Effect of La addition on electrochemical properties of amorphous LaMg11Zr+200Ni alloy

The effect of La addition on the structure and electrochemical properties of amorphous LaMg₁₁Zr+200Ni (LaMg₁₁Zr: Ni = 1: 2, m: m) hydrogen storage alloy prepared by mechanical alloying was investigated systematically. The results show that the alloys have an amorphous structure after 20 h ball-milling and the particles are significantly refined with the addition of La. The electrochemical tests indicate that the charging resistance of the alloy electrodes decreases with the addition of La. The maximum discharge capacity of the alloy electrodes increases with the increase of La addition, while the cyclic stability and high-rate discharge performance increase firstly and then decrease as the La content increases. When the mass fraction of La is up to 5%, the maximum discharge capacity after charging/discharging of 30 cycles of the alloy electrode is increased from 576.2 to 597.5 mA· h/g, and the capacity retention rate and high-rate dischargeability (HRD) of the alloy electrode are increased by 20.5% and 29.4% respectively compared with those of the alloy electrode without the La addition, exhibiting the best comprehensive electrochemical performances.     

Recycling of aluminum from fibre metal laminates

Recycling of aluminum alloy scrap obtained from delaminated fibre metal laminates (FMLs) was studied through high temperature refining in the presence of a salt flux. The aluminum alloy scrap contains approximately mass fraction w(Cu) = 4.4%, w(Mg) = 1.1% and w(Mn) = 0.6% (2024 aluminum alloy). The main objective of this research is to obtain a high metal yield, while maintaining its original alloy compositions. The work focuses on the metal yield and quality of recycled Al alloy under different refining conditions. The NaCl-KCl salt system was selected as the major components of flux in the Al alloy recycling. Two different flux compositions were employed at NaCl to KCl mass ratios of 44:56 and 70:30 respectively, based on either the eutectic composition, or the European preference. Different additives were introduced into the NaCl-KCl system to study the effect of flux component on recycling result. Although burning and oxidation loss of the alloying elements during re-melting and refining take place as the drawbacks of conventional refining process, the problems can be solved to a large extent by using an appropriate salt flux. Experimental results indicate that Mg in the alloy gets lost when adding cryolite in the NaCl-KCl salt system, though the metal yield can reach as high as 98%. However, by adding w(MgF₂) = 5% into the NaCl-KCl salt system (instead of using cryolite) all alloying elements were well controlled to its original composition with a metal yield of almost 98%.     

Grain refining mechanism of carbon inoculation on Mg-Al alloy

The processing parameters and refining mechanism of Mg-Al alloy treated with a newly developed carbon inoculant under different conditions were investigated experimentally in this work. Results show that the finest ??-Mg grain in AZ91D alloy can be obtained after processing at about 740°C, and the average grain size of ??-Mg grain decreases from about 180.4 to 85.6 ??m by adding mass fraction w _in = 1% inoculant into melt. However, no evident refinement was achieved with excessive inoculant for Mn-free Mg-9Al alloy. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photo, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis on the Mn-contained intermediate phase and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results indicate that Mn element plays an important role in the heterogeneous nucleation of ??-Mg grain. In the early stage of solidification, Al-Mn-C compound particles formed on the surface of Al₄C₃ nano-particles should be the potential nuclei for primary ??-Mg and probably responsible for the grain refinement achieved in the carbon inoculation process.     

Influence of soaking temperature on microstructure of multi-pass compression deformation for low carbon steels

The influence of soaking temperature on microstructure of high temperature multi-pass compression deformation for two low carbon steels (steel A: w _C = 0.032% and w _Mn = 0.25%; steel B: w _C = 0.165% and w _Mn = 0.38%) is studied on the thermal-mechanical simulator in order to rationalize the hot-rolling schedule of low-carbon steel and to promote the low-temperature heating technology. The results show that the microstructures of steel A are almost not affected by reducing soaking temperature, but the acicular ferrite forms in steel B when the soaking temperature is reduced from 1 200 to 1 170°C, due to its smaller initial austenite grain size according to recrystallization kinetics theory.     

Improvement the electrochemical performance of Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2 electrode with AlF3 added

Layered solid solution material Li_1.2Ni_0.2Mn_0.6O₂ is synthesized and the AlF₃ is added to improve the electrochemical performance. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the Li_1.2Ni_0.2Mn_0.6O₂ samples exhibit layered characteristics. The AlF₃ additive is detected by transmission electron microscope (TEM) technology. The electrochemical tests show that Li_1.2Ni_0.2Mn_0.6O₂ electrode with AlF₃ added delivers better discharge capacity (240mA· h/g), first coulomb efficiency 79.2%, cyclic performance (capacity retention ratio of 100.6% after 50 cycles), and rate capacity (68mA · h/g at 10 capacity (C)) than the pristine sample. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results show that the charge transfer resistance of Li_1.2Ni_0.2Mn_0.6O₂ electrode with AlF₃ added increases slower than that of pristine Li_1.2Ni_0.2Mn_0.6O₂ after cycling, which is responsible for better cyclic and rate performance.     

