Good dielectric performance and broadband dielectric polarization in Ag,Nb co-doped TiO2

Due to the demand of miniaturization and integration for ceramic capacitors in electronic components market, TiO₂-based ceramics with colossal permittivity has become a research hotspot in recent years. In this work, we report that Ag⁺/Nb⁵⁺ co-doped (Ag_1/4Nb_3/4)_xTi_1−xO₂ (ANTOx) ceramics with colossal permittivity over a wide frequency and temperature range were successfully prepared by a traditional solid–state method. Notably, compositions of ANTO0.005 and ANTO0.01 respectively exhibit both low dielectric loss (0.040 and 0.050 at 1 kHz), high dielectric permittivity (9.2 × 10³ and 1.6 × 10⁴ at 1 kHz), and good thermal stability, which satisfy the requirements for the temperature range of application of X9R and X8R ceramic capacitors, respectively. The origin of the dielectric behavior was attributed to five dielectric relaxation phenomena, i.e., localized carriers' hopping, electron–pinned defect–dipoles, interfacial polarization, and oxygen vacancies ionization and diffusion, as suggested by dielectric temperature spectra and valence state analysis via XPS; wherein, electron-pinned defect–dipoles and internal barrier layer capacitance are believed to be the main causes for the giant dielectric permittivity in ANTOx ceramics.     

One step from nanofiber to functional hybrid structure: Pd doped ZnO/SnO2 heterojunction nanofibers with hexagonal ZnO columns for enhanced low-temperature hydrogen gas sensing

In this paper, a novel hybrid structure of Pd doped ZnO/SnO₂ heterojunction nanofibers with hexagonal ZnO columns was one step synthesized from electrospun precursor nanofibers. Due to the synergistic effect of hexagonal ZnO, SnO₂ and Pd, the structure exhibited excellent hydrogen (H₂) gas sensing properties. At low-temperature of 120 °C, the response (R_a/R_g) to 100 ppm H₂ gas exceeded 160, the response/recovery time was only 20 s and 6 s respectively and the limit of detection was only 0.5 ppm. Meanwhile, it also had good selectivity for H₂ gas and excellent linearity. In addition, the materials were characterized by XRD, FESEM, HRTEM, XPS, and the synthesis mechanism and gas sensing mechanism were proposed.     

Changes in the content and antioxidative activity of β-carotene and its metabolite vitamin A during gastrointestinal digestion and absorption and optimisation of HPLC-based detection

The β-Carotene (BC), an important precursor of vitamin A (VA), possesses antioxidant activity but is fat-soluble and has low bioavailability. In previous in-vitro assays evaluating antioxidant and 2,2′-azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) free radical scavenging, both BC and VA showed a strong ability to scavenge radicals and protected cells from oxidative stress. Here, we used artificially simulated gastrointestinal digestion and Caco-2 cell absorption models to evaluate the bioavailability of the BC during gastrointestinal digestion and absorption using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. We observed high absorptive and transfer rates of BC and detected retinol metabolites (Vitamin A). Therefore, BC can be detected in the acidic gastrointestinal environment using HPLC. Optimised method provided better separation of BC and VA in the column, improving the accuracy of the test results.     

Finite-time adaptive fuzzy control for a class of output constrained nonlinear systems with dead-zone

The article investigates the finite-time adaptive fuzzy control for a class of nonlinear systems with output constraint and input dead-zone. First, by skillfully combining the barrier Lyapunov function, backstepping design method, and finite-time control theory, a novel adaptive state-feedback tracking controller is constructed, and the output constraint of the nonlinear system is not violated. Second, the fuzzy logic system is used to approximate unknown function in the nonlinear system. Third, the finite-time command filter is introduced to avoid the problem of “complexity explosion” caused by repeated differentiations of the virtual control signal in conventional backstepping control schemes. Meanwhile, a new saturation function is added in the compensating signal for filter error to improve control accuracy. Finally, based on Lyapunov stability analysis, all the signals of the closed-loop are proved to be semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood region of the origin in a finite time. A simulation example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness for the proposed control scheme.     

Theoretical investigation of intrinsic point defects and the oxygen migration behavior in rare earth hafnates

In this work, the composition-dependent point defect types and formation energies of RE₂Hf₂O₇ (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu and Gd) as well as the oxygen diffusion behavior are systematically investigated by first-principles calculations. The possible defect reactions and dominant defect complexes under stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric conditions are revealed. It is found that O Frenkel pairs are the predominant defect in stoichiometric pyrochlore hafnates. Hf-RE cation anti-site defects, accompanied by RE vacancies and/or oxygen interstitials, are stable in the non-stoichiometric case of HfO₂ excess. On the other hand, RE-Hf anti-site defects together with oxygen vacancies and/or RE interstitials are preferable in the case of RE₂O₃ excess. The energy barriers for the migration along the V_O48f - V_O48f pathway of pyrochlore hafnates were calculated to be between 0.81 eV and 0.89 eV. Based on these results, a defect engineering strategy is proposed and the pyrochlore hafnates investigated here are predicted to exhibit potential oxygen ionic conductivity.     

Facial-sketch Synthesis: A New Challenge

Machine Intelligence Research - This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive study on facial-sketch synthesis (FSS). However, due to the high cost of obtaining hand-drawn sketch datasets, there is a...     

Improved aqueous solubility,bioaccessibility and cellular uptake of quercetin following pH-driven encapsulation in whey protein isolate

The purpose of this study was to increase the water solubility and potential bioavailability of quercetin by encapsulation in whey protein isolate (WPI) based on a green, efficient pH-driven method. According to the results, the water solubility of quercetin increased by 346.9: times after loading into WPI nanoparticles. When the initial quercetin concentration was 0.25 mg mL⁻¹ and WPI was 2% w/v, the encapsulation efficiency reached 94.1%, the Z-average diameter was 36.63 nm, and the zeta potential was −36.4 mV at pH 7.0. The fluorescence spectroscopy assay suggested the molecular complexation of quercetin and WPI at pH 12.0. X-ray diffraction assay indicated the enclosure of amorphous quercetin in WPI. Correspondingly, the bioaccessibility increased from 2.76% to 31.23% and the Caco-2 cell monolayer uptake increased from 0% to 2.12% after nanoencapsulation. This work confirmed that the pH-driven method is an effective approach to prepare WPI–quercetin nanocapsules to improve physical and potentially biological properties of quercetin.     

有机-无机压电材料TMCM-MnCl3的研究

有机-无机压电材料是一种分子铁电体，具有柔性、结构灵活、易成膜、全液相合成及环保节能等优点，可满足新一代薄膜器件及可穿戴设备的需求。该文以三甲基卤代甲基铵(TMXM, X=F, Cl, Br)为有机部分，MnCl₂为无机部分，通过溶液蒸发法制备了具有钙钛矿分子结构的有机-无机压电材料三甲基氯三氯化锰(TMCM-MnCl₃)，并对其分子结构组成、压电、热学、声学及铁电性进行表征。结果表明，TMCM-MnCl₃的压电常数为106 pC/N，居里温度为130 ℃，声阻抗值约为16.5 MRayl，低于压电陶瓷PZT-4(大于33 MRayl)，具有广阔的应用前景。