Metal grid technologies for flexible transparent conductors in large-area optoelectronics

Mechanically flexible optoelectronic devices such as flexible displays, touch-screens, wearable electronics and solar cells are attracting significant commercial interest. In these devices, a transparent conductor is an essential element that delivers or collects the electrical current to the active material while it allows light to enter or exit from the device. The transparent conductor is composed of a transparent conductive film and a metallic grid providing electrical conduction over the large area. In this article, we review the established processes used by the industry as well as emerging solution-based methods for processing metal grids. Furthermore, we review the issues and potentials of these emerging processes facing for large-area deployment. In the final section, we evaluate three applications of flexible transparent conductors in: perovskite-based solar cells, organic light emitting diodes and electrochromic windows.     

Redundant actuators to achieve minimal vibration trajectory tracking of flexible multibodies: Theory and application

We address the problem of inverse dynamics for flexible multibodies, which arises, in trajectory tracking control of flexible multibodies such as space manipulators and articulated flexible structures. Previous research has resolved this trajectory tracking problem by computing the system inputs for feedforward control of actuators at the joints. Recently, the use of distributed actuators like electro-strictive actuators in flexible structures has introduced a new dimension to this trajectory tracking problem. In this paper we optimally utilize such actuators to aid joint actuators for tracking control, and introduce a new inverse dynamics scheme for simultaneously (1) tracking a prescribed trajectory and (2) minimizing ensuing elastic deflections. We apply this scheme for trajectory tracking of a two-link two-joint planar manipulator with joint motors and distributed electro-strictive actuators. Experimental results are presented to contrast our new scheme with other existing methods.     

A discrete artificial bee colony algorithm for the multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problem with maintenance activities

This paper presents a novel discrete artificial bee colony (DABC) algorithm for solving the multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem with maintenance activities. Performance criteria considered are the maximum completion time so called makespan, the total workload of machines and the workload of the critical machine. Unlike the original ABC algorithm, the proposed DABC algorithm presents a unique solution representation where a food source is represented by two discrete vectors and tabu search (TS) is applied to each food source to generate neighboring food sources for the employed bees, onlooker bees, and scout bees. An efficient initialization scheme is introduced to construct the initial population with a certain level of quality and diversity. A self-adaptive strategy is adopted to enable the DABC algorithm with learning ability for producing neighboring solutions in different promising regions whereas an external Pareto archive set is designed to record the non-dominated solutions found so far. Furthermore, a novel decoding method is also presented to tackle maintenance activities in schedules generated. The proposed DABC algorithm is tested on a set of the well-known benchmark instances from the existing literature. Through a detailed analysis of experimental results, the highly effective and efficient performance of the proposed DABC algorithm is shown against the best performing algorithms from the literature.     

A new design of the elimination and choice translating reality method for multi-criteria group decision-making in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment

The purpose of this paper is to design a new extension of the ELECTRE, known as the elimination and choice translating reality method, for multi-criteria group decision-making problems based on intuitionistic fuzzy sets. This method is widely utilized when a set of alternatives should be identified and evaluated with respect to a set of conflicting criteria by reflecting decision makers’ (DMs’) preferences. However, handling the exact data and numerical measure is difficult to be precisely focused because the DMs’ judgments are often vague in real-life decision problems and applications. A more realistic and practical approach can be to use linguistic variables expressed in intuitionistic fuzzy numbers instead of numerical data to model DMs’ judgments and to describe the inputs in the ELECTRE method. The proposed intuitionsitic fuzzy ELECTRE utilizes the truth-membership function and non-truth-membership function to indicate the degrees of satisfiability and non-satisfiability of each alternative with respect to each criterion and the relative importance of each criterion, respectively. Then, a new discordance intuitionistic index is introduced, which is extended from the concept of the fuzzy distance measure. Outranking relations are defined by pairwise comparisons and a decision graph is depicted to determine which alternative is preferable, incomparable or indifferent in the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. Finally, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis is employed to further study regarding the impact of threshold values on the final evaluation, and a comparative analysis is demonstrated with an application example in flexible manufacturing systems between the proposed ELECTRE method and the existing intuitionistic fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (IF-TOPSIS) method.     

