Prediction of diffusive transport through polymer films from characteristics of the pore geometry

Diffusive transport through porous materials is to a large extent determined by the microstructure of the material. To design materials with controlled transport properties, it is hence important to connect properties of the pore geometry to diffusive transport rates. Different kinds of microstructures from a stochastic model are generated and multiplicative regression is used to find relationships between geometric measures of the microstructures and numerically simulated diffusive transport. The main results are that the geodesic tortuosity explains a large part of the transport variation, and that the standard deviations we introduce further improves prediction. It was found that it is best to compute the tortuosity using the whole pore space, instead of using only the inlet, as is commonly done. The effects of calculating the measures using small samples of the pore structure were investigated, and a method for minimizing errors resulting from boundary effects was proposed. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 65: 446–457, 2019     

Kinetics of combined noncatalytic and catalytic hydrolysis of jute fiber under ultrasonic–far infrared energy synergy

Hydrolysis of pretreated waste jute fiber was intensified for maximizing reducing sugar (RS) yield deploying a novel reactor equipped with ultrasonic–far-infrared-waves (US–FIRW). At optimal 70°C temperature, 2.5 wt% Amberlyst-15 catalyst concentration, 15 min hydrolysis time and 10 (wt/wt) water loading; US–FIRW rendered significantly greater RS yield (74.82 mol%) compared to other reactors provided with far-infrared-wave (69.63 mol%), ultrasonication (50.34 mol%), and conventional thermal system (48.16 mol%). Kinetic models were developed considering noncatalytic-pseudo-homogenous (NCPH) in addition to the combined catalytic-pseudo-homogeneous (CPH) and catalytic heterogeneous (CHE) hydrolysis pathways. The results revealed that pseudo-homogenous–heterogeneous Eley–Rideal (PHHER) model could represent the hydrolysis kinetics most accurately. Remarkably, the lowest activation energy [16.75 kJ mol⁻¹ (NCPH), 13.82 kJ mol⁻¹ (CPH), 40.01 kJ mol⁻¹ (CHE)] required in US–FIRW evidently established its greater energy-efficiency among investigated reactors. The novel reactor and the simulated kinetic models can be applicable to other lignocellulosic biomass conversion for sustainable biorefinery.     

Methanol oxidation on carbon-supported platinum-tin electrodes in sulfuric acid

A study is made of the electrooxidation of methanol in sulfuric acid on carbon-supported electrodes containing platinum-tin bimetal catalysts that are prepared by an in situ potentiometric-characterization route. The catalysts are investigated by employing chemical analyses, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption-near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data in conjunction with electrochemical measurements. From the electrochemical data, it is inferred that while an electrode with (3:1) Pt-Sn/C catalyst involves a two-electron rate-limiting step akin to platinum-on-carbon electrodes, it is shifted to a one-electron mechanism on electrodes with (3:2)Pt-Sn/C, (3:3)Pt-Sn/C, and (3:4)Pt-Sn/C catalysts. The study suggests that the tin content in the platinum-tin bimetal catalyst produces: (i) a charge transfer from tin to platinum; (ii) an increase in the coverage of adsorbed methanolic residues with increase in the tin content, as indicated by the shift in rest potential of the electrodes towards the reversible value for oxidation of methanol (0.043 V versus SHE), and (iii) a decrease in the overall content of higher valent platinum sites in the catalyst.     

Black Phosphorus@Laser-Engraved Graphene Heterostructure-Based Temperature–Strain Hybridized Sensor for Electronic-Skin Applications

Smart electronic skin (e-skin) requires the easy incorporation of multifunctional sensors capable of mimicking skin-like perception in response to external stimuli. However, efficient and reliable measurement of multiple parameters in a single functional device is limited by the sensor layout and choice of functional materials. The outstanding electrical properties of black phosphorus and laser-engraved graphene (BP@LEG) demonstrates a new paradigm for a highly sensitive dual-modal temperature and strain sensor platform to modulate e-skin sensing functionality. Moreover, the unique hybridized sensor design enables efficient and accurate determination of each parameter without interfering with each other. The cationic polymer passivated BP@LEG composite material on polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-block-polystyrene (SEBS) substrate outperforms as a positive temperature coefficient material, exhibiting a high thermal index of 8106 K (25–50  ° C) with high strain sensitivity (i.e., gauge factor, GF) of up to 2765 ( > 19.2%), ultralow strain resolution of 0.023%, and longer durability ( > 18 400 cycles), satisfying the e-skin requirements. Looking forward, this technique provides unique opportunities for broader applications, such as e-skin, robotic appendages, and health monitoring technologies.     

Polyaziridine-Encapsulated Phosphorene-Incorporated Flexible 3D Porous Graphene for Multimodal Sensing and Energy Storage Applications

Heteroatom-incorporated graphene represents a prominent family of materials utilized as active electrodes for multimodal sensing and energy storage applications. Herein, a novel polyaziridine-encapsulated phosphorene (PEP)-incorporated flexible 3D porous graphene (3DPG) electrode is developed using facile, cost-effective laser writing, and drop-casting techniques. Owing to the excellent electrochemical characteristics and surface functionality of the highly stable PEP, the fabricated PEP/3DPG is evaluated as a potential electrode for immunosensing, electrocardiogram (ECG) recording, and microsupercapacitors (MSCs). Under optimized conditions, the produced PEP/3DPG-based carcinoembryonic immunosensor exhibits linear ranges of 0.1–700 pg mL⁻¹ and 1–100 ng mL⁻¹ with a detection limit of 0.34 pg mL⁻¹ and high selectivity. The finger touch-based ECG sensor demonstrates a relatively low and stable impedance at the skin-electrode interface; therefore, the signal-to-noise ratio of the ECG signal received from the fabricated sensor (13.5 dB) is comparable to that of conventional Ag/AgCl electrodes (13.9 dB). Besides, the highest areal capacitance of the prepared MSC reached a magnitude of 16.94 mF cm⁻², which is six times higher than that of a non-doped 3DPG-based MSC. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the described fabrication procedure and the high utilization potential of the encapsulated phosphorene-doped 3D graphene in multimodal applications.     

Elucidating the Impact of Mg Substitution on the Properties of NASICON-Na3+yV2−yMgy(PO4)3 Cathodes

Vanadium multiredox-based NASICON-Na_zV_2−yM_y(PO₄)₃ (3 ≤ z ≤ 4; M = Al³⁺, Cr³⁺, and Mn²⁺) cathodes are particularly attractive for Na-ion battery applications due to their high Na insertion voltage (>3.5 V vs Na⁺/Na⁰), reversible storage capacity (≈150 mA h g⁻¹), and rate performance. However, their practical application is hindered by rapid capacity fade due to bulk structural rearrangements at high potentials involving complex redox and local structural changes. To decouple these factors, a series of Mg²⁺-substituted Na_3+yV_2−yMg_y(PO₄)₃ (0 ≤ y ≤ 1) cathodes is studied for which the only redox-active species is vanadium. While X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms the formation of solid solutions between the y = 0 and 1 end members, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance reveal a complex evolution of the local structure upon progressive Mg²⁺ substitution for V³⁺. Concurrently, the intercalation voltage rises from 3.35 to 3.45 V, due to increasingly more ionic V O bonds, and the sodium (de)intercalation mechanism transitions from a two-phase for y ≤ 0.5 to a solid solution process for y ≥ 0.5, as confirmed by in operando XRD, while Na-ion diffusion kinetics follow a nonlinear trend across the compositional series.     

An objective and subjective quality assessment study of passive gaming video streaming

Passive gaming video‐streaming applications have recently gained much attention as evident with the rising popularity of many Over The Top (OTT) providers such as Twitch.tv and YouTube Gaming. For the continued success of such services, it is imperative that the user Quality of Experience (QoE) remains high, which is usually assessed using subjective and objective video quality assessment methods. Recent years have seen tremendous advancement in the field of objective video quality assessment (VQA) metrics, with the development of models that can predict the quality of the videos streamed over the Internet. A study on the performance of objective VQA on gaming videos, which are artificial and synthetic and have different streaming requirements than traditionally streamed videos, is still missing. Towards this end, we present in this paper an objective and subjective quality assessment study on gaming videos considering passive streaming applications. Subjective ratings are obtained for 90 stimuli generated by encoding six different video games in multiple resolution‐bitrate pairs. Objective quality performance evaluation considering eight widely used VQA metrics is performed using the subjective test results and on a data set of 24 reference videos and 576 compressed sequences obtained by encoding them in 24 resolution‐bitrate pairs. Our results indicate that Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) predicts subjective video quality ratings the best, while Naturalness Image Quality Evaluator (NIQE) turns out to be a promising alternative as a no‐reference metric in some scenarios.     

The beneficial impact of a p–p+ junction on DC and analog/radio frequency performance of a vertical super-thin body FET

This article investigates the impact of the p–p⁺ junction (at the body-substrate interface) on different direct current (DC) and analog/radio frequency (RF) performance parameters of a newly invented structure called vertical super-thin body field effect transistor (VSTB FET) through a well-calibrated TCAD tool. At a fixed body doping, the influence of p–p⁺ junction was inspected for different substrate doping (N_s); which reveals that N_s has a robust control on the device electrostatics. Interestingly, higher N_s is seen to significantly suppress different short channel effects (SCEs), which in turn helps to improve various DC parameters excellently. An increase in N_s from 10¹⁵ to 10¹⁸ cm^?3 improves off-state leakage current and on-to-off current ratio by three orders of magnitude. Also, such a change in N_s decreases subthreshold swing and drain-induced-barrier-lowering by 8.78 mV/dec and 11.15 mV/V, respectively. The underlying physics behind such improvement at higher N_s is explored through the off-state channel electron density profiles corresponding to different N_s values. Further, different analog/RF parameters such as transconductance, input capacitance, gate-drain capacitance, output conductance, gain-bandwidth-product, and transconductance frequency product (TFP) show slight improvement for increasing N_s. In contrast, TGF, GFP, and GTFP offer large enhancement at higher N_s. This study is expected to demonstrate the significance of N_s on device performance.     

FPGA based area efficient RS(23, 17) codec

Generally in digital communication systems and storage mediums, Reed–Solomon (RS) codes are employed to detect and correct errors. RS code is a promising code for Ultra Wide Band (UWB) which is ideally suitable for wireless application. Design of compact, high-speed and low-power RS(23, 17) code is challenging for today’s wireless communication systems. Here, an optimization algorithm is introduced which is very simple and it is employed to reduce the number of XOR gates required to design constant Galois Field (GF) multipliers. In this paper, a compact RS(23, 17) encoder and decoder circuit is designed and implemented for Ultra Wide Band(UWB) application. The number of two input XOR gates is reduced by 29.27 (20.00) and 56.10 (66.15) % respectively for local and global optimization compared to unoptimized RS encoder (syndrome block) without increasing its delay. The proposed algorithm is also employed to design the RS(204, 188) and RS(255, 223) encoder. All designs are simulated and synthesized for Vertex4 FPGA platform. Proposed algorithm is also used for the design of Chien Search and Forney blocks. Implemented RS(23, 17) codec requires lesser number of slices and LUTs over the unoptimized RS codec. The synthesis results reflect that the proposed design is suitable for resource constraint applications.