A novel carbon source coated on C-LiFePO<Subscript>4</Subscript> as a cathode material for lithium-ion batteries

The poor electronic conductivity and low lithium-ion diffusion are the two major obstacles to the largely commercial application of LiFePO₄ cathode material in power batteries. In order to improve the defects of LiFePO₄, a novel carbon source polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which would form the hierarchical porous structure after carbonization, is fabricated and used. This work comes up with a simple and facile carbothermal reduction method to prepare porous-carbon-coated LiFePO₄ (C-LiFePO₄-PC) composite and to study the effect of carbon-coated temperature on ameliorating the electrochemical performance. The obtained C-LiFePO₄-PC composite shows a high initial discharge capacity of 164.1 mA h g^?1 at 0.1 C and good cycling stability as well as excellent rate capacity (49.0 mA h g^?1 at 50 C). The most possible factors that improve the electrochemical performance could be related to the enhancement of electronic conductivity and the existence of porous carbon layers. In a word, the C-LiFePO₄-PC material would become an excellent candidate for application in the fields of lithium-ion batteries.     

Influence of oxalate anions on manganese electrodeposition in sulfate solution

The influences of oxalate anions on manganese electrodeposition in sulfate solution were investigated on the basis of cathode current efficiency, characterization of SEM-EDX and XRD, solution chemistry calculation, thermodynamics and electrochemical test. The experimental results show that the range of (NH₄)₂C₂O₄ was adjusted from 0 mol/L to 4.8?×?10^?3 mol/L. And 1.5?×?10^?3 mol/L (NH₄) ₂C₂O₄ was suitably used with initial pH 7.0. The characterization of SEM indicates that oxalate anions can improve the morphology of electrodeposited films. The electrodeposited films containing manganese were characterized and determined by EDX and XRD. The solution chemistry calculation of catholyte and oxalate anions shows that the main active species are MnSO₄, Mn(SO₄)2? 2, Mn²⁺, Mn(SO₄)C₂O2? 4, MnC₂O 4, Mn(NH₃)²⁺, and C₂O2? 4. The reaction trend between C₂O2? 4 and Mn²⁺ ions is confirmed by computation of reaction energy. Electrochemical test analysis indicates oxalate anions increase the overpotentials of hydrogen evolution reaction and manganese electrodeposition.     

Physics of transparent conductors

Transparent conductors (TCs) are materials, which are characterized by high transmission of light and simultaneously very high electrical DC conductivity. These materials play a crucial role, and made possible numerous applications in the fields of electro-optics, plasmonics, biosensing, medicine, and “green energy”. Modern applications, for example in the field of touchscreen and flexible displays, require that TCs are also mechanically strong and flexible. TC can be broadly classified into two categories: uniform and non-uniform TC. The uniform TC can be viewed as conventional metals (or electron plasmas) with plasma frequency located in the infrared frequency range (e.g. transparent conducting oxides), or ultra-thin metals with large plasma frequency (e.g. graphen). The physics of the nonuniform TC is much more complex, and could involve transmission enhancement due to refraction (including plasmonic), and exotic effects of electron transport, including percolation and fractal effects. This review ties the TC performance to the underlying physical phenomena. We begin with the theoretical basis for studying the various phenomena encountered in TC. Next, we consider the uniform TC, and discuss first the conventional conducting oxides (such as indium tin oxide), reviewing advantages and limitations of these classic uniform electron plasmas. Next, we discuss the potential of single- and multiple-layer graphene as uniform TC. In the part of the paper dealing with non-uniform metallic films, we begin with the review of random metallic networks. The transparency of these networks could be enhanced beyond the classical shading limit by the plasmonic refractive effects. The electrical conduction strongly depends on the network type, and we review first networks made of individual metallic nanowires, where conductivity depends on the inter-wire contact, and the percolation effects. Next, we review the uniform metallic film networks, which are free of the percolation effects and contact problems. In applications that require high-quality electric contact of a TC to an active substrate (such as LED or solar cells), the network performance can be optimized by employing a quasi-fractal structure of the network. We also consider the periodic metallic networks, where active plasmonic refraction leads to the phenomenon of the extraordinary optical transmission. We review the relevant literature on this topic, and demonstrate networks, which take advantage of this strategy (the bio-inspired leaf venation (LV) network, hybrid networks, etc.). Finally, we review “smart” TCs, with an added functionality, such as light interference, metamaterial effects, built-in semiconductors, and their junctions.     