Ultra Robust and Highly Efficient Flexible Organic Solar Cells with Over 18 % Efficiency Realized by Incorporating a Linker Dimerized Acceptor

The wearable application of flexible organic solar cells (f-OSCs) necessitates high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and mechanical robustness. However, photoactive films based on efficient non-fullerene small molecule acceptors (NF-SMAs) are typically brittle, leading to poor mechanical stability in devices. In this study, we achieved a remarkable PCE of 18.06 % in f-OSCs while maintaining ultrahigh mechanical robustness (with a crack-onset strain (COS) of higher than 11 %) by incorporating a linker dimerized acceptor (DOY-TVT). Compared to binary blends, ternary systems exhibit reduced non-radiative recombination, suppressed crystallization and diffusion of NF-SMAs, and improved load distribution across the chain networks, enabling the dissipation of the load energy. Thus, the ternary f-OSCs developed in this study achieved, high PCE and stability, surpassing binary OSCs. Moreover, the developed f-OSCs retained 97 % of the initial PCE even after 3000 bending cycles, indicating excellent mechanical stability (9.1 % higher than binary systems). Furthermore, the rigid device with inverted structure based on the optimal active layer exhibited a substantial increase in efficiency retention, with 89.6 % after 865 h at 85 °C and 93 % after more than 1300 h of shelf storage at 25 °C. These findings highlight the potential of the linker oligomer acceptor for realizing high-performing f-OSCs with ultrahigh mechanical robustness.     

In situ confinement of iron-based active sites within high porosity carbon frameworks with enhanced activity for rechargeable Zn–air battery

Non-noble bifunctional electrocatalysts with robust activity and stability toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are greatly significant but challenging for Zn-air batteries. Here, in situ confinement of FeN_x active sites in high porosity carbon framework (FeN_x/CMCC) derived from chelate of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and iron ions were synthesized. Particularly, construction of FeN_x within porous carbon framework accelerates the electron transfer and the sufficient utilization of active centers, and then expedites the reaction kinetics of ORR and OER. As expected, the optimized FeN_x/CMCC exhibits superior ORR activity with a larger half-wave potential of 0.869 V. The rechargeable Zn-air battery delivers a higher power density of 99.6 mW/cm² and a special capacity of 781.9 mA h/g_Zn at 10 mA/cm², together with excellent durability of over 335 h. Remarkably, the as-assembled solid-state battery exhibits a higher open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.5 V, a special capacity of 709.7 mA h/g_Zn, as well as prolonged cycling stability (90 h). Moreover, the flexible solid-state battery displays negligible loss of electrochemical performance under various bending angles, illustrating its potential application in flexible electronic devices.     

Pressure-area relations for Langmuir monolayers

Pressure-area relations are derived for quasi-static compression of a Langmuir monolayer in the regimes of expanded and partially compressed chains. A monolayer is treated as an ensemble of flexible chains anchored at a flat water-air interface. Formation of surface pressure is attributed to excluded-volume interactions between segments of hydrophobic tail-groups. Close-form expressions are derived for the energy of interactions. Based on this relations, strength of excluded-volume interactions is evaluated by fitting pressure-area isotherms on stearic, behenic and pentacosadiynoic acids. It is found that the dimensionless strength of excluded-volume interactions is weakly affected by chain length and its value is close to .     

45°倾斜镜多自由度精调结构设计研究

对于高准确度光学系统,光学元件及其支撑机构之间的简单连接很难使光路对准并满足公差要求,本文介绍了一种在光学系统中能够对光路进行折转或分束的45°倾斜镜的精调支撑机构.该倾斜镜支撑结构采用了多自由度精调方式,能够在实现两维倾斜调整的同时,实现相互垂直光路的方向平移.设计中使用的柔性元件使结构的倾斜调整准确度达到角秒级,实现0~10 mm的位移,同时借鉴现有的燕尾槽导轨平移技术节省加工成本和减小周期,并且借助有限元分析软件,对机构中的关键部分进行了详尽的分析和论证.整个研究方法可作为同类光机系统设计时的参考,在光学系统的光路调整中有较大的应用价值.     

万有引力场中挠性联结双体系统的稳定性与分岔

本文讨论受万有引力矩作用沿圆轨道运动的挠性联结双体系统的平面天平动。讨论其相对轨道坐标系的可能平衡状态。利用Ｌｉａｐｕｎｏｖ直接法分析各平衡状态的稳定性。分析表明，当刚度系数足够小时，平衡状态呆产生分岔和稳定性突变。利用参数空间对系统的全局运动性态作出定性的描述。     

Effect of wheelset flexibility on wheel–rail contact behavior and a specific coupling of wheel–rail contact to flexible wheelset

The fexibility of a train's wheelset can have a large effect on vehicle–track dynamic responses in the medium to high frequency range.To investigate the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web,a specifi coupling of wheel–rail contact with a fexible wheelset is presented and integrated into a conventional vehicle–track dynamic system model.Both conventional and the proposed dynamic system models are used to carry out numerical analyses on the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web on wheel–rail rolling contact behaviors.Excitations with various irregularities and speeds were considered.The irregularities included measured track irregularity and harmonic irregularities with two different wavelengths.The speeds ranged from 200 to400km/h.The results show that the proposed model can characterize the effects of fexible wheelset deformation on the wheel–rail rolling contact behavior very well.