Self-propulsion of flapping bodies in viscous fluids: Recent advances and perspectives

Flapping-powered propulsion is used by many animals to locomote through air or water. Here we review recent experimental and numerical studies on self-propelled mechanical systems powered by a flapping motion. These studies improve our understanding of the mutual interaction between actively flapping bodies and surrounding fluids. The results obtained in these works provide not only new insights into biolocomotion but also useful information for the bio-mimetic design of artificial flyers and swimmers.     

Fe3O4@C Nanotubes Grown on Carbon Fabric as a Free-Standing Anode for High-Performance Li-Ion Batteries

Recently, Li-ion batteries (LIBs) have attracted extensive attention owing to their wide applications in portable and flexible electronic devices. Such a huge market for LIBs has caused an ever-increasing demand for excellent mechanical flexibility, outstanding cycling life, and electrodes with superior rate capability. Herein, an anode of self-supported Fe₃O₄@C nanotubes grown on carbon fabric cloth (CFC) is designed rationally and fabricated through an in situ etching and deposition route combined with an annealing process. These carbon-coated nanotube structured Fe₃O₄ arrays with large surface area and enough void space can not only moderate the volume variation during repeated Li⁺ insertion/extraction, but also facilitate Li⁺/electrons transportation and electrolyte penetration. This novel structure endows the Fe₃O₄@C nanotube arrays stable cycle performance (a large reversible capacity of 900 mA h g⁻¹ up to 100 cycles at 0.5 A g⁻¹) and outstanding rate capability (reversible capacities of 1030, 985, 908, and 755 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.15, 0.3, 0.75, and 1.5 A g⁻¹, respectively). Fe₃O₄@C nanotube arrays still achieve a capacity of 665 mA h g⁻¹ after 50 cycles at 0.1 A g⁻¹ in Fe₃O₄@C//LiCoO₂ full cells.     

管式炉中半导体激光器巴条Au80Sn20焊料封装研究

为了提高半导体激光器的封装质量和效率,引入管式炉利用夹具进行批量封装。由于封装质量的好坏直接影响半导体激光器的输出特性和使用寿命,利用MOCVD生长808 nm芯片,重点分析了管式炉温度和封装时间对半导体激光器巴条双面金锡封装质量的影响。利用X射线检测、结电压、光电特性参数和smile效应测试手段,确定了管式炉封装半导体激光器巴条的最优封装条件,为以后的产业化提供了指导意义。     

Solvent‐free inkjet printing process for the fabrication of conductive,transparent, and flexible ionic liquid‐polymer gel structures

A new and solvent‐free process for the fabrication of inkjet printed ionic liquid‐polymer gel microstructures with high‐resolution (line widths of ～40 μm), good electrical conductivity (5–30 mS cm^?1), optical transparency, and mechanical flexibility is presented. Carrying out the printing and polymerization process in nitrogen atmosphere eliminates the inhibiting influence of oxygen and guarantees homogeneously gelled structures. Careful selection and combination of ionic liquids (ILs) and unsaturated monomers makes it possible to achieve low viscosities which are printable with commercially available inkjet printers and printheads without adding extra solvents. By using different types and amounts of ILs and monomers the resulting properties of the printed IL‐polymer gels can be controlled in terms of ionic conductivity, optical transmission, and mechanical flexibility. Higher conductivities are possible by using a bifunctional instead of a monofunctional monomer, which allows one to lower the amount of monomer without loss in mechanical strength. Cast samples make it possible to obtain data of transmission (～90% for 170‐μm thick films) and mechanical flexibility (E = 0.02–0.23 MPa) of bulk material. Comparing electrical conductivity of printed and cast samples, the higher values of printed samples indicate the conductivity enhancing influence of moisture absorbed from the surrounding atmosphere after the fabrication process. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011     

Fast and accurate grid representations for atom‐based docking with partner flexibility

Macromolecular docking methods can broadly be divided into geometric and atom‐based methods. Geometric methods use fast algorithms that operate on simplified, grid‐like molecular representations, while atom‐based methods are more realistic and flexible, but far less efficient. Here, a hybrid approach of grid‐based and atom‐based docking is presented, combining precalculated grid potentials with neighbor lists for fast and accurate calculation of atom‐based intermolecular energies and forces. The grid representation is compatible with simultaneous multibody docking and can tolerate considerable protein flexibility. When implemented in our docking method ATTRACT, grid‐based docking was found to be ∼35x faster. With the OPLSX forcefield instead of the ATTRACT coarse‐grained forcefield, the average speed improvement was >100x. Grid‐based representations may allow atom‐based docking methods to explore large conformational spaces with many degrees of freedom, such as multiple macromolecules including flexibility. This increases the domain of biological problems to which docking methods can be applied. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Solution properties,unperturbed dimensions,and chain flexibility of poly(1‐adamantyl acrylate)

Poly(1‐adamantyl acrylate) (PAdA) exhibits much higher glass transition and degradation temperatures than other polyacrylates. However, the quantitative evaluation of the stiffness of this polymer chain has not been reported previously. In this study, the dilute solution properties and conformational characteristics of PAdA were evaluated using viscometry and scattering techniques. The unperturbed dimensions of this polymer were evaluated using the Burchard–Stockmayer–Fixman extrapolation and the touched‐bead wormlike chain model. The PAdA chain has a comparable persistence length, diameter per bead and characteristic ratio to poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene. All these results indicate that PAdA is less flexible than common polyacrylates. In addition, the second virial coefficients (A₂) of PAdA in different solvents obtained by static light scattering were compared. Among the solvents investigated, tetrahydrofuran is a moderate solvent. Radius of gyration of a polymer sample in the various solvents ranged from 16.8 to 30.3 nm. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 1526–1531     

