Semi-analytical study of meniscus oscillation in an electrospray under AC voltage

In this paper, the oscillation of the meniscus in an electrospray with AC voltage is semi-analytically investigated. The electric field is achieved using the charge simulation method and the mutual interaction between the electric field and hydrodynamics is iteratively explored to investigate the oscillation. After determining the static meniscus shape on a nozzle, the meniscus oscillation is simulated under sinusoidal AC voltage. The semi-analytic simulation can offer the oscillating meniscus shapes and contours of the electric field outside the meniscus according to the applied frequency. Furthermore, the velocity profile of the liquid inside the meniscus is achieved.     

Re-exchange of Fe and Cu at the interface in sintered Nd–Fe–B magnets: A method to eliminate Fe precipitation at grain boundaries

According to the decoupling hypothesis for magnetic grains, the coercivity in sintered Nd–Fe–B magnets is increased after Cu doping, which is due to the formation of non-magnetic grain boundaries. However, this method partially fails, and ferromagnetic Fe-segregation occurs at the grain boundary. We discovered both experimentally and through calculation that the Fe content at the grain boundaries can be tuned across a wide range by introducing another element of Ag. Segregated Fe at high temperature at the grain boundary re-dissolves into Nd₂Fe₁₄B grains during annealing at low temperature. Both configurable and magnetic entropies contribute a large driving force for the formation of nonmagnetic grain boundaries. Almost zero Fe content could be achieved at the grain boundaries of sintered Nd–Fe–B magnet.     

Theoretical estimation of metabolic network robustness against multiple reaction knockouts using branching process approximation

In our previous study, we showed that the branching process approximation is useful for estimating metabolic robustness, measured using the impact degree. By applying a theory of random family forests, we here extend the branching process approximation to consider the knockout of multiple reactions, inspired by the importance of multiple knockouts reported by recent computational and experimental studies. In addition, we propose a better definition of the number of offspring of each reaction node, allowing for an improved estimation of the impact degree distribution obtained as a result of a single knockout. Importantly, our proposed approach is also applicable to multiple knockouts. The comparisons between theoretical predictions and numerical results using real-world metabolic networks demonstrate the validity of the modeling based on random family forests for estimating the impact degree distributions resulting from the knockout of multiple reactions.     

Facile synthesis of self‐healing gel via magnetocaloric bottom‐ignited frontal polymerization

A series of the self‐healing gels facilely fabricated by VI (N‐vinyl imidazole) and MAH‐β‐CD (β‐cyclodextrin grafted vinyl carboxylic acid groups) via bottom‐ignited frontal polymerization (BIFP) initiated by magnetocaloric effect. Once ignited the bottom phase, the heat upward propagates to generate the “front” in the upper phase. Then, no further energy is added to maintain the reaction and the whole polymerization process experiences within minutes. In this system, the dependence of frontal velocity and temperature, along with morphology, swelling capacity, mechanical property, and self‐healing efficiency, on the preparation parameters is investigated. Interestingly, the gels show good swelling capacity in the organic solvent, comparatively almost no absorption in water. Moreover, the as‐prepared gels exhibit excellent auto‐healing properties without any external stimuli at ambient temperature. The healed sample possesses 97% recovery of its tensile strength after 8 h healing time, which relies largely on the host–guest interaction between VI and MAH‐β‐CD. The results demonstrate that FP can be utilized as an efficient and energy‐saving method to synthesize self‐healing supramolecular gels. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 2585–2593