Water confined in two-dimensions: Fundamentals and applications

The behavior of water in close proximity to other materials under ambient conditions is of great significance due to its importance in a broad range of daily applications and scientific research. The structure and dynamics of water at an interface or in a nanopore are often significantly different from those of its bulk counterpart. Until recently, experimental access to these interfacial water structures was difficult to realize. The advent of two-dimensional materials, especially graphene, and the availability of various scanning probe microscopies were instrumental to visualize, characterize and provide fundamental knowledge of confined water. This review article summarizes the recent experimental and theoretical progress in a better understanding of water confined between layered Van der Waals materials. These results reveal that the structure and stability of the hydrogen bonded networks are determined by the elegant balance between water-surface and water-water interactions. The water-surface interactions often lead to structures that differ significantly from the conventional bilayer model of natural ice. Here, we review the current knowledge of water adsorption in different environments and intercalation within various confinements. In addition, we extend this review to cover the influence of interfacial water on the two-dimensional material cover and summarize the use of these systems in potential novel applications. Finally, we discuss emerged issues and identify some flaws in the present understanding.     

Performance investigation of an advanced tracked prime mover on the low bearing soil

This study has presented a performance investigation of an advanced tracked prime mover for the operation of agricultural goods and other operations on peat terrain. The maximum and continuous traction torque of the prime mover has been developed by designing an advanced controller for controlling the intelligent system. The prime mover’s mobility is studied with ultrasonic displacement sensor, torque transducer, National Instrument cRIO-9004 Compact-RIO Real-time Controller Unit (RCU), a National Instrument TPC 2106T Touch Panel Control (TPC), a Trimble AG132 GPS antenna and receiver unit, and a Dlink DIR-655 router. The fuzzy logic controller (FLC) has been equipped with the prime mover hydraulic system to increase the traction torque of the hydraulic motor when the prime mover’s sinkage is more than or equal to 70 mm. The prime mover’s design demonstrates good potential in traversing peat terrain as the measured tractive effort was found to be 48% of the vehicle’s gross weight while the recommended tractive effort is in the range of 30–36% of the vehicle’s gross weight.     

Fuzzy structure-activity relationships

While quantitative structure-activity relationships attempt to predict the numerical value of the activities, it is found that statistically good predictors do not always do a good job of qualitatively determining the activity. This study shows how Fuzzy classifiers can be used to generate Fuzzy structure-activity relationships which can more accurately determine whether or not a compound will be highly inactive, moderately inactive or active, or highly active. Four examples of these classifiers are presented and applied to a well-studied activity dataset.     

A new method for the automated selection of the number of components for deconvolving overlapping chromatographic peaks

Mathematical deconvolution methods can separate co-eluting peaks in samples for which (chromatographic) separation fail. However, these methods often heavily rely on manual user-input and interpretation. This is not only time-consuming but also error-prone and automation is needed if such methods are to be applied in a routine manner.     

Rejoinder on “Statistical reasoning with set-valued information: Ontic vs. epistemic views”

This note replies to comments made on our contribution to the Low Quality Data debate.     

Vibrational spectroscopy in the development of surface hydrophilic elastomer latex (SHEL)

An illustrative example is given to show how various vibrational spectroscopy techniques coupled with two-dimensional (2D) correlation analysis can be effectively utilized in the development of a novel and functional material. Surface-hydrophilic elastomer latex (SHEL) is a material exhibiting rather unusual permanently water-wettable surface feature despite having a soft and rubbery bulk property, which can be successfully analyzed with vibrational spectroscopy. 2D photoacoustic (PAS) IR spectra of a SHEL film indicate the localized surface segregation of long-chain ethoxylate moiety of the oligomeric surfactant used in the preparation of this material. The accumulation of the hydrophilic long-chain ethoxylate produces the high energy polar surface over the hydrophobic bulk phase of SBR copolymer. The persistence of very low water contact angle, even after repeated washing of a SHEL film with an excess amount of water, indicates permanent covalent attachment of long-chain ethoxylate group to the SBR copolymer. 2D Raman spectra generated from the process monitoring of the emulsion copolymerization of SHEL reveal the mechanism of the covalent attachment of long-chain ethoxylate. The reaction involves a separate step of oleyl moiety of the block surfactant reacting with 1,3-butadiene prior to the onset of copolymerization to produce the SBR latex product.     

An approach for solving a fuzzy multiobjective programming problem

In this paper we present a new approach, based on the Nearest Interval Approximation Operator, for dealing with a multiobjective programming problem with fuzzy-valued objective functions.     

