A catalyst system for the reaction of carboxylic acids with aliphatic isocyanates

Catalysts have been found for the selective reaction of aliphatic isocyanates with carboxylic acids giving amides after carbon dioxide extrusion. Magnesium and calcium salts lead to a dramatic increase in reaction rates while improving the selectivity when sterically hindered isocyanates and/or carboxylic acids are used.     

Adhesion and bonding of the Al/TiC interface

The electronic structure and adhesion of Al/TiC(0 0 1) interface are examined by density functional theory. Our results show the preferred configuration is the Al atom above the ceramic’s metalloid atom. The calculated adhesion explains the conflicting experimental results of the W_ad from the aspect of the establishing different chemical equilibrium bonds at the different temperatures. By applying several analysis methods we have thoroughly characterized the interfacial electronic structure. For the Ti-site the interfacial Al and Ti atoms form the metal/covalent bond, while for the C-site the interfacial Al and C atoms form the polar covalent interaction. In addition, we examine the effects of Mg and Si alloying elements at the interface, and find that Mg greatly deteriorates the interface and Si slightly improves the interface. The cleavage may take place preferentially at the interface with the help of interface strain energy, especially with the addition of Mg. This is in good agreement with the experimental result.     

石墨烯基纳米材料在抗菌涂层中的研究进展

抗菌涂料广泛应用于医疗保健、食品保鲜和医院消毒等多个行业领域。石墨烯是目前最受欢迎的纳米材料之一,在抗菌方面细菌表现出低耐药性,同时对哺乳动物细胞有较小的细胞毒性。石墨烯从物理和化学两个层面协同发挥抑菌效果,物理方面其尖锐边缘与细菌细胞膜的直接接触从而对脂质分子进行破坏性提取,而化学方面通过氧化应激所产生的活性氧以及电荷转移破坏细菌细胞膜。此外,石墨烯用于作为分散和稳定各种纳米材料的载体,且得益于材料之间的协同作用,其复合材料具有较高的抗菌效率和良好的生物相容性,目前已在抗菌包装、伤口敷料和器械表面清洁等方面投入使用。本文首先概述了石墨烯的结构、安全性以及抗菌机理,对石墨烯复合涂层所取得的重要成果进行简要总结,最后综述了石墨烯材料在支架表面改性中的研究进展,展望了石墨烯抗菌涂层的未来发展趋势。     

硼氢化钾还原-原子荧光光谱法测定室内装饰装修用涂料中汞

研究了硼氢化钾还原－原子荧光光谱法测定进口涂料中汞，在最佳条件下，荧光强度与汞浓度在0－20ng/mL范围内呈线性关系，相关系数为0.9998，检出限为0.04ng/mL。用本方法测定溶剂型涂料中的汞，回收率为94.4%-101.0%，相对标准偏差为3．62％。方法具有操作简单、快速、准确、灵敏度高等优点，可用于进口涂料中汞的测定。     

Trapping and escape of dislocations in micro-crystals with external and internal barriers

We perform three-dimensional dislocation dynamics simulations of solid and annular pillars, having both free-surface boundary conditions, or strong barriers at the outer and/or inner surfaces. Both pillar geometries are observed to exhibit a size effect where smaller pillars are stronger. The scaling observed is consistent with the weakest-link activation mechanism and depends on the solid pillar diameter, or the annular pillar effective diameter, D_eff = D − D_i, where D and D_i are the external and internal diameters of the pillar, respectively. An external strong barrier is observed to dramatically increase the dislocation density by an order of magnitude due to trapping dislocations at the surface. In addition, a considerable increase in the flow strength, by up to 60%, is observed compared to simulations having free-surface boundary conditions. As the applied load increases, weak spots form on the surface of the pillar by dislocations breaking through the surface when the RSS is greater than the barrier strength. The hardening rate is also observed to increase with increasing barrier strength. With cross-slip, we observe dislocations moving to other glide planes, and sometimes double-cross-slipping, producing a thickening of the slip traces at the surface. Finally the results are in qualitative agreement with recent compression experimental results of coated and centrally-filled micropillars.     

