Strengthening the Connection between Science,Society and Environment to Develop Future French and European Bioeconomies: Cutting-Edge Research of VAALBIO Team at UCCS

The development of the future French and European bioeconomies will involve developing new green chemical processes in which catalytic transformations are key. The VAALBIO team (valorization of alkanes and biomass) of the UCCS laboratory (Unité de Catalyse et Chimie du Solide) are working on various catalytic processes, either developing new catalysts and/or designing the whole catalytic processes. Our research is focused on both the fundamental and applied aspects of the processes. Through this review paper, we demonstrate the main topics developed by our team focusing mostly on oxygen- and hydrogen-related processes as well as on green hydrogen production and hybrid catalysis. The social impacts of the bioeconomy are also discussed applying the concept of the institutional compass.     

UV固化丙烯酸酯化有机硅及杂化材料的研究与应用

丙烯酸酯化有机硅及杂化材料因兼具有机硅材料的优异性能和光固化的高效、节能及环保等特点而得到广泛的应用。文章综述了光敏性丙烯酸酯化有机硅单体的种类、结构特点及其制备方法,分析了紫外光（UV）固化后聚合物及其杂化材料的性能,介绍了它们的研究与应用现状及其发展前景。     

An FEM approximation for a fourth-order variational inequality of second kind

A fourth-order variational inequality of the second kind arising in a plate frictional bending problem is considered. By using regularization method, the original problem can be formulated as a differentiable variational equation, and the corresponding discrete FEM variational equation is presented afterwards. Abstract error estimates and error estimates of the approximation are derived in terms of energy norm and L^2-norm.     

ELECTRICALLY FORCED THICKNESS-SHEAR VIBRATIONS OF QUARTZ PLATE WITH NONLINEAR COUPLING TO EXTENSION

We study electrically forced nonlinear thickness-shear vibrations of a quartz plate resonator with relatively large amplitude. It is shown that thickness-shear is nonlinearly coupled to extension due to the well-known Poynting effect in nonlinear elasticity. This coupling is relatively strong when the resonant frequency of the extensional mode is about twice the resonant frequency of the thickness-shear mode. This happens when the plate length/thickness ratio assumes certain values. With this nonlinear coupling, the thickness-shear motion is no longer sinusoidal. Coupling to extension also affects energy trapping which is related to device mounting. When damping is 0.01, nonlinear coupling causes a frequency shift of the order of 10^-6 which is not insignificant,and an amplitude change of the order of 10^-8. The effects are expected to be stronger under real damping of 10^-5 or larger. To avoid nonlinear coupling to extension, certain values of the aspect ratio of the plate should be avoided.     

PARALLEL FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF HIGH FREQUENCY VIBRATIONS OF QUARTZ CRYSTAL RESONATORS ON LINUX CLUSTER

Quartz crystal resonators are typical piezoelectric acoustic wave devices for frequency control applications with mechanical vibration frequency at the radio-frequency （RF） range. Precise analyses of the vibration and deformation are generally required in the resonator design and improvement process. The considerations include the presence of electrodes, mountings, bias fields such as temperature, initial stresses, and acceleration. Naturally, the finite element method is the only effective tool for such a coupled problem with multi-physics nature. The main challenge is the extremely large size of resulted linear equations. For this reason, we have been employing the Mindlin plate equations to reduce the computational difficulty. In addition, we have to utilize the parallel computing techniques on Linux clusters, which are widely available for academic and industrial applications nowadays, to improve the computing efficiency. The general principle of our research is to use open source software components and public domain technology to reduce cost for developers and users on a Linux cluster. We start with a mesh generator specifically for quartz crystal resonators of rectangular and circular types, and the Mindlin plate equations are implemented for the finite element analysis. Computing techniques like parallel processing, sparse matrix handling, and the latest eigenvalue extraction package are integrated into the program. It is clear from our computation that the combination of these algorithms and methods on a cluster can meet the memory requirement and reduce computing time significantly.     

