Modeling and Experimental Investigation of U-R Relationship of AA6061-T6 Tubes Manufactured via Free Bending Forming Process.

Forming tubes with various bending radii without changing the bending dies is much easier for the 3D free bending forming (FBF) process. In the 3D-FBF process, different bending radii were realized by adapting the eccentricities of the bending dies. The accuracy of the curve is crucial for the precision forming of complex bending components.

Smart Surfaces with pH-Responsiveness Enhanced by Multiscale Hierarchical Structures Fabricated by Laser Direct Writing.

In contemporary applications, smart surfaces capable of altering their properties in response to external stimuli have garnered significant attention. Nonetheless, the efficient creation of smart surfaces exhibiting robust and rapid responsiveness and meticulous controllability on a large scale remains a challenge. This paper introduces an innovative approach to fabricate smart surfaces with strong pH-responsiveness, combining femtosecond laser direct writing (LDW) processing technology with stimulus-responsive polymer grafting.

Impacts investigation of gas barrier on effective thermal conductivity and service life of vacuum insulation panel.

Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs) are highly efficient thermal insulation materials with extremely low thermal conductivity based on the vacuum principle. With the sealing properties of the gas barrier envelopes, a long service life of the VIP is obtained. The mechanism and influence factors of gas and water vapor permeability were mathematically analyzed to explore the influence of gas barrier envelopes on the thermal performance of VIPs.

Enabling giant thermopower by heterostructure engineering of hydrated vanadium pentoxide for zinc ion thermal charging cells.

Flexible power supply devices provide possibilities for wearable electronics in the Internet of Things. However, unsatisfying capacity or lifetime of typical batteries or capacitors seriously limit their practical applications. Different from conventional heat-to-electricity generators, zinc ion thermal charging cells has been a competitive candidate for the self-power supply solution, but the lack of promising cathode materials has restricted the achievement of promising performances.

Exfoliable and self-healable two-dimensional materials from wurtzite zinc chalcogenides as building blocks of nanodevices.

With the advent of graphene, two-dimensional (2D) materials have emerged as promising candidates for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic applications. The most anticipated 2D materials have been synthesized and exploited for novel applications. Multilayered zinc chalcogenides (ZnX) are the best precursors for obtaining atomic layer two-dimensional materials by exfoliation.

Factors Influencing the Expansion of Arch-Shaped Electromagnetic Railguns with Pre-Stressed Composite Barrels.

Rail expansion significantly impacts the launch precision of a railgun system. Higher precision can be achieved when the extent of expansion is low. This paper investigates three main factors that influence the extent of rail expansion using the finite element method, including pre-stress, electromagnetic load, and stiffness of the insulators.

Hybrid Metal/Spinel Oxide Coating with Microcone Arrays to Stimulate a Photothermal-Augmented Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

To boost the kinetic process of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hybrid CoNiFe/Fe(Fe,Mo,Al) O coatings are deposited on pure Ti substrates (namely, CoNiFe/Fe(Fe,Mo,Al) O /Ti electrodes). This new coating features a dense inner layer together with an outer layer of microcone arrays (MCAs). The electrochemical surface area of the electrodes is modulated by controlling the geometrical factors of the MCAs.

Surface Defect Detection for Automated Tape Laying and Winding Based on Improved YOLOv5.

To address the issues of low detection accuracy, slow detection speed, high missed detection rate, and high false detection rate in the detection of surface defects on pre-impregnated composite materials during the automated tape laying and winding process, an improved YOLOv5 (You Only Look Once version 5) algorithm model was proposed to achieve the high-precision, real-time detection of surface defects. By leveraging this improvement, the necessity for frequent manual interventions, inspection interventions, and subsequent rework during the automated lay-up process of composite materials can be significantly reduced. Firstly, to improve the detection accuracy, an attention mechanism called "CA (coordinate attention)" was introduced to enhance the feature extraction ability, and a Separate CA structure was used to improve the detection speed.

Three-dimensional porous wood monolithic columns for efficient purification of spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2.