水胁迫下典型盐生植被梭梭光谱特征分析

荒漠地区由于气候干燥，降水稀少，水分常成为制约植被生长的因素之一，水分胁迫对植物长势和产量的影响比任何其他胁迫都要大。随着高光谱技术的发展，国内外已有众多学者利用高光谱数据研究植被遭受胁迫作用，然而这些研究对象多集中于甜菜、棉花、玉米、水稻等作物，针对干旱区盐生植被遭受胁迫作用的研究较少。梭梭作为荒漠、半荒漠地区的典型盐生植被之一，具有极高的经济和生态效益。选择梭梭作为研究对象，培育一年生梭梭，并设置三个水分梯度，形成受不同水分量胁迫的梭梭。使用原始光谱、红边位置参数，结合植被指数及二维相关光谱研究其叶片光谱特征，为干旱区利用高光谱遥感监测盐生植被提供借鉴。结果表明：(1)分析梭梭叶片反射光谱曲线发现，在可见光至中红外各波段范围内，受不同水分量胁迫作用的梭梭叶片光谱反射率有显著差异。在可见光(350～610 nm)波段，各水分处理的梭梭叶片反射率依次为100 mL>500 mL>200 mL，这是由于100和200 mL水分促进梭梭内部叶绿素合成，使该波段反射率降低，而过多的水分(500 mL)对梭梭内部的叶绿素合成没有更大的促进作用。在红光区(611～738 nm)，随着水分量的增多，受不同水分量胁迫的梭梭叶片光谱反射率依次减小。在738～1 181和1 228～1 296 nm波段，受不同水分量胁迫作用的梭梭叶片光谱反射率为：200 mL>100 mL>500 mL；在1 182～1 227 nm波段，受不同水分量胁迫作用的梭梭叶片光谱反射率为：100 mL>200 mL>500 mL。这是由于植被细胞结构对近红外区域的反射率影响较大，因而受不同水分胁迫作用的梭梭叶片光谱反射率有显著差异。在1 300～1 365和1 392～1 800 nm波段，受各水分胁迫作用的梭梭叶片反射率为：100 mL>200 mL>500 mL。这表明在500 mL水分胁迫量范围内，水分越多，叶子的细胞液、细胞膜对水分的吸收能力越强，使得反射率下降。通过对原始光谱求取一阶导数并提取红边位置参数发现，各水分处理下的梭梭叶片一阶微分光谱曲线中红边位置未发生移动。这是由于梭梭在长期的干旱环境影响下，形成了特殊的适应机制，水分对其红边位置影响不敏感。(2)选取若干植被指数分析各水分处理下的梭梭光谱指数变化。当水分胁迫量由100 mL增至200 mL时，WI/NDWI，MSI和NDII指数值变化显著，可用于研究水分胁迫下梭梭的光谱特征。(3)使用二维相关光谱技术分析受各水分胁迫作用的梭梭光谱特征，得出在100 mL水分胁迫下，在536，643，1 219和1 653 nm波段处，吸收峰对水分的微扰敏感；在200 mL水分胁迫下，在846和1 083 nm波段处，吸收峰对水分的微扰敏感；在500 mL水分胁迫下，在835和1 067 nm波段处，吸收峰对水分的微扰敏感。总之，在近红外波段，与100 mL水分量相比，梭梭受200和500 mL水分量胁迫时，吸收峰对水分的微扰敏感度上升。由100 mL水分胁迫下梭梭的二维同步相关谱图可知，1 044和1 665 nm，1 072和903 nm，903和1 264 nm，1 230和1 061 nm波段处形成正交叉峰，表明这些波段处光谱强度随水分的干扰同时变化。     

Preparation of two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide for NO2 detection at room temperature

In this work, the two-dimensional MoS₂ film was prepared by sulfuring the molybdenum atomic layer on SiO₂/Si substrate. The reaction temperature, heating rate, holding time and carrier gas flow rate were investigated comprehensively. The quality of MoS₂ film was characterized by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The characterization results showed that the optimum synthesis parameters were heating rate of 25 °C/min, reaction temperature of 750 °C, holding time of 30 min and carrier gas velocity of 100 sccm. The MoS₂ gas sensor was fabricated and its gas sensing performance was tested. The test results indicated that the sensor had a good response to both reducing gas (NH₃) and oxidizing gas (NO₂) at room temperature. The sensitivity to 100 ppm of NO₂ was 31.3%, and the response/recovery times were 4 s and 5 s, respectively. In addition, the limit of detection could be as low as 1 ppm. This work helps us to develop low power and integrable room temperature NO₂ sensors.