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We report a liquid metal microstrip antenna on a printing paper whose resonant frequency was tunable by folding the paper. The gallium-based alloy was used as liquid metal, which is instantly oxidized in ambient air. The oxidized liquid metal is easily wettable on printing paper surfaces, while it is non-wettable on laser-printed toner surfaces. An antenna with a 3 mm wide and 39 mm long copper-liquid metal overlapped-feedline linked to the liquid metal microstrip rectangle-shaped patch (40 × 31 mm2) was designed. The antenna pattern was printed on a printing paper using a laser printer. A liquid metal soaked roller was rolled on the antenna pattern printed paper, resulting in a liquid metal pattern where there was no toner. The resonant frequency of the liquid metal on the paper microstrip patch antenna was 2.88 GHz with −18.5 dB S11. The measured characteristics of the antenna were in good agreement with the simulation results. When the antenna was folded, the resonant frequency was changed to 2.68 GHz (x-axis folding) or 2.72 GHz (y-axis folding). Liquid metal on paper fabrication is simple but effective for creating custom-designed antennas that are easily re-designed and fabricated in the field.

The parameter of tensile strength for transformer bushing insulating paper occupies an important position in the structural design and life evaluation of transformer bushing. In order to precisely achieve the effect of aging time and moisture content on the tensile strength of transformer bushing paper, transformer insulating paper samples with a thickness of 0.13 mm were prepared for tensile strength and dielectric strength testing under different moisture contents and aging states. The results show that the tensile strength (MPa) of insulating paper decreases linearly in the range of 0–648 h under accelerated thermal aging at 130 °C. However, there is a more serious exponential decline in the tensile strength (MPa) of insulation paper with its moisture content is boosted. The moisture content in insulation paper is the most important factor for insulation paper deterioration in oil-impregnated paper insulation equipment, which could accelerate the end of insulation service life. The value of capacitance increment ΔC of the insulation paper samples displayed closely linear growth with a moisture content from 0.5% to 5.9%. Strictly controlling the moisture content by monitoring the ΔC value of transformer insulation paper is of significance for prolonging its service life.

Thermodynamic properties of cellulose insulation paper are vital factors affecting the life of a transformer; in order to obtain cellulose insulation paper with better thermodynamic properties, three types of silane coupling agents—3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane (KH550), 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy silane (KH560), and 3-methacryloyloxypropyltrimethoxy silane (KH570)—were grafted on the surface of nano-SiO2, and thermodynamic properties of cellulose modified with nano-SiO2 were explored. The molecular dynamics method was used to establish a composite model of nano-SiO2/cellulose. Also, different silane coupling agent grafted nano-SiO2/cellulose models were established to explore the effect of mechanical properties, interaction energy, free volume, and hydrogen bonds on thermodynamic properties. The results showed that KH550 was the best modification of the nano-SiO2/cellulose system among the three grafted silane coupling agents because KH550 grafted on the surface of nano-SiO2 formed more hydrogen bonds in the cellulose system. The interfacial bonding strength between the nano-SiO2 and the cellulose chains can effectively improve the thermal stability of the cellulose insulating paper.

Accurate monitoring of insulation aging of oil-paper insulation power equipment such as oil-immersed transformers is a key and difficult point in the field of high voltage research. In this paper, a method based on Raman spectroscopy to diagnose the aging degree of oil-paper insulation is discussed. Raman detections of the samples were carried out on a self-built Raman detection platform. The partial least squares method was used to extract and analyze the spectral features. The aging time of the sample was used to supervise the feature extraction of oil-paper insulation Raman data, and the intrinsic mathematical relationship between the Raman features of oil-paper insulation and the aging was excavated. Finally, a quantitative aging diagnostic model based on Raman spectral features of oil-paper insulation to predict its aging state was built with the assistance of the support vector regression method. The results of aging time prediction for 30 test samples show that the mean square error is 0.0123 and the square of correlation coefficient is 0.987. The proposed method provides a new idea for Raman aging diagnosis of oil-paper insulation.

In this study, we composite coated silica nanoparticles with functional groups on paper to form a double-size surface roughness, then hexafluorobutyl methacrylate was polymerized with 3-trimethoxymethylsilyl propyl methacrylate (TSPM), a one-step method is used to prepare a hydrophobic polymer with low surface energy (PHFMA-co-TSPM), and the superhydrophobic surface was prepared by hydrophobic treatment of the paper with a low surface energy polymer. Further tests show that the superhydrophobic paper prepared by this method not only exhibits extremely strong hydrophobicity, but also has strong stability, transparency, and self-cleaning properties.

In order to improve the thermal stability of insulation paper cellulose in micro-water environment, the molecular simulation was used to compare and analyze the thermal stability of polysiloxane-grafted cellulose with 3% micro-water content in the present study. The static mechanics, glass transition temperature and number of hydrogen bonds are used to characterize the thermal stability of insulating paper cellulose in this paper. First, analysis of the mechanical properties of the model demonstrated that the value of the elastic moduli (E) and bulk moduli (K) of the grafted model were greater than those of the ungrafted model at each temperature. Second, the glass transition temperature of the grafted model was 60 K higher than that of the ungrafted model. Finally, the analysis of the radial distribution function (RDF) and hydrogen bonding showed that polysiloxane-grafted insulation paper cellulose can reduce the number of hydrogen bonds formed between the water molecules and the cellulose chains, which can reduce the damage caused to the cellulose chains by the water molecules. Therefore, the present study shows that the polysiloxane-grafted insulation paper cellulose can improve its thermal stability in micro-water environment.