Considerable research has been devoted to finding a cost-effective chromatographic matrix with efficient adsorption and high throughput. Wood exhibits complex micro-network structures that make it a powerful contender for a novel environment-friendly chromatographic matrix material. We demonstrate a novel strategy to manufacture a wood monolithic column, which chemically modified the wood and imported diethyl aminoethyl, diethylamine, and amino groups.

Mycelium Composite with Hierarchical Porous Structure for Thermal Management.

High-performance porous materials with a low carbon footprint provide sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based lightweight foams and can help meet carbon neutrality goals. However, these materials generally face a trade-off between thermal management capabilities and structural strength. Here, a mycelium composite with a hierarchical porous structure, including both macro- and microscale pores, produced from multiple and advanced mycelial networks (elastic modulus of 1.

The Effect of CH on Improving the Carbonation Resistance of OPC-CSA Binary Blends.

Due to the large amount of CO generated during steelmaking, to resume production as soon as possible, a fast repair material with good carbonation resistance is needed to repair the factory building. First, the performance of an ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA) system under an accelerated carbonization environment was studied. Next, the OPC-CSA system with a CSA content of 15 wt% was selected to be modified by adding calcium hydroxide (CH).

Regulating the Solvation Structure of Li Enables Chemical Prelithiation of Silicon-Based Anodes Toward High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries.

The solvation structure of Li in chemical prelithiation reagent plays a key role in improving the low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) and poor cycle performance of silicon-based materials. Nevertheless, the chemical prelithiation agent is difficult to dope active Li in silicon-based anodes because of their low working voltage and sluggish Li diffusion rate. By selecting the lithium-arene complex reagent with 4-methylbiphenyl as an anion ligand and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran as a solvent, the as-prepared micro-sized SiO/C anode can achieve an ICE of nearly 100%.

Effect of Low-Temperature Plasma Surface Treatment on Bonding Properties of Single-Lap Joint of Thermosetting Composites.

Bonding is one of the main forms of composite bonding. In order to investigate the effect of low-temperature plasma surface treatment on the bonding properties of carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy resin composites (CF/EP), a single-lap joint of CF/EP was prepared. The surface of the CF/EP was treated with atmospheric pressure "low-temperature plasma spray" equipment, and the tensile shear strength, surface morphology, surface contact angle and surface chemical composition of the CF/EP before and after plasma treatment were characterized.

The methylation landscape of giga-genome and the epigenetic timer of age in Chinese pine.

Epigenetics has been revealed to play a crucial role in the long-term memory in plants. However, little is known about whether the epigenetic modifications occur with age progressively in conifers. Here, we present the single-base resolution DNA methylation landscapes of the 25-gigabase Chinese pine (Pinus tabuliformis) genome at different ages.

Research on Automatic Identification and Rating of Ferrite-Pearlite Grain Boundaries Based on Deep Learning.

Grain size has a significant effect on the mechanical properties of metals. It is very important to accurately rate the grain size number of steels. This paper presents a model for automatic detection and quantitative analysis of the grain size of ferrite-pearlite two-phase microstructure to segment ferrite grain boundaries.

Research on Intelligent Identification and Grading of Nonmetallic Inclusions in Steels Based on Deep Learning.

Non-metallic inclusions are unavoidable defects in steel, and their type, quantity, size, and distribution have a great impact on the quality of steel. At present, non-metallic inclusions are mainly detected manually, which features high work intensity, low efficiency, proneness to misjudgment, and low consistency of results. In this paper, based on deep neural network algorithm, a small number of manually labeled, low-resolution metallographic images collected by optical microscopes are used as the dataset for intelligent boundary extraction, classification, and rating of non-metallic inclusions.

Durable Biomimetic Two-Tier Structured Superhydrophobic Surface with Ultralow Adhesion and Effective Antipollution Property.

