Substrate temperature-controlled precursor reaction mechanism of PEALD-deposited MoOx thin films

Journal of Materials Science - Molybdenum oxide (MoOx) films had been grown by using plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) with Mo(CO)6 precursor and O2 plasma reactant in a substrate...     

Authenticity green coffee bean species and geographical origin using near-infrared spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

To prevent the adulteration of agricultural resources and provide a solution to enhance the green coffee bean supply chain, authentication using the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique was investigated. Partial least square with discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) models combined with various preprocessing methods were built from NIR spectra of 153 Vietnamese green coffee samples. The model combined with the standard normal variate and the first order of derivative yielded excellent performance in predicting coffee species with the error cross-validation of 0.0261. PLS-DA model of mean centre and first-order derivative spectra also yielded good performance in verifying geographical indication of green coffee with the error of 0.0656. By contrast, the predicting abilities of post-harvest methods were poor. The overall results showed a high potential of the NIRS in online authentication practices.     

Developmental and Reproductive Effects of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles in Arabidopsis thaliana

Increasing use of iron oxide nanoparticles in medicine and environmental remediation has led to concerns regarding exposure of these nanoparticles to the public. However, limited studies are available to evaluate their effects on the environment, in particular on plants and food crops. Here, we investigated the effects of positive (PC) and negative (NC) charged iron oxide (Fe₂O₃) nanoparticles (IONPs) on the physiology and reproductive capacity of Arabidopsis thaliana at concentrations of 3 and 25 mg/L. The 3 mg/L treated plants did not show evident effects on seeding and root length. However, the 25 mg/L treatment resulted in reduced seedling (positive-20% and negative-3.6%) and root (positive-48% and negative-negligible) length. Interestingly, treatment with polyethylenimine (PEI; IONP-PC coating) also resulted in reduced root length (39%) but no change was observed with polyacrylic acid (PAA; IONP-NC coating) treatment alone. However, treatment with IONPs at 3 mg/L did lead to an almost 5% increase in aborted pollen, a 2%–6% reduction in pollen viability and up to an 11% reduction in seed yield depending on the number of treatments. Interestingly, the treated plants did not show any observable phenotypic changes in overall size or general plant structure, indicating that environmental nanoparticle contamination could go dangerously unnoticed.     

Epidemic contact tracing with smartphone sensors

ABSTRACT

Contact tracing is widely considered as an effective procedure in the fight against epidemic diseases. However, one of the challenges for technology based contact tracing is the high number of false positives, questioning its trust-worthiness and efficiency amongst the wider population for mass adoption. To this end, this paper proposes a novel, yet practical smartphone-based contact tracing approach, employing WiFi and acoustic sound for relative distance estimate, in addition to the air pressure and the magnetic field for ambient environment matching. We present a model combining six smartphone sensors, prioritising some of them when certain conditions are met. We empirically verified our approach in various realistic environments to demonstrate an achievement of up to 95% fewer false positives, and 62% more accurate than Bluetooth-only system. To the best of our knowledge, this paper was one of the first work to propose a combination of smartphone sensors for contact tracing.     

强碱三元复合驱色谱分离及其影响因素——以大庆油区喇嘛甸油田为例

三元复合驱油体系中驱油剂的协同效应,会使油水间的界面张力大幅度下降,原油采收率大幅度提高;但三元复合驱油体系的色谱分离现象也会破坏其协同效应和完整性,揭示色谱分离现象及其影响因素对于改善三元复合驱油效果具有十分重要意义。以油藏工程和分析化学理论为指导,以化学分析和物理模拟为技术途径,并以大庆喇嘛甸油田典型区块地质特征和流体性质为研究对象,开展强碱三元复合驱色谱分离现象及其影响因素研究。结果表明,采用前置高浓度聚合物段塞后,可以有效扩大波及体积,但表面活性剂与碱和聚合物之间无因次等浓距增加,色谱分离现象加剧。大庆油区喇嘛甸油田不同区块油水性质差异对色谱分离现象存在影响,原因在于部分重烷基苯石油磺酸进入油相,影响水相中浓度检测值。强碱三元复合驱油体系中表面活性剂与碱和聚合物之间色谱分离程度比较严重,碱与聚合物之间较弱。     

Fabrication of tungsten oxide photoanode by doctor blade technique and investigation on its photocatalytic operation mechanism

WO₃ is a potential material candidate for construction of photoanode for solar driven water splitting. In this work, μm-thick porous WO₃ photoanode is prepared by depositing a stable ink made of WO₃ nanoparticles and Aristoflex velvet polymer in water using the doctor blade technique, followed by a sintering in air. The nature of WO₃ nanoparticles, its loading mass on F-doped tin oxide electrode as well as sintering temperature are examined in order to optimize the photocatalytic activity of the resultant WO₃ photoanode. The operation of WO₃ photoanode is investigated by varying the light illumination direction and light incident intensity as well as changing the nature of the electrolyte. Dissolved tungsten in electrolyte is quantified by ICP-MS providing insights into the influences of electrolyte nature and operating conditions to the corrosion of WO₃. It is proposed that the H₂O₂ and OH^. radical generated as by-products of the photo-driven water oxidation on the photoanode surface are harmful species that accelerate the dissolution of WO₃.     

Controlling thickness to tune performance of high-mobility transparent conducting films deposited from Ga-doped ZnO ceramic target

Structure modification has been found to tune significantly the transparent-conducting performance, especially mobility and conductivity of hydrogenated Ga-doped ZnO (HGZO) films. The strong correlation between film thickness and mobility of the films is revealed. The mobility increases quickly with increasing the thickness from 350 to 900 nm, and then tends to be saturated at further thicknesses. A higher mobility than 50 cm²/Vs can be achieved, which is an extra-high value for polycrystalline ZnO films deposited by using the sputtering technique. The thickness-dependent mobility originates from scatterings on grain boundaries and dislocation-induced defects controlled by thin-film growth. Based on the Volmer-Weber model, an expansion model is built up to describe the thickness-dependent crystal growth of the HGZO films, especially at the thick films. As a result, the 800 nm-thick HGZO film obtains the highest performance with high mobility of 51.5 cm²/Vs, low resistivity of 5.3 × 10^?4 Ωcm, and good transmittance of 83.3 %.