as the workpiece. Experiments on conventional turning (CT), UAT, and HUAT operations were carried out for Hastelloy-X alloy, changing the cutting speed and cutting tool overhang lengths. Chip morphology was also observed. In addition, modal and sound tests were performed to investigate the modal and stability characteristics of the machining. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) method was performed to find the effect of the cutting speed, tool overhang length, and machining techniques (CT, UAT, HUAT) on surface roughness, stable cutting depths, and cutting tool temperature. The results show both ultrasonic vibration and heat improve the machining of Hastelloy-X. A decrease in surface roughness and an increase in stable cutting depths were observed, and higher cutting tool temperatures were obtained in UAT and HUAT compared to CT. According to the ANOVA results, tool overhang length, cutting speed, and machining techniques were effective parameters for surface roughness and stable cutting depths at a 1% significance level (p ≤ 0.01). In addition, cutting speed and machining techniques have an influence on cutting tool temperature at a 1% significance level (p ≤ 0.01). During chip analysis, serrated chips were observed in UAT and HUAT.     

Effect of Ni and Al doping on structural,optical, and CO2 gas sensing properties of 1D ZnO nanorods produced by hydrothermal method

In the present study, the one-dimensional ZnO nanorod structures are produced within the different nickel and aluminum molecular weight ratios of 0–7% using the hydrothermal method. It is found that the aluminum (Al) and nickel (Ni) impurities with different ionic radius, chemical valence, and electron configurations of outer shell cause to vary the fundamental characteristic features including the crystallinity quality, crystallite size, surface morphology, nanorod diameter, optical absorbance, energy band gap, resistance, gas response, and gas sensing properties. The structural analyses performed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicate that the samples are found to crystallize in the hexagonal wurtzite structure. The presence of optimum nickel and aluminum in the crystal system improves considerably the crystallinity quality and surface morphology. Additionally, the combination of electron dispersive X-ray (EDX) and XRD results declare that the Ni and Al impurities incorporate successfully into the ZnO crystal structure. Moreover, the diameters of nanorod structures in 1D orientation are determined to be 80 nm or below. The hexagonal wurtzite-type ZnO nanorod structure prepared by 5% Ni has more space between the nanorods and thus presents higher response to the CO₂ detection. Further, the optical absorbance spectra display that the band gap value is observed to decrease regularly with the increment in the doping level as a result of band shrinkage effect depending on the enhancement of mobile hole carrier concentrations in the crystal structure. In other words, the doping mechanism leads to vary the homogeneities in the interfacial charges, nanorod diameters, ZnO oxide layer composition and thickness. The last test conducted in this study is responsible for the determination of CO₂ gas sensing levels. The obtained gas sensing results are further compared with each other and literature findings. It is observed that 5% Ni-doped sample provides more successful results than other samples in the sensing CO₂ gas at the different concentrations. All in all, the paper establishing a strong methodology between doping mechanism and change in the fundamental characteristic features of hexagonal wurtzite-type ZnO with the aid of advanced microscopy techniques will become pioneering research to answer key questions in materials sciences and electronic research.     

A robust optimization method for label noisy datasets based on adaptive threshold: Adaptive-k

The use of all samples in the optimization process does not produce robust results in datasets with label noise. Because the gradients calculated according to the losses of the noisy samples cause the optimization process to go in the wrong direction. In this paper, we recommend using samples with loss less than a threshold determined during the optimization, instead of using all samples in the mini-batch. Our proposed method, Adaptive-k, aims to exclude label noise samples from the optimization process and make the process robust. On noisy datasets, we found that using a threshold-based approach, such as Adaptive-k, produces better results than using all samples or a fixed number of low-loss samples in the mini-batch. On the basis of our theoretical analysis and experimental results, we show that the Adaptive-k method is closest to the performance of the Oracle, in which noisy samples are entirely removed from the dataset. Adaptive-k is a simple but effective method. It does not require prior knowledge of the noise ratio of the dataset, does not require additional model training, and does not increase training time significantly. In the experiments, we also show that Adaptive-k is compatible with different optimizers such as SGD, SGDM, and Adam. The code for Adaptive-k is available at GitHub.