Boosting the hydrogenation activity of dibenzyltoluene catalyzed by Mg-based metal hydrides

Hydrogenation of dibenzyltoluene (DBT) is of great significance for the application in liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs). We successfully develop Mg-based metal hydrides (Mg₂NiH₄, MgH₂, and LaH₃) reactive ball-milling for the hydrogenation of DBT. Mg-based metal hydrides milled with 500 min exhibit the best catalytic activity, the hydrogen uptake of DBT can reach 4.63 wt% at the first 4 h and finally achieve 5.70 wt% through 20 h, which is the first time to use hydrogen storage material as a catalyst for the hydrogenation of DBT. The excellent catalytic hydrogenation performance of Mg-based metal hydrides mostly originates from numerous catalytic activity centers formed at the surfaces of Mg₂NiH₄ nanoparticles in the MgH₂ matrix. Inspired by this mechanism, more general metal hydrides can be explored for catalyzing the hydrogenation of LOHCs. The new application of Mg-based metal hydrides is beneficial to developing efficient LOHC based hydrogen storage systems and offers novel insights to hydride-based catalysts.     

A Highly Sensitive,Reversible, and Bidirectional Humidity Actuator by Calcium Carbonate Ionic Oligomers Incorporated Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride)

Sensitivity and multi-directional motivation are major two factors for developing optimized humidity-response materials, which are promising for sensing, energy production, etc. Organic functional groups are commonly used as the water sensitive units through hydrogen bond interactions with water molecules in actuators. The multi-coordination ability of inorganic ions implies that the inorganic ionic compounds are potentially superior water sensitive units. However, the particle forms of inorganic ionic compounds produced by classical nucleation limit the number of exposed ions to interact with water. Recent progress on the inorganic ionic oligomers has broken through the limitation of classical nucleation, and realized the molecular-scaled incorporation of inorganic ionic compounds into an organic matrix. Here, the incorporation of hydrophilic calcium carbonate ionic oligomers into hydrophobic poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is demonstrated. The ultra-small calcium carbonate oligomers within a PVDF film endow it with an ultra-sensitive, reversible, and bidirectional response. The motivation ability is superior to other bidirectional humidity-actuators at present, which realizes self-motivation on an ice surface, converting the chemical potential energy of the humidity gradient from ice to kinetic energy.     

Nacre-Inspired,Liquid Metal-Based Ultrasensitive Electronic Skin by Spatially Regulated Cracking Strategy

The realization of liquid metal-based wearable systems will be a milestone toward high-performance, integrated electronic skin. However, despite the revolutionary progress achieved in many other components of electronic skin, liquid metal-based flexible sensors still suffer from poor sensitivity due to the insufficient resistance change of liquid metal to deformation. Herein, a nacre-inspired architecture composed of a biphasic pattern (liquid metal with Cr/Cu underlayer) as “bricks” and strain-sensitive Ag film as “mortar” is developed, which breaks the long-standing sensitivity bottleneck of liquid metal-based electronic skin. With 2 orders of magnitude of sensitivity amplification while maintaining wide (>85%) working range, for the first time, liquid metal-based strain sensors rival the state-of-art counterparts. This liquid metal composite features spatially regulated cracking behavior. On the one hand, hard Cr cells locally modulate the strain distribution, which avoids premature cut-through cracks and prolongs the defect propagation in the adjacent Ag film. On the other hand, the separated liquid metal cells prevent unfavorable continuous liquid-metal paths and create crack-free regions during strain. Demonstrated in diverse scenarios, the proposed design concept may spark more applications of ultrasensitive liquid metal-based electronic skins, and reveals a pathway for sensor development via crack engineering.     

Picosecond laser trimming of ceramic cores with porous multi-scale particle microstructure

The ceramic core, produced by hot injection molding, is one of the critical components for manufacturing high-performance aircraft engine turbine blades. However, the injection molding process will cause defects such as burrs and flashes in the fine structure of the formed ceramic core. Manual trimming is necessary, but the trimming quality is poor, and the yield is low. In this paper, the online trimming method of ceramic cores is studied. Based on the orthogonal experiment method, the optimal laser parameters for processing the ceramic core's porous multi-scale particle structure material were obtained. Further, the problems of the match head and tail phenomenon and dimensional accuracy improvement in trimming ceramic cores have been studied. A path optimisation method is proposed to improve the quality and accuracy of the trimming profile effectively. Finally, the overall process flow of ceramic core trimming is elaborated, and experimental verification is given. The results show that the ceramic core online trimming method proposed in this paper has advantages of high precision and high yield compared with the manual method, which will have substantial potential application value in the aviation field.     