The accuracy of insulation defect diagnosis based on the dielectric spectrum response is severely influenced by temperature for oil-impregnated paper bushing. The dielectric loss (tan δ) mathematical model with a temperature–frequency factor to restrict the application of the frequency domain dielectric spectrum (FDS) for insulation diagnosis is not clear. In this paper, five temperatures are selected to study the frequency temperature characteristic of the FDS and polarization current for oil-impregnated paper bushing. The experimental results show that the temperature has different effects on the lower frequency (0.001 Hz–1 Hz) and higher frequency (1000 Hz–10 kHz) of FDS. With the increasing temperature, the lower frequency tan δ of 1 mHz–1 Hz shows a better pattern of exponential growth, while the higher frequency tan δ at 1 kHz–10 kHz shows the declining law with the rising temperature. With the increasing temperature, the polarization current shows a better pattern of exponential growth, while resistance obviously shows the declining law of the exponential pattern. The FDS curve of oil-impregnated paper bushings can be amended by the mathematical model of tan δ for the dielectric response on site for accuracy diagnosis.

A study of plasma treatment of clay-coated paper is presented. The wettability of the paper surface before and after the plasma treatment was determined by measuring the water contact angle and surface free energy. The appearance of the surface-functional groups was determined by using high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, while changes in the surface morphology were monitored by scanning electron microscopy. Already after 0.25 s of the plasma treatment, the paper surface improved its wettability. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses showed a gradual increase of oxygen-rich functional groups on the surface while scanning electron microscopy analyses did not show a significant modification of the morphology and no alternation of the surface structure after the plasma treatment.

Cantilevers are one of the most utilized mechanical elements for acoustic sensing. In comparison to the edge clamped diaphragms of different shapes, a single edge clamped cantilever makes an acoustic sensor mechanically sensitive for detection of lower pressure. The aspect ratio of cantilevers is one of the most important parameters which affect sensitivity. Herein, we present a mathematical, finite element method and experimental analysis to determine the effect of the aspect ratio on the resonant frequency, response time, mechanical sensitivity, and capacitive sensitivity of a cantilever-based acoustic pressure sensor. Three cantilevers of different aspect ratios (0.67, 1, and 1.5) have been chosen for sound pressure application to detect capacitance change. The cantilever with the smallest aspect ratio (0.67) has the highest response time (206 ms), mechanical sensitivity, and capacitive sensitivity (22 fF), which reduce after increasing the aspect ratio. The resonant frequency of the cantilever was also analyzed by applying sweep in sound frequency. It was found to be minimum for the cantilever with the smallest aspect ratio (510 Hz) and increases with an increase in the aspect ratio. We have applied the garage fabrication process using low cost, recyclable, and easily available materials such as metal coated polymer sheets, mounting tapes and glass slides as alternative materials for expensive materials.

We presented a distance-based detection method for visual quantification of mercury ions on a microfluidic paper-based analytical device (μPAD). Dithizone in NaOH solution was used as chromogenic reagent and deposited onto paper channel delimited by hydrophobic wax barrier. Reactions happened between mercury ions and dithizone to form an insoluble colored complex, producing colored precipitate on the paper channel. The length of colored precipitate could be readily measured using the printed ruler along each device. The length of precipitate increase linearly with the mercury concentrations, mercury in sample solution could be quantified by measuring the length of the colored precipitate. Being free of any electronic instruments, this method has the advantages of portability, ease of use, low cost and disposability. This presented method was used to detect mercury ions in a synthetic sample, demonstrating its potential in on-site and real time analysis.

The effect of silica nanoparticle (Nano-SiO2) dopants on insulation paper cellulose, and the interaction between them, was investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The mechanical properties, interactions, and cellulose-Nano-SiO2 compatibility of composite models of cellulose doped with Nano-SiO2 were studied. An increase in Nano-SiO2 size leads to a decrease in the mechanical properties, and a decrease in the anti-deformation ability of the composite model. The binding energies and bond energies per surface area of the composite models indicate that the bonding interaction between spherical Nano-SiO2 and cellulose is the strongest among the four different Nano-SiO2 shapes that are investigated. The solubilities of the four composite models decrease with increasing Nano-SiO2 size, and the difference between the solubility of pure cellulose and those of the composite models increases with increasing Nano-SiO2 size. Good doping effects with the highest cellulose-Nano-SiO2 compatibility are achieved for the cellulose model doped with spherical Nano-SiO2 of 10 A in diameter. These findings provide a method for modifying the mechanical properties of cellulose by doping, perhaps for improving insulation dielectrics.

Paper-based batteries represent a new frontier in battery technology. However, low-flexibility and poor ionic conductivity of solid electrolytes have been major impediments in achieving practical mechanically flexible batteries. This work discuss new highly ionic conductive polymer gel electrolytes for paper-based battery applications. In this paper, we present a poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDH-HFP) porous membrane electrolyte enhanced with lithium bis(trifluoromethane sulphone)imide (LiTFSI) and lithium aluminum titanium phosphate (LATP), with an ionic conductivity of 2.1 × 10−3 S cm−1. Combining ceramic (LATP) with the gel structure of PVDF-HFP and LiTFSI ionic liquid harnesses benefits of ceramic and gel electrolytes in providing flexible electrolytes with a high ionic conductivity. In a flexibility test experiment, bending the polymer electrolyte at 90° for 20 times resulted in 14% decrease in ionic conductivity. Efforts to further improving the flexibility of the presented electrolyte are ongoing. Using this electrolyte, full-cell batteries with lithium titanium oxide (LTO) and lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) electrodes and (i) standard metallic current collectors and (ii) paper-based current collectors were fabricated and tested. The achieved specific capacities were (i) 123 mAh g−1 for standard metallic current collectors and (ii) 99.5 mAh g−1 for paper-based current collectors. Thus, the presented electrolyte has potential to become a viable candidate in paper-based and flexible battery applications. Fabrication methods, experimental procedures, and test results for the polymer gel electrolyte and batteries are presented and discussed.

