Cathode catalysts degradation mechanism from liquid electrolyte to membrane electrode assembly

Single-cell and half-cell degradation test procedures were evaluated for carbon-supported Pt/C, PtCo/C and PtNi/C catalysts. Half-cell analyses were employed to understand the effect of the number of cycles and of the scan rate over the cathode catalysts degradation under potential cycling from 0.6 to 1.2 V. The data suggested a time-dependent degradation for all three catalytic systems. Single-cell measurements were used to evaluate the impact of catalyst degradation on fuel cell performance. The measurements in both setups showed similar ECSA and ORR mass activity losses. Specific degradation mechanisms related to Pt dissolution, Pt agglomeration, and transitional metal leaching were quantified and correlated with performance losses.     

Development of GC–MS/MS method for environmental monitoring of 49 pesticide residues in food commodities in Al-Rass,Al-Qassim region,Saudi Arabia

The harmful effects of pesticide residues are a threat to our health. Therefore, the current study aimed to validate a simple method for the determination of pesticide residues in commonly consumed fruits and vegetables from Al-Rass, Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. A total of 1430 samples were collected from a local market and then analyzed for monitoring of 49 pesticide residues. A quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) multi-residue extraction method followed by gas chromatography equipped with triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS) was successfully implemented. This 17-min-run analytical method detects and quantifies pesticide residues with acceptable validation performance parameters in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, linearity, the limit of quantification, accuracy, and precision. The linear range of the calibration curves ranged from 10 to 300 µg/L, all the pesticide LODs ranged from 0.0005 to 0.0024 mg/kg, and the pesticide LOQs ranged from 0.0011 to 0.0047 mg/kg. The recovery values at the three fortification levels ranged from 78 % to 107 %, and the precision values (expressed as RSD%) were less than 20 % for all of the investigated analytes. The results showed that 138 (9.65 %) of the analyzed samples were contaminated with pesticide residues, 40 (2.80 %) of the analyzed samples exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) of the European Commission regulations (EC) for pesticides residues, 98 (6.85 %) of the analyzed samples were contaminated with residues below the MRL, and 1292 (90.35 %) of the analyzed samples were pesticide residue-free. Coriander contained the highest percentage (46.88 %) of pesticide residues, particularly tetradifon that representing 18.75 % noncompliance with the MRL, followed by parsley, with 20.59 % pesticide residues (10.29 % non-compliance). Multiple pesticide residues were observed most frequently in tomatoes and dates which were contaminated with buprofezin and ethion respectively.     

Heavy quarkonia from classical SU(3) Yang-Mills configurations

A generalized Cho-Faddeev-Niemi ansatz for SU(3) Yang-Mills is investigated. The corresponding classical field equations are solved for its simplest parametrization. From these solutions it is possible to define a confining non-relativistic central potential used to study heavy quarkonia. The associated spectra reproduces the experimental spectra with an error of less than 3% for charmonium and 1% for bottomonium. Moreover, the recently discovered new charmonium states can be accomodate in the spectra, keeping the same level of precision. The leptonic widths show good agreement with the recent measurements. The charmonium and bottomonium E1 electromagnetic transitions widths are computed and compared with the experimental values.     

Exploring artificial neural networks to model interatomic and intermolecular potential energy surfaces

We demonstrate how a back-propagation artificial neural network can be trained to represent a potential energy surface (PES) in a formless manner with limited data points and exploited to predict interaction energies for configurations not included in the training set. A similar exercise is undertaken for predicting the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a model Hamiltonian matrix that delicately depends on parameters and exhibits crossing of eigen values.     

A comparative study of CE-SDS,SDS-PAGE,and Simple Western: Influences of sample preparation on molecular weight determination of proteins

The development of capillary electrophoresis, especially CE-SDS devices, has led CE-SDS to become an established tool in a wide range of applications in the analysis of biopharmaceuticals and is increasingly replacing its method of origin, SDS-PAGE. The goal of this study was to evaluate the comparability of molecular weight (MW) determination especially by CE-SDS and SDS-PAGE. For ensuring comparability, model proteins that have little or no posttranslational modifications and an IgG antibody were used. Only a minor influence of sample preparation conditions, including sample buffer, temperature conditions, and different reducing agents on the MW determination were found. In contrast, the selection of the MW marker plays a decisive role in determining the accurate apparent MW of a protein. When using different MW markers, the deviation in MW determination can exceed 10%. Interestingly, CE-SDS and 10% SDS-PAGE hardly differ in their trueness of MW determination. The trueness in relation to the reference MW for each protein was calculated. Although the trueness values for the model proteins considered range between 1.00 and 1.11 using CE-SDS, they range between 0.93 and 1.03 on SDS-PAGE, depending on the experimental conditions chosen.     

