Study of Adsorption/Desorption Effect of 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole as Sweet Corrosion Inhibitor on API-5L X60 Steel

Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces - In this study, the inhibitive performance of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (2MBT) and 2-aminobenzothiazole (2ABT) were investigated on API-5L X60...     

Novel electrospun polymer electrolytes incorporated with Keggin‐type hetero polyoxometalate fillers as solvent‐free electrolytes for lithium ion batteries

In this study, solvent‐free nanofibrous electrolytes were fabricated through an electrospinning method. Polyethylene oxide (PEO), lithium perchlorate and ethylene carbonate were used as polymer matrix, salt and plasticizer respectively in the electrolyte structures. Keggin‐type hetero polyoxometalate (Cu‐POM@Ru‐rGO, Ni‐POM@Ru‐rGO and Co‐POM@Ru‐rGO (POM, polyoxometalate; rGO, reduced graphene oxide)) nanoparticles were synthesized and inserted into the PEO‐based nanofibrous electrolytes. TEM and SEM analyses were carried out for further evaluation of the synthesized filler structures and the electrospun nanofibre morphologies. The fractions of free ions and crystalline phases of the as‐spun electrolytes were estimated by obtaining Fourier transform infrared and XRD spectra, respectively. The results showed a significant improvement in the ionic conductivity of the nanofibrous electrolytes by increasing filler concentrations. The highest ionic conductivity of 0.28 mS cm^?1 was obtained by the introduction of 0.49 wt% Co‐POM@Ru‐rGO into the electrospun electrolyte at ambient temperature. Compared with solution‐cast polymeric electrolytes, the electrospun electrolytes present superior ionic conductivity. Moreover, the cycle stability of the as‐spun electrolytes was clearly improved by the addition of fillers. Furthermore, the mechanical strength was enhanced with the insertion of 0.07 wt% fillers to the electrospun electrolytes. The results implied that the prepared nanofibres are good candidates as solvent‐free electrolytes for lithium ion batteries. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry     

A pseudo-spectral scheme for the approximate solution of a time-fractional diffusion equation

We consider an initial-boundary-value problem for a time-fractional diffusion equation with initial condition u₀(x) and homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions in a bounded interval [0, L]. We study a semidiscrete approximation scheme based on the pseudo-spectral method on Chebyshev–Gauss–Lobatto nodes. In order to preserve the high accuracy of the spectral approximation we use an approach based on the evaluation of the Mittag-Leffler function on matrix arguments for the integration along the time variable. Some examples are presented and numerical experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

A new localization method in internet of things by improving beetle antenna search algorithm

Wireless Networks - Localization is regarded as one of the important challenges in the internet of things and Wireless Sensor Networks. The failure to localize sensors properly causes data loss and...     

Microstructure Refinement After the Addition of Titanium Particles in AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Resistance Spot Welds

Microstructural evolution of AZ31 magnesium alloy welds without and with the addition of titanium powders during resistance spot welding was studied using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The fusion zone of AZ31 magnesium alloy welds could be divided into columnar dendritic zone (CDZ) and equiaxed dendritic zone (EDZ). The well-developed CDZ in the vicinity of the fusion boundary was clearly restricted and the coarse EDZ in the central region was efficiently refined by adding titanium powders into the molten pool, compared with the as-received alloy welds. A microstructural analysis showed that these titanium particles of approximately 8 μm diameter acted as inoculants and promoted the nucleation of α-Mg grains and the formation of equiaxed dendritic grains during resistance spot welding. Tensile-shear testing was applied to evaluate the effect of titanium addition on the mechanical properties of welds. It was found that both strength and ductility of magnesium alloy welds were increased after the titanium addition. A TEM examination showed the existence of an orientation matching relationship between the added Ti particles and Mg matrix, i.e., [ 0 1[`1]0 ]<sub>\textMg</sub> //  [ 1[`2] 1[`3] ]<sub>\textTi</sub>  \textand ( 000 2 )<sub>\textMg</sub> //  ( 10[`1]0)_\textTi \left[ {0 1\bar{1}0} \right]_{\text{Mg}} // \, \left[ { 1\bar{2} 1\bar{3}} \right]_{\text{Ti}} \,{\text{and}}\,\left( {000 2} \right)_{\text{Mg}} // \, ( 10\bar{1}0)_{\text{Ti}} in some grains of Ti polycrystal particles. This local crystallographic matching could promote heterogeneous nucleation of the Mg matrix during welding. The diameter of the added Ti inoculant should be larger than 1.8 μm to make it a potent inoculant.     

