Microwave dielectric properties of ultra-low loss Li2MgTi0.7(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.3O4 ceramics sintered at low temperature by LiF addition

In this work, ultra-low loss Li₂MgTi_0.7(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)_0.3O₄ ceramics were successfully prepared via the conventional solid-state method. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) and bond energy were used to determine the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic dielectric loss in (Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)⁴⁺ ions substituted ceramics. The addition of (Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)⁴⁺ ions enhances the bond energy in unit cell without changing the crystal structure of Li₂MgTiO₄, which results in high Q·f value as an intrinsic factor. The extrinsic factors such as porosity and grain size influence the dielectric loss at lower sintering temperature, while the oxygen vacancies play dominant role when the ceramics densified at 1400?°C. The Li₂MgTi_0.7(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)_0.3O₄ ceramics sintered at 1400?°C can achieve an excellent combination of microwave dielectric properties: ε_r =?16.19, Q·f?=?160,000?GHz and τ_f =??3.14?ppm/°C. In addition, a certain amount of LiF can effectively lower the sintering temperature of the matrix, and the Li₂MgTi_0.7(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)_0.3O₄-3?wt% LiF ceramics sintered at 1100?°C possess balanced properties with ε_r?=?16.32, Q·f?=?145,384?GHz and τ_f =??16.33?ppm/°C.     

A distributed energy system integrating SOFC-MGT with mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemical hydrogen fuel production

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production with energy level upgraded from solar thermal to chemical energy shows great potential. By integrating mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry and solid oxide fuel cells, in this paper, a new distributed energy system combining power, cooling, and heating is proposed and analyzed from thermodynamic, energy and exergy viewpoints. Different from the high temperature solar thermochemistry (above 1073.15 K), the mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry utilizes concentrated solar thermal (473.15–573.15 K) to drive methanol decomposition reaction, reducing irreversible heat collection loss. The produced hydrogen-rich fuel is converted into power through solid oxide fuel cells and micro gas turbines successively, realizing the cascaded utilization of fuel and solar energy. Numerical simulation is conducted to investigate the system thermodynamic performances under design and off-design conditions. Promising results reveal that solar-to-hydrogen and net solar-to-electricity efficiencies reach 66.26% and 40.93%, respectively. With the solar thermochemical conversion and hydrogen-rich fuel cascade utilization, the system exergy and overall energy efficiencies reach 59.76% and 80.74%, respectively. This research may provide a pathway for efficient hydrogen-rich fuel production and power generation.     

A novel method based on convolutional neural networks for deriving standard 12-lead ECG from serial 3-lead ECG

Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering - Reconstruction of a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) from a serial 3-lead ECG has been researched in the past to satisfy the need...     

Sequence-Dependent Nanofiber Structures of Phenylalanine and Isoleucine Tripeptides

The molecular design of short peptides to achieve a tailor-made functional architecture has attracted attention during the past decade but remains challenging as a result of insufficient understanding of the relationship between peptide sequence and assembled supramolecular structures. We report a hybrid-resolution model to computationally explore the sequence–structure relationship of self-assembly for tripeptides containing only phenylalanine and isoleucine. We found that all these tripeptides have a tendency to assemble into nanofibers composed of laterally associated filaments. Molecular arrangements within the assemblies are diverse and vary depending on the sequences. This structural diversity originates from (1) distinct conformations of peptide building blocks that lead to different surface geometries of the filaments and (2) unique sidechain arrangements at the filament interfaces for each sequence. Many conformations are available for tripeptides in solution, but only an extended β-strand and another resembling a right-handed turn are observed in assemblies. It was found that the sequence dependence of these conformations and the packing of resulting filaments are determined by multiple competing noncovalent forces, with hydrophobic interactions involving Phe being particularly important. The sequence pattern for each type of assembly conformation and packing has been identified. These results highlight the importance of the interplay between conformation, molecular packing, and sequences for determining detailed nanostructures of peptides and provide a detailed insight to support a more precise design of peptide-based nanomaterials.     

Ni,Cr, and Fe surfaces corroded by molten ZnCl2

Understanding the corrosion of molten ZnCl₂ on metal surfaces is significant for the corrosion protection of metals, sustainable use of molten salts, preparation of ZnO coatings, and so on. In this paper, surfaces of pure Ni, Cr, and Fe corroded by molten ZnCl₂ were investigated. The results show that Ni suffered very slight corrosion, while Cr experienced more serious corrosion than Ni, but lighter corrosion than Fe. The morphology of the corrosion of Cr and Fe, respectively, presented pitting and intergranular corrosion characteristics. Furthermore, nanostructured ZnO coatings were obtained on the surfaces of Ni and Fe, but not on the surface of Cr. The ZnO coating on the Ni surface was doped with a small amount of Zn₅(OH)₈Cl₂, and the ZnO coating on the Fe surface was doped with ZnFe₂O₄ and Zn₂OCl₂. The coatings on the Ni and Fe surfaces had an average thickness of 1.5 and 50 μm, respectively.     

