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Superhydrophobic surfaces have great potential for applications in electric power equipment, photovoltaic cell panels, and other fields due to their unique self-cleaning and dry storage characteristics. However, the common process for preparing superhydrophobic surfaces faces the following problems: complex preparation process, high cost, and easily damaged hydrophobic surface structure. In this study, a self-growing monoclinic phase of BaAl 2 Si 2 O 8 glass-ceramics with a microscale structure is used as a matrix, which was etched with hydrofluoric acid and then treated with 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane to obtain a kind of superhydrophobic surface with a contact angle more than 150°. The effect of the etching time on the hydrophobicity and the micromorphology of the glass-ceramic surface is analyzed. The results show that the contact angle first increases, then stabilizes, and finally decreases with increasing etching time. This etched structure has a large number of bulges and voids, and parts of the surface hydrophobic groups stay away from direct contact with other objects. Thus, it protects the internal hydrophobic group and improves the mechanical stability of the superhydrophobic surface. This study offers a simple and inexpensive idea for the mass production of ceramic-based superhydrophobic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

In this study, ceramic foams were prepared from domestic waste incineration fly ash. The physical and mechanical properties of ceramic foams were studied systematically. The bulk density, open porosity, water absorption rate was 3.04 g/cm3, 1.01 %, and 4.04 %, respectively. Especially, the flexural strength was 20.63 MPa, the thermal conductivity was 0.2721 W/(m K) (25 °C) and the heavy metal leaching concentration was 0.5442 mg/L (Pb). By analyzing the thermal phase transition of sintering process for ceramic foams, the thermal phase transition model during the sintering process of high-calcium and low-silicon domestic waste incineration fly ash-based ceramic foams is discussed. Therefore, the use of fly ash from domestic waste incineration to prepare ceramic foams can turn waste into treasure and realize the resource utilization of fly ash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

• Dual detoxification and inflammatory regulation by ceria nanozymes (CeNZs) enable a long therapeutic time window in drug induced liver injury (DILI). • At early stage of DILI, CeNZs can efficiently scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) for detoxification. • At late stage of DILI, CeNZs specifically inhibit the pro-inflammatory macrophages to relieve inflammation. • At 3 h after drug intoxication, CeNZs can still relieve DILI and significantly increase the survival rate of DILI mice. Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is the predominant cause of acute liver failure in many countries, which is closely associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation. Although N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is presently the first-choice antidote for DILI, it often fails to benefit the late stage patients due to its narrow therapeutic time window. Herein, we report ceria nanozymes (CeNZs) that simultaneously scavenge reactive oxygen species and generate oxygen for the treatment of acetaminophen-induced liver injury (a typical form of DILI), enabling a prolonged therapeutic time window as compared to NAC. It is found that CeNZs can effectively scavenge ROS in impaired hepatocytes for detoxification. More importantly, CeNZs can generate abundant oxygen based on their catalase (CAT)-mimic activity, thus further alleviating hypoxia and specifically inhibiting the pro-inflammatory macrophages to relieve inflammation for a promoted hepatocyte regeneration of DILI, which is vital for the treatment of late stage DILI when there is already massive hepatocyte necrosis. The dual detoxification and inflammatory regulation by CeNZs for DILI treatment with relatively long therapeutic time window as compared to NAC, together with the revealed mechanism herein, suggesting the future clinical use of CeNZs for DILI treatment, especially for the late stage DILI treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Three dimensional FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 core-shell nanocomposites with a unique spherical structure were prepared on nickel foam by a two-step hydrothermal + annealing method and they show the specific area capacitance 4.2 F/cm2 at a current density of 2 mA/cm2, which is nearly four times higher than that of a single FeCo 2 O 4 electrode (1.1 F/cm2). The assembled FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 //active carbon solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) has a specific area capacitance of 1.81 F/cm2, an energy density of 54.3 Wh/kg and a power density of 769.6 W/kg at 10 mA/cm2. The solid-state ASC exhibited an initial capacitance retention of 62.4% after 7000 cycles, demonstrating good cycling stability. Especially, the integrated solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors based on FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 electrode material were constructed in different connected manners. The series supercapacitor devices demonstrated the typical enhancement of the operating voltage window and the parallel devices significantly improved the capacitance. Therefore, the FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 electrode material exhibited the outstanding electrochemical performances in solid-state supercapacitors and promising practical application prospects in integrated circuits for energy storage. Herein, we prepared core-shell FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 nanosheets on nickel foam by a two-step hydrothermal + annealing method. FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 /NF exhibits excellent electrochemical performances. The asymmetric solid-state supercapacitor assembled with FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 /NF (positive electrode) and activated carbon (negative electrode) has a specific area capacitance of 1.81 F/cm2 at a current density of 10 mA/cm2, an energy density of 54.3 Wh/kg, and a power density of 769.6 W/kg. The prepared solid-state devices with combined connections exhibited the typical features of integrated circuit. The results highlighting the application prospect of FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 as a cathode material for supercapacitors to meet higher output requirements in practical electrochemical energy storage processes. [Display omitted] • FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 core-shell nanocomposites were synthesised by a two-step hydrothermal + annealing method. • FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 //active carbon solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor shows the outsatnding electrochemcal performances. • The series FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 //active carbon supercapacitors demonstrated the typical enhancement of operating voltage window. • FeCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 electrode exhibited promising practical application prospects in integrated circuits for energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