Superhydrophobic surfaces with low adhesion have attracted great attention in recent years owing to their extensive applications. Enlightened by multifunctional rice leaves, a micro/nanobinary structured superhydrophobic surface was successfully fabricated on the Ti6Al4V substrate by photoetching, acid etching, alkaline etching, as well as fluorination treatments. Water droplets exhibited a Cassie impregnating wetting state on this superhydrophobic surface, under which the contact area fraction of the liquid-air interface caused by primary micron-scale stripped bumps () and secondary nanoflower-like structures () were calculated for the first time.

High-stability core-shell structured PAN/PVDF nanofiber separator with excellent lithium-ion transport property for lithium-based battery.

The ion transport channel constructed by the separator is crucial for the practical performance of Li-ion batteries, including cycling stability and high rate capability under high current. Traditional polyolefin separator is the storage of electrolyte, which guarantees the internal ion transport process. However, its weak interaction with electrolyte and low cationic transport capacity limit the application of lithium ion battery in large current.

Stable lithium metal anode enabled by formation of a LiN/Li-Bi alloy hybrid layer.

A hybrid protective layer containing a LiN and Li-Bi alloy is fabricated on a Li-metal anode as an artificial SEI layer to guide dendrite-free Li deposition. Noteworthily, the hybrid interface could not only facilitate homogeneous Li plating but also provide rapid Li transportation, enabling a long-term stability of ∼2400 h at 0.5 mA cm with a low steady overpotential of 10 mV.

Removal of cesium and strontium for radioactive wastewater by Prussian blue nanorods.

In this work, novel Prussian blue tetragonal nanorods were prepared by template-free solvothermal methods to remove radionuclide Cs and Sr. The as-prepared Prussian blue nanorods were identified and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic, thermogravimetric analysis, zeta potential, and surface analysis, and its sorption performance was tested by batch experiments. Our results suggest that Prussian blue nanorods exhibited better adsorption performance than co-precipitation PB or Prussian blue analogue composites.

Effect and Mechanism of Solidified Microstructure on Deformation Behavior, Mechanical Properties, and Residual Stress of Cu-Ni-Si Alloy.

Cu-Ni-Si alloy is the key raw material for the lead frame of large integrated circuits. The disordered grain orientation of alloy billet, high hardening rate, residual stress, and poor surface quality of cold working strips seriously affect its processability. In order to improve the cold-working properties of Cu-Ni-Si alloy, two kinds of C70250 copper alloy strips were produced through hot mold continuous casting (HMCC) and cold mold continuous casting (CMCC) technology.

Effect of Intrinsic Pore Distribution on Ion Diffusion Kinetics of Supercapacitor Electrode Surface.

The electrolyte ion diffusion kinetics have an important impact on electrochemical energy storage. Herein, we report the effect of the intrinsic porosity of NiCoP on accelerating electrolyte ion diffusion kinetics and accommodating volume expansion during the charge/discharge process. The pore distribution model of electrode/electrolyte was designed and optimized by the finite element simulation, demonstrating the visualization and quantitative analysis of the diffusion process of the electrode/electrolyte interface with intrinsic porous structure.

Effects of Cold Rolling on the Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of the Double-Glow Plasma Ni-Cr Alloying Layer on Q235 Steel.

A Ni-Cr alloyed layer was prepared on the surface of Q235 steel using double-glow plasma surface alloying (DGPSA) technology and the alloyed layer was cold-rolled with different deformation rates. The microstructure, composition distribution and phase composition of the alloyed layer were characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and an electrochemical workstation. On this basis, the corrosion resistance of the alloyed layer was analyzed.

Deep-Eutectic-Solvent-Based Mesoporous Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Purification of Gallic Acid from spp. Fruit Shells.

To produce antioxidant substances from agricultural waste spp. fruit shells before their further utilization, gallic acid from five kinds of spp. fruit shells was separated on specific recognition by deep eutectic solvent molecularly imprinted polymers (DES@MIPs), which were prepared by bulk polymerization using gallic acid as the template and deep eutectic solvents (α-methylacrylic acid and choline chloride) as functional monomers.