DUAL RECIPROCITY HYBRID BOUNDARY NODE METHOD FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL ELASTICITY WITH BODY FORCE

Combining Dual Reciprocity Method （DRM） with Hybrid Boundary Node Method （HBNM）, the Dual Reciprocity Hybrid Boundary Node Method （DRHBNM） is developed for three-dimensional linear elasticity problems with body force. This method can be used to solve the elasticity problems with body force without domain integral, which is inevitable by HBNM. To demonstrate the versatility and the fast convergence of this method, some numerical examples of 3-D elasticity problems with body forces are examined. The computational results show that the present method is effective and can be widely applied in solving practical engineering problems.     

ACTIVE CONTROL OF A FLEXIBLE CANTILEVER PLATE WITH MULTIPLE TIME DELAYS

Active control of a flexible cantilever plate with multiple time delays is investigated using the discrete optimal control method. A controller with multiple time delays is presented. In this controller, time delay effect is incorporated in the mathematical model of the dynamic system throughout the control design and no approximations and assumptions are made in the controller derivation, so the system stability is easily guaranteed. Furthermore, this controller is available for both small time delays and large time delays. The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed controller are verified through numerical simulations in the end of this paper.     

Antimicrobial Effect and Cytotoxic Evaluation of Mg-Doped Hydroxyapatite Functionalized with Au-Nano Rods

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is the main inorganic mineral that constitutes bone matrix and represents the most used biomaterial for bone regeneration. Over the years, it has been demonstrated that HA exhibits good biocompatibility, osteoconductivity, and osteoinductivity both in vitro and in vivo, and can be prepared by synthetic and natural sources via easy fabrication strategies. However, its low antibacterial property and its fragile nature restricts its usage for bone graft applications. In this study we functionalized a MgHA scaffold with gold nanorods (AuNRs) and evaluated its antibacterial effect against S. aureus and E. coli in both suspension and adhesion and its cytotoxicity over time (1 to 24 days). Results show that the AuNRs nano-functionalization improves the antibacterial activity with 100% bacterial reduction after 24 h. The toxicity study, however, indicates a 4.38-fold cell number decrease at 24 days. Although further optimization on nano-functionalization process are needed for cytotoxicity, these data indicated that Au-NRs nano-functionalization is a very promising method for improving the antibacterial properties of HA.     

Polyampholytic Graft Copolymers as Matrix for TiO2/Eosin Y/[Mo3S13]2− Hybrid Materials and Light-Driven Catalysis

An effective strategy to enhance the performance of inorganic semiconductors is moving towards organic-inorganic hybrid materials. Here, we report the design of core–shell hybrid materials based on a TiO₂ core functionalized with a polyampholytic (poly(dehydroalanine)-graft-(n-propyl phosphonic acid acrylamide) shell (PDha-g-PAA@TiO₂). The PDha-g-PAA shell facilitates the efficient immobilization of the photosensitizer Eosin Y (EY) and enables electronic interactions between EY and the TiO₂ core. This resulted in high visible-light-driven H₂ generation. The enhanced light-driven catalytic activity is attributed to the unique core–shell design with the graft copolymer acting as bridge and facilitating electron and proton transfer, thereby also preventing the degradation of EY. Further catalytic enhancement of PDha-g-PAA@TiO₂ was possible by introducing [Mo₃S₁₃]²⁻ cluster anions as hydrogen-evolution cocatalyst. This novel design approach is an example for a multi-component system in which reactivity can in future be independently tuned by selection of the desired molecular or polymeric species.     

Organo-Polyoxometalate-Based Hydrogen-Bond Catalysis

Several urea-inserted organo-polyoxometalates (POMs) derived from polyoxotungstovanadate [P₂V₃W₁₅O₆₁]⁹⁻ were prepared. The insertion of the carbonyl into the polyoxometallic framework activates the urea toward Hydrogen-bond catalysis. This was shown on the Friedel-Crafts arylation of trans-β-nitrostyrene. Modelling shows that the most stable form of the organo-POMs features a cis-trans arrangement of the two N−H bonds, but that the likely catalytically active trans-trans form is accessible at room temperature. Finally, it is possible that the oxo substituents next to the vanadium atoms may help the approach of the nucleophile via H-bonding.