In this paper, the effect of D0 temperature, Kappa factor and the final pH value on bleaching sulfate bleached pine wood pulp was studied. The results showed that the bleaching efficiency was better when the pH value was 4, and the amount of absorbable organic halogen (AOX) in the bleaching wastewater was decreased. The Kappa factor is linear with the whiteness in the range of 0–0.15. With the increase of the Kappa factor, the amount of AOX in bleaching wastewater of D0 and Ep gradually increases. High temperature bleaching can reduce AOX production, but some fibers are hydrolyzed, leading to a decrease in pulp viscosity. The effects of chlorine dioxide solution adding sodium dihydrogen phosphate (NaH2PO4) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) on pulp bleaching were investigated. The results showed that both solutions could reduce the amount of AOX in bleaching wastewater. Among them, the addition of NaH2PO4 in chlorine dioxide increased pulp whiteness, while the addition of DMSO was the opposite. Scanning electron microscope showed that a small amount of hollow cracks and more voids appeared on the surface of pulp fibers after the addition of NaH2PO4. Pulp fibers bleached by the chlorine dioxide adding DMSO have more folds and less voids on the surface. The surface wrinkles of pulp fibers increased with the addition of DMSO and the voids were less. FT-IR showed that the number of chromophore groups in the pulp bleached by chlorine dioxide adding NaH2PO4 were decreased. However, the lignin characteristic absorption peak in the pulp bleached by chlorine dioxide adding DMSO increased at the intensity of 1062 and 1160 cm−1, which indicated that there were more residual chromophore groups.

Dewatered sludge is redundantly found in a municipal wastewater treatment plant, and the amount is increasing every year. However, the dewatered sludge could be used to power the membrane-less microbial fuel cell (ML-MFC), which is operated electrochemically via incorporation of electricity producing micro-organisms. The dewatered sludge normally acts as an electron donating substrate. Results showed that the ML-MFC produced voltage at about 927.7 ± 11.24 mV whereby 178.7 mg/L of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was removed after 240 h of incubation period. Nonetheless, voltage and COD removal values obtained from the dewatered sludge in the ML-MFC might differ every time the study is repeated because the availability of maximum biomass of electrogenic bacteria (EB) will be different due to the heterogeneous properties and EB performance inside the ML-MFC. The parametric uncertainty analysis of COD removal was then assessed using Monte Carlo simulation (stochastic variable) to determine the distribution probability affected by the fluctuation and variation of kinetic model parameters. From the study of 100 000 samples tested (simulation), the results show that the substrate removal (S) value ranged from 172.58 to 185.02 mg/L. The impact of each kinetic parameter on the ML-MFC performance was evaluated via sensitivity analysis. It is found that the ML-MFC performance significantly relied on the growth of EB present.

The composite of nano-metal materials and wood to prepare multifunctional metallized wood is of great significance for increasing the added value of wood and expanding the field of wood applications. In this paper, the veneer of Pinus sylvestris L. var. mongholica Litv was used as the research object and the wood veneer was treated by simple physical methods. A copper thin film was grown on the surface of the wood veneer by the magnetron sputtering method to realize the preparation of “environmentally friendly” metalized wood. The preparation method of “environmentally friendly” metallized wood was explored, and the mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and fluorescent effect of metallized wood were studied. The nano-indenter, square resistance tester, and fluorescence microscope were used to characterize the mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and fluorescent effect of the “environmentally friendly” metallized wood surface. The results show that as the sputtering time increases, the load–displacement curve shifts gradually and the elastic modulus and hardness of the metallized wood veneers also gradually increase. The loading displacement of magnetron sputtered samples for 15 min (200 °C) is 269.9 nm. The loading displacement decreases by more than 60%, the average elastic modulus increases by 6.7 times, and the average hardness increases by 6.6 times. The transverse grain square resistance on the surface of metallized wood is about 2–3 times the parallel grain square resistance. As the sputtering time increases, the natural fluorescence intensity of the metallized wood surface gradually decreases and the wood surface is completely covered by the copper film.

As a new environmentally friendly liquid dielectric material, vegetable insulating oil has been widely used in oil-filled power equipment. In oil-filled power equipment, ageing, faults of overheating and discharge cause the decomposition of insulating oil and insulating paper, resulting in dissolved gases in oils. The diffusion behavior of dissolved gases in oils is helpful for evaluation of health state of oil-filled power equipment. In this study, the molecular dynamics simulation based on polymer consistent force field (PCFF) is adopted to analyze diffusion processes of dissolved gases in camellia insulating oils. The diffusion coefficients and free volume of dissolved gases including hydrocarbons, carbon oxides and hydrogen are calculated. The diffusion trajectory of dissolved gases in oils are also given. In addition, impacts of gas species and temperature on molecular diffusion coefficients of oils were also studied. Results quantitatively describe the diffusion behavior of gases with different molecular weight in the oils under various temperatures. The research provides theoretic support for further application of vegetable insulating oils in power equipment.As a new environmentally friendly liquid dielectric material, vegetable insulating oil has been widely used in oil-filled power equipment. In oil-filled power equipment, ageing, faults of overheating and discharge cause the decomposition of insulating oil and insulating paper, resulting in dissolved gases in oils. The diffusion behavior of dissolved gases in oils is helpful for evaluation of health state of oil-filled power equipment. In this study, the molecular dynamics simulation based on polymer consistent force field (PCFF) is adopted to analyze diffusion processes of dissolved gases in camellia insulating oils. The diffusion coefficients and free volume of dissolved gases including hydrocarbons, carbon oxides and hydrogen are calculated. The diffusion trajectory of dissolved gases in oils are also given. In addition, impacts of gas species and temperature on molecular diffusion coefficients of oils were also studied. Results quantitatively describe the diffusion behavior of gases with different mole...