Effects of ethylene-octene copolymer (POE) on the brittle to ductile transition of high-density polyethylene/POE blends

Three kinds of ethylene-octene copolymers (POE) were melt-blended with high-density polyethylene (PE-HD) in different proportions. Detailed characterizations were conducted to analyze their structural differences of POE and its effects in toughening PE-HD. The higher molecular weight POE can improve the toughness of PE-HD. 60:40 PE-HD/POE is elongated to break up to 700% while impact strength is 84.7 kJ/m² at −30°C, which is 21-fold of PE-HD. In the brittle to ductile transition (BDT) during impact, the fracture mechanism changes from the crazing mode to the shear yield-plastic deformation mode. The BDT temperature decreases as the POE molecular weight and its content increase. The interface strength in tension is estimated to access their effects. The Boltzmann-type models were successfully extended to describe the typical S-shaped curves in BDT of notched impact strength vs POE content or temperature. The supplementary decay model is suggested for the attenuation in toughening. Transition map in impact is proposed to select the use range of composition (c ) and temperature (T ) for high toughness. The curves are converted into 3D graph of T -c -impact strength for illustrating their coupling-separate effects, and further into the contour map of impact strength in T -c space for finding their partial equivalence.     

Tuning effect of silicon substitution on magnetic and high frequency electromagnetic properties of R2Fe17 and their composites

In this work, we report the tuning effect of the Si substitution on the magnetic and high frequency electromagnetic properties of R₂Fe₁₇ compounds and their paraffin composites. It is found that the introduction of Si can remarkably improve the magnetic and electromagnetic properties of the R₂Fe₁₇ compounds, making the R₂Fe_17–xSi_x-paraffin composites excellent microwave absorption materials (MAMs). By introducing the Si element, their saturation magnetizations decrease slightly, while much higher Curie temperatures are obtained. Furthermore, better impedance match is reached due to the decrease of the high-frequency permittivity ε′ by about 40%–50%, which finally enhances the performance of the microwave absorption. The peak frequency (f_RL) of the reflection loss (RL) curve moves toward high frequency domain and the qualified bandwidth (QB, RL ≤ ?10 dB) increases remarkably. The maximum QB of 3.3 GHz (12.0–15.3 GHz) is obtained for the Sm_1.5Y_0.5Fe₁₅Si₂-paraffin composite (d = 1.0 mm) and the maximum RL of ?53.6 dB is achieved for Nd₂Fe₁₅Si₂-paraffin composite (d = 2.2 mm), both surpassing most of the reported MAMs. Additionally, a distinguished dielectric microwave absorption peak is observed, which further increases the QB in these composites.     

Sparse non-convex Lp regularization for cone-beam X-ray luminescence computed tomography

Cone-beam X-ray luminescence computed tomography (CB-XLCT) is an attractive hybrid imaging modality, and it has the potential of monitoring the metabolic processes of nanophosphors-based drugs in vivo. However, the XLCT imaging suffers from a severe ill-posed problem. In this work, a sparse nonconvex L_p (0?p?L₁ regularization. Further, an iteratively reweighted split augmented lagrangian shrinkage algorithm (IRW_SALSA-L_p) was proposed to efficiently solve the non-convex L_p (0?p?p-values (1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 7/8) in both 3D digital mouse experiments and in vivo experiments. The results demonstrate that the proposed non-convex methods outperform L₂ and L₁ regularization in accurately recovering sparse targets in CB-XLCT. And among all the non-convex p-values, our L_p(1/4?p?相似文献   

A dense and compact laser cladding layer with solid metallurgical bonding significantly improved corrosion resistance of Mg alloy for engineering applications

Although Mg alloy attracts great attention for engineering applications because of high specific strength and low density, low corrosion resistance limits its extensive use. In this study, Mg–Al–Zn–Mn alloy was treated via a laser cladding process to generate a dense and compact laser cladding layer with solid metallurgical bonding on the substrate for improving corrosion resistance, effectively hindering the corrosion pervasion into Mg alloy. The corrosion current density declined from 103 μA/cm² for Mg alloy to 13 μA/cm² for the laser cladding layer in NaCl aqueous solution. Moreover, the laser cladding layer was slightly corroded in comparison with Mg alloy in NaCl aqueous solution. Besides, the microhardness of the cladding layer reached a mean value of 170.5 HV, 3.1 times of Mg alloy (56.8 HV) due to the in situ formation of hardening intermetallic phases. Wear resistance of laser cladding layer was also obviously improved. These results demonstrated that the laser cladding layer obviously enhanced anticorrosion property of Mg alloy for engineering applications.