Fabrication and characterization of highly efficient three component CuBTC/graphene oxide/PSF membrane for gas separation application

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) with marvelous properties have aroused enormous attention for different application especially gas adsorption and separation. In this regard, fabrication of MOF hybrids with carbon based materials is new strategy to upgrade MOF performance. In this study CuBTC (Copper benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid)/graphene oxide (GO) composite was synthesized and characterized by BET, SEM, TGA, XRD and FT-IR techniques. Then CuBTC and CuBTC/GO composite were incorporated into polysulfone (PSF) polymer to construct mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). The obtained membranes were characterized by SEM, TGA, XRD and tensile tests and their gas permeability was measured. The results were compared to those of CuBTC/PSF MMMs. It was revealed that CuBTC/GO composite as filler showed superior performance relative to CuBTC. For instance, 15 wt% loading of CuBTC/GO in PSF represented outstanding gas separation behavior while the same loading of CuBTC in PSF deteriorated performance of MMM. Well particle dispersion and favorable polymer-filler interaction were responsible for such observed difference. A high H₂/CH₄ and H₂/N₂ selectivity of 80.03 and 70.46 were recorded for CuBTC/GO in PSF (15 wt%) compared to 44.56 and 40.92 for CuBTC in PSF (15 wt%).     

Optimizing the mechanical and physical properties of thermoplastic starch via tuning the molecular microstructure through co‐plasticization by sorbitol and glycerol

Nowadays, environmental hazards caused by plastic wastes are a major concern in academia and industry. Utilization of biodegradable polymers derived from renewable sources for replacing common petroleum‐based plastics is a potential solution for reducing the problem. In this regard, starch has become one of the most promising alternatives to non‐biodegradable polymers for depleting plastic waste thanks to its low expense, abundance, renewability and biodegradability. However, the main drawbacks of starch are its poor processability, weak mechanical properties and severe hydrophilicity. In this work, thermoplastic starch (TPS) samples have been prepared using glycerol and sorbitol as co‐plasticizers in a laboratory co‐rotating twin screw extruder. Based on the mechanical test results, glycerol caused higher elongation to break but had lower tensile strength and elastic modulus compared to sorbitol plasticized starch. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and DSC results indicated that the hydrogen bond interaction between starch chains and plasticizers could be improved by replacing glycerol by sorbitol, which resulted in higher resistance against retrogradation proved by XRD results. TGA illustrated that the higher the sorbitol to glycerol ratio was, the more stable was the TPS. Using a proper amount of plasticizers (42 wt% total plasticizer, sorbitol to glycerol ratio 2:1) led to the preparation of a TPS sample with optimized properties including enhanced mechanical properties, high thermal stability, strong hydrogen bond formation and high resistance against retrogradation. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry     

A novel method in audio message encryption based on a mixture of chaos function

Rapid growth of digital data and their security concerns increases the significance of enhancing advanced encryption techniques. Encryption is the backbone of secure communication in networks and the physical process of scrambling and permuting data in order to make them impossible to understand for unauthorized users. This paper proposes a novel audio signal encryption method, based on a mixture of three chaos functions. Due to the reversibility of the chaos functions, the decryption process is the inverse of the encryption process. This method was applied to audio signals with various sizes and the encoded messages were compared to the original ones. Simulation results and theoretical analyses show that the proposed approach offers a significant gain in terms of robustness and computational complexity.     

Outlier accommodation in moving-horizon state estimation: A risk-averse performance-specified approach

This paper presents a novel state estimation approach for linear dynamic systems when measurements are corrupted by outliers. Since outliers can degrade the performance of state estimation, outlier accommodation is critical. The standard approach combines outlier detection utilizing Neyman-Pearson (NP) type tests with a Kalman filter (KF). This approach ignores all residuals greater than a designer-specified threshold. When measurements with outliers are used (ie, missed detections), both the state estimate and the error covariance matrix become corrupted. This corrupted state and covariance estimate are then the basis for all subsequent outlier decisions. When valid measurements are rejected (ie, false alarms), potentially using the corrupted state estimate and error covariance, measurement information is lost. Either using invalid information or discarding too much valid information can result in divergence of the KF. An alternative approach is moving-horizon (MH) state estimation, which maintains all recent measurement data within a moving window with a time horizon of length L. In MH approaches, the number of measurements available for state estimation is affected by both the number of measurements per time step and the number of time steps L over which measurements are retained. Risk-averse performance-specified (RAPS) state estimation works within an optimization setting to choose a set of measurements that achieves a performance specification with minimum risk of outlier inclusion. This paper derives and formulates the MH-RAPS solution for outlier accommodation. The paper also presents implementation results. The MH-RAPS application uses Global Navigation Satellite Systems measurements to estimate the state of a moving platform using a position, velocity, and acceleration model. In this application, MH-RAPS performance is compared with MH-NP state estimation.     

Synthesis of Janus/non-Janus hollow graphene oxide micro- and nanoparticles and the effects of their localization on the thermal conductivity of blend-based polymer composites

Journal of Materials Science - In this study, the effects of Janus, hydrophilic and hydrophobic hollow graphene oxide (HO) particles on the thermal conductivity of binary polymer blends were...