Investigations into wetting and spreading behaviors of impacting metal droplet under ultrasonic vibration control

Ultrasonic-assisted metal droplet deposition (UAMDD) is currently considered a promising technology in droplet-based 3D printing due to its capability to change the wetting and spreading behaviors at the droplet-substrate interface. However, the involved contact dynamics during impacting droplet deposition, particularly the complex physical interaction and metallurgical reaction of induced wetting-spreading-solidification by the external energy, remain unclear to date, which hinders the quantitative prediction and regulation of the microstructures and bonding property of the UAMDD bumps. Here, the wettability of the impacting metal droplet ejected by a piezoelectric micro-jet device (PMJD) on non-wetting and wetting ultrasonic vibration substrates is studied, and the corresponding spreading diameter, contact angle, and bonding strength are also discussed. For the non-wetting substrate, the wettability of the droplet can be significantly increased due to the extrusion of the vibration substrate and the momentum transfer layer at the droplet-substrate interface. And the wettability of the droplet on a wetting substrate is increased at a lower vibration amplitude, which is driven by the momentum transfer layer and the capillary waves at the liquid–vapor interface. Moreover, the effects of the ultrasonic amplitude on the droplet spreading are studied under the resonant frequency of 18.2–18.4 kHz. Compared to deposit droplets on a static substrate, such UAMDD has 31% and 2.1% increments in the spreading diameters for the non-wetting and wetting systems, and the corresponding adhesion tangential forces are increased by 3.85 and 5.59 times.     

Built-in piezoelectric field improved photocatalytic performance of nanoflower-like Bi2WO6 using low-power white LEDs

Photocatalysis technology has been proved to be a potential strategy for removal of organic dyes, however high-power light sources are generally necessary to initiate photocatalytic reaction. In this work, we employed an excellent photocatalyst of Bi₂WO₆ with visible light harvest and meanwhile an intrinsic ferroelectricity, which realized the efficient degradation of organic dye via the synergetic photopiezocatalysis. Through coupling the illumination by a low-power (9 W) LED and the ultrasonic vibration (120 W) by an ultrasonic cleaner, the nanoflower-like Bi₂WO₆ composed of ultrathin nanosheets showed a much more enhanced photopiezocatalysis performance for purification of organic dye than the individual photocatalysis and piezocatalysis. Furthermore, the high mineralization efficiency and the good durability of the Bi₂WO₆ catalyst were demonstrated. The possible mechanism of photopiezocatalysis was finally proposed, where the ultrasound-induced piezoelectric field in Bi₂WO₆ drove photo-generated electrons and holes to diffuse along opposite directions, consequently promoting the separation efficiency of charge carriers. This work indicates that the synergetic photopiezocatalysis by coupling irradiation and ultrasonic vibration is a promising strategy to purify organic pollutants in wastewater.     

New insights into the impact toughness of ASA (acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate) with controllable core–shell structure synthesized by three-stage seeded emulsion polymerization

Acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate (ASA) with controllable core–shell structure was prepared through three-stage seeded emulsion polymerization. A series of characterizations had been performed to study the effect of different core–shell ratios on the properties of ASA. The most interesting was that the impact strength of ASA exhibited a “wave” variation instead of a linear variation with the increasing loading content of poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA) core. Moreover, the threshold of impact strength appeared at 49.725?wt% PBA content, nearly 33 kJ/m². To explain this unusual variation, an impact schematic was proposed.     