O(1D)和CD4反应的准经典轨线

在新的全域势能面上, 用准经典轨线方法细致地研究了O(¹D)+CD₄多通道化学反应的动力学．这个势能面是用交换不变多项式方法基于MRC+Q/aug-cc-pVTZ从头算点拟合得到的．通过计算得到了产物OD+CD₃、D+CD₂OD/CD₃O和D₂+DCOD/D₂CO的分支比、平动能分布以及角度分布,结果显示理论与实验吻合得较好, 从而说明了这个反应的同位素取代效应很小． 研究表明,O(¹D)+CD₄反应是经过陷入的抽取机理发生的： 最初主要通过D原子的抽取,并不是之前人们认为的直接C-D键的插入形成CD3OD中间物后再进而解离成各个产物通道．     

A regularised boundary element formulation for contactless SAR evaluations within homogeneous and inhomogeneous head phantoms

This work presents a Boundary Element Method (BEM) formulation for contactless electromagnetic field assessments. The new scheme is based on a regularised BEM approach that requires the use of electric measurements only. The regularisation is obtained by leveraging on an extension of Calderón techniques to rectangular systems leading to well-conditioned problems independent of the discretisation density. This enables the use of highly discretized Huygens surfaces that can be consequently placed very near to the radiating source. In addition, the new regularised scheme is hybridised with both surfacic homogeneous and volumetric inhomogeneous forward BEM solvers accelerated with fast matrix–vector multiplication schemes. This allows for rapid and effective dosimetric assessments and permits the use of inhomogeneous and realistic head phantoms. Numerical results corroborate the theory and confirms the practical effectiveness of all newly proposed formulations.     

Gold(III) π-Allyl Complexes

Gold(III) π-complexes have been authenticated recently with alkenes, alkynes, and arenes. The key importance of Pd^II π-allyl complexes in organometallic chemistry (Tsuji–Trost reaction) prompted us to explore gold(III) π-allyl complexes, which have remained elusive so far. The (P,C)Au^III(allyl) and (methallyl) complexes 3 and 3′ were readily prepared and isolated as thermally and air-stable solids. Spectroscopic and crystallographic analyses combined with detailed DFT calculations support tight quasi-symmetric η³-coordination of the allyl moiety. The π-allyl gold(III) complexes are activated towards nucleophilic additions, as substantiated with β-diketo enolates.     

Lamb波频域逆散射全聚焦成像方法研究

Lamb波因其传播距离远、衰减小常被用于板状结构的无损检测中,在基于Lamb波损伤检测的诸多成像技术中,全聚焦方法(Total Focus Method,TFM)方法因其成像分辨率高、信噪比高而受青睐.然而Lamb波的频散效应导致时域延时量不能被准确计算,进而影响传统TFM方法对损伤定位及成像的精度;此外,既有的TFM...     

On the inflation and deflation dynamics of liquid-filled,hyperelastic balloons

We derive a reduced-order model describing the inflation and deflation dynamics of a liquid-filled hyperelastic balloon, focusing on inviscid laminar flow and the extensional motion of the balloon. We initially study the flow and pressure fields for dictated motion of the solid, which throughout deflation are obtained by solving the potential problem. However, during inflation, flow separation creates a jet within the balloon, requiring a different approach. The analyses of both flow regimes lead to a simple piecewise model, describing the fluidic pressure during inflation and deflation, which is verified by finite element computations. We then use a variational approach to derive the equation describing the interaction between the extensional mode of the balloon and the entrapped fluid, yielding a nonlinear hybrid oscillator equation. Analytical and graphical investigations of the suggested model are presented, shedding light on its static and dynamic behaviour under different operating conditions. Our simplified model and its underlying assumptions are verified utilizing a fully coupled finite element scheme, showing excellent agreement.