Sensitive monitoring of penicillin antibiotics in milk and honey treated by stir bar sorptive extraction based on monolith and LC‐electrospray MS detection

In the present study, a convenient and sensitive method for determination of six penicillin antibiotics (amoxicillin, ampicillin, penicillin G, oxacillin, cloxacillin, and dicloxacillin) in milk and honey samples was developed. Milk and honey samples were diluted with water, then directly treated by stir bar sorptive extraction based on poly (vinylimidazole‐divinylbenzene) monolithic material as coating. The analytes were analyzed by LC/ESI‐ MS/MS. Several extraction parameters including extraction and desorption time, pH value, and ionic strength in sample matrix were investigated in detail. Under the optimized extraction conditions, the calculated detection limits for the target compounds were as low as 0.23–2.66 ng/kg in milk and 0.18–1.42 ng/kg in honey, respectively. Good linearity was obtained for analytes with the correlation coefficients (R²) above 0.997. Excellent method reproducibility was achieved in terms of intraday and interday precisions, indicated by the RSDs of <5.0 and <10.0%, respectively. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of penicillin antibiotics residues in different milk and honey samples.     

Determination of five booster biocides in seawater by stir bar sorptive extraction–thermal desorption–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) and thermal desorption (TD)–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) have been optimized for the determination of five organic booster biocides (Chlorothalonil, Dichlofluanid, Sea-Nine 211, Irgarol 1051 and TCMTB) in seawater samples. The parameters affecting the desorption and absorption steps were investigated using 10 mL seawater samples. The optimised conditions consisted of an addition of 0.2 g mL⁻¹ KCl to the sample, which was extracted with 10 mm length, 0.5 mm film thickness stir bars coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and stirred at 900 rpm for 90 min at room temperature (25 °C) in a vial. Desorption was carried out at 280 °C for 5 min under 50 mL min⁻¹ of helium flow in the splitless mode while maintaining a cryotrapping temperature of 20 °C in the programmed-temperature vaporization (PTV) injector of the GC–MS system. Finally, the PTV injector was ramped to a temperature of 280 °C and the analytes were separated in the GC and detected by MS using the selected-ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The detection limits of booster biocides were found to be in the range of 0.005–0.9 μg L⁻¹. The regression coefficients were higher than 0.999 for all analytes. The average recovery was higher than 72% (R.S.D.: 7–15%). All these figures of merit were established running samples in triplicate. This simple, accurate, sensitive and selective analytical method may be used for the determination of trace amounts of booster biocides in water samples from marinas.     

Headspace stir bar sorptive extraction followed by thermal desorption and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry to determine musk fragrances in sludge samples without sample pretreatment

A direct, simple and solvent‐free method based on headspace stir bar sorptive extraction and thermal desorption gas chromatography with mass spectroscopy was developed to determine 13 musk fragrances (six polycyclic musks, three nitro musks and four macrocyclic musks) in sludge without sample treatment. The optimal headspace stir bar sorptive extraction conditions were achieved when a polydimethylsiloxane stir bar was exposed for 45 min in the headspace of a 10 mL vial filled with 100 mg of sludge mixed with 0.2 mL of water stirred at 750 rpm at 80°C. The stir bar was then desorbed in the thermal desorption gas chromatography and mass spectrometry system, obtaining limits of detection between 5 and 30 ng/g. The method applicability was tested with sewage sludge from two urban wastewater treatment plants and from a potable water treatment plant. Results showed galaxolide and tonalide to be the most abundant musk fragrances found in wastewater treatment plants with maximal concentrations of 9240 and 7500 ng/g, respectively. Maximum concentration levels between 35 and 635 ng/g were found for musk ketone, musk moskene, traseolide, phantolide and celestolide in this kind of samples. Concentrations below the limits of quantitation of phantolide, galaxolide, tonalide and musk ketone were found in sludge from a potable water treatment plant.     

基于ZIF-8/PAN复合薄膜的柔性丙酮气体传感器

ZIF-8是一种Zn基金属有机骨架材料, 可以吸附丙酮气体从而作为电容式丙酮传感器的气敏材料, 然而ZIF-8的传统使用形式为粉末态, 这导致其不能成为具备柔性的整体, 从而限制了传感器的柔性. 结合包埋种子和二次生长法将ZIF-8与纳米纤维结合成纤维型柔性材料, 并将其作为气敏层制备了柔性电容式丙酮气体传感器. 该传感器在9种常见挥发性有机化合物中表现出良好的选择性, 对250~2000 cm³/m³的丙酮气体具有灵敏的响应、良好的循环响应及长期稳定性. 值得注意的是该柔性传感器不仅在室温下进行传感, 而且在弯折180°的状态下对丙酮气体的响应值与不弯折(0°)状态下几乎一致, 在200次以内的180°弯折-恢复后同样表现出了传感性能的稳定, 表明了其在柔性传感器方面的潜力.