The research for low-temperature rheological properties and structural characteristics of high-viscosity modified asphalt

High-viscosity modified (HVM) asphalt was prepared by the addition of styrene–butadiene–styrene, furfural exact oil (FEO, plasticizer), sulphur (crosslinker). The low-temperature rheological properties of HVM asphalt were investigated by using bending beam rheometer, and different analysis ways including Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, thermal analysis, ¹hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (¹NMR) analysis, elemental analysis, optical microscopy were used to investigate the structural characteristics of modified asphalts and FEO. Rheological tests demonstrated the effect of each modifier on low-temperature rheological performances of asphalt and displayed the structural characteristics of each binder to some extent. FTIR analysis indicated the effect of ageing and modifier on the distribution of functional groups of modified asphalt before and after ageing. Morphology observation showed the distribution of polymer in asphalt with different modifications or ageing. The thermal analysis showed the effect of each modifier on thermal behaviour of asphalt before and after ageing and confirmed the result of FTIR analysis and morphology observation further. Besides, the constituents of base asphalt and plasticizer were also investigated and compared further by adopting elemental analysis, and ¹HNMR and FTIR tests.     

Quasi-square-shaped cadmium hydroxide nanocatalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction with high efficiency

Powered by a renewable electricity source, electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction is a promising solution to facilitate the carbon balance. However, it is still a challenge to achieve a desired product with commercial current density and high efficiency. Herein we designed quasi-square-shaped cadmium hydroxide nanocatalysts for CO₂ electroreduction to CO. It was discovered that the catalyst is very active and selective for the reaction. The current density could be as high as 200 mA cm⁻² with a nearly 100% selectivity in a commonly used H-type cell using the ionic liquid-based electrolyte. In addition, the faradaic efficiency of CO could reach 90% at a very low overpotential of 100 mV. Density functional theory studies and control experiments reveal that the outstanding performance of the catalyst was attributed to its unique structure. It not only provides low Cd–O coordination, but also exposes high activity (002) facet, which requires lower energy for the formation of CO. Besides, the high concentration of CO can be achieved from the low concentration CO₂via an adsorption-electrolysis device.

Quasi-square cadmium hydroxide nanocrystals (Cdhy-QS) showed outstanding performance for electroreduction CO₂ to CO.     

Epitaxial graphene perfection vs. SiC substrate quality

Polytype instability of SiC epitaxial films was the main focus of attention in the experiment performed since this factor has a decisive influence on graphene growth, which was the second stage of the experiment. Layers deposited in various initial C/Si ratios were analyzed.     

Gauss-seidel method for least-distance problems

In this paper, we reformulate the least-distance problems with bounded inequality constraints as an unconstrained convex minimization problem, which is equivalent to a system of piecewise linear equationsA(a+A ^T y) _c ^d =b. The proposed Gauss-Seidel method for solving the problems is easy to implement and behaves very well when the number of rows ofA is much less than the number of columns ofA. Moreover, we prove that the Gauss-Seidel method has a linear convergence rate.The authors would like to thank Jinshui Qin who did some preliminary numerical testing for their research.     

Characterization of synthesized titanium oxide nanoclusters by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Titania represents an important material that has wide applications. The bactericidal efficiency of TiO(2) has been shown to be dependent on the size of the nanoparticles, so it is important to be able to reliably estimate their dimensions. In this study, a stable TiO(2) cluster suspension is produced by the thermal solvent process, and ultrasmall clusters (<1 nm) with different sizes are obtained by size-selection treatment. MALDI-TOF-MS and LDI-TOF-MS are shown to be useful for characterization of these ultrasmall nanoparticles. Peak maxima are found to correlate with nanoparticle size, and the possibility of using these mass spectrometry-based approaches to estimate nanoparticle size is affirmed. The size distributions of TiO(2) nanoparticles obtained from MALDI- and LDI-TOF-MS are in good agreement with parallel TEM observations. Finally, PSD analysis of inorganic nanomaterials is performed and valuable information about the structure of analytes has been obtained.     

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.     

An analysis for the DIIS acceleration method used in quantum chemistry calculations

This work features an analysis for the acceleration technique DIIS that is standardly used in most of the important quantum chemistry codes, e.g. in DFT and Hartree–Fock calculations and in the Coupled Cluster method. Taking up results from Harrison (J Comput Chem 25:328, 2003), we show that for the general nonlinear case, DIIS corresponds to a projected quasi-Newton/secant method. For linear systems, we establish connections to the well-known GMRES solver and transfer according (positive as well as negative) convergence results to DIIS. In particular, we discuss the circumstances under which DIIS exhibits superlinear convergence behaviour. For the general nonlinear case, we then use these results to show that a DIIS step can be interpreted as step of a quasi-Newton method in which the Jacobian used in the Newton step is approximated by finite differences and in which the according linear system is solved by a GMRES procedure, and give according convergence estimates.     

Small camera as a handheld colorimetric tool in the analytical chemistry

Recently, there is an effort to introduce new types of analytical procedures and handheld assays to provide simple and reliable equipment for the field and household analyses. Development of diagnostic tools for self-diagnosis is another challenge in analytical chemistry. Digital cameras are widely available and cheap, hence they could be the sensor platform for construction of analytical and diagnostic methods. In general, good availability of cameras integrated into smartphones can be easily converted into an analytical tool. This review relates to the use of digital camera in analytical chemistry and there are introduced the facts how digital data can be processed and what the limits of digital photography are. Recent papers in this issue and discussion of development in camera based assays is also provided here.     

Design of a steering control law for an autonomous underwater vehicle using nonlinear $$\mathscr {H}_{\infty }$$ state feedback technique

This paper proposes a new robust nonlinear \(\mathscr {H}_{\infty }\) state feedback (NHSF) controller for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in steering plane. A three-degree-of-freedom nonlinear model of an AUV has considered for developing a steering control law. In this, the energy dissipative theory is used which leads to form a Hamilton–Jacobi–Isaacs (HJI) inequality. The nonlinear \(\mathscr {H}_{\infty }\) control algorithm has been developed by solving HJI equation such that the AUV tracks the desired yaw angle accurately. Furthermore, a path following control has been implemented using the NHSF control algorithm for various paths in steering plane. Simulation studies have been carried out using MATLAB/Simulink environment to verify the efficacies of the proposed control algorithm for AUV. From the results obtained, it is concluded that the proposed robust control algorithm exhibits a good tracking performance ensuring internal stability and significant disturbance attenuation.