New Insight into Procedure of Interface Electron Transfer through Cascade System with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs is extremely limited in the practical application of photocatalysis toward solving the energy crisis and environmental pollution. A rational design of the cascade system (i.e., rGO/Bi₂WO₆/Au, and ternary composites) with highly efficient charge carrier separation is successfully constructed. As expected, the integrated system (rGO/Bi₂WO₆/Au) shows enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to bare Bi₂WO₆ and other binary composites, and it is proved in multiple electron transfer (MET) behavior, namely a cooperative electron transfer (ET) cascade effect. Simultaneously, UV–vis/scanning electrochemical microscopy is used to directly identify MET kinetic information through an in situ probe scanning technique, where the “fast” and “slow” heterogeneous ET rate constants (K_eff) of corresponding photocatalysts on the different interfaces are found, which further reveals that the MET behavior is the prime source for enhanced photocatalytic activity. This work not only offers a new insight to study catalytic performance during photocatalysis and electrocatalysis systems, but also opens up a new avenue to design highly efficient catalysts in photocatalytic CO₂ conversion to useful chemicals and photovoltaic devices.     

Crystal structure of Cr4AlB4: A new MAB phase compound discovered in Cr-Al-B system

In this communication, the crystal structure of Cr_4AlB_4, a new MAB phase compound(where M is a transition metal, A is Al or Si, B is boron) discovered in Cr-Al-B system is reported. This new MAB phase was synthesized from a mixture of CrB and Al powders at 1000?C and its crystal structure was determined by a combination of X-ray diffraction, first-principles calculations and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS). Cr_4AlB_4 crystallizes in an orthorhombic structure with Immm space group. The lattice constants are a = 2.9343(6) ?, b = 18.8911(0) ?, c = 2.9733(7) ?, and the atomic positions are Cr1 at 4 g(0, 0.2936(5),0), Cr2 at 4 h(0.5, 0.5859(7), 0), Al at 2 b(0, 0.5, 0.5), B1 at 4 h(0, 0.3839(8), 0.5) and B2 at 4 g(0.5, 0.6646(2),0.5).     

Facile growth of homogeneous Ni(OH)<Subscript>2</Subscript> coating on carbon nanosheets for high-performance asymmetric supercapacitor applications

The growth of a Ni(OH)₂ coating on conductive carbon substrates is an efficient way to address issues related to their poor conductivity in electrochemical capacitor applications. However, the direct growth of nickel hydroxide coatings on a carbon substrate is challenging, because the surfaces of these systems are not compatible and a preoxidation treatment of the conductive carbon substrate is usually required. Herein, we present a facile preoxidation-free approach to fabricate a uniform Ni(OH)₂ coating on carbon nanosheets (CNs) by an ion-exchange reaction to achieve the in situ transformation of a MgO/C composite to a Ni(OH)₂/C one. The obtained Ni(OH)₂/CNs hybrids possess nanosheet morphology, a large surface area (278 m²/g), and homogeneous elemental distributions. When employed as supercapacitors in a three-electrode configuration, the Ni(OH)₂/CNs hybrid achieves a large capacitance of 2,218 F/g at a current density of 1.0 A/g. Moreover, asymmetric supercapacitors fabricated with the Ni(OH)₂/CNs hybrid exhibit superior supercapacitive performances, with a large capacity of 198 F/g, and high energy density of 56.7 Wh/kg at a power density of 4.0 kW/kg. They show excellent cycling stability with 93% capacity retention after 10,000 cycles, making the Ni(OH)₂/CNs hybrid a promising candidate for practical applications in supercapacitor devices.

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Nontoxic engineered virus nanofibers as an efficient agent for the prevention and detection of fungal infection

Nano Research - Candida albicans (C. albicans) infection has a high mortality rate in immunocompromised patients. Owing to the inefficiency of the current diagnostic system and the absence of...     

Aggregation-induced emission luminogen-assisted stimulated emission depletion nanoscopy for super-resolution mitochondrial visualization in live cells

Nano Research - Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) are fluorescent agents that are ideal for bioimaging and have been widely used for organelle targeting, cellular mapping, and...     