Numerical simulation of thermal and iron ore reduction conditions in pre-reduction shaft furnace based on reducing gas composition and temperature

Based on the principles of mass, momentum and heat transfers between the reducing gas and the iron ore solid, a two-dimensional mathematical model for above two phases is established to study the influences of reducing gas composition on thermal and reduction conditions in pre-reduction shaft furnace with the temperature ranging from 1 023 to 1 223K. Due to the strong endothermic effect of iron ore reduction participated by hydrogen (H₂), increasing the ratio of carbon monoxide (CO) to H₂ enlarges high temperature zone under present calculation conditions, thus improves reduction efficiency inside the furnace. In addition, replacing of the reducing gas with an appropriate proportion of nitrogen (N₂) featuring the same temperature has a potential to reduce fuel consumption by as much as 6.5% while the products of similar quality are yielded.     

Phase transitions relating to the pozzolanic activity of electrolytic manganese residue during calcination

Electrolytic manganese residue（EMR） is generated from electrolytic manganese metal（EMM） industry, and its disposal is currently a serious problem in China.The EMR were calcined in the interval 100—900℃to enhance their pozzolanic activity and characterized by the differential thermal analysis-thermogravimetry（TGDTA）, X-ray diffraction（XRD）,infra-red（IR） and chemical analysis techniques with the aim to correlate phase transitions and structural features with the pozzolanic activity of calcined EMR.Prom the phase analysis and compressive strength results,it is found that the EMR calcined within 700—800℃had the best pozzolanic activity due to the decomposition of poorly-crystallized CaSO₄ under the reducing ambient created by the decomposition of（NH₄）₂SO₄.The appearance of reactive CaO mainly contributes to the good pozzolanic activity of EMR calcined within 700—800℃.The crystallinity of Mn₃CO₄ increases leading an unfavourable effect on the pozzolanic behaviour of EMR calcined at 900℃.The developed pozzolanic material containing 30%（mass fraction） EMR possesses compressive strength properties at a level similar to 42.5^# normal Portland cement,in the range of 41.5—50.5 MPa.Besides,leaching results show that EMR blend cement pastes have excellent effect on the solidification of heavy metals.     

Preparation of benzene adsorption materials using waste activated alumina

A new type of benzene adsorption material was prepared by using the airtight heat treatment method. This method can directly transform the organic impurities of the activated alumina waste into carbon with adsorption capability. The microstructure and carbon content of materials were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET (Brunauer Emmett Teller) surface area analysis and elemental analysis. The influences of heat treatment temperature on the properties of the composite materials were discussed. The benzene adsorption capability of the material was investigated. The experimental results show that the optimal heat treatment process condition is airtight heating at 400°C for 2 h. The resulting sample has carbon mass fraction of 3.57%, specific surface area of 234.70m²/g, pore volume of 0.41m³/g, and average pore size of 6.59 nm. The samples show excellent benzene adsorption capability with an adsorption rate of 21.80%.     

Degradation of selected indoor air pollutants: Comparison study of photocatalytic,ozone-assisted photocatalytic and amine adsorption processes

Indoor air pollutants impact human health, comfort and productivity. The method of photocatalysis has been applied mainly in flow reactors and little information is available on indoor air pollutant removal in airtight reactors. In the paper, experiments were carried out to remove formaldehyde (HCHO), ammonia (NH₃) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the airtight and ventilated chambers. Results demonstrated that 90.4% of HCHO, 92.3% of NH₃ and 57.9% of VOCs were removed in the amine adsorption process, while 67.5% (hereinbefore, these are the mass fraction) of HCHO, 60.0% of NH₃, and 61.2% of VOCs were removed in the photocatalytic process. However, ozone-assisted photocatalytic process showed great potential to degrade indoor air pollutants in the ventilated chamber. Factors and mechanisms of the photocatalytic degradation of HCHO, NH₃ and VOCs were also discussed.     

Sliding mode robust fault-tolerant control for uncertain systems with time delay

Considering the modeling uncertainties and external disturbance, a kind of sliding mode robust H∞fault-tolerant control method for time delay system with actuator fault is proposed. The upper-bound of the uncertainties is considered as a known constant, while the upper-bound of the actuator fault is unknown. A sufficient condition for the existence of an integral sliding mode dynamics is given in terms of linear matrix inequality(LMI). A novel adaptive law is given to estimate the unknown upper-bound of faults. On this basis, a type of sliding mode robust H∞fault-tolerant control law is designed to guarantee the asymptotic stability and the H_∞ performance index of the system. Finally, the simulation on quad-rotor semi-physical platform demonstrates the reliability and validity of the method.     

