MEA with double-layered catalyst cathode to mitigate methanol crossover in DMFC

Methanol permeation is one of the key problems for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications. It is necessary to change the structure of the cathode of membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Therefore, a novel MEA with double-layered catalyst cathode was prepared in this paper. The double-layered catalyst consists of PtRu black as inner catalyst layer and Pt black as outer catalyst layer. The inner catalyst layer is prepared for oxidation of the methanol permeated from anode. The results indicate that this double-layered catalyst reduced the effects of methanol crossover and assimilated mixed potential losses. The performance of MEA with double-layered catalyst cathode was 52.2 mW cm⁻², which was a remarkable improvement compared with the performance of MEA with traditional cathode. The key factor responsible for the improved performance is the optimization of the electrode structure.     

Two-dimensional magnetic cluster growth with a power-law interaction

A two-dimensional cluster model in which the morphology of clusters depends on power-law magnetic interactions that decay with distance r as a r^−α law is introduced. The growth algorithm is a generalization of diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) model. The particles with spin degree diffuse on a square lattice and each spin is allowed to flip under a Monte Carlo probability. The simulation shows that, for the antiferromagnetic coupling, the spins of the particles in clusters tend to be oriented alternately. For the ferromagnetic coupling, however, the spin distribution depends on the exponent α: for large value of α, domains with different sizes are observed in the clusters; while for small α, during the earlier stage of the growth process, the clusters exhibit approximately antiferromagnetic structure, then, in subsequent growth of the outer part of the clusters, the spin states of all particles are similar. The magnetization and system energy of the clusters as well as their evolutions with the growth parameters are also studied in detail.     

Two-step image registration by artificial immune system and chamfer matching

Image registration is the precondition and foundation in the fusion of multi-source image data. A two-step approach based on artificial immune system and chamfer matching to register images from different types of sensors is presented. In the first step, it extracts the large edges and takes chamfer distance between the input image and the reference image as similarity measure and uses artificial immune network algorithm to speed up the searching of the initial transformation parameters. In the second step, an area-based method is utilized to refine the initial transformation and enhance the registration accuracy. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is a promising method for registration of multi-sensor images.     

Two-state-variable stochastic tree problems

This paper extends the one-state-variable stochastic tree problem to the two-state-variable case. (Considering, for example, a tree whose size and price evolve according to two different Wiener processes, we solve for the optimal cutting time. The optimization of the expected present discounted value of the tree is converted to a standard free-boundary problem. Analytical results are reported. In particular we find that more variance near the optimal free boundary will increase the value of the tree. Finally, a method is developed to find the numerical solution to the free boundary problem. A numerical example is presented.     

Mesoporous material grafted with luminescent molecules for the design of selective metal ion chemosensor

Luminescent Schiff-base groups have been successfully grafted on the surface of mesoporous material MCM-48. The grafted Schiff-base groups were employed to prepare luminescent Schiff-base-Zn complex that was covalently bound to the MCM-48 surface. These luminescent mesoporous materials were characterized with X-ray, UV-VIS and emission spectroscopic methods. Experimental results demonstrated that MCM-48 modified with functional groups exhibited novel luminescent property. The chemosensing property of modified MCM-48 sample was investigated. It was demonstrated that the fluorescence of MCM-48 solid with Schiff-base groups could be completely quenched by Cu²⁺ cation and this mesoporous material was suitable for sensing Cu²⁺ cation in aqueous media.     

Fast redox kinetics of a perovskite oxygen carrier measured using micro-fluidized bed thermogravimetric analysis

Redox kinetics of oxygen carrier in chemical looping combustion (CLC) is important for reactor design and its oxidation enthalpy is important in order to establish auto thermal demonstration. Most published redox kinetics of oxygen carrier has been measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) which can include additional diffusion limitations and thus underestimate the overall kinetics. In this study, the redox kinetics of a new perovskite oxygen carrier (CaMn_0.375Ti_0.5Fe_0.125O_3-δ) was measured by a novel micro-fluidized bed thermogravimetric analysis (MFB-TGA) method which can achieve real-time weight measurement of oxygen carrier in a fluidizing state with similar mass and heat transfer characteristics as in a CLC reactor. The experimental data from MFB-TGA were analyzed with a reactor model. The redox kinetics was described by a two-stage model of gas-solid reaction. The effect of temperature, O₂ concentrations and reducing gas type (H₂ and CH₄) on the redox kinetics in MFB-TGA was investigated and compared with other oxygen carriers such as natural manganese ore and ilmenite. It is observed that the oxidation of both manganese ore and ilmenite can be divided into two stages, a fast initial stage followed by a second slower stage, resulting in slower total oxidation rates. A very interesting finding is that there is only the fast initial stage for the oxygen carrier of CaMn_0.375Ti_0.5Fe_0.125O_3-δ, and the full oxidation of CaMn_0.375Ti_0.5Fe_0.125O_3-δ can be finished within ～4 s which is ～7.5 and ～30 times faster than that of manganese ore and ilmenite. The reduction kinetics of CaMn_0.375Ti_0.5Fe_0.125O_3-δ by H₂ is also ～5 and ～2.2 times faster than that of manganese ore and ilmenite, respectively. The kinetic parameters of three oxygen carriers were compared and the redox mechanism of CaMn_0.375Ti_0.5Fe_0.125O_3-δ was discussed.     

A theoretical kinetics study on low-temperature oxidation of n-C4H9 radicals

The low-temperature oxidation mechanism of n?butyl radicals (n-C₄H₉) has been investigated by high level quantum chemical calculations coupled with the Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus/Master Equation (RRKM/ME) theory. The potential energy surfaces (PES) were explored at the QCISD(T)/CBS//B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level. The temperature- and pressure-dependent rate constants were computed and fitted in modified Arrhenius parameters. The major reaction channels were discussed to more deeply understand the competing relationships between chain branching, chain propagation and termination reactions. The results show that the 1,5 H-shift reaction is more competitive than the 1,6 H-shift and 1,4 H-shift for isomerization reactions of n?butyl peroxy radicals, and the concerted HO₂ elimination channel to form butene becomes more important at high temperatures. Furthermore, based on our calculations, a revised kinetic model was developed to describe n-butane oxidation. Good consistency between model predictions and experimental data was shown. This study enhances our understanding of the combustion mechanism of n-butane and can be used as a reliable reference for mechanistic understanding of larger alkanes.     

Exact Recovery of Stochastic Block Model by Ising Model

In this paper, we study the phase transition property of an Ising model defined on a special random graph—the stochastic block model (SBM). Based on the Ising model, we propose a stochastic estimator to achieve the exact recovery for the SBM. The stochastic algorithm can be transformed into an optimization problem, which includes the special case of maximum likelihood and maximum modularity. Additionally, we give an unbiased convergent estimator for the model parameters of the SBM, which can be computed in constant time. Finally, we use metropolis sampling to realize the stochastic estimator and verify the phase transition phenomenon thfough experiments.     

Coherence and Quantum Phase Transition in Spin Models

Based on quantum renormalization group (QRG) method, we investigated quantum coherence and quantum phase transition (QPT) in XXZ chain and XY chain, respectively. The results show that both the geometric quantum coherence and entropic coherecne can accurately indicate the QPT at critical point after enough iteration steps. Moreover, the increasing anisotropy parameter destroys the coherence in the XXZ chain, while enhances it in the XY chain. In addition, focused on the XXZ chain we analyzed the nonanalytic phenomena and scaling behaviors with different theoretical exponents in detail.