An analytic model for transient heat conduction in bi-layered structures with flexible serpentine heaters

Uniform heating of complex surfaces, especially non-developable surfaces, is a crucial problem that traditional rigid heaters cannot solve. Inspired by flexible electronic devices, a novel design for the stretchable heating film is proposed with the flexible serpentine wire embedded in the soft polymer film, which can be attached to non-developable surfaces conformally. It provides a new way for the stretchable heaters to realize uniform heating of complex surfaces. However, the thermal field of flexible serpentine heaters(FSHs) depends on the configurations of the embedded serpentine heating wire, which requires accurate theoretical prediction of real-time temperature distribution. Therefore,the analytical model for the transient heat conduction in FSHs is solved by the separation of variables method and validated by the finite element analysis(FEA) in this paper. Based on this model, the effects of the geometric parameters, such as the radius and the length of the serpentine heaters, on the thermal uniformity are systematically investigated. This study can help to design and fabricate flexible heaters with uniform heating in the future.     

Analysis of an interfacial crack in a piezoelectric bi-material via the extended Green’s functions and displacement discontinuity method

Based on the extended Stroh formalism, we first derive the extended Green’s functions for an extended dislocation and displacement discontinuity located at the interface of a piezoelectric bi-material. These include Green’s functions of the extended dislocation, displacement discontinuities within a finite interval and the concentrated displacement discontinuities, all on the interface. The Green’s functions are then applied to obtain the integro-differential equation governing the interfacial crack. To eliminate the oscillating singularities associated with the delta function in the Green’s functions, we represent the delta function in terms of the Gaussian distribution function. In so doing, the integro-differential equation is reduced to a standard integral equation for the interfacial crack problem in piezoelectric bi-material with the extended displacement discontinuities being the unknowns. A simple numerical approach is also proposed to solve the integral equation for the displacement discontinuities, along with the asymptotic expressions of the extended intensity factors and J-integral in terms of the discontinuities near the crack tip. In numerical examples, the effect of the Gaussian parameter on the numerical results is discussed, and the influence of different extended loadings on the interfacial crack behaviors is further investigated.     

Microcalorimetry study on the microbial activity of permafrost on the Tibetan plateau of China

Microcalorimetric techniques had been used to study the influence of different physicochemical parameters on microbial growth in different permafrosts on the Tibetan plateau. The total heat evolution of the permafrost samples amended with glucose, Q _T , the values of microbial growth rate constant, k, and the heat output power, P _t , were calculated from the power–time (P–t) curves. It is observed that the same coverage vegetation show similar P–t curves, which strongly suggest that the permafrost microorganisms of the homology vegetation coverage have similar structures of community. Furthermore, the vegetation degradation turns out to have significant influence, that is, the better the status of vegetation is, the higher the values of k, CFU and Q _T are.     

Single C59N molecule as a molecular rectifier

We report a new kind of experimental realization of a molecular rectifier, which is based on a single azafullerene C59N molecule in a double-barrier tunnel junction via the single electron tunneling effect. An obvious rectifying effect is observed. The positive onset voltage is about 0.5-0.7 V, while the negative onset voltage is about 1.6-1.8 V. Theoretical analyses show that the half-occupied molecular orbital of the C59N molecule and the asymmetric shift of the molecular Fermi level when the molecule is charged are responsible for the molecular rectification.     

Phase Diagram of RbI-SmI_2 Binary System and Structural Investigation of RbSm_2I_5 and RbSmI_3

The RbI-SmI2 , binary system was studied with DTA and X-ray powder diffraction. Its phase diagram shows that it has a congruently melting compound,RbSm2I5 , with a melting point 524℃; an incongru-ently melting compound, Rb2SmI4 , with an inconsruently point 467℃ and two compounds, RbSmI3, and Rb3SmI5, being decomposed at 433℃ and 460℃, respectively. The measured structure of RbSm2I5 shows that it is isomorphous with NH4 Pb2 Cl5 space group P21/c, a=10 . 063(3)A, b=9.003(3)A. c =14 . 242(5)A°,β=90.23(3)°;z = 4, MVx= 1 94 . 3cm3/mol;D=5.255g/cm3 and Do =5. 334g/cm3 (25. 0℃).The structural, investigation ofRbSmI3 shows that it belongs to the orthorhombic system with a = 15.914(6)A, b=8.898(3)A c =12.193(5)A; Z=8, MVx =130.0cm3/mol, Dx =4 . 743g/cm3,Do = 4.597g/cm3(25.0℃).     