Electrical breakdown behaviors of nanopaper prepared from nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) were investigated. Compared to conventional insulating paper made from micro softwood fibers, nanopaper has a dramatically enhanced breakdown strength. Breakdown field of nanopaper is 67.7 kV/mm, whereas that of conventional paper is only 20 kV/mm. Air voids in the surface of conventional paper are observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Further analyses using mercury intrusion show that pore diameter of conventional paper is around 1.7 μm, while that of nanopaper is below 3 nm. Specific pore size of nanopaper is determined to be approximately 2.8 nm by the gas adsorption technique. In addition, theoretical breakdown strengths of nanopaper and conventional paper are also calculated to evaluate the effect of pore size. It turns out that theoretical values agree well with experimental data, indicating that the improved strength in nanopaper is mainly attributed to the decreased pore size. Due to its outstanding breakdown strength, this study indicates the suitability of nanopaper for electrical insulation in ultra-high voltage convert transformers and other electrical devices.

Magnetic nanostructures of different size, shape, and composition possess a great potential to improve current technologies like data storage and electromagnetic sensing. In thin ferromagnetic nanowires, their magnetization behavior is dominated by the competition between magnetocrystalline anisotropy (related to the crystalline structure) and shape anisotropy. In this way electron diffraction methods like precession electron diffraction (PED) can be used to link the magnetic behavior observed by Electron Holography (EH) with its crystallinity. Using off-axis electron holography under Lorentz conditions, we can experimentally determine the magnetization distribution over neighboring nanostructures and their diamagnetic matrix. In the case of a single row of nickel nanowires within the alumina template, the thin TEM samples showed a dominant antiferromagnetic arrangement demonstrating long-range magnetostatic interactions playing a major role.

Aiming at the ultra high speed permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) supported by gas foil bearings (GFBs), this paper calculates the transient line starting of the motor. Firstly, the start effect of the rotor composed of cylindrical PM and stainless steel sleeve is studied. Then, in order to enhance the start torque, copper ring, nickel ring and copper squirrel-cage are introduced in the rotor and their start effect are analysed, respectively. It can be found that the rotor including nickel ring can be accelerated to set speed, but all the other rotors are failed due to the higher PM and braking torques. It can be concluded that some material owning slight large relative permeability can be applied in the rotor to reduce the PM field and contribute to start by using the line-start method.

This paper proposes a novel permanent magnet (PM) motor for high torque performance, in which hybrid PM material and asymmetric rotor design are applied. The hybrid PM material is adopted to reduce the consumption of rare-earth PM because ferrite PM is assisted to enhance the torque production. Meanwhile, the rotor structure is designed to be asymmetric by shifting the surface-insert PM (SPM), which is used to improve the torque performance, including average torque and torque ripple. Moreover, the reasons for improvement of the torque performance are explained by evaluation and analysis of the performances of the proposed motor. Compared with SPM motor and V-type motor, the merit of high utilization ratio of rare-earth PM is also confirmed, showing that the proposed motor can offer higher torque density and lower torque ripple simultaneously with less consumption of rare-earth PM.

In this research, reduced graphene oxide was incorporated into the ZnO seed layer to modulate the rod diameter of ZnO nanorods (NRs) during solgel/hydrothermal growth. To characterize the reduced graphene oxide incorporated ZnO NRs, multiple material analysis techniques including field-emission scanning electron microscopy, surface contact angle measurements, X-ray diffraction, and photoluminescence were used to explore distinct properties of these size modulatable NRs. Results indicate ZnO NRs with smaller diameters could be observed with more reduced graphene oxide added into the ZnO seed layer. Furthermore, better crystallinity, higher hydrophobicity and lower defect concentration could be obtained with more amount of reduced graphene oxide added into the ZnO seed layer. The modulatable reduced graphene oxide-incorporated ZnO NRs growth is promising for future ZnO NRs based nanodevice applications.

Deep vein thrombosis, the development of blood clots in the peripheral veins, is a very serious, life threatening condition that is prevalent in the elderly. To deliver proper treatment that enhances the survival rate, it is very important to detect thrombi early and at the point of care. We explored the ability of magnetic particle spectroscopy (MSB) to detect thrombus via specific binding of aptamer functionalized magnetic nanoparticles with the blood clot. MSB uses the harmonics produced by nanoparticles in an alternating magnetic field to measure the rotational freedom and, therefore, the bound state of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles' relaxation time for Brownian rotation increases when bound [A.M. Rauwerdink and J. B. Weaver, Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 1 (2010)]. The relaxation time can therefore be used to characterize the nanoparticle binding to thrombin in the blood clot. For longer relaxation times, the approach to saturation is more gradual reducing the higher harmonics and the harmonic ratio. The harmonic ratios of nanoparticles conjugated with anti-thrombin aptamers (ATP) decrease significantly over time with blood clot present in the sample medium, compared with nanoparticles without ATP. Moreover, the blood clot removed from the sample medium produced a significant MSB signal, indicating the nanoparticles are immobilized on the clot. Our results show that MSB could be a very useful non-invasive, quick tool to detect blood clots at the point of care so proper treatment can be used to reduce the risks inherent in deep vein thrombosis.

The design and validation of a magnetic particle spectrometer (MPS) system used to study the linear and nonlinear behavior of magnetic nanoparticle suspensions is presented. The MPS characterizes the suspension dynamic response, both due to relaxation and saturation effects, which depends on the magnetic particles and their environment. The system applies sinusoidal excitation magnetic fields varying in amplitude and frequency and can be configured for linear measurements (1 mT at up to 120 kHz) and nonlinear measurements (50 mT at up to 24 kHz). Time-resolved data acquisition at up to 4 MS/s combined with hardware and software-based signal processing allows for wide-band measurements up to 50 harmonics in nonlinear mode. By cross-calibrating the instrument with a known sample, the instantaneous sample magnetization can be quantitatively reconstructed. Validation of the two MPS modes are performed for iron oxide and cobalt ferrite suspensions, exhibiting Neel and Brownian relaxation, respectively.

