Self-supported metal sulphide nanocrystals-assembled nanosheets on carbon paper as efficient counter electrodes for quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells

Developing efficient counter electrodes (CEs) and quantum dots made of earth-abundant and non-toxic elements is essential but still challenging for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). Here, we report a facile strategy to prepare self-supported and robust CoS₂ and NiS nanocrystals-assembled nanosheets directly grown on carbon paper (MSx NS@CP) as efficient counter electrodes for QDSSCs. Such CEs integrate the merits of fast electron transfer from interconnected conductive scaffold, efficient mass transfer from hierarchically vertical nanosheet on 3D open substrate, as well as abundant highly active catalytic sites from metal sulphide nanocrystal units. As a result, QDDSCs based on such CoS₂ NS@CP and NiS NS@CP CEs achieve a PCE of 8.88% and 7.53%, respectively. The detailed analyses suggest that CoS₂ NS@CP has the highest catalytic activity and shows the lowest charger transfer resistance, leading to the highest PCE. These findings may inspire the design and exploration of other self-supported efficient CEs by integrating highly active catalysts onto 3D conductive networks for efficient QDSSCs.     

Full-Field Deformation Measurements in Liquid-like-Solid Granular Microgel Using Digital Image Correlation

This paper presents the experimental characterization of the in-plane deformation field at any depth within a granular support medium (GSM) called Carbomer 940 using digital image correlation (DIC) and particle image velocimetry (PIV). A method was developed to produce a 2D plane of randomly shaped speckles within the GSM for DIC. Four different needle diameters and four different speeds were used as test specimens representative of those utilized for 3D printing of soft matter in the GSM. The results can be used to determine dimensional tolerances and assessing interactions between multiple injection needles and acceptable spacing. The displacements in the direction of needle motion (u) and transverse (v) were obtained. Subsequently, the magnitudes were determined as a function of distance from the needle path and time history. Results show that near the needle there is a region of yielded/fluidized material and away from the needle path the material acts like a viscoelastic solid. Permanent deformation decreases with increased distance from the path and recovery is enhanced by reversing back through the path.     

Local linear convergence analysis of Primal–Dual splitting methods

In this paper, we study the local linear convergence properties of a versatile class of Primal–Dual splitting methods for minimizing composite non-smooth convex optimization problems. Under the assumption that the non-smooth components of the problem are partly smooth relative to smooth manifolds, we present a unified local convergence analysis framework for these methods. More precisely, in our framework, we first show that (i) the sequences generated by Primal–Dual splitting methods identify a pair of primal and dual smooth manifolds in a finite number of iterations, and then (ii) enter a local linear convergence regime, which is characterized based on the structure of the underlying active smooth manifolds. We also show how our results for Primal–Dual splitting can be specialized to cover existing ones on Forward–Backward splitting and Douglas–Rachford splitting/ADMM (alternating direction methods of multipliers). Moreover, based on these obtained local convergence analysis result, several practical acceleration techniques are discussed. To exemplify the usefulness of the obtained result, we consider several concrete numerical experiments arising from fields including signal/image processing, inverse problems and machine learning. The demonstration not only verifies the local linear convergence behaviour of Primal–Dual splitting methods, but also the insights on how to accelerate them in practice.     

Pressure controllable phase transition in MoTe2 by the interlayer band occupancy

High pressure can effectively control the phase transition of MoTe₂ in experiment, but the mechanism is still unclear. In this work, we show by first-principles calculations that the phase transition is suppressed and $1T^{\prime }$ phase becomes more stable under high pressure, which originates from the pressure-induced change of the interlayer band occupancies near the Fermi energy. Specifically, the interlayer states of $1T^{\prime }$ phase tend to be fully occupied under high pressure, while they keep partially occupied for the $T_d$ phase. The increase of the band occupancies makes the $1T^{\prime }$ phase more favorable in energy and prevents the structure changing from $1T^{\prime }$ to $T_d$ phase. Moreover, we also analyze the superconductivity under high pressure based on BCS theory by calculating the density of states and phonon spectra. Our results may shed some light on understanding the relationship between the interlayer band occupancy and crystal stability of MoTe₂ under high pressures.     

Validation of quartz crystal rheometry in the megahertz frequency regime

The utility of the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as a high‐frequency rheometer operating at 15 MHz was demonstrated. High‐frequency data obtained from a series of rubbery materials were compared with results obtained from traditional dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) at much lower frequencies. The high‐frequency data enable meaningful shift factors to be obtained at temperatures much further above glass‐transition temperature (T _g) than would otherwise be possible, giving a more complete picture of the temperature dependence of the viscoelastic properties. The QCM can also be used to quantify mass uptake and changes in viscoelastic properties during sample oxidation. The viscoelastic response spanning the full range of behaviors from the rubber to glassy regimes was found to fit well with a six‐element model consisting of three power‐law springpot elements. One of these elements is particularly sensitive to the behavior in the transition regime where the phase angle is maximized. The value of this quantity is obtained from the maximum phase angle, which can be obtained from a temperature sweep at fixed frequency, proving a means for more detailed frequency‐dependent rheometric information to be obtained from a fixed‐frequency measurement at a range of temperatures. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 1246–1254     

The length and depth of algebraic groups

Mathematische Zeitschrift - Let G be a connected algebraic group. An unrefinable chain of G is a chain of subgroups $$G = G_0> G_1> \cdots > G_t = 1$$ , where each $$G_i$$ is a...     

Aircraft selection modeling: a multi-step heuristic to enumerate airlift alternatives

Annals of Operations Research - We consider the use of the new C-130J-30 aircraft for long distance (strategic) cargo movement. Currently, only large aircraft, the C-5 and the C-17, are identified...     

Importance sampling for non-Markovian tandem queues using subsolutions

Queueing Systems - In this paper, we use importance sampling simulation to estimate the probability that the number of customers in a d-node GI|GI|1 tandem queue reaches some high level N in a busy...