Effects of hydraulic pressure on the stability and transition of wetting modes of superhydrophobic surfaces

The underlying mechanisms of stability, metastability, or instability of the Cassie-Baxter and Wenzel wetting modes and their transitions on superhydrophobic surfaces decorated with periodic micropillars are quantitatively studied in this article. Hydraulic pressure, which may be generated by the water-air interfacial tension of water droplets or external factors such as raining impact, is shown to be a key to understanding these mechanisms. A detailed transition process driven by increasing hydraulic pressure is numerically simulated. The maximum sustainable or critical pressure of the Cassie-Baxter wetting state on a pillarlike microstructural surface is formulated for the first time in a simple, unified, and precise form. This analytic result reveals the fact that reducing the microstructural scales (e.g., the pillars' diameters and spacing) is probably the most efficient measure needed to enlarge the critical pressure significantly. We also introduce a dimensionless parameter, the pillar slenderness ratio, to characterize the stability of either the Cassie-Baxter or the Wenzel wetting state and show that the energy barrier for transitioning from the Cassie-Baxter to the Wenzel wetting mode is proportional to both the slenderness ratio and the area fraction. Thus, the Cassie-Baxter wetting mode may collapse under a hydraulic pressure lower than the critical one if the slenderness ratio is improperly small. This quantitative study explains fairly well some experimental observations of contact angles that can be modeled by neither Wenzel nor Cassie-Baxter contact angles and eventually leads to our proposals for a mixed (or coexisting) wetting mode.     

汽车制造商分时租赁模式采用及产品线策略研究

考虑自有平台和第三方平台两种分时租赁方式,将汽车质量划分为性能质量和环境质量,构建销售模式、纯分时租赁模式和混合模式下的产品线策略模型,研究制造商产品线策略与商业模式之间的相互作用。研究发现,同品牌产品间竞争和合并效应是分时租赁模式影响产品线策略的两个关键因素。同品牌产品间竞争的加剧和合并效应的增大都会激励企业选择性能更好的车型而忽略其环境表现。分时租赁模式能同时改进利润与产品环境表现,但存在条件:当消费者价格敏感性较低时,使用成本高且合并效应小是实现同时改进的条件;当消费者价格敏感较高时,使用成本低且合并效应小则是同时改进的条件。     

Study of cross-conjugated iso-polytriacetylenes and related oligoenynes

Two series of monodisperse cross-conjugated oligomers based on enyne repeat units have been realized. The first class of molecules, iso-polytriacetylenes (iso-PTAs, 2), was divergently synthesized using an iterative sequence of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of vinyl triflate 5 with terminal alkynes. The second series of oligoenynes (17-20) are based on an octatetrayne backbone, and result from homocoupling of the differentially protected iso-PTA oligomers 8-11. The longest member of this series, 20, spans ca. 5.6 nm from Si atom to Si atom and is composed of a contiguous sequence of 44 sp and sp(2) carbons. The lowest energy electronic absorption band for iso-PTA dimers in the progression 13 --> 9 --> 16 is consistently red-shifted as a result of extending the cross-conjugated structure. A similar comparison within each series (i.e., 16, 6-7, or 17-20), however, suggests little effect on the electronic characteristics of these molecules as oligomer length is increased. The solid-state properties of one derivative, 17, are also described.     

Theoretical approach and the practice to the evaluation of structural parameters characterizing concentration polarization alongside ion-exchange membranes by means of dielectric measurement

As the application of a dielectric theory proposed previously (J Membrane Sci 64:153–161 (1991)), theoretical formulation and the practical procedure of dielectric analysis are developed to calculate the structural parameters such as the conductivity gradient and the thickness of the concentration polarization layer, the capacitances and the conductances of the two adjoining aqueous phases from the observed dielectric parameters. The procedure of calculation consequent upon the theoretical formulation was applied to double relaxation data observed for cation-exchange membrane systems under application of d.c. bias voltage. As a consequence, the structural parameters of concentration polarization were readily obtained with accuracy.     

The uranium-Xylidyl Blue I complex and its application in linear sweep polarography

The linear sweep polarographic wave of the uranium-Xylidyl Blue I complex in ethylenediamine-1,10-phenanthroline-hydrochloric acid medium has been studied. The complex, corresponding to UO(2)(XBI)(2-)(2) with log beta' = 9.09 (by polarography), 8.81 (by spectrophotometry), is strongly adsorbed on the surface of the mercury electrode. The polarographic wave is attributed to the reduction of Xylidyl Blue I in the complex. The method is very sensitive with a detection limit of 3 x 10(-8)M. The wave height is proportional to the concentration of uranium over the range 8 x 10(-8)-7 x 10(-6)M. Solvent extraction is used to separate possible interferences. The recommended procedure has been applied to the determination of trace amounts of uranium in ores.