Side-on-End-on Coordination of Dinitrogen on a Polynuclear Vanadium Nitride Cluster Anion [V5N5]−

The side-on-end-on coordination of N₂ can be very important to activate and functionalize this very stable molecule. However, such coordination has rarely been reported. This study reports a gas-phase species (a polynuclear vanadium nitride cluster anion [V₅N₅]⁻) that can capture N₂ efficiently (12 %), and the quantum chemistry modelling suggests an unusual side-on-end-on coordination. The cluster anions were generated by laser ablation and the reaction with N₂ has been characterized by mass spectrometry, photoelectron imaging spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. The back-donation interactions between the localized d–d bonding orbitals on the low-coordinated dual metal (V) sites and the antibonding π* orbitals of N₂ are the driving forces to adsorb N₂ with a high binding energy (about 2.0 eV).     

基于复杂网络的能源互联网信息物理融合系统跨空间风险传递研究

能源互联网呈现物理信息深度融合的趋势,为电力系统管理研究定义了新的研究框架。作为一个先进的复杂系统,能源互联网信息物理系统(Energy Internet Cyber-Physical System,ECPS)在其发展过程中面临着一些新的挑战,其中一个就是耦合结构下的风险管理。本文结合复杂网络理论和风险传递理论,着重在拓扑层面分析了ECPS跨空间交互机理,并在此基础上定义了交互路径和交互系数;接着建立了ECPS跨空间风险传递模型,量化描述了风险的传递和演化过程,并进行了风险影响评估;最后,通过仿真实验分析了三种不同交互系数节点故障的风险传递过程和不同攻击模式下系统的崩溃过程。对仿真结果的讨论阐述了能源互联网风险跨空间传递的特点,为更深入地研究ECPS的风险管理提供了参考。     

AuPt Bipyramid Nanoframes as Multifunctional Platforms for In Situ Monitoring of the Reduction of Nitrobenzene and Enhanced Electrocatalytic Methanol Oxidation

Multifunctional metal nanostructures with a hollow feature, especially for nanoframes, are highly attractive owing to their high surface-to-volume ratios. However, pre-grown metal nanocrystals are always involved during the preparation procedure, and a synthetic strategy without the use of a pre-grown template is still a challenge. In this article, a template-free strategy is reported for the preparation of novel AuPt alloy nanoframes through simply mixing HAuCl₄ and H₂PtCl₆ under mild conditions. The alloy nanostructures show a bipyramid-frame hollow architecture with the existence of only the ten ridges and absence of their side faces. This is the first report of bipyramid-like nanoframes and a template-free method under mild conditions. This configuration merges the plasmonic features of Au and highly active catalytic sites of Pt in a single nanostructure, making it an ideal multifunctional platform for catalyzing and monitoring the catalytic reaction in real time. The superior catalytic activity is demonstrated by using the reduction of nitrobenzene to the corresponding aminobenzene as a model reaction. More importantly, the AuPt nanoframes can track the reduction process on the basis of the SERS signals of the reactants, intermediates, and products, which helps to reveal the reaction mechanism. In addition, the AuPt nanoframes show much higher electrocatalytic properties toward the methanol oxidation reaction than commercial Pt/C electrocatalysts.     

Upper Bounds on Liouville First-Passage Percolation and Watabiki's Prediction

Given a planar continuum Gaussian free field h^𝒰 in a domain 𝒰 with Dirichlet boundary condition and any δ > 0, we let be a real-valued smooth Gaussian process where is the average of h^𝒰 along a circle of radius δ with center v. For γ > 0, we study the Liouville first-passage percolation (in scale δ), i.e., the shortest path distance in 𝒰 where the weight of each path P is given by . We show that the distance between two typical points is for all sufficiently small but fixed γ > 0 and some constant c^* > 0. In addition, we obtain similar upper bounds on the Liouville first-passage percolation for discrete Gaussian free fields, as well as the Liouville graph distance, which roughly speaking is the minimal number of euclidean balls with comparable Liouville quantum gravity measure whose union contains a continuous path between two endpoints. Our results contradict some reasonable interpretations of Watabiki's prediction (1993) on the random distance of Liouville quantum gravity at high temperatures.© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Fixed-time SOSM controller design with output constraint

Nonlinear Dynamics - In this paper, a novel fixed-time second-order sliding mode (SOSM) controller has been developed for a class of nonlinear systems with output constraints. Based on the output...     

Mechanical effects of acupuncture

Acupuncture, a physiotherapy, has been widely accepted all around the world. This study focuses on the influence of membrane structures and explains the acupuncture sensations from the aspect of mechanical properties. By mathematical modeling and numerical simulation, the scientific meaning of the acupuncture depth is investigated and phenomena and theory of acupuncture are discussed. The simulation results show that (a) the fascial structure is the main contributor to the force on the needle, the axial force will gradually increase before piercing the fascial, and suddenly decrease after piercing the fascial; (b) there is an inverse relationship between the needle radius and the maximum radial stress, which indicates that the needle should not be too sharp to cause local stress concentration and piece the fascia layer; and (c) the simulation results of comprehensively considering the static friction and sliding friction is identical with the experiment results. This study proposes a preliminary study of mechanical effects of acupuncture manipulation, clarifies key factors affecting the stress on the needle, and explains the objective requirement of acupuncture depth to effective treatment.     

Property and evolution of the running-in attractor in an actual dynamic system

In this paper, the issue of adaptive neural tracking control for uncertain switched multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonstrict-feedback nonlinear systems with average dwell time is studied. The system under consideration includes unknown dead-zone inputs and output constraints. The uncertain nonlinear functions are identified via neural networks. Also, neural networks-based switched observer is constructed to approximate all unmeasurable states. By means of the information for dead-zone slopes and barrier Lyapunov function (BLF), the problems of dead-zone inputs and output constraints are tackled. Furthermore, dynamic surface control (DSC) scheme is employed to ensure that the computation burden is greatly reduced. Then, an observer-based adaptive neural control strategy is developed on the basis of backstepping technique and multiple Lyapunov functions approach. Under the designed controller, all the signals existing in switched closed-loop system are bounded, and system outputs can track the target trajectories within small bounded errors. Finally, the feasibility of the presented control algorithm is proved via simulation results.

     

Determination of 90Sr in different matrices via ion-exchange chromatography and LSC

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - A cation-exchange chromatographic method was utilized to isolate strontium. The interference of recovery yield, calcium and magnesium, and the...     

Defect Engineering on Boron Nitride for O2 Activation and Subsequent Oxidative Desulfurization

The rational design of highly active hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) catalysts at the atomic level is urgent for aerobic reactions. Herein, a doping impurity atom strategy is adopted to increase its catalytic activities. A series of doping systems involving O, C impurities and B, N antisites are constructed and their catalytic activities for molecular O₂ have been studied by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It is demonstrated that O₂ is highly activated on O_N and B_N defects, and moderately activated on C_B and C_N defects, however, it is not stable on N_B and O_B defects. The subsequent application in oxidative desulfurization (ODS) reactions proves the O_N and C-doped (C_B, C_N) systems to be good choice for sulfocompounds oxidization, especially for dibenzothiophene (DBT). While the B_N antisite is not suitable for such aerobic reaction due to the extremely stable B−O^*−B species formed during the oxidation process.     

Amorphous Manganese–Cobalt Nanosheets as Efficient Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER)

Catalysis Surveys from Asia - A facile and efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) to produce hydrogen is very important for future energy. In this paper, amorphous...