Polymer 4D printing: Advanced shape-change and beyond

4D printing is an exciting branch of additive manufacturing. It relies on established 3D printing techniques to fabricate objects in much the same way. However, structures which fall into the 4D printed category have the ability to change with time, hence the “extra dimension.” The common perception of 4D printed objects is that of macroscopic single-material structures limited to point-to-point shape change only, in response to either heat or water. However, in the area of polymer 4D printing, recent advancements challenge this understanding. A host of new polymeric materials have been designed which display a variety of wonderful effects brought about by unconventional stimuli, and advanced additive manufacturing techniques have been developed to accommodate them. As a result, the horizons of polymer 4D printing have been broadened beyond what was initially thought possible. In this review, we showcase the many studies which evolve the very definition of polymer 4D printing, and reveal emerging areas of research integral to its advancement.     

Insights into MWCNTs/polyimide nanocomposites: from synthesis to application as free-standing flexible electrodes in low-cost micro-supercapacitors

In the pursuit to enlarge the library of polyimide materials for energy applications, new polyimide/MWCNTs composite films have been developed by MWCNTs-assisted polycondensation reaction of a hydroxyl and triphenylmethane-containing diamine with benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride targeting to highlight their electrical storage capability as flexible electrodes in micro-supercapacitors (mSCs). The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, UV–vis, fluorescence, and Raman spectroscopies were used to demonstrate the evolution of interfacial interactions between MWCNTs and the precursors (diamine monomer and intermediate polyamidic acid) and polyimide matrix that proved to be the origin of MWCNTs homogeneous dispersion. Thus, composite films incorporating 1, 3, 5, and 10 w.t.% MWCNTs were obtained and thoroughly investigated with regard to their morphology, mechanical behavior, thermal stability, and electrical conductivity. The electrochemical performance of these composites was first analyzed in a classical three-electrode cell by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge in both aqueous and organic electrolyte systems. By far, the best electrical storage capacity was obtained with the composite polyimide film containing 10% MWCNTs that was further used as both active material and current collector in a flexible symmetric mSC realized by a straightforward and low-cost procedure. In the attempt to better exploit the advantages of this composite film, it was layered with a graphite-containing paint and tested as an electrode in a flexible mSC, which provided satisfactory results. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the electrical charge storage capability of a polyimide/MWCNTs free-standing film as a flexible electrode in mSCs, which do not require time- and resource-consuming processing steps.     

Revealing the Effect of Surface Composition on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Supported Pt-Fe Alloy Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation Performance

The designs of efficient and inexpensive Pt-based catalysts for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) are essential to boost the commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells. Here, the highly catalytic performance PtFe alloys supported on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) decorating nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) have been successfully prepared via co-engineering of the surface composition and electronic structure. The Pt₁Fe₃@NC/MWCNTs catalyst with moderate Fe³⁺ feeding content (0.86 mA/mg_Pt) exhibits 2.26-fold enhancement in MOR mass activity compared to pristine Pt/C catalyst (0.38 mA/mg_Pt). Furthermore, the CO oxidation initial potential of Pt₁Fe₃@NC/MWCNTs catalyst is lower relative to Pt/C catalyst (0.71 V and 0.80 V). Benefited from the optimal surface compositions, the anti-corrosion ability of MWCNT, strong electron interaction between PtFe alloys and MWCNTs and the N-doped carbon (NC) layer, the Pt₁Fe₃@NC/MWCNTs catalyst presents an improved MOR performance and anti-CO poisoning ability. This study would open up new perspective for designing efficient electrocatalysts for the DMFCs field.     

Chemical versus Electrochemical Synthesis of Carbon Nano‐onion/Polypyrrole Composites for Supercapacitor Electrodes

The development of high‐surface‐area carbon electrodes with a defined pore size distribution and the incorporation of pseudo‐active materials to optimize the overall capacitance and conductivity without destroying the stability are at present important research areas. Composite electrodes of carbon nano‐onions (CNOs) and polypyrrole (Ppy) were fabricated to improve the specific capacitance of a supercapacitor. The carbon nanostructures were uniformly coated with Ppy by chemical polymerization or by electrochemical potentiostatic deposition to form homogenous composites or bilayers. The materials were characterized by transmission‐ and scanning electron microscopy, differential thermogravimetric analyses, FTIR spectroscopy, piezoelectric microgravimetry, and cyclic voltammetry. The composites show higher mechanical and electrochemical stabilities, with high specific capacitances of up to about 800 F g^?1 for the CNOs/SDS/Ppy composites (chemical synthesis) and about 1300 F g^?1 for the CNOs/Ppy bilayer (electrochemical deposition).     