治疗超声系统换能器阻抗及驱动功率测量技术

换能器是治疗超声系统的核心部件之一,其阻抗和驱动功率关系到治疗超声的安全性和有效性。文章研制出一种基于电压-电流转换电路和数据采集卡的测量装置。使用该装置测量频率为1.36 MHz和3 MHz换能器在不同幅度信号驱动下的阻抗、相位角和功率。该装置的测量结果与采用电压、电流探头及功率组件的示波器方法和商用功率计方法的测量结果进行了对比,表明本装置测量阻抗模相对误差在±2Ω以内,阻抗角相对误差在±2°以内,测量入射功率和有功功率误差小于5%。结果证明了用该装置实时测量换能器阻抗和驱动功率的可行性。     

Frenet坐标框架下的自适应避障算法

目的 解决包装车间无人运输车辆在沿全局路径行驶过程中,难以同时保证跟随轨迹平滑及规避障碍物的问题。方法 构建Frenet坐标框架,描述车辆位姿与全局路径的相对关系,利用五次多项式生成多条待选局部路径;采用障碍物势场法模糊处理包装车间障碍的外形轮廓,并设置膨胀区间;结合待选路径采样点经过障碍物膨胀区间得到的碰撞值,以及采样点与全局规划路径的偏差值,综合评估路径的避障能力,筛选出最优的避障路径。结果 该算法能根据障碍物的大小,动态解算出与全局路径偏移量小且运动连贯的局部避障路径。结论 所提算法使得车辆完成运输任务时的效果更好,且效率更高。     

Influence of Heat Input on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Laser Welding GH4169 Bolt Assembly—Numerical and Experimental Analysis

By conducting the numerical and experimental analysis, the influence of heat input on the microstructures and mechanical properties of laser welding GH4169 bolt assembly is systematically investigated. The weld formation, temperature field, and residual stress distribution during laser welding by using the finite element modeling are consistent with experimental results. The numerical simulation results show that the increase of heat input imparts lower residual stresses and higher temperature gradient. During the process of laser welding, the steepest temperature gradient and the peak residual stress arise in the fusion zone (FZ). In addition, the dissolution of γ″ and γ′ toward the fusion line increases in heat affected zone (HAZ), but only Laves phase is observed in FZ. With increasing heat input from 24 to 48 J mm⁻¹, the ultimate tensile strength of welded joints decreases. Both the lowest microhardness values and tensile failure of GH4169 alloy laser welded joint are in FZ. Herein, it is that the relationship among the heat input, microstructures, and mechanical properties of GH4196 bolt assembly in laser welding is systematically established, which will be of guiding significance for the selection of welding parameters in aerospace.     

A review on mechanisms and recent developments of nanomaterials based carbon fiber reinforced composites for enhanced interface performance

Carbon fiber reinforced composites have attracted lots of attention in many fields. However, on account of the poor infiltration of resin to carbon fiber, the weak interface performance between fiber and resin has been restricting the interface properties of composites. In recent progress, the review attaches more importance to the introduction of the third phase monomer, which mainly uses physical and chemical methods to assemble nanomaterials (such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, etc.) on the carbon fiber surface to modify the interface structure of the carbon fiber reinforced composites, and all of them have been demonstrated in this paper. Furthermore, the effects of introducing nanomaterials on the structure of the fiber/resin interface and the relationship between multi-scale interface structure and properties have been investigated. It can be seen that the design idea of researchers mainly uses one or more theories to improve the interface properties of carbon fiber reinforced composites, such as transition layer, chemical bonding, mechanical interlocking, infiltration, diffusion, and adsorption. In brief, this work provides some novel insights for the preparation of carbon fiber reinforced composites with excellent interlaminar shear strength.     

A Hemispherical Image Sensor Array Fabricated with Organic Photomemory Transistors

Hemispherical image sensors simplify lens designs, reduce optical aberrations, and improve image resolution for compact wide-field-of-view cameras. To achieve hemispherical image sensors, organic materials are promising candidates due to the following advantages: tunability of optoelectronic/spectral response and low-temperature low-cost processes. Here, a photolithographic process is developed to prepare a hemispherical image sensor array using organic thin film photomemory transistors with a density of 308 pixels per square centimeter. This design includes only one photomemory transistor as a single active pixel, in contrast to the conventional pixel architecture, consisting of select/readout/reset transistors and a photodiode. The organic photomemory transistor, comprising light-sensitive organic semiconductor and charge-trapping dielectric, is able to achieve a linear photoresponse (light intensity range, from 1 to 50 W m⁻²), along with a responsivity as high as 1.6 A W⁻¹ (wavelength = 465 nm) for a dark current of 0.24 A m⁻² (drain voltage = −1.5 V). These observed values represent the best responsivity for similar dark currents among all the reported hemispherical image sensor arrays to date. A transfer method was further developed that does not damage organic materials for hemispherical organic photomemory transistor arrays. These developed techniques are scalable and are amenable for other high-resolution 3D organic semiconductor devices.