Graphene has attracted much attention at various research fields due to its unique optical, electronic and mechanical properties. Up to now, graphene has not been widely used in optoelectronic fields due to the lack of large-area uniform doped graphene (n-doped and p-doped) with smooth surface. Therefore, it is rather desired to develop some effective doping methods to extend graphene to optoelectronics. Here we developed a novel doping method to prepare large-area (> centimeter scale) uniform doped graphene film with a nanoscale roughness(RMS roughness ∼1.4 nm), the method (nano-metal film doping method) is simple but effective. Using this method electron doping (electron-injection) may be easily realized by the simple thermal deposition of Ag nano-film on a transferred CVD graphene. The doping effectiveness has been proved by Raman spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Importantly, our method sheds light on some potential applications of graphene in optoelectronic devices such as photodetectors, LEDs, phototransistors, solar cells, lasers etc.

Despite the fact that there have been many studies of graphite exfoliation, none really addresses the issue of starting form of graphite. To address this issue various graphite forms (solid, powder and sooth) and graphite oxide (powder) are exfoliated in acetonitrile and studied via ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. In different graphite forms two major absorbance peaks are observed at 223 nm and 273 nm corresponding to graphene oxide and graphene dispersions, respectively. The intensity change of the peaks refers to the layer number change. The intensity ratios of these peaks give information about the concentration of the exfoliation products. We observed that graphite oxide sample has the thinnest graphene dispersions among the compared samples, whereas graphite rod has the thickest. It appears that few layer graphene oxide dispersions exist more in graphite sooth and graphite oxide samples. Graphite oxide UV-Vis spectrum reveals two new absorbance peaks at 312 nm and 361 nm in addition to the graphene oxide and graphene dispersion peaks. To our knowledge these peaks were not observed before. We think that these new peaks are formed due to conjugated polyenes that affect π → π* plasmon peak.

Permalloy nanoparticles containing bacterial cellulose hydrogel obtained after reduction was compressed into a xerogel flexible sheet by hot pressing at 60 ° C at different pressures. The permalloy nanoparticles with an ordered structure have a bimodal size distribution centered around 25 nm and 190 nm. The smaller nanoparticles are superparamagnetic while the larger particles are ferromagnetic at room temperature. The sheets have a room temperature magnetisation of 20 emug-1 and a coercivity of 32 Oe. The electrical conductivity of the flexible sheets increases with hot pressing pressure from 7 Scm-1 to 40 Scm-1 at room temperature.

In Paper I of this series, the elastic collision was described via simultaneous processes, where the energy is conserved at any moment. In this paper, we critically review the kinetic theory of gases, which was developed based on Newtonian mechanics, and show that it violates the principle of the conservation of energy. By placing the energy conservation at the beginning of the deductive formalism, we derive the ideal gas law via equally strong simultaneous counter-processes at the walls, namely, momentum work and volume work. Several new insights into the state variables of an ideal gas are obtained: (i) pressure cannot be expressed via the kinetic energy of an ideal gas, and (ii) temperature can be interpreted as a particle-related (microscopic) state variable. The historical choice to set a zero point of the potential energy for a confined ideal gas needs to be corrected, and the internal energy of an ideal gas turns out to include more forms of energy than specified in the kinetic theory of gases. Finally, and importantly, we show that the process approach to an ideal gas and thus to collisions is experimentally confirmed.

This paper aims to address the challenges of short optical communication distances and high Bit Error Rates (BERs) caused by seawater absorption, scattering, and underwater turbulence. This paper establishes an optical communication channel model based on the Monte Carlo method and simulates and analyzes the process of received optical power attenuation when light is transmitted underwater due to absorption and scattering. The simulation model focuses on the influence of seawater type, transmission distance, receiver position, and angle on the received optical power attenuation. The results of this simulation will provide theoretical support for the development of prototype underwater optical communication systems and experiments in complex environments. To solve the long-range weak signal reception and processing issues in underwater optical wireless communication systems, this paper proposes the design and implementation of an underwater optical wireless communication system using optimized on-off keying high-power light-emitting diode/laser diode modulation technology and avalanche photodiode (APD)/photomultiplier (PMT) receiver modules. In addition, this paper describes the design of the underwater optical communication host computer software, which provides functions such as mode selection, BER monitoring, and file transfer. To test the performance of the proposed system, this paper conducts experiments in a 35 m long pool, fixed platform, and underwater mobile platform, as well as cross-air-water interface optical communication performance test experiments in a complex hydrological environment. The results show that the system achieved a 35 m underwater medium communication distance, transmission rate of 5–20 Mbps, and cross-domain wireless optical communication function under the condition of a BER of less than 10−6. The experiments also revealed that the communication distance decreases as the turbidity of the water body increases and the PMT receiver module selected at the receiver end has a longer communication distance than the APD receiver module. Overall, this paper demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed technology for underwater optical communication systems in complex waters, providing theoretical and data support for the next engineering practice.

In this paper, the physical phenomena of gallium (Ga+) ion impacting monolayer graphene in the nanosculpting process are investigated experimentally, and the mechanisms are explained by using Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Firstly, the MC method is employed to clarify the phenomena happened to the monolayer graphene target under Ga+ ion irradiation. It is found that substrate has strong influence on the damage mode of graphene. The mean sputtering yield of graphene under 30 keV Ga+ ion irradiation is 1.77 and the least ion dose to completely remove carbon atoms in graphene is 21.6 ion/nm2. Afterwards, the focused ion beam over 21.6 ion/nm2 is used for the irradiation on a monolayer graphene supported by SiO2 experimentally, resulting in the nanostructures, i.e., nanodot and nanowire array on the graphene. The performances of the nanostructures are characterized by atomic force microscopy and Raman spectrum. A plasma plume shielding model is put forward to explain the nanosculpting results of graphene under different irradiation parameters. In addition, two damage mechanisms are found existing in the fabrication process of the nanostructures by using empirical MD simulations. The results can help us open the possibilities for better control of nanocarbon devices.

