Pricing and personal data collection strategies of online platforms in the face of privacy concerns

Electronic Commerce Research - We consider a platform providing free content for users and earning profit from the sale of advertising. The platform can collect and analyze personal data to...     

Revealing cracking and breakage behaviours of gibbsite particles

Mitigating gibbsite particle cracking and breakage during industrial alumina production can increase the quality of smelter grade alumina product by reducing the ultrafine particle content. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the particle cracking during static calcination and the breakage of calcined gibbsite particles under external force. In this work, we investigated the impact of the calcination ramping rate and the crystallite size on gibbsite particle cracking during static calcination. A slow ramping rate and a large pristine crystallite size tend to increase particle cracking. Apart from the study of particle cracking behaviour, we also investigated the breakage of calcined gibbsite particle under external force. Cracks on the particle surface can initiate breakage within the crystallite and along the grain boundary under external force. The breakage within crystallite occurs as the cleavage of the crystallite, while the breakage along the grain boundary leads to the shedding of a whole crystallite. We further explored the factors influencing the strength of calcined gibbsite particles. With increasing calcination temperature, the strength of particle increases when gibbsite converts to boehmite, and then decreases when boehmite converts into amorphous alumina. Particles containing smaller crystallites and calcined with fast ramping rates exhibit higher resistance to breakage.     

Polyethylene oxide-polypropylene oxide -polyethylene oxide derived porous carbon materials with different molecular weights as ORR catalyst in alkaline electrolytes

Polyethylene oxide (PEO)-polypropylene oxide (PPO)-polyethylene oxide block copolymer having different molecular weights are used as precursors of carbon materials to prepare Hollow -Derivatives carbon material as an electrocatalyst through block copolymer self-assembly. The composition and microstructure of the prepared catalysts are shown by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Test of nitrogen adsorption and desorption curves, High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM). Oxygen was passed into alkaline electrolyte solution until the solution reached saturation state. With molecular weight increasing, the obtained sample gradually changed from block to hollow and spherical. When the molecular weight was 12600 g mol^?1, the evenly hollow carbon nanocages was acquired (C-12600). In O₂ saturated alkaline electrolyte (0.1 M KOH solution), C-12600's limited current density，half-wave potential and initial potential are 5.23 mA cm^?2@0.4 V, 0.72 V and 0.81 V, respectively. And most important is that half-wave potential and onset potential have barely change after 2000 cycles of cyclic voltammetry. As a result, the porous carbon materials exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity while maintaining high stability in alkaline KOH solution.     

Enhanced photo-electrochemical activity of ZnO/Cu2S nanotube arrays photocathodes

ZnO/Cu₂S nanotube arrays are fabricated firstly by a facile and capping-agent-free method, and the photo-electrochemical performance has been studied systematically. The results show that ZnO/Cu₂S nanotube arrays achieve enhanced photo-electrochemical water splitting performance and the photocurrent densities of ZnO/Cu₂S are 7.9 times than that of ZnO at 0 V versus Ag/AgCl. The performance of the ZnO/Cu₂S nanotube arrays can be adjusted by changing the amount of Cu₂S microcrystals. The results confirm that the enhanced photo-electrochemical performance of ZnO/Cu₂S is due to the significantly improved visible light absorption, effective separation of photo-induced carriers due to the well band energy match and the formed p-n junction between ZnO and Cu₂S.     

Threshold privacy-preserving cloud auditing with multiple uploaders

International Journal of Information Security - Data integrity is a critical security issue in cloud storage. The data integrity checking schemes by a third-party auditor (TPA) have attracted a lot...     

In situ Raman spectroscopic study towards the growth and excellent HER catalysis of Ni/Ni(OH)2 heterostructure

The electrochemical water splitting to produce H₂ in high efficiency with earth-abundant-metal catalysts remains a challenge. Here, we describe a simple “cyclic voltammetry + ageing” protocol at room temperature to activate Ni electrode (AC-Ni/NF) for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), by which Ni/Ni(OH)₂ heterostructure is formed at the surface. In situ Raman spectroscopy reveals the gradual growth of Ni/Ni(OH)₂ heterostructure during the first 30 min of the aging treatment and combined with polarization measurements, it suggests a positive relation between the Ni/Ni(OH)₂ amount and HER performance of the electrode. The obtained AC-Ni/NF catalyst, with plentiful Ni–Ni(OH)₂ interfaces, exhibits remarkable performance towards HER, with the low overpotential of only 30 mV at a H₂-evolving current density of 10 mA/cm² and 153 mV at 100 mA/cm², as well as a small Tafel slope of 46.8 mV/dec in 1 M KOH electrolyte at ambient temperature. The excellent HER performance of the AC-Ni/NF could be maintained for at least 24 h without obvious decay. Ex situ experiments and in situ electrochemical-Raman spectroscopy along with density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that Ni/Ni(OH)₂ heterostructure, although partially reduced, can still persist during HER catalysis and it is the Ni–Ni(OH)₂ interface reducing the energy barrier of H1 adsorption thus promoting the HER performance.