Rapid preparation and antimicrobial activity of polyurea coatings with RE-Doped nano-ZnO.

The recent COVID-19 virus has led to a rising interest in antimicrobial and antiviral coatings for frequently touched surfaces in public and healthcare settings. Such coatings may have the ability to kill a variety of microorganisms and bio-structures and reduce the risk of virus transmission. This paper proposes an extremely rapid method to introduce rare-earth doping nano-ZnO in polyamines for the preparation of the anti-microbial polyurea coatings.

Effect of Nano-Titanium Dioxide Contained in Titania-Polyurea Coating on Marina Biofouling and Drag Reduction.

Marine structures often suffer from biofouling, which may lead to macrofouling by marine animals like marine worms and barnacles, weighing down the structures and increasing the drag. This paper analyses the effect of the newly fabricated biological anti-adhesion Titania-Polyurea spray coating, which can effectively reduce biofouling from enriching on the surface. Through the surface characterization, bioassays and micro-channel drag-reduction test, the antibacterial effect caused by the nano-titanium dioxide is systematically studied.

Effect of Surface Mechanical Treatments on the Microstructure-Property-Performance of Engineering Alloys.

Fatigue is a dominant failure mechanism of several engineering components. One technique for increasing the fatigue life is by inducing surface residual stress to inhibit crack initiation. In this review, a microstructural study under various bulk (such as severe plastic deformation) and surface mechanical treatments is detailed.

Exploring the charge localization and band gap opening of borophene: a first-principles study.

Recently synthesized two-dimensional (2D) boron, borophene, exhibits a novel metallic behavior rooted in the s-p orbital hybridization, distinctively different from other 2D materials such as sulfides/selenides and semi-metallic graphene. This unique feature of borophene implies new routes for charge delocalization and band gap opening. Herein, using first-principles calculations, we explore the routes to localize the carriers and open the band gap of borophene via chemical functionalization, ribbon construction, and defect engineering.

Failure Behavior of Unidirectional Composites under Compression Loading: Effect of Fiber Waviness.

The key objective of this work is to highlight the effect of manufacturing-induced fiber waviness defects on the compressive failure of glass fiber-reinforced unidirectional specimens. For this purpose, in-plane, through-thickness waviness defects (with different waviness severities) are induced during the manufacturing of the laminate. Numerical and experimental results show that the compressive strength of the composites decreases as the severity of the waviness defects increases.

Nano-friction behavior of phosphorene.

Nano-friction of phosphorene plays a significant role in affecting the controllability and efficiency of applying strain engineering to tune its properties. So far, the friction behavior of phosphorene has not been studied. This work studies the friction of single-layer and bilayer phosphorene on an amorphous silicon substrate by sliding a rigid tip.

Influence of Third Particle on the Tribological Behaviors of Diamond-like Carbon Films.

Tribological mechanisms of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films in a sand-dust environment are commonly unclear due to the complicated three-body abrasion caused by sand particles. This study investigates the three-body abrasion of the DLC film via molecular dynamics simulations. The influence factors such as the load, velocity, shape of the particle and its size are considered.

Development of sol-gel icephobic coatings: effect of surface roughness and surface energy.

Sol-gel coatings with different roughness and surface energy were prepared on glass substrates. Methyl triethoxysilane (MTEOS), 3-Glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GLYMO) and fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) were used to obtain a mechanically robust icephobic coating. Different amount of hydrophobic silica nano particles was added as fillers to introduce different roughness and surface energy to the coatings.

A Novel Empirical Mode Decomposition With Support Vector Regression for Wind Speed Forecasting.

Wind energy is a clean and an abundant renewable energy source. Accurate wind speed forecasting is essential for power dispatch planning, unit commitment decision, maintenance scheduling, and regulation. However, wind is intermittent and wind speed is difficult to predict.

Mechanical properties of bulk carbon nanostructures: effect of loading and temperature.

Carbon-based bulk nanostructures are believed to entail certain advantages over their parent low-dimensional materials and are promising candidates for supercapacitors due to their unique properties such as extremely high specific surface area and high conductivity. Herein the mechanical and structural properties of four types of carbon nanopolymorph-based nanomaterials were calculated using molecular dynamics simulations. Bulk carbon nanostructures composed of structural units of bent graphene flakes, short carbon nanotubes, fullerenes and their mixture were considered.