Determination of miglitol in human plasma by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid and sensitive method for the determination of miglitol in human plasma using voglibose as internal standard has been developed and validated. Samples of plasma were deproteinated with acetonitrile and washed with dichloromethane before being analyzed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Separation was carried out on a short Nucleosil C(18) column (5 microm, 50 x 4.6 mm i.d.) using 10 mmol/L ammonium acetate at 1.0 mL/min as mobile phase. The detector was an Applied Biosystems Sciex API 4000 mass spectrometer using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) for ion production. The instrument was operated at unit resolution in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. The assay was linear over the range 5.00-2000 ng/mL with a limit of detection of 1.00 ng/mL. Intra- and inter-day precision were <2.82% and <2.92%, respectively, with accuracy of 93.3-106%. The assay was successfully applied to a clinical pharmacokinetic study of miglitol given as a single oral dose (50 mg) to healthy volunteers.     

Synthesis of molecular imprinted polymer modified TiO2 nanotube array electrode and their photoelectrocatalytic activity

A tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) modified TiO₂ nanotube array electrode was prepared via surface molecular imprinting. Its surface was structured with surface voids and the nanotubes were open at top end with an average diameter of approximately 50 nm. The MIP-modified TiO₂ nanotube array with anatase phase was identified by XRD and a distinguishable red shift in the absorption spectrum was observed. The MIP-modified electrode also exhibited a high adsorption capacity for TC due to its high surface area providing imprinted sites. Photocurrent was generated on the MIP-modified photoanode using the simulated solar spectrum and increased with the increase of positive bias potential. Under simulated solar light irradiation, the MIP-modified TiO₂ nanotube array electrode exhibited enhanced photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) activity with the apparent first-order rate constant being 1.2-fold of that with TiO₂ nanotube array electrode. The effect of the thickness of the MIP layer on the PEC activity was also evaluated.     

Chiral susceptibility and chiral phase transition in Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

We give a general relation between the chiral susceptibility and the thermodynamical potential and a relation between the chiral susceptibility and the condition for furcations to appear in the Wigner solution(s) in the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model. We find that the chiral susceptibility is a quantity able to represent the appearance of furcation in the solution(s) of the gap equation and the concavo–convexity of the thermodynamical potential in the NJL model. It indicates that the chiral susceptibility can identify the stability of the states and the chiral phase transition in NJL model. We propose that analyzing the chiral susceptibility may play an important role in studying the chiral phase transition in approaches superior to the NJL model.     

Polymer lateral diffusion at the solid-liquid interface

Measurements are presented of how polymer surface diffusion at the solid-liquid interface is controlled by surface coverage. The method of measurement was fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), and the system was poly(ethylene oxide) (PEG) adsorbed onto methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayers in buffered aqueous solution. The translational diffusion coefficient at first increased with increasing surface concentration, presumably because the number of adsorption sites per molecule decreased. Ultimately it slowed by 1 order of magnitude, presumably reflecting jamming by neighboring chains.     

Ni-catalyzed construction of C-P bonds from electron-deficient phenols via the in situ aryl C-O activation by PyBroP

The C-P bond forming reaction using electron-deficient phenol substrates was considerably challenging. Herein, we present a new protocol that allows for one-pot construction of C-P bonds via the cross-coupling of phenols and phosphine oxide or phosphite in the presence of a nickel catalyst.