In this work, Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH nanocomposites were successfully synthesized on nickel foam (NF) by three-step hydrothermal method. The Co 3 S 4 nanowires act as a scaffold and the LDHs continuously fills the gaps between the Co 3 S 4 nanowires. Finally, the Co 3 S 4 nanowires are compeletly covered by NiCo-LDH nanoflowers with a diameter of about 8 μm. The specific capacitances of Co 3 S 4 /NF and Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH nanocomposites are 1306.2F g−1 and 3480.0F g−1 at a current density of 1 A/g, respectively. The electrochemical energy storage performance of Co 3 S 4 nanowire can be effectively enhanced by compounding NiCo-LDH. An all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor device assembled with Co 3 S 4 /NF and Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH as cathode and active carbon as anode exhibited good performance that the specific capacitances of the device can be calculated to be 218.9F g−1 at current density of 1.0 A/g, the maximum energy were 59.5 Wh kg−1 at the power density of 700 W kg−1. The energy storage properties of the devices connected with different manners were also studied. It is obvious that two devices connected in series demonstrated the typical voltage extendtion and the ones in parallel improved the specific capacitance. Furthermore, a red LED light can be lit by two devices connected in series. Therefore, the study shows the promising practical applications of Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH supercapacitor and laid the foundation for the design of a new generation of high performance supercapacitors. [Display omitted] • Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH nanocomposites were synthesized. • Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH//activated carbon all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor an energy density of 275.2 Wh kg−1, with a power density of 5760 W kg−1. • The series Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH//activated carbon supercapacitor devices exhibited the typical enhancement of the operating voltage window and the parallel devices significantly improved the capacitance. • The Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH electrode material displayed the good electrochemical performances in solid-state supercapacitors and promising practical application prospects in integrated circuits for energy storage. In the study, Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH nanocomposites were successfully synthesized on nickel foam (NF) by a simple and cost-effective hydrothermal method. The supercapacitors with Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH as electrode materials exhibited an ultra-high specific capacitance of 3480.0F g−1 at a current density of 1 A/g. Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH//activated carbon (AC) all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor (ASS) was assembled with PVA/KOH as the electrolyte. The ASS device exhibits excellent cycling stability of 77.97 % capacitance retention after 5000 cycles at 10 A/g. The maxmum energy density of Co 3 S 4 /NF@NiCo-LDH//AC ASS was 275.2 Wh kg−1, with the power density of 5760 W kg−1. Especially, the ASS devices connected in different manners presented the typical performances of integrated circuits: voltage enhancement for series devices and current enhancement for parallel devices. Therefore, the study presented great practical potentials for new energy storage devices in integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The hexahedral mesh (hex mesh) is usually preferred to the tetrahedral mesh (tet mesh) in finite element methods for numerical simulation. In finite element analysis, a valid hex mesh requires that the scaled Jacobian value at each mesh vertex is larger than 0 . However, the hex mesh produced by lots of prevailing hex mesh generation methods cannot be guaranteed to be a valid hex mesh. In this paper, we develop a constrained volume iterative fitting (CVIF) algorithm to fill a given triangular mesh model with an all-hex volume mesh. Starting from an initial all-hex mesh model, which is generated by voxelizing the given triangular mesh model, CVIF algorithm fits the boundary mesh of the initial all-hex mesh to the given triangular mesh model by iteratively adjusting the boundary mesh vertices. In each iteration, the movements of the boundary mesh vertices are diffused to the inner all-hex mesh vertices. After the iteration stops, an all-hex volume mesh that fills the given triangular mesh model can be generated. In the CVIF algorithm, the movement of each all-hex mesh vertex is constrained to ensure that the scaled Jacobian value at each mesh vertex is larger than 0 , etc. Therefore, the all-hex mesh generated by the CVIF algorithm is guaranteed to be a valid all-hex mesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Surface blending is a useful operation in geometric design for rounding sharp edges or corners. Meanwhile, NURBS has already become the de facto industrial standard in existing CAD/CAM systems. Therefore, it is required to study how to blend two B -spline surfaces. However, two arbitrary B -spline surfaces (called base surfaces ) are hard to be blended with a B -spline surface (called blending surface ) because the knot vectors of the two base surfaces are usually mismatched. In this paper, we proposed a curve-based spline representation, i.e., the semi-structured B-spline surface , which is generated by skinning a series of B -spline curves with different knot vectors. By assigning suitable knot vectors to the head and tail skinned curves, the semi-structured B -spline surface can blend two B -spline surfaces smoothly without disturbing them at all. We formulated the B -spline surface blending problem as an optimization problem with continuity constraints, and the continuity between the base and blending surfaces can reach G 2 or C 2 . Examples illustrated in this paper validate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Inspired by the surface structure of lotus leaves, micro–nano hierarchical surface structures have been widely used for designing superhydrophobic surfaces. However, the conventionally designed superhydrophobic surface structures are fragile. In this study, a layer of micron-sized mullite whiskers was grown using molten salt on the surface of BaAl 2 Si 2 O 8 (BAS) glass ceramics. Subsquently, SiO 2 nanoparticles modified with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane were sprayed onto the whisker layer to form a superhydrophobic surface. The nanoparticles exhibit superhydrophobicity, which is protected by the whisker layer containing pores and bulges. This prohibits direct contact between the nanoparticles and external objects. Contact and rolling angle tests indicated that the surface contact angle of the micro–nano hierarchical structure is 158° and the rolling angle is less than 10°. The stability of the superhydrophobic surface was tested through ultraviolet light, long-time immersion in solutions with various pH values, water scouring, and sandpaper abrasion. The results showed that the contact angle is greater than 150°. This study is expected to provide a simple and effective method for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces on ceramics on a large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...