Blockchain for Collaborative Businesses

Mobile Networks and Applications - Blockchain applications have continuously improved ever since its first debut on cryptocurrency. From then on, its uses have branched out from the financial...     

Statistical Piezotronic Effect in Nanocrystal Bulk by Anisotropic Geometry Control

Utilizing inner-crystal piezoelectric polarization charges to control carrier transport across a metal-semiconductor or semiconductor–semiconductor interface, piezotronic effect has great potential applications in smart micro/nano-electromechanical system (MEMS/NEMS), human-machine interfacing, and nanorobotics. However, current research on piezotronics has mainly focused on systems with only one or rather limited interfaces. Here, the statistical piezotronic effect is reported in ZnO bulk composited of nanoplatelets, of which the strain/stress-induced piezo-potential at the crystals’ interfaces can effectively gate the electrical transport of ZnO bulk. It is a statistical phenomenon of piezotronic modification of large numbers of interfaces, and the crystal orientation of inner ZnO nanoplatelets strongly influence the transport property of ZnO bulk. With optimum preferred orientation of ZnO nanoplatelets, the bulk exhibits an increased conductivity with decreasing stress at a high pressure range of 200–400 MPa, which has not been observed previously in bulk. A maximum sensitivity of 1.149 µS m⁻¹ MPa⁻¹ and a corresponding gauge factor of 467–589 have been achieved. As a statistical phenomenon of many piezotronic interfaces modulation, the proposed statistical piezotronic effect extends the connotation of piezotronics and promotes its practical applications in intelligent sensing.     

Preparation and electrochemical characterization of Ti-based amorphous metallic glass with high strength

Ti-based amorphous metallic glasses have excellent mechanical, physical, and chemical properties, which is an important development direction and research hotspot of metal composite reinforcement. As a stable, simple, efficient, and large-scale preparation technology of metallic powders, the gas atomization process provides an effective way of preparing amorphous metallic glasses. In this study, the controllable fabrication of a Ti-based amorphous powder, with high efficiency, has been realized by using gas atomization. The scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive spectrometer, and X-ray diffraction are used to analyze surface morphology, element distribution, and phase structure, respectively. A microhardness tester is used to measure the mechanical property. An electrochemical workstation is used to characterize corrosion behavior. The results show that as-prepared microparticles are more uniform and exhibit good amorphous characteristics. The mechanical test shows that the hardness of amorphous powder is significantly increased as compared with that before preparation, which has the prospect of being an important part of engineering reinforced materials. Further electrochemical measurement shows that the corrosion resistance of the as-prepared sample is also significantly improved. This study has laid a solid foundation for expanding applications of Ti-based metallic glasses, especially in heavy-duty and corrosive domains.     

Phase locked loop-based clock synthesizer for reconfigurable analog-to-digital converters

Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing - This paper presents the complete design of a phase locked loop-based clock synthesizer for reconfigurable analog-to-digital converters. The...     

An integrated dimensionality reduction and surrogate optimization approach for plant-wide chemical process operation

With liquefied natural gas becoming increasingly prevalent as a flexible source of energy, the design and optimization of industrial refrigeration cycles becomes even more important. In this article, we propose an integrated surrogate modeling and optimization framework to model and optimize the complex CryoMan Cascade refrigeration cycle. Dimensionality reduction techniques are used to reduce the large number of process decision variables which are subsequently supplied to an array of Gaussian processes, modeling both the process objective as well as feasibility constraints. Through iterative resampling of the rigorous model, this data-driven surrogate is continually refined and subsequently optimized. This approach was not only able to improve on the results of directly optimizing the process flow sheet but also located the set of optimal operating conditions in only 2 h as opposed to the original 3 weeks, facilitating its use in the operational optimization and enhanced process design of large-scale industrial chemical systems.     

Optimized microwave absorption properties by tailoring the morphology of carbon coated TiC nanoparticles by N2 pressure

Increasing the dielectric loss capacity plays an important role in enhancing the electromagnetic absorption performance of materials. It remains a challenge to simultaneously introduce multiple types of dielectric losses in the material. In this work, we show that the atomic and interfacial dipole polarizations can be simultaneously enhanced by substituting N species into both carbon coating layers and bulk TiC lattices of a core-shell TiC@C material. Additionally, substitution of N species results more exposed TiC(111) facets and refines the TiC grain sizes in the bulk material, which is beneficial for enhancing the scattering of the external electromagnetic waves. The maximum reflection loss of the N substituted TiC@C material is measured as ?47.1 dB with an effective absorbing bandwidth of 4.83 GHz at 1.9 mm, which illustrates a valuable way to further tuning the electromagnetic absorption performance of this type of materials.     

Alumina-Periclase-Carbon Refractories Produced by OOO Ogneupor

Refractories and Industrial Ceramics - Technology for producing alumina-periclase-carbon refractories of the brands APUK-D and APU-D is developed and implemented. Use of complex antioxidant and...     

Microstructure and electric properties of Pr-doped Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 ceramics

Improving the piezoelectric activity of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics is of great importance for practical applications. In this study, the influence of Pr³⁺ doping on the ferroelectric phase composition, microstructure, and electric properties on the A-site of (Pb_1-1.5xPr_x)(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ is extensively investigated. A dense and fine microstructural sample is obtained with the introduction of Pr³⁺. The results show that the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) moves to the rhombohedral phase region. The rhombohedral and tetragonal phases exhibit an ideal coexistence in the 4 mol.% Pr³⁺ doped (PPZT4) samples. Lead vacancy and the reduction of the potential energy barrier are considered to be the key mechanisms for donor doping, which is upheld by the Pr³⁺ doping. Combining the I-E hysteresis loops with the P-E hysteresis loops, it becomes apparent that both contribution maximums of the domain switching and residual polarisation are in PPZT4. Moreover, the thermal aging resistance of PZT is improved by doping, and the temperature stability is optimised from 83% in PZT to 96% in PPZT4. Hence, an appropriate amount of Pr³⁺ doping can effectively improve the piezoelectric activity of PZT ceramics in the MPB area and optimise the performance stability of the material under application temperatures.     

Properties of High-Strength Aramid Fiber Textile Materials for Protective Clothing

Fibre Chemistry - An analysis of the aramid fiber market including the range of industrial textile materials containing chemical fibers for specialized protective clothing of metallurgical workers,...     

Phase and microstructure evolution of Sc2O3–CeO2 –ZrO2ceramics in Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salts

In this study, the destabilization resistance of Sc₂O₃ and CeO₂ co-stabilized ZrO₂ (SCZ) ceramics was tested in Na₂SO₄ + V₂O₅ molten salts at 750°C–1100 °C. The phase structure and microstructure evolution of the samples during the hot corrosion testing were analyzed with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results showed that the destabilization of SCZ ceramics at 750 °C was the result of the chemical reaction with V₂O₅ to produce m-ZrO₂ and CeVO₄, and little ScVO₄ was detected in the Sc₂O₃-rich SCZ ceramics. The primary corrosion products at 900 °C and 1100 °C were CeO₂ and m-ZrO₂ due to the mineralization effect. The Sc₂O₃-rich SCZ ceramics exhibited excellent degradation resistance and phase stability owing to the enhanced bond strength and the decreased size misfit between Zr⁴⁺ and Sc³⁺. The destabilization mechanism of SCZ ceramic under hot corrosion was also discussed.