The role of B on the microstructure and magnetism of Zr16Co82.5-xMo1.5Bx ribbons prepared by arc melting and melt spinning is investigated. Microstructure analysis show that the ribbons consist of a hard-magnetic rhombohedral Zr2Co11 phase and a minor amount of soft-magnetic Co. We show that the addition of B increases the amount of hard-magnetic phase, reduces the amount of soft-magnetic Co and coarsens the grain size from about 35 nm to 110 nm. There is a monotonic increase in the volume of the rhombohedral Zr2Co11 unit cell with increasing B concentration. This is consistent with a previous theoretical prediction that B may occupy a special type of large interstitial sites, called interruption sites. The optimum magnetic properties, obtained for x = 1, are a saturation magnetization of 7.8 kG, a coercivity of 5.4 kOe, and a maximum energy product of 4.1 MGOe.

Selective growth of either monolayer or bilayer graphene is of great importance. We developed a method to readily tune large area graphene growth from complete monolayer to complete bilayer. In an ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition process, we used the sample temperature at which to start the H2 flow as the control parameter and realized the change from monolayer to bilayer growth of graphene on Cu foil. When the H2 starting temperature was above 700°C, continuous monolayer graphene films were obtained. When the H2 starting temperature was below 350°C, continuous bilayer films were obtained. Detailed characterization of the samples treated under various conditions revealed that heating without the H2 flow caused Cu oxidation. The more the Cu substrate oxidized, the less graphene bilayer could form.

Integrating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene into hybrid structures provides a novel approach to three dimensional (3D) materials with advantageous properties. Here we present a water-processing method to create integrated CNT/graphene hybrids and test their field emission properties. With an optimized mass ratio of CNTs to graphene, the hybrid shows a significantly enhanced field emission performance, such as turn-on electric field of 0.79 V/μm, threshold electric field of 1.05 V/μm, maximum current density of 0.1 mA/cm2, and field enhancement factor of ∼1.3 × 104. The optimized mass ratio for field emission emphasizes the importance of both CNTs and graphene in the hybrid. We also hypothesize a possible mechanism for this enhanced field emission performance from the CNT/graphene hybrid. During the solution treatment, graphene oxide behaves as surfactant sheets for CNTs to form a well dispersed solution, which leads to a better organized 3D structure with more conducting channels for electron transport.

Here, we report the synthesis of high quality monolayer graphene on the pre-treated copper (Cu) foil by chemical vapor deposition method. The pre-treatment process, which consists of pre-annealing in a hydrogen ambient, followed by diluted nitric acid etching of Cu foil, helps in removing impurities. These impurities include native copper oxide and rolling lines that act as a nucleation center for multilayer graphene. Raman mapping of our graphene grown on pre-treated Cu foil primarily consisted of similar to 98% a monolayer graphene with as compared to 75 % for the graphene grown on untreated Cu foil. A high hydrogen flow rate during the pre-annealing process resulted in an increased I-2D/IG ratio of graphene up to 3.55. Uniform monolayer graphene was obtained with a I2D/IG ratio and sheet resistance varying from 1.84-3.39 and 1110-1290 Omega/square, respectively. (C) 2014 Author(s).

Growth of thin cobalt film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has been investigated on pristine graphene for spin logic and memory applications. By reduction of the kinetic energy of the sputtered atoms using indirect sputtered deposition, deposition induced defects in the graphene layer have been controlled. Cobalt film on graphene with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has been developed. Raman spectroscopy of the graphene surface shows very little disorder induced in the graphene by the sputtering process. In addition, upon increasing the cobalt film thickness, the disorder density increases on the graphene and saturates for thicknesses of Co layers above 1 nm. The AFM image indicates a surface roughness of about 0.86 nm. In addition, the deposited film forms a granular structure with a grain size of about 40 nm.

In the present work, we demonstrated a new method of graphene films transferring applying a marker-frame instead of polymer-like films as a support. This method is an alternative that is much faster, cheaper and freely available to all. Our technique guarantees cleaner graphene surface and no polymer residues on it. Consequently, it significantly increases the applicability of graphene. For instance, one can think of using graphene as a component of nanocomposites or coupling it with other nanomaterials. As an example we showed graphene films suspended on GaN nanowires. The characterization of the properties of graphene transferred following the enhanced frame method was performed by Raman spectroscopy, as well as by carrying out SEM imaging and conducting TEM investigations.

To ensure the safe and reliable operation of Li-ion battery energy storage systems, it is important to diagnose the operational status and aging degree of the batteries. In this study, an online fusion estimation method based on back propagation neural network and genetic algorithm (BP-GA) is used for estimating the state of charge (SoC) and state of health (SoH) of Li-ion batteries. First, the effective features of SoC and SoH of Li-ion batteries during charging and discharging are analyzed, and the relevant features are extracted. Subsequently, a conventional back propagation neural network (BPNN) for SoC and SoH estimation is described. The extracted feature quantities are then used as inputs to the neural network for the estimation of the SoC and SoH of Li-ion batteries. A comparison of the SoC and SoH estimation results using, respectively, a single BPNN and a fusion algorithm using a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the BPNN shows that the accuracy and efficiency of the estimation results using BP-GA are significantly higher than that of the BPNN. The experimental component of this paper is a comparison experiment using the Panasonic 18650PF and the real-world data from NASA. The results show that the feature extraction operation is relatively easy to perform and combined with the neural network method used in this paper can have good accuracy, reduce the complexity of the algorithm, and improve the detection efficiency.

To expand an areal density of hard disk drives, bit-patterned magnetic recording (BPMR) using a patterned medium instead of a granular medium as employed in perpendicular magnetic recording is attracting much attention as the next-generation recording technology. To further increase the storage capacity of BPMR, multi-layer magnetic recording can be combined with BPMR. Therefore, this paper considers double-layer magnetic recording with a single-reader/two-track reading technique for the staggered BPMR system, which is performed together with a rate-3/5 modulation code. This paper proposes to utilize a multilayer perceptron decoder to decode and estimate the log-likelihood ratio value of the recorded bit sequence that is obtained from the equalized channel. Simulation results show that at a bit-error rate of 10−4, the proposed system with a double-layer recording medium can achieve an improvement gain of about 1.2 decibel if compared to that with a regular single-layer recording medium, even in the presence of media noise.

