Swell-induced surface instability of hydrogel layers with material properties varying in thickness direction

Upon swelling in a solvent, a thin hydrogel layer on a rigid substrate may become unstable, developing various surface patterns. Recent experimental studies have explored the possibilities to generate controllable surface patterns by chemically modifying the molecular structures of the hydrogel near the surface. In this paper, we present a theoretical stability analysis for swelling of hydrogel layers with material properties varying in the thickness direction. As a specialization of the general procedure, hydrogel bilayers with different combinations of the material properties are examined in details. For a soft-on-hard bilayer, the onset of surface instability is determined by the short-wave limit, similar to a homogeneous layer. In contrast, for a hard-on-soft bilayer, a long-wave mode with a finite wavelength emerges as the critical mode at the onset of surface instability, similar to wrinkling of an elastic thin film on a compliant substrate, and the critical swelling ratio is much lower than that for a homogeneous hydrogel layer. A smooth transition of the critical mode is predicted as the volume fraction of the top layer changes, linking surface instability of a homogeneous layer to thin film wrinkling as two limiting cases. The results from the present study suggest that both the critical condition and the instability mode depend sensitively on the variation of the material properties in the thickness direction of the hydrogel layer.     

Accelerated Surface Reconstruction through Regulating the Solid-Liquid Interface by Oxyanions in Perovskite Electrocatalysts for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution

A comprehensive understanding of surface reconstruction was critical to developing high performance lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism (LOM) based perovskite electrocatalysts. Traditionally, the primary determining factor of the surface reconstruction process was believed to be the oxygen vacancy formation energy. Hence, most previous studies focused on optimizing composition to reduce the oxygen vacancy formation energy, which in turn facilitated the surface reconstruction process. Here, for the first time, we found that adding oxyanions (SO₄²⁻, CO₃²⁻, NO₃⁻) into the electrolyte could effectively regulate the solid–liquid interface, significantly accelerating the surface reconstruction process and enhancing oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activities. Further studies indicated that the added oxyanions would adsorb onto the solid–liquid interface layer, disrupting the dynamic equilibrium between the adsorbed OH⁻ ions and the OH⁻ ions generated during surface reconstruction process. As such, the OH⁻ ions generated during surface reconstruction process could be more readily released into the electrolyte, thereby leading to an acceleration of the surface reconstruction. Thus, it was expected that our finding would provide a new layer of understanding to the surface reconstruction process in LOM-based perovskite electrocatalysts.     

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSIENT HEAT CONDUCTION FOR FUNCTIONALLY GRADED SPHERES BASED ON STATE SPACE THEORY1)

基于状态空间理论研究功能梯度圆球的球对称瞬态热传导问题。根据热传导方程和热流密度的定义,取温度场和热流密度为系统的状态向量,通过将圆球分层和在时域内应用差分格式对控制方程进行离散,建立了系统的状态方程,给出了功能梯度圆球瞬态热传导问题的半解析解。算例分析表明：本文解不但结果正确、计算效率高,而且适用于材料参数沿径向任意梯度变化的圆球瞬态热传导分析。