An Improved Composite Multiscale Fuzzy Entropy for Feature Extraction of MI-EEG

Motor Imagery Electroencephalography (MI-EEG) has shown good prospects in neurorehabilitation, and the entropy-based nonlinear dynamic methods have been successfully applied to feature extraction of MI-EEG. Especially based on Multiscale Fuzzy Entropy (MFE), the fuzzy entropies of the τ coarse-grained sequences in τ scale are calculated and averaged to develop the Composite MFE (CMFE) with more feature information. However, the coarse-grained process fails to match the nonstationary characteristic of MI-EEG by a mean filtering algorithm. In this paper, CMFE is improved by assigning the different weight factors to the different sample points in the coarse-grained process, i.e., using the weighted mean filters instead of the original mean filters, which is conductive to signal filtering and feature extraction, and the resulting personalized Weighted CMFE (WCMFE) is more suitable to represent the nonstationary MI-EEG for different subjects. All the WCMFEs of multi-channel MI-EEG are fused in serial to construct the feature vector, which is evaluated by a back-propagation neural network. Based on a public dataset, extensive experiments are conducted, yielding a relatively higher classification accuracy by WCMFE, and the statistical significance is examined by two-sample t-test. The results suggest that WCMFE is superior to the other entropy-based and traditional feature extraction methods.     

变角度纤维复合材料层合斜板的颤振分析

假设纤维方向角沿层合板的长度方向线性变化，研究了变角度纤维复合材料层合斜板的颤振．通过坐标变换将斜板变换为正方形板，采用层合板表面连续变化的速度环量来模拟空气对其的作用，速度环量分布利用Cauchy积分公式计算．建立了系统的Lagrange方程并采用Ritz法得到了层合板的自振频率和颤振/不稳定性分离临界速度．通过数值算例验证了本文模型和方法的正确性和收敛性，分析了各个铺层内纤维方向角的变化对自振频率和颤振/不稳定性分离临界速度的影响．研究结果表明，通过纤维的变角度铺设，可有效地提高层合板的基频和颤振/不稳定性分离临界速度．经合理设计的变角度复合材料层合板具有抑制颤振的作用．     

环状连续强激光下光学薄膜的瞬温和热畸变

详细研究了非冷却光学薄膜元件在环形激光光束辐照下的瞬态温度分布和随后的热畸变，并且用泰曼干涉仪实际测量了连续波氧碘激光辐照各种非冷却光学元件的热畸变量并与理论计算相比较，分析结果表明理论和实验相一致。     

固体间界面的物理模型和界面对声波的反射

简要描述了模拟两固体间界面特性的弹簧模型，该模型最早是根据静力学方法提出的，后来用固体间界面薄层的声波反射方法加以改进，从界面弹簧模型可以方便地得到界面外近似边界条件，其中包含界面“弹簧”振子的劲度常数和质量，文章还给出了两相间固体中界面声反射系数的表达式，介绍了测量界面劲度常数的超声反射谱方法。最后讨论了仍关声波与界面相互作用研究领域中最近的一些研究进展。     

数字散斑相关方法及其在碳纤维复合材料压力容器变形测量中的应用

提出了一种新的基于图像灰度梯度迭代的数字散斑相关方法(DSCM,digital speckle correlation method)。通过使用DSCM测量碳纤维复合材料压力容器在水压下的局部区域的位移场和应变场,分析了复合材料压力容器的轴向和环向的变形特征,为碳纤维复合材料压力容器的优化设计提供了理论和实验依据。     

双涂层光纤应变传感器的理论与实验研究

对带有聚合物涂敷层和缓冲层的光纤应变传感器的力学特性进行了研究，建立了双涂层光纤与基体材料相互作用的线弹性理论模型.理论研究表明：在小半径近似条件下，双涂层光纤的力学传递特性决定于涂覆层和缓冲层的弹性模量的相对值；当缓冲层的弹性模量远大于涂覆层时，其作用可忽略.实验中，将光纤传感器埋入基体材料内部，利用白光干涉应变测量方法，对平均应变传递系数进行了实验研究.实验结果与理论仿真具有较好的一致性.