Identification of abnormal user behavior helps reduce non-technical losses and regulatory operating costs for power marketing departments. Therefore, this paper proposes an adaptive golden jackal algorithm optimization improved tri-training method to identify user abnormal behavior. First, this paper constructs multiple weak learners based on the abnormal behavior data of users, combined with the method of sampling and putting back, and uses the filtering method to select the tri-training base model. Second, aiming at the problem that the traditional optimization algorithm has a slow convergence speed and is easy to fall into local optimization, the adaptive golden jackal algorithm is used to realize the parameter optimization of tri-training. Based on the electricity consumption data of a certain place in the past five years, it is found that the model can provide stable identification results: accuracy = 0.987, f1- score = 0.973.

Electrical steel cores in electric motors are often operated under variable temperature conditions, and the temperature has a large impact on the magnetic properties of electrical steel. Different Silicon content also makes electrical steel have different performance characteristics. Therefore, in this paper, an environmentally adjustable electrical steel magnetic property testing system is built to investigate the magnetic property variation of non-oriented electrical steel sheets with different Si contents at different temperatures. Through the experiments in this paper, it is found that the trend of magnetic properties of electrical steels tends to flatten out with increasing Si content under the influence of temperature. In particular, the loss of 6.5% Si shows a trend of first decreasing and then increasing with the increase of temperature. The internal grain structure of electrical steel can explain this phenomenon very well. The larger the grain size, the less the magnetic properties of electrical steel are affected by temperature. In order to further analyze the variation phenomenon of electrical steel loss, the loss separation calculation was carried out for 5 more electrical steels with different Si content in this paper. The reason for this phenomenon was finally explained by a special preparation process of 6.5% Si.

As one of the main methods to study the characteristics of an object, experiment is the main way to verify the correctness and reliability of numerical results. The hypersonic projectile near the ground launch involves many complex physical phenomena, so the ground surface has an important impact on the flight stability of the projectile and the structural characteristics of the gas flow field. In this paper, we carried out a whole process experiment of a hypersonic projectile from the bottom of the tube to the muzzle based on the 300 mm balance gun. The muzzle pressure and the initial velocity of the muzzle were monitored by the data acquisition system. We obtained the influence of the ground on the gas flow field of the hypersonic projectile through the overpressure data on the ground near the muzzle. Meanwhile, the dynamic characteristics of the launch process are recorded by high-speed photography. The experimental results show that the muzzle shock wave meets the ground, and the reflection phenomenon occurs, forming a wavefront with opposite directions of propagation. It makes the pressure in the lower half of the domain significantly higher than that in the upper half. By analyzing the experimental phenomena and experimental data, this paper shows the development characteristics of the projectile’s flow field, as well as the influence of the ground on the flow field and the motion stability of the projectile.

In this paper, an improved coupled-mode method is used to design a launcher for a gyrotron quasi-optical mode converter at 170 Ghz with an operating mode of TE32,9. The new method calculates 25 coupled modes, which more accurately simulates the field distribution in the launcher. The diffraction field of the launcher with a spiral cut is calculated by using the scalar diffraction integral method with fast Fourier transform. The radiation power of the launcher is 99.94%, the Gaussian mode content of the radiation beam is 98.40%, the diffraction loss of the launcher is 0.0580%, and the radiation efficiency is 98.34%. The method proposed in this paper is fast in calculation and can be applied to the large-scale high-frequency gyrotron launcher.

Due to the influence of the connection distance between the mutual inductor primary circuit and the metering device secondary circuit, the detection induced current of the traditional method is extremely small, which cannot accurately detect the authentic situation of the wiring, resulting in long detection time and low detection accuracy. Therefore, this paper proposes the automatic detection method of the secondary circuit connection of the metering device mutual inductor. Through the voltage sampling circuit, the secondary circuit measurement data are obtained. Using the pulse signal shaping function and the ADE7753 chip to process the secondary circuit measurement data, the secondary circuit connection fault judgment is determined. According to the judgment, the electric energy meter is used, combined with the secondary circuit measurement data, and the automatic detection of the secondary circuit connection is achieved by calculation. The experimental results show that compared with the traditional detection method, the automatic detection method of the secondary circuit connection of the metering device mutual inductor designed in this paper achieves normal and stable detection induction current. There is no inductive current with an extremely small condition, the detection accuracy is high, and the detection time is short, indicating that the method is suitable for application in actual detection projects.

In this paper, the magnetic immunity model of STT-MRAM is established. The influence of the external magnetic field on the effective energy barrier of STT-MRAM is investigated, which is the crucial issue to influence the reliability of STT-MRAM cells in the standby, active read and active write modes. The influence factors on the magnetic immunity of STT-MRAM array are also discussed in the paper, such as the electrode, package material, insert layer and array spacing, etc. Moreover, the magnetic shield models in the BGA and QFP packages are designed and analyzed for the enhancement of the magnetic immunity of STT-MRAM, whose shielding efficiency is up to 98.2%.

With the rapid growth of big data information and the continuous iteration progress of CPU architecture, the implementation of a new memory-based cache architecture is urgent and challenging. In the paper, a CPU cache architecture system based on MRAM is built. Firstly, the performance of SRAM, STT-MRAM and SOT-MRAM as caches from 8 kb to 32 Mb is evaluated. Secondly, by summarizing the performance of SRAM and MRAM in different cache levels, a new quad-core CPU cache architecture design scheme with SOT-MRAM as the first level of cache and STT-MRAM as the second level of cache is determined. Thirdly, the built cache system is simulated. A non-inclusive strategy is proposed to replace the inclusive strategy in order to solve the problem of high dynamic energy of STT-MRAM at the second level. The idea of having a quad-core CPU dynamically share the second-level cache is proposed in the paper. Finally, the caching system in the paper is compared with the other previous works, showing up to 60.78% energy consumption advantage and 33.22% leakage power advantage. The proposed MRAM-based CPU cache system and the corresponding cache strategy have potential application with the benefits of low power and less area.

