Enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction from organic-inorganic heterostructure

Herein, molybdenum disulfide nanoflakes decorated copper phthalocyanine microrods (CuPc-MoS₂) are synthesized via two step simple hydrothermal method. The as synthesized hybrid along with pure molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanoflower and pure copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) microrods are well characterized by various techniques that confirm phase, morphology, elemental compositions etc. Next, electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction towards fuel cell is investigated in alkaline medium and obtained results proclaim that our CuPc-MoS₂ heterostructure outperforms the other two constituent materials. Efficient oxygen reduction is achieved following four electron pathway by CuPc-MoS₂ whereas partial reduction is done through two electron process by CuPc and MoS₂ separately. Long-time durability test reveals almost 97.6% retention after 8000s that eventually dictate us that CuPc-MoS₂ heterostructure can be the efficient cathode electrocatalyst for future generation fuel cell.     

Cation and polyhedron substitution strategies: Effects on local crystal structure and on Bi3+ and Eu3+ co-doped inverse garnet phosphors’ luminescence property

Following the rapid growth of lightning technology, the development of red-emitting phosphors is effective for improving color temperature and color rendering index for w-LEDs devices. Herein, a single phased garnet phosphor with cation and polyhedron substitution modification was firstly prepared. For Mg₃Gd₂Ge₃O₁₂: Bi³⁺, Eu³⁺, the intensity has been remarkably improved by about 16% compared to the one without Bi³⁺ sensitization. The energy transfer mechanism is identified in this work. Based on cation and polyhedron substitution strategies, novel phosphors with different compositions were obtained and further modified the PL properties. With Lu³⁺ substitution, the bond lengths between Bi³⁺ ion and anion ligands are decreased and the site symmetry has been strengthened, which leads to a 21 nm blue shift when Lu³⁺ totally replaced Gd³⁺ ions. In addition, Lu³⁺ and [SiO₄] substitution strategies both effectively increased symmetric rigid structure, which leads to a significant improvement in thermal stability, indicating the samples own great potential in optical applications This work provides a new insight to synthesis red-emitting phosphors for warm white-LEDs.     

Synergistic effect of high-intensity ultrasound and β-cyclodextrin treatments on browning control in apple juice

This work evaluated the synergistic effects of combined high-intensity ultrasound (HIU) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) treatments on inhibiting browning of apple juice and explored the mechanism through simulation system. The combined treatment of 300 W HIU with 0.006 g mL⁻¹ β-CD had a synergistic impact on maintaining juice colour, resulting in a 39.06% reduction in browning degree, only a 36.64% decrease in total phenolic content, and a 17.82% reduction in PPO activity. The inhibition of enzymatic browning in simulated system revealed that HIU suppressed the enzyme (Polyphenol oxidase, PPO) and β-CD inhibited enzyme (PPO) and embedded substrate (polyphenol). The results of spectroscopic analysis showed that the particle-size distribution of PPO narrowed, the content of α-helix in the secondary structure increased, the fluorescence intensity increased, and the maximum wavelength was red-shifted after HIU and β-CD treatment. Changes in structure could further result in PPO activity loss. Hence, the combined treatment could synthetically alleviate the browning of apple juice.     

Piezoresistive in-situ strain sensing of composite laminate structures

Various methods have been developed to monitor the health and strain state of carbon fiber reinforced polymers, each with a unique set of pros and cons. This research assesses the use of piezoresistive sensors for in situ strain measurement of carbon fiber and other composite structures in multidirectional laminates. The piezoresistive sensor material and the embedded circuitry are both evaluated. For the piezoresistive sensor, a conductive nickel nanocomposite sensor is compared with the piezoresistivity of the carbon fiber itself. For the circuit, the use of carbon fibers already present in the structure is compared with the use of nickel coated carbon fiber. Successful localized strain sensing is demonstrated for several sensor and circuitry configurations. Numerous engineering applications are possible in the ever-growing field of carbon-composites.     

Controlling Au electrode patterns for simultaneously monitoring electrical actuation and shape recovery in shape memory polymer

This paper presents an effective approach to achieve efficient electrical actuation and monitoring of shape recovery based on patterned Au electrodes on shape memory polymer (SMP). The electrically responsive shape recovery behavior was characterized and monitored by the evolution change in electrical resistance of patterned Au electrode. Both electrical actuation and temperature distribution in the SMP have been improved by optimizing the Au electrode patterns. The electrically actuated shape recovery behavior and temperature evolution during the actuation were monitored and characterized. The resistance changes could be used to detect beginning/finishing points of the shape recovery. Therefore, the Au electrode not only significantly enhances the electrical actuation performance to achieve a fast electrical actuation, but also enables the resistance signal to detect the free recovery process.     

