Comments on stabilizing layered manganese oxide electrodes for Li batteries

An electrochemical study of structurally-integrated xLi₂MnO₃•(1 −x)LiMn_0.5Ni_0.5O₂ ‘composite’ materials has been undertaken to investigate the stability of electrochemically-activated electrodes at the Li₂MnO₃-rich end of the Li₂MnO₃–LiMn_0.5Ni_0.5O₂ tie-line, i.e., for 0.7 ≤ x ≤ 0.95. Excellent performance was observed for x = 0.7 in lithium half-cells; comparable to activated electrodes that have significantly lower values of x and are traditionally the preferred materials of choice. Electrodes with higher manganese content (x ≥ 0.8) showed significantly reduced performance. Implications for stabilizing low-cost, manganese-rich, layered lithium-metal-oxide electrode materials are discussed.     

A mechanical model for predicting the long term behavior of reinforced polymer concretes

Polymer concretes represent challenging materials in the Civil Engineering field, with them being characterized by a high value of the compressive strength and ultimate compressive strain, as well as by a good chemical resistance when compared to that of traditional concretes. These innovative materials exhibit a limited value of the strength in tension and therefore need to be reinforced with either steel or FRP pultruded internal bars. Moreover, their structural performance is strongly affected by the rheological behavior of the resin as well as the internal bars, if made of FRP. In this paper, a mechanical model capable of analytically evaluating the long term behavior of reinforced polymer concrete beams is presented, which accounts for the linear viscoelastic behavior of the constituent materials.     

A new high frequency dynamic mechanical analysis system: An approach to direct high frequency testing of tire tread rubber

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) systems are measurement devices for obtaining master curves and complex modules of viscoelastic materials, such as rubbers. The conventional DMAs measurement systems in market have several limitations, which restrict their ability for operating at high frequencies. Thus, Williams, Landel and Ferry (WLF) relation is used to produce master curves and predict the material properties at high frequencies. In conventional DMAs, experiments are done in a range of temperatures, and then a master curve is made for a chosen reference temperature by shifting the measurements data to high frequencies. Therefore, the obtained results, which are not based on direct measurements, can be inaccurate. In order to overcome this problem a new simple shear high-frequency DMA (HFDMA) system is designed and built to directly measure the dynamic mechanical properties of viscoelastic material at high frequencies and the strain levels sufficient for tire manufacturers. The new HFDMA can be used to test any viscoelastic materials which have glass transmission temperature (Tg) lower than room temperature (about 23 °C) such as the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). The SBR is the base material for tire tread. The designing process of this new HFDMA is presented in this paper. The rubber specimen shape is chosen by taking into account the shear elastic wave effect, bending, buckling effect and heat generation in the specimen. The repeatability test is accomplished to ensure that the results obtained from the new HFDMA are repeatable and the repeatability uncertainty is about 0.04%. The new HFDMA is validated by comparing to the direct test results of conventional DMA at 100 Hz. The direct high frequency (5 kHz) complex shear modulus and damping factor are compared with the master curve of the conventional DMA developed by the use of WLF relation for SBR. This comparison revealed that the complex shear modulus and damping factor of the SBR obtained from the HFDMA at 5 kHz and 0.05% strain amplitude are about 7% and 6.5% higher than those obtained from the conventional DMA, respectively.     

Synthesis and electro-optical properties of self-doped ionic conjugated polymers: poly[2-ethynyl-N-(4-sulfobutyl)pyridinium betaine]

A noble self-dopable conjugated polybetaine, poly[2-ethynyl-N-(4-sulfobutyl)pyridinium betaine] (PESPB) was synthesized by the activated polymerization of 2-ethynylpyridine with 1,4-butanesultone without any additional initiator or catalyst. This polymerization proceeded at the condition of high temperature (130 °C). The polymer yield and inherent viscosity were 82% and 0.13 dl/g, respectively. The chemical structure of PESPB was identified by various instrumental methods to have a conjugated ionic polymer bearing the sulfobetaine moieties. This poly(sulfobetaine) was found to be more soluble in salt solution than in salt-free solution. The photoluminescence peak is located at 530 nm corresponding to the photon energy of 2.34 eV. The photoluminescence intensity was increased as the temperature is increased. At 1 kHz and room temperature, the dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of PESPB were 5.7 and 3.5 × 10⁻⁹ S/cm, respectively.     

Some minimax theorems with strictly monotone transformation

Some two-function minimax theorems are proved. In these results, the staircase and quantitative-topological conditions of both functions involve strictly monotone transformation and mixing of functional values. Consequently, Lin Quan and Kindler＇s minimax theorems are generalized.     

GLOBAL CONVERGENCE OF NONMONOTONIC TRUST REGION ALGORITHM FOR NONLINEAR OPTIMIZATION

§ 1　 IntroductionIn this paper we study the following nonlinear equality constrained optimization prob-lem:minimize f(x) ,subjectto h(x) =0 ,(P)where h(x) =(h1 (x) ,h2 (x) ,...,hm(x) ) T,f and hi(i=1 ,2 ,...,m) are Rn→R twice conti-nously differentiable(m≤n) .Many authors have studied the problem(P) with trustregion method(see,references[1～ 3 ] ) .These methods have the same property:to enforce strict monotonicity for meritfunction at every iteration.Paper[4 ] shows thatstrictmonotonic …     

A DERIVATIVE-FREE ALGORITHM FOR UNCONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION

In this paper a hybrid algorithm which combines the pattern search method and the genetic algorithm for unconstrained optimization is presented. The algorithm is a deterministic pattern search algorithm,but in the search step of pattern search algorithm,the trial points are produced by a way like the genetic algorithm. At each iterate, by reduplication,crossover and mutation, a finite set of points can be used. In theory,the algorithm is globally convergent. The most stir is the numerical results showing that it can find the global minimizer for some problems ,which other pattern search algorithms don＇t bear.