The potentials of additive manufacturing for mass production of electrochemical energy systems

Additive manufacturing has established itself as a popular and powerful tool in electrochemistry research and development. In this short review, we focus on the latest results in both 3D printing and electrochemistry communities that could potentially benefit manufacturing in the electrochemical industry. We provide insights from recent and relevant research works and conclude that the likely scenario in the industry is the deployment of a combination of subtractive and additive technologies in order to manufacture high quality and cost-effective electrochemical reactors within reasonable timeframes.     

An improved progressive preconditioning method for steady non‐cavitating and sheet‐cavitating flows

An improved progressive preconditioning method for analyzing steady inviscid and laminar flows around fully wetted and sheet‐cavitating hydrofoils is presented. The preconditioning matrix is adapted automatically from the pressure and/or velocity flow‐field by a power‐law relation. The cavitating calculations are based on a single fluid approach. In this approach, the liquid/vapour mixture is treated as a homogeneous fluid whose density is controlled by a barotropic state law. This physical model is integrated with a numerical resolution derived from the cell‐centered Jameson's finite volume algorithm. The stabilization is achieved via the second‐and fourth‐order artificial dissipation scheme. Explicit four‐step Runge–Kutta time integration is applied to achieve the steady‐state condition. Results presented in the paper focus on the pressure distribution on hydrofoils wall, velocity profiles, lift and drag forces, length of sheet cavitation, and effect of the power‐law preconditioning method on convergence speed. The results show satisfactory agreement with numerical and experimental works of others. The scheme has a progressive effect on the convergence speed. The results indicate that using the power‐law preconditioner improves the convergence rate, significantly. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of maleic anhydride grafted ethylene propylene diene monomer (MAH-g-EPDM) on the properties of EPDM nanocomposites reinforced by halloysite nanotubes

Ethylene propylene diene monomer grafted with maleic ahydride (MAH-g-EPDM) was prepared by peroxide-initiated melt grafting of MAH onto EPDM using a HAAKE internal mixer at 180 °C and 60 rpm for 5 min. The effect of MAH-g-EPDM compatibilizer on the interactions, and tensile and morphological properties of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) filled EPDM nanocomposites was investigated. The tensile properties of the nanocomposites were influenced by two major factors. The hydrogen bonding between MAH-g-EPDM and HNTs, which was confirmed by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), as well as the formation of EPDM-rich and HNT-rich areas, are the dominant effects on the tensile strength of the nanocomposites at low and high HNT loading, respectively. It was found that the cure time (t₉₀), maximum torque (M_H) and minimum torque (M_L) of the compatibilized nanocomposites were increased after adding MAH-g-EPDM. The reinforcement mechanism of the compatibilized and un-compatibilized EPDM/HNT nanocomposites was also investigated based on morphological observations of the nanocomposites.     

Review on applications of synchrotron-based X-ray techniques in materials characterization

Synchrotron radiation (SR), as a result of its high-intensity, brilliant, monochromatic, and collimated beams, is becoming one of the most crucial components of research in various fields of materials science such as nanomaterials, biomaterials, and energy materials. SR-based characterization methods can be employed to analyze different systems such as powders, thin films, and bulk forms having complex crystalline or amorphous structures. In this review, peculiarities of SR are briefly explained. Moreover, various techniques carried out utilizing this instrument for material characterization such as X-ray powder diffraction, grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction, small/wide-angle X-ray scattering, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, different techniques of X-ray imaging, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray microprobes/nanoprobes are presented. As a result, by shedding light on the advantages of SR and its superiority to the equivalent laboratory experiments, researchers are recommended to exploit the capabilities of this invaluable tool in their materials characterization.     

Molecular Basis of the Chemiluminescence Mechanism of Luminol

Light emission from luminol is probably one of the most popular chemiluminescence reactions due to its use in forensic science, and has recently displayed promising applications for the treatment of cancer in deep tissues. The mechanism is, however, very complex and distinct possibilities have been proposed. By efficiently combining DFT and CASPT2 methodologies, the chemiluminescence mechanism has been studied in three steps: 1) luminol oxygenation to generate the chemiluminophore, 2) a chemiexcitation step, and 3) generation of the light emitter. The findings demonstrate that the luminol double-deprotonated dianion activates molecular oxygen, diazaquinone is not formed, and the chemiluminophore is formed through the concerted addition of oxygen and concerted elimination of nitrogen. The peroxide bond, in comparison to other isoelectronic chemical functionalities (−NH−NH−, −N⁻−N⁻−, and −S−S−), is found to have the best chemiexcitation efficiency, which allows the oxygenation requirement to be rationalized and establishes general design principles for the chemiluminescence efficiency. Electron transfer from the aniline ring to the OO bond promotes the excitation process to create an excited state that is not the chemiluminescent species. To produce the light emitter, proton transfer between the amino and carbonyl groups must occur; this requires highly localized vibrational energy during chemiexcitation.     

Buckling analysis of sandwich plates with FGM face sheets resting on elastic foundation with various boundary conditions: an analytical approach

This paper presents an analytical investigation on the buckling analysis of symmetric sandwich plates with functionally graded material (FGM) face sheets resting on an elastic foundation based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory (FSDT) and subjected to mechanical, thermal and thermo-mechanical loads. The material properties of FGM face sheets are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. An analytical approach is used to reduce the governing equations of stability and then solved using an analytical solution which is named as power series Frobenius method for symmetric sandwich plates with six different boundary conditions. A detailed numerical study is carried out to examine the influence of the plate aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio, loading type, sandwich plate type, volume fraction index, elastic foundation coefficients and boundary conditions on the buckling response of FGM sandwich plates. This has not been done before and serves to fill the gap of knowledge in this area.     

Facile Sol-Gel Synthesis of Co3O4 Nanoparticles — An Efficient and Recyclable Catalyst for the Synthesis of 1,2-Disubstituted Benzimidazoles Under Solvent-Free Conditions

Russian Journal of Organic Chemistry - High-surface-area Co3O4 nanoparticles have been prepared as a potential heterogeneous catalyst by the sol-gel method using starch as an inexpensive and a...     

A two‐scale approach to electron correlation in multiconfigurational perturbation theory

We present a new approach for the calculation of dynamic electron correlation effects in large molecular systems using multiconfigurational second‐order perturbation theory (CASPT2). The method is restricted to cases where partitioning of the molecular system into an active site and an environment is meaningful. Only dynamic correlation effects derived from orbitals extending over the active site are included at the CASPT2 level of theory, whereas the correlation effects of the environment are retrieved at lower computational costs. For sufficiently large systems, the small errors introduced by this approximation are contrasted by the substantial savings in both storage and computational demands compared to the full CASPT2 calculation. Provided that static correlation effects are correctly taken into account for the whole system, the proposed scheme represent a hierarchical approach to the electron correlation problem, where two molecular scales are treated each by means of the most suitable level of theory. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Physico-chemical characterisation of chitosan/halloysite composite membranes

Chitosan membranes reinforced by halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) at concentrations from 2 to 15 (w/w%) have been prepared by solution casting to investigate the optimal physico-chemical properties for biomedical applications. Tensile test data revealed that the membranes reinforced with 5 (w/w%) HNTs yielded the highest Young's modulus (0.52 ± 0.01 GPa) and strength (81.6 ± 4.4 MPa). Electron micrographs of the fractured surfaces implicated the interplay between individual HNTs and agglomerates of HNTs in the stress transfer mechanism. Infrared spectra revealed interaction between the HNT siloxane and chitosan functional groups. Thermogravimetric results demonstrated that the thermal stability of the membranes increased with HNT concentration.