Advanced solvent signal suppression for the acquisition of 1D and 2D NMR spectra of Scotch Whisky

A simple and robust solvent suppression technique that enables acquisition of high‐quality 1D ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of alcoholic beverages on cryoprobe instruments was developed and applied to acquire NMR spectra of Scotch Whisky. The method uses 3 channels to suppress signals of water and ethanol, including those of ¹³C satellites of ethanol. It is executed in automation allowing high throughput investigations of alcoholic beverages. On the basis of the well‐established 1D nuclear Overhauser spectroscopy (NOESY) solvent suppression technique, this method suppresses the solvent at the beginning of the pulse sequence, producing pure phase signals minimally affected by the relaxation. The developed solvent suppression procedure was integrated into several homocorrelated and heterocorrelated 2D NMR experiments, including 2D correlation spectroscopy (COSY), 2D total correlation spectroscopy (TOCSY), 2D band‐selective TOCSY, 2D J‐resolved spectroscopy, 2D ¹H, ¹³C heteronuclear single‐quantum correlation spectroscopy (HSQC), 2D ¹H, ¹³C HSQC‐TOCSY, and 2D ¹H, ¹³C heteronuclear multiple‐bond correlation spectroscopy (HMBC). A 1D chemical‐shift‐selective TOCSY experiments was also modified. The wealth of information obtained by these experiments will assist in NMR structure elucidation of Scotch Whisky congeners and generally the composition of alcoholic beverages at the molecular level.     

苯酰亚胺结构对PET阻燃抗熔滴及抑烟的贡献

通过本体聚合方法合成了一系列侧链含苯酰亚胺结构的聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯(PET)共聚酯.研究发现,苯酰亚胺单元的引入不仅提高了共聚酯的玻璃化转变温度(T_g)和高温成炭性,并且大大降低了共聚酯高温下的热分解速率.随着苯酰亚胺含量的增加,共聚酯表现出更高的氧指数(LOI)值和更好的阻燃抗熔滴效果.锥形量热测试结果表明,苯酰亚胺结构的引入可以有效地降低共聚酯的峰值热释放速率(p-HRR)、峰值烟释放速率(p-RSR)和总烟释放量(TSR).通过对纯PET和共聚酯燃烧测试后残炭的结构和形貌分析,发现苯酰亚胺结构有助于共聚酯形成石墨化程度更高的致密炭层,这些炭层起到隔热隔氧和抑制有机可燃烟气挥发的作用,在不引入传统阻燃剂的情况下,赋予共聚酯很好的本征阻燃性及抑烟性.     

The mechanical properties of surface treated UHMWPE fibers and TiO2 reinforced PMMA composite

Mechanical properties of hybrid PMMA composites reinforced with UHMWPE fiber and nano‐titanium dioxide (2, 4, 6, and 8 wt%) was investigated. In this work, the effect of UHMWPE fiber surface treatment on tensile, flexural, and impact properties of PMMA composites was studied. The fiber loadings were varied from 0% to 20%. The addition of UHMWPE fiber had caused a decline in the tensile strength of the PMMA composite. Results revealed that the presence of titanium dioxide on the surface treated UHMWPE fiber has further enhanced the efficiency of stress transfer from the matrix to the fiber thus improved the interfacial adhesion between the UHMWPE fiber and PMMA matrix.     

Ab initio potential energy surface and vibration‐rotation energy levels of sulfur dioxide

An accurate potential energy surface of sulfur dioxide, SO₂, in its ground electronic state has been determined from ab initio calculations using the coupled‐cluster approach in conjunction with the correlation‐consistent basis sets up to septuple‐zeta quality. The results obtained with the conventional and explicitly correlated coupled‐cluster methods are compared. The role of the core–electron correlation, higher‐order valence–electron correlation, scalar relativistic, and adiabatic effects in determining the structure and dynamics of the SO₂ molecule is discussed. The vibration‐rotation energy levels of the ³²SO₂ and ³⁴SO₂ isotopologues were predicted using a variational approach. It was shown that the inclusion of the aforementioned effects was mandatory to attain the “spectroscopic” accuracy. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Error Estimates for Semi-Discrete and Fully Discrete Galerkin Finite Element Approximations of the General Linear Second-Order Hyperbolic Equation

In this article, we derive error estimates for the semi-discrete and fully discrete Galerkin approximations of a general linear second-order hyperbolic partial differential equation with general damping (which includes boundary damping). The results can be applied to a variety of cases (e.g. vibrating systems of linked elastic bodies). The results generalize pioneering work of Dupont and complement a recent article by Basson and Van Rensburg.