Luminescent Properties of a Polymer Photoluminescent Composite Containing the Binuclear (EU,TB) Complex as an Emitter

Uninuclear europium (Eu), as well as binuclear Eu and terbium (Tb), complexes were synthesized using acrylic acid (AA) as the first ligand and 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen) as the second ligand. The relative weight ratio of the europium (III) (Eu³⁺) to terbium (III) (Tb³⁺) ions of the binuclear complex was 1:1 as determined via energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The structures of the Eu(AA)₃Phen and Eu_0.5Tb_0.5(AA)₃Phen complexes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. A series of tri-cellulose acetate (TCA)/ the Eu(AA)₃Phen and TCA/Eu_0.5Tb_0.5(AA)₃Phen composites were prepared by solution blending, and their luminescent properties were investigated by fluorescence spectrophotometry. The excitation spectra of all composites indicated that the TCA matrix probably affected the energy absorption and transfer of organic ligands. In TCA/Eu_0.5Tb_0.5(AA)₃Phen composites the introduced Tb³⁺ ions had some influence on energy absorption and transfer of organic ligands; the energy transfer process of the complex is suggested to be as follows: Phen→AA→Tb³⁺ion→Eu³⁺ion. The emission spectra indicated that the luminescent intensity of the TCA/Eu_0.5Tb_0.5(AA)₃Phen composites was noticeably stronger than that of the TCA/Eu(AA)₃Phen composites, suggesting that the comparatively stable and high-efficiency energy transfer process was only slightly influenced by the TCA matrix. In summary, the TCA/Eu_0.5Tb_0.5(AA)₃Phen (90/10) composite possesses fine luminescent properties for potential usage as red fluorescent materials.     

High pressure infiltration sintering behavior of WC-Co alloys

In this paper, two average tungsten carbide particle sizes of 2, 0.5?μm are placed respectively, in contact with a WC-16Co substrate, pressed at the pressure of 4.5–5.5?GPa, and heated to temperatures ranging from 1350°C to 1500°C in a large-volume cubic press. During the process Co was forced out of the WC-16Co substrate into the compressed powder. The resulting infiltrated samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Vickers hardness and cutting performance tests. The results of XRD confirmed that the sintered bulks have WC and Co phases. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis reveals that the WC grains in well-sintered alloys are round in shape and cobalt with lower content is uniformly dispersed in the WC grain boundaries. The sintered sub-micron WC-Co alloy with a cobalt content of 3.8?wt% exhibits a prominent combination of high hardness value of 23.1?GPa and a large fracture toughness value of 8.6?MPa?m^½. The high-speed cutting tests indicating its cutting performance is significantly superior to the commercial YG6X (WC-6?wt%Co with WC grain size of 0.5?μm).     

Second Order Unconditionally Stable and Convergent Linearized Scheme for a Fluid-Fluid Interaction Model

In this paper, a fully discrete finite element scheme with second-order temporal accuracy is proposed for a fluid-fluid interaction model, which consists of two Navier-Stokes equations coupled by a linear interface condition. The proposed fully discrete scheme is a combination of a mixed finite element approximation for spatial discretization, the second-order backward differentiation formula for temporal discretization, the second-order Gear's extrapolation approach for the interface terms and extrapolated treatments in linearization for the nonlinear terms. Moreover, the unconditional stability is established by rigorous analysis and error estimate for the fully discrete scheme is also derived. Finally, some numerical experiments are carried out to verify the theoretical results and illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed scheme.     

Energy and Quadratic Invariants Preserving Methods for Hamiltonian Systems with Holonomic Constraints

We introduce a new class of parametrized structure--preserving partitioned Runge-Kutta ($\alpha$-PRK) methods for Hamiltonian systems with holonomic constraints. The methods are symplectic for any fixed scalar parameter $\alpha$, and are reduced to the usual symplectic PRK methods like Shake-Rattle method or PRK schemes based on Lobatto IIIA-IIIB pairs when $\alpha=0$. We provide a new variational formulation for symplectic PRK schemes and use it to prove that the $\alpha$-PRK methods can preserve the quadratic invariants for Hamiltonian systems subject to holonomic constraints. Meanwhile, for any given consistent initial values $(p_{0}, q_0)$ and small step size $h>0$, it is proved that there exists $\alpha^*=\alpha(h, p_0, q_0)$ such that the Hamiltonian energy can also be exactly preserved at each step. Based on this, we propose some energy and quadratic invariants preserving $\alpha$-PRK methods. These $\alpha$-PRK methods are shown to have the same convergence rate as the usual PRK methods and perform very well in various numerical experiments.     

A Complex Mode Method for Wind-Induced Responses of 6-Parameter Practical Viscoelastic Damping Energy Dissipation Structures Based on the Davenport Wind Speed Spectrum北大核心CSCD

针对六参数实用黏弹性阻尼耗能结构,基于Davenport风速谱系列响应问题进行了系统的研究.首先,利用六参数黏弹性阻尼器的微分型本构关系,建立了耗能结构基于Davenport风速谱激励下的运动方程;然后,运用复模态法将耗能结构的运动方程由二阶微分方程转化为一阶方程,获得了耗能结构系统对风振激励响应的频域解和功率谱密度函数表达式;最后,利用数学恒等式,基于随机振动理论获得了耗能结构系统在Davenport风速谱激励下的响应和阻尼器受力的解析解.该文方法不仅考虑了结构系统在风振激励作用下全振型展开的结果,表达式较现有结果更为简便,效率及精度更高,且适用于非经典阻尼结构.