Novel material of hydrogen generation

A novel aluminum alloy which could react with water and generate hydrogen at room temperature was prepared via mechanical alloying (MA). The results shows that milling time, additives and mass ratio have a significant role in the hydrogen production rate. The highest hydrogen production rate of alloys reaches 95% of theoretical value. The velocity of hydrogen generation reaches more over 200 mL/min for a gram alloy. Active materials (Ga and In) included in the aluminum alloys can be recycled and used repeatedly. The hydrolysis reaction between aluminum and H₂O will take place and release a large amount of heat, which contributes to increasing the velocity of hydrogen generation. The reaction products consist of AlO(OH) and hydrogen.     

H ∞ parameter identification and H 2 feedback control synthesizing for inflight aircraft icing

Aircraft icing accident happens frequently. Researchers try to find new ways to solve this problem. The study is facing the direction of intelligent inspection and control system. Previous studies focused on the principle of aircraft icing and its effects on flight performance. The onboard icing detection equipment can only give the qualitative icing information, but cannot effectively describe how serious the consequences would be. If the icing detection equipment fails, it will cause a serious threat to flight safety. This paper reviews the smart icing system and its fundamental principle. Then based on H∞ theory, an aircraft icing parameter identification method is introduced, and its feasibility is verified by simulation results. Moreover, this method can work normally under noise interference and measurement error. Icing parameter identification method can also test part of aircraft’s stability or control derivatives which would be changed obviously after aircraft icing. Classified by neural networks, the stability or control derivatives’ variation can be mapped to ice parameters’ variation that reflects the severity of aircraft icing. Then H2 state feedback control is designed originally to suppress the impact of noise interference, so aircraft can keep steady after it is iced. Seeing from simulation result of the whole system, it is clear that the system can effectively detect icing parameters and by using feedback control system, it can ensure the safety of aircraft in the flight envelope.     

Effect of Cu Co-doping on the magnetism of Zn0.95Co0.05O films

Zn_0.95?x Co_0.05Cu _x O (atomic ratio, x = 0?C8%) thin films are fabricated on Si(111) substrate by reactive magnetron sputtering method. Detailed characterizations indicate that the doped Cu ions substitute the Zn²⁺ ions in ZnO lattice. The doped Cu ions are in +1 and +2 mixture valent state. The ferromagnetism of the Zn_0.95?x Co_0.05Cu _x O film increases gradually with the increase of the Cu⁺ ion concentration till x = 6%, but decreases for higher Cu concentration. Experimental results indicate that the increase of ferromagnetism is not owing to the magnetic contribution of Cu⁺ ions themselves, but owing to the enhancement of magnetic interaction between Co²⁺ ions, which suggests that p-type doping of Cu⁺ ions plays an important role in mediating the ferromagnetic coupling between Co ions.     

油菜(Brassica campestris L.)秸秆生物炭对Cr(Ⅵ)的吸附研究

研究了油菜秸秆生物炭对Cr(Ⅵ)的吸附性能、影响因素及吸附动力学和吸附热力学.实验结果表明:该生物炭对Cr(Ⅵ)的吸附受pH、时间、Cr(Ⅵ)初始浓度等因素的影响.其中:pH是影响其吸附性能的重要因子.溶液中Cr(VI)的去除率随溶液pH值降低而升高,在pH值为2.0时达到最大98.87%.油菜秸秆生物炭对Cr(Ⅵ)的吸附符合准二级吸附速率方程,吸附等温线与Langmuir等温方程拟合较好,20℃、25℃、30℃和35℃下的最大吸附量分别为5.96、6.62、7.49和8.59mg/g.吸附量随温度的升高而增加,说明油菜秸秆生物炭对Cr(Ⅵ)的吸附机理主要是吸热的化学吸附.     

Microstructure and hardness of Ni-xSi alloys

The microstructure and hardness of conventionally solidified Ni-xSi (x = 21.4%, 22%, 24%, 26%) alloys were investigated. The solidification microstructures of different Ni-Si alloys were observed by optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the phase composition was indentified under the help of energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The macro- and micro-hardness of the Ni-Si alloys at room temperature were also examined. The experimental results indicated that both the microstructure and hardness closely depended on the Si content. Due to the vast formation of primary ??-Ni₃₁Si₁₂ phase, the hardness of Ni-26.0%Si alloy was significantly improved compared with that of Ni-21.4%Si eutectic alloy. However, the fracture toughness was greatly weakened simultaneously. The (?? ₁-Ni₃Si+??-Ni₃₁Si₁₂) lamellar eutectoid structure formed in the primary ??-