Mechanical properties of a self-healing fibre reinforced epoxy composites

Inspired by biological systems in which damage triggers an autonomic healing response, a polymer composite material that can heal itself when cracked has been developed. In this work, compression and tensile properties of a self-healed fibre reinforced epoxy composites were investigated. Microencapsulated epoxy and mercaptan healing agents were incorporated into a glass fibre reinforced epoxy matrix to produce a polymer composite capable of self-healing. The self-repair microcapsules in the epoxy resin would break as a result of microcrack expansion in the matrix, and letting out the strong repair agent to recover the mechanical strength with a relative healing efficiency of up to 140% which is a ratio of healed property value to initial property value or healing efficiency up to 119% if using the healed strength with the damaged strength.     

Design and synthesis of side-chain optimized poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)-g-poly(styrene sulfonic acid) as proton exchange membrane for fuel cell applications: Balancing the water-resistance and the sulfonation degree

Side-chain optimized poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)-g-poly (styrene sulfonic acid) (PPO-g-PSSA) is designed with balanced water-resistance and sulfonation degree. The PPO-g-PSSA is synthesized by controlled atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) from brominated poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO-xBr) and ethyl styrene-4-sulfonate and followed by hydrolysis. A series of PPO-g-PSSA are prepared possessing different bromination degree (x) of PPO-xBr and polymerization degree (m) of the side-chains and the water-resistances of the fabricated membranes are investigated. The results show that a PPO-g-PSSA at relatively low x (x < 0.2) and high m (m > 4) exhibits good balance between the water-resistance and the sulfonation degree. Namely, it displays suitable proton conductivity with compromised water-resistance. Moreover, a maximum ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 3.24 mmol g^?1 is reached without the sacrifice of water-resistance. In addition, PPO-g-0.08PSSA-13 and PPO-g-0.14PSSA-4 are chosen characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, proton conductivities and mechanical properties. At 90% RH, the optimized PPO-g-0.08PPSA-13 possesses a proton conductivity of 37.9 mS cm^?1 at 40 °C and 45.5 mS cm^?1 at 95 °C, respectively.     

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 %.     

Smart firefighting construction in China: Status,problems, and reflections

“Smart firefighting” construction as a part of the “smart city” has been a concern of the public security and fire agencies at all levels. In this study, the status, problems, and reflections of “smart firefighting” construction in China are discussed. A recent survey indicates that China has launched its smart firefighting construction and initially created a new perspective on its regional smart firefighting work based on three main aspects: intelligent disaster perception by Internet of Things (IoT) construction, intelligent disaster prevention by big data construction, and intelligent disaster disposal by emergency rescue platform construction. However, the current smart firefighting construction in China still has some prominent problems such as the data interconnectivity and normalized management of various platforms, the extensibility of smart firefighting platforms, and the intelligent level of smart firefighting researches, which need to be solved urgently. Therefore, we argue that smart firefighting construction in China should establish data interconnectivity, industrial normalized management, 2D/3D geographic information interaction and extension, high-integration fire protection theory, and many other aspects in the near future and truly realize firefighting visualization and efficient data applications for 4D time space. This study could provide valuable reference for smart firefighting and smart city construction.     

Demand response for home energy management system

The optimization of energy consumption, with consequent cost reduction, is one of the main challenges for the present and future smart grid. Demand response (DR) program is expected to be vital in home energy management system (HEMS) which aims to schedule the operation of appliances to save energy costs by considering customer convenience as well as characteristics of electric appliances. The DR program is a challenging optimization problem especially when the formulations are non-convex or NP-hard problems. In order to solve this challenging optimization problem efficiently, an effective heuristic approach is proposed to achieve a near optimal solution with low computational costs. Different from previously proposed methods in literatures which are not suitable to be run in embedded devices such as a smart meter. The proposed algorithm can be implemented in an embedded device which has severe limitations on memory size and computational power, and can get an optimal value in real-time. Numerical studies were carried out with the data simulating practical scenarios are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.