Comparative analysis of formaldehyde and toluene sorption on indoor floorings and consequence on Indoor Air Quality

Indoor surfaces may be adsorptive sinks with the potential to change Indoor Air Quality. To estimate this effect, the sorption parameters of formaldehyde and toluene were assessed on five floorings by an experimental method using solid-phase microextraction in an airtight emission cell. Adsorption rate constants ranged from 0.003 to 0.075 m·h⁻¹, desorption rate constants from 0.019 to 0.51 h⁻¹, and the partition coefficient from 0.005 to 3.9 m, and these parameters vary greatly from one volatile organic compound/material couple to another indicating contrasted sorption behaviors. A rubber was identified as a sink of formaldehyde characterized by a very low desorption constant close to 0. For these sorbent floorings identified, the adsorption rates of formaldehyde are from 2 to 4 times higher than those of toluene. Two models were used to evaluate the sink effects of floorings on indoor pollutant concentrations in one room from different realistic conditions. The scenarios tested came to the conclusion that the formaldehyde sorption on one rubber (identified as a sink) has a maximum contribution from 15% to 21% for the conditions of low air exchange rate. For other floorings, the sorption has a minor contribution less than or equal to 5%, regardless of the air exchange rate.     

Synthesis of Ionic Ultramicroporous Polymers for Selective Separation of Acetylene from Ethylene

The design of highly stable and efficient porous materials is essential for developing breakthrough hydrocarbon separation methods based on physisorption to replace currently used energy-intensive distillation/absorption technologies. Efforts to develop advanced porous materials such as zeolites, coordination frameworks, and organic polymers have met with limited success. Here, a new class of ionic ultramicroporous polymers (IUPs) with high-density inorganic anions and narrowly distributed ultramicroporosity is reported, which are synthesized by a facile free-radical polymerization using branched and amphiphilic ionic compounds as reactive monomers. A covalent and ionic dual-crosslinking strategy is proposed to manipulate the pore structure of amorphous polymers at the ultramicroporous scale. The IUPs exhibit exceptional selectivity (286.1–474.4) for separating acetylene from ethylene along with high thermal and water stability, collaboratively demonstrated by gas adsorption isotherms and experimental breakthrough curves. Modeling studies unveil the specific binding sites for acetylene capture as well as the interconnected ultramicroporosity for size sieving. The porosity-engineering protocol used in this work can also be extended to the design of other ultramicroporous materials for the challenging separation of other key gas constituents.     

Piezoresistive in-situ strain sensing of composite laminate structures

Various methods have been developed to monitor the health and strain state of carbon fiber reinforced polymers, each with a unique set of pros and cons. This research assesses the use of piezoresistive sensors for in situ strain measurement of carbon fiber and other composite structures in multidirectional laminates. The piezoresistive sensor material and the embedded circuitry are both evaluated. For the piezoresistive sensor, a conductive nickel nanocomposite sensor is compared with the piezoresistivity of the carbon fiber itself. For the circuit, the use of carbon fibers already present in the structure is compared with the use of nickel coated carbon fiber. Successful localized strain sensing is demonstrated for several sensor and circuitry configurations. Numerous engineering applications are possible in the ever-growing field of carbon-composites.     

Fabrication of Cu/graphite film/Cu sandwich composites with ultrahigh thermal conductivity for thermal management applications

Effective thermal management of electronic integrated devices with high powder density has become a serious issue, which requires materials with high thermal conductivity (TC). In order to solve the problem of weak bonding between graphite and Cu, a novel Cu/graphite film/Cu sandwich composite (Cu/GF/Cu composite) with ultrahigh TC was fabricated by electro-deposition. The micro-riveting structure was introduced to enhance the bonding strength between graphite film and deposited Cu layers by preparing a rectangular array of micro-holes on the graphite film before electro-deposition. TC and mechanical properties of the composites with different graphite volume fractions and current densities were investigated. The results showed that the TC enhancement generated by the micro-riveting structure for Cu/GF/Cu composites at low graphite content was more effective than that at high graphite content, and the strong texture orientation of deposited Cu resulted in high TC. Under the optimizing preparing condition, the highest in-plane TC reached 824.3 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹, while the ultimate tensile strength of this composite was about four times higher than that of the graphite film.