With the advancement of wide-bandgap power devices, the power electronics equipment is developing toward higher switching frequencies and more complex switching modes in recent years. Accurate prediction of the core loss for magnetic components has been emphasized as the excitations of magnetic materials varying depending on the operating mode of the power supplies. Therefore, this paper presents the results of an extensive core loss study performed on nanocrystalline alloy (FT-3KL), amorphous alloy (1K101) and ultra-thin oriented silicon steel (GT-50). Firstly, an automatic setup for core loss measurement of soft magnetic materials fed by a full-bridge inverter based on silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET is proposed. Then, the effects of switching oscillations from the inverter and the characteristic parameters of complex non-sinusoidal excitations on the core loss are analyzed comparatively. The core loss shows different regular distributions with the change of each characteristic parameter of excitations respectively. However, the regular distributions will be influenced by the high-frequency switching oscillations, which makes the prediction of core loss more complicated. This paper can provide a reference for the development of high-precision core loss model and performance optimization of power electronics equipment.

Steel strands have been widely used in industrial fields as a reliable load-bearing component. Under the influence of environmental erosion and fatigue stress, different types of damage, such as corrosion and fracture, will occur in the in-service steel strands, which will cause unpredictable loss of personnel and property. Ultrasonic nondestructive testing technology has become an ideal testing method for long-distance metal structures in recent years due to the advantages of long detection distance and high efficiency. The detection effect of ultrasonic nondestructive testing technology largely depends on the propagation characteristics of the selected guided wave modes. However, due to the influence of the helical structure of the steel strands and the contact between the wires, the propagation characteristics of the guided waves in the steel strands are very complicated. In this paper, a method for analyzing the dispersion characteristics of steel strands based on the Floquet boundary conditions (Floquet BCs) is proposed. The essence of this method is the mutual transformation principle of wave solution and vibration solution. To adapt to the helical structure of steel strands, this paper proposes a helical coordinate system and twisted coordinate system and deduces the corresponding wavenumber conversion formula. The results of Floquet BCs are consistent with the semi-analytical finite element method and sweep frequency finite element modeling method, which proves the correctness of the Floquet BC method from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. This paper provides a new idea for analyzing the dispersion characteristics of complex waveguides such as steel strands.

This paper proposed an ultra-low-power successive approximation register analog to digital converter (ADC) for medical implant devices. To reduce power consumption, the novel techniques presented in this paper are a tri-state capacitor unit, a novel switch scheme, and a new low static power comparator. Tri-state capacitor unit reduces down power without the use of middle voltage reference. The proposed switch scheme can complete the most-significant bit 3-bit conversion without any power consumption. The offset of the low static power comparator is only optimized by physical design. This ADC is fabricated in a 110 nm 1P5M CMOS process. The reference voltage of DAC is 1 V, and the supply voltage of comparator and digital logic is 1 .5 V. At 10 kS/s sampling rate, the signal to noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) is 57 .57 dB and power consumption is 24 nW.

Droplet spread over a vertically falling liquid film is studied in this paper. A simulation model is built and verified by experiment. Following this, a unique phenomenon that emerges in this context, namely, a strong inertial oscillation in an early stage of spreading, is analyzed. Finally, the equilibrium features of an oil droplet in this circumstance are discussed. The results show that the maximum spreading length in a strong inertial oscillation is much longer than the equilibrium length, being 152% the length of the latter in the base case. Furthermore, the equilibrium spreading length increases nearly linearly with the initial diameter of the droplet. The paper provides data to understand the effects of an oil droplet on a vertically falling film absorber to promote energy saving in a cold storage refrigeration system with low-grade heat.

In this paper, large-eddy simulation of the interaction between a shock wave and the hypersonic turbulent boundary layer in a compression corner with a fixed 34° deflection angle at Ma = 6 for different Reynolds number cases is conducted. For investigating the effects of the Reynolds number for hypersonic cases, three cases where the free-stream Reynolds numbers are 14000, 20000, and 30000/mm are selected. The averaged statistics, such as the mean velocity, the skin friction, the heat flux, and the wall pressure, are used in this paper. The flow structures in the compression ramp including the shock wave and interaction region are discussed. The decomposition of the mean skin-friction drag for the flat flow is extended to be used in the compression corner. In addition, the turbulent kinetic energy is studied through the decomposition of the mean skin-friction drag for the flat-plate region and the corner region. It is found that higher Reynolds numbers would increase the turbulent kinetic energy by turbulent dissipation at the interaction region, while higher Reynolds numbers would decrease the turbulent kinetic energy by turbulent dissipation after reattachment. In addition, it is also found that the turbulent kinetic energy is larger with a higher Reynolds number and higher turbulent kinetic energy inhibits the movement from the separation point to the inflection point (x = 0 mm), which deduces larger separation bubbles.

This paper deals with a problem that we found when directly implementing the scalar MUSCL scheme to spectral coefficient equations of the gPC-Galerkin method. The order degradation at extrema of spectral coefficients and non-uniform reconstruction process lead to a distortion of standard deviation at some extrema, especially where the peak consists of several extrema of coefficients. From the perspective of probability space, a spectral MUSCL scheme is proposed based on the generalized minmod limiter to avoid the defects mentioned above when applying the scalar MUSCL. In this paper, we present some properties of the new scheme related to total variation and demonstrate them by the uncertain linear scalar conservation law. Finally, we employ this scheme to compressible Euler equations, and a good correlation of standard deviation is obtained. The details of implementation of the gPC-Galerkin method for Euler equations are also discussed, and the approximate Jacobian matrix is adopted.