Synthesis and morphological study on the nanocomposite hydrophilic coatings

Hydrophilic nanocomposite coatings based on epoxy silane were prepared with incorporation of aminoethylaminopropyltrimethoxysilane by a sol-gel process. It was found out that the hydrophilicity is affected remarkably in the presence of non-ionic surfactant. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Si mapping micrographs indicated that there is a uniform distribution of silica particles in the coatings with either lower or higher amounts of aminoethylaminopropyltrimethoxysilane. Furthermore, the effect of aminoethylaminopropyltrimethoxysilane on transparency of the coatings was evaluated in the absence and presence of surfactant. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) techniques were employed to study the different steps of nanocomposite hybrid coating synthesis. Surface topography of the coatings investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that the silica particles’ dimensions are at the nano-scale.     

Effect of microarc oxidation coating on fatigue performance of Ti-Al-Zr alloy

Ceramic coatings of different thickness were fabricated on Ti6Al2Zr1Mo1V alloy by microarc oxidation (MAO), and the effect of the coating on fatigue life was evaluated by 810 Material Test System. The microstructure, phase and chemical composition of the coatings were determined by SEM, XRD and EDS techniques. The coating mainly consists of rutile and a small amount of anatase TiO₂. With oxidation time ranging from 10 to 30 min, the coating thickness increases from 13 to 25 μm, while the interface between coating and substrate becomes more zigzag, characterized by increasing overgrowth regions of coating into substrate. Under the same cyclic stress of 750 MPa, the fatigue life decreases from 2.08 × 10⁶ cycles for uncoated specimen to about 3 × 10⁴ cycles for microarc oxidized specimen. Under the cyclic stress, the thicker the coating, the more cracks initiate in the overgrowth regions of coating into substrate near the interface, which are considered as the notch sites of stress concentration to induce the crack initiation, also is the key factor to cause the facture.     

Growth of coatings on nanoparticles by photoinduced chemical vapor deposition

Photoinduced chemical vapor deposition was used to grow organic coatings on NaCl nanoparticles. Aerosolized nanoparticles were mixed with a vapor-phase coating reactant and introduced into a room-temperature, atmospheric-pressure cell, where the mixture was exposed to 172-nm radiation from a Xe₂* excimer lamp. Several coating reactants were investigated; the most successful was methyl methacrylate (MMA). Tandem differential mobility analysis (TDMA) was used to determine coating thicknesses as a function of initial particle size. For NaCl particles ranging from 20 to 60 nm in mobility diameter, the thicknesses ranged from sub-nm to 20 nm depending on MMA flow rate and initial particle size.     

Corrosion behaviour of AISI 304 stainless steel with Cu coatings in H2SO4

The work addresses the influence of cementation and electrodeposition of copper coatings on the corrosion resistance of AISI 304 stainless steel immersed in 30 wt.% H₂SO₄ at temperatures of 25 and 50 °C. Corrosion process was evaluated by gravimetric tests, DC measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The specimen surfaces were analysed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction. The corrosion performance of AISI 304 stainless steel in sulphuric acid solution was greatly improved by copper coatings. The amount of copper deposited by the cementation process was sufficient to protect the stainless steel of corrosion. A greater amount of copper obtained by electrodeposition treatments does not supply further improvement in the corrosion behaviour. The improved corrosion resistance is related to copper dissolution at the initial stages of immersion tests and the presence of Cu²⁺ in the solution, which makes the medium more oxidizing, increasing the stability of the passive layer. In addition, the presence of copper at the surface reduces the overpotential of cathodic reaction, enabling the transition from an active region to the passive one.     

Structure, magnetism, and adhesion at Cr/Fe interfaces from density functional theory

Properties of the Cr(1 0 0)/Fe(1 0 0) and Cr(1 1 0)/Fe(1 1 0) interfaces are investigated with spin-polarized density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation (DFT-GGA) for electron exchange and correlation. Contrary to earlier predictions for a monolayer of Cr on bulk Fe, we find intermixing of Cr and Fe at the interface of thick films to be endothermic; hence here we focus on characterizing abrupt, unalloyed interfaces. The ideal work of adhesion for both the (1 0 0) and (1 1 0) abrupt interfaces is predicted to be ∼5.4 J/m². We propose that this anomalously strong adhesion between heterogeneous interfaces is derived from significant spin correlations and d-d bonding at the interface.