Highly active sites of low spin FeⅡN4species:The identification and the ORR performance

Over recent years,catalytic materials of Fe-N-C species have been recognized being active for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR).However,the identification of active site remains challenging as it generally involves a pyrolysis process and mixed components being obtained.Herein Fe₃C/C and Fe₂N/C samples were synthesized by temperature programmed reduction of Fe precursors in 15%CH₄/H₂and pure NH₃,respectively.By acid leaching of Fe₂N/C sample,only single sites of FeN₄species were presented,providing an ideal model for identification of catalytic functions of the single sites of FeN₄in ORR.A correlation was conducted between the concentration of Fe^ⅡN₄in low spin state by Mossbauer spectra and the kinetic current density at 0.8 V in alkaline media,and such a structure-performance correlation assures the catalytic roles of low spin Fe^ⅡN₄ species as highly active sites for the ORR.     

The formation of fibrous structure of polyamide 6 induced by the three-step forming process and its prominent reinforcement in nitrile rubber

Nitrile rubber (NBR) blends with excellent performance have always been a hot research topic in petroleum field. Due to the excellent performance and compatibility of polyamide 6 (PA6), it provides an opportunity for the preparation of high-performance NBR/PA6 blends. In this article, NBR/PA6 blends were prepared by the three-step molding process. Experimentally, it was found that PA6 has a prominent reinforcement effect in NBR matrix. The variation of this mechanical property was investigated from different aspects of the crystal structure, crystallinities, phase morphology, and so on. It can be cleared that the formation of fibrous structure of PA6 phase is the main factor for reinforcement of the polymer blends. Meanwhile, the formation mechanism of the special phase structure induced by the three-step process is deeply expounded and its structural evolution schematic is established. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47472.     

Human responses to high levels of carbon dioxide and air temperature

In this study, 30 subjects were exposed to different combinations of air temperature (T_a: 24, 27, and 30°C) and CO₂ level (8000, 10 000, and 12 000 ppm) in a high-humidity (RH: 85%) underground climate chamber. Subjective assessments, physiological responses, and cognitive performance were investigated. The results showed that as compared with exposure to T_a = 24°C, exposure to 30°C at all CO₂ levels caused subjects to feel uncomfortably warm and experience stronger odor intensity, while increased mental effort and greater intensity of acute health symptoms were reported. However, no significant effects of T_a on task performance or physiological responses were found. This indicated that subjects had to exert more effort to maintain their performance in an uncomfortably warm environment. Increasing CO₂ from 8000 to 12 000 ppm at all T_a caused subjects to report higher rates of headache, fatigue, agitation, and feeling depressed, although the results were statistically significant only at 24 and 27°C. The text typing performance and systolic blood pressure (SBP) decreased significantly at this exposure, whereas diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and thermal discomfort increased significantly. These effects suggest higher arousal/stress. No significant interaction effect of T_a and CO₂ concentration on human responses was identified.     

Evaluation of bismuth doped La2-xBixNiO4+δ (x = 0, 0.02 and 0.04) as cathode materials for solid oxide fuel cells

Bismuth doped La_2-xBi_xNiO_4+δ (x = 0, 0.02 and 0.04) oxides are investigated as SOFC cathodes. The effects of Bi doping on the phase structure, thermal expansion, electrical conduction behavior as well as electrochemical performance are studied. All the samples exist as a tetragonal Ruddlesden-Popper structure. Bi-doped LBNO-0.02 and LBNO-0.04 have good chemical and thermal compatibility with LSGM electrolyte. The average TEC over 20–900°С was 13.4 × 10^?6 and 14.2 × 10^?6 K^?1 for LBNO-0.02 and LBNO-0.04, respectively. The electrical conductivity was decreasing with the rise of Bi doping content. EIS measurement indicates Bi doping can decrease the ASR values. At 750 °C, the obtained ASR for LBNO-0.04 is 0.18 Ωcm², which is 56% lower than that of the sample without Bi doping, suggesting Bi doping is beneficial to the electrochemical catalytic activity of LBNO cathodes.     

Cyclic thermal shock resistance of h-BN composite ceramics with La2O3–Al2O3–SiO2 addition

The effects of La₂O₃–Al₂O₃–SiO₂ addition on the thermal conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), Young's modulus and cyclic thermal shock resistance of hot-pressed h-BN composite ceramics were investigated. The samples were heated to 1000 °C and then quenched to room temperature with 1–50 cycles, and the residual flexural strength was used to evaluate cyclic thermal shock resistance. h-BN composite ceramics containing 10 vol% La₂O₃–Al₂O₃ and 20 vol% SiO₂ addition exhibited the highest flexural strength, thermal conductivity and relatively low CTE, which were beneficial to the excellent thermal shock resistance. In addition, the viscous amorphous phase of ternary La₂O₃–Al₂O₃–SiO₂ system could accommodate and relax thermal stress contributing to the high thermal shock resistance. Therefore, the residual flexural strength still maintained the value of 234.3 MPa (86.9% of initial strength) after 50 cycles of thermal shock.     

Super-Resolution Reconstruction of Images Based on Microarray Camera

In the field of images and imaging, super-resolution (SR) reconstruction of images is a technique that converts one or more low-resolution (LR) images into a highresolution (HR) image. The classical two types of SR methods are mainly based on applying a single image or multiple images captured by a single camera. Microarray camera has the characteristics of small size, multi views, and the possibility of applying to portable devices. It has become a research hotspot in image processing. In this paper, we propose a SR reconstruction of images based on a microarray camera for sharpening and registration processing of array images. The array images are interpolated to obtain a HR image initially followed by a convolution neural network (CNN) procedure for enhancement. The convolution layers of our convolution neural network are 3×3 or 1×1 layers, of which the 1×1 layers are used to improve the network performance particularly. A bottleneck structure is applied to reduce the parameter numbers of the nonlinear mapping and to improve the nonlinear capability of the whole network. Finally, we use a 3×3 deconvolution layer to significantly reduce the number of parameters compared to the deconvolution layer of FSRCNN-s. The experiments show that the proposed method can not only ameliorate effectively the texture quality of the target image based on the array images information, but also further enhance the quality of the initial high resolution image by the improved CNN.     

Amine-containing olefin copolymer with CO2-switchable oil absorption and desorption

Global decrease in crude oil resources and frequent crude oil leaks cause the energy crisis and ecological pollution. The absorption and release of leaked crude oil through absorption materials are a necessary process for environmental protection and recycling. In this article, a CO₂-responsive olefin copolymer was obtained by copolymerization of styrene and an amine-containing olefin monomer. The structure of resultant copolymer was characterized by FTIR; thermal properties and CO₂-responsive morphology changes were determined by DSC/TGA and SEM, respectively. Copolymers had certain absorption capacity for toluene with absorption rate up to 180.0%. The absorbed toluene could be released upon CO₂ stimulation with desorption rate up to 84.6%. The CO₂-responsive copolymer could be regenerated through a simple heating process and showed stable absorption–desorption performance even after being recycled for 4 times. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47439.