A Janus Molecule for Screen-Printable Conductive Carbon Ink for Composites with Superior Stretchability

Inspired by decades of research in the compatibilization of fillers into elastomeric composites for high-performance materials, a novel polyurethane-based stretchable carbon ink is created by taking advantage of a Janus molecule, 2-(2,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)propane-1,3-diol (serinol pyrrole, SP). SP is used to functionalize the carbon and comonomer in the polymer phase. The use of SPs in both the organic and inorganic phases results in an improved interaction between the two phases. When printed, the functionalized material has a factor 1.5 lower resistance-strain dependence when compared to its unfunctionalized analogue. This behavior is superior to commercially available carbon inks. To demonstrate the suitability of ink in an industrial application, an all-printed, elastomer-based force sensor is fabricated. This “pyrrole methodology” is scalable and broadly applicable, laying the foundation for the realization of printed functionalities with improved electromechanical performance.     

Energy optimization in a smart community grid system using genetic algorithm

A smart community grid is an electrical network, which connects several producers, consumers, and prosumers to share energy in an intelligent and secure way. The main challenges of smart community grid are demand response, demand bidding, dynamic electricity tariffs, demand-side management, and prosumers handling. The current state-of-the-art smart grid decision making is focused on consumers and producers behavior while the aim of this research is to achieve prosumer's different goals in an optimized and intelligent way. A genetic algorithm (GA)-based solution is proposed to share energy in an optimized way without affecting the prosumers' preferences. Six prosumers smart community grids data sets are used to validate the performance of the proposed system. The results show that the proposed method significantly improves the loss of energy sharing without compromising the user's preferences.     

Recycled materials in railroad substructure: an energy perspective

Railway Engineering Science - Given that the current ballasted tracks in Australia may not be able to support faster and significantly heavier freight trains as planned for the future, the imminent...     

Unraveling the Potential of Innovative Eco-friendly Thermoplastic Starch/SEBS-g-MA/Graphene Oxide Bionanocomposites

The increasing focus on bionanocomposites as environmentally friendly solutions for sustainable applications forms the crux of this study. This study explores the influence of incorporating 2% graphene oxide (GO) on the mechanical and thermal characteristics of blends containing glycerol plasticized thermoplastic starch (TPS) and polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-block-polystyrene-graft-maleic anhydride (SEBS-g-MA), based matrix films through a solution casting method. Starch is successfully obtained from three varied sources: corn, cassava, and potato, with confirmation via fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The authors formulate and examine varying proportions of TPS/SEBS-g-MA (ranging from 10 to 50 wt.%), focusing on their biodegradability, and find that a 10 wt.% SEBS-g-MA concentration yields optimal degradation rates, thus this is kept constant. The bionanocomposite films are probed using techniques such as FTIR, XRD, mechanical strength testing, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), water absorption, and biodegradability studies. These results indicate that GO incorporation results in a robust hydrogen bonding network within the cassava starch-based bionanocomposite films, enhancing their mechanical strength while decreasing their moisture absorption. Upgraded thermal properties of these films are also evident from the results. Consequently, these materials show promising utility, particularly in the realm of food packaging.     

Intelligent deep learning-aided future beam and proactive handoff prediction model in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-assisted anti-jamming Terahertz communication system

Wireless communications often suffer from legitimate transmissions regarding malicious jamming attacks launched through the smart jammer. The drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication networks derived with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) increase the issues of beam selection and proactive handoff in terahertz (THz). Thus, a new heuristic strategy is designed for efficient and incorporated optimization of the beamforming vector and anti-jamming transmit power allocation in undefined environments. Here, the transmit power allocation and beamforming matrix of UAV are optimized with the developed hybrid heuristic algorithm of the Hybrid Crow Black Widow Search Optimization (HCBWSO) algorithm for maximizing the system achievable rate. Here, the HCBWSO algorithm is implemented to integrate with the Crow search algorithm (CSO) and Black Widow Optimization (BWO). The second contribution is to adopt RIS into THz–UAV communications, a new Enhanced Deep Temporal Convolutional Network (EDTCN) for predicting the future beam and proactive handoff of UAVs based on their prior analysis of the UAV locations, where the HCBWSO algorithm is utilized for recommending EDTCN. Here, the training of the EDTCN needs to be done with the collection of UAV information from the DEEPMIMO dataset for predicting the future beams and, also, tracking the location of the UAV. EDTCN helps in increasing the possibility of expanding the UAV coverage and also increases the consistency of the THz communication system. Thus, the prediction of the future beam increases the coverage area of the UAV and also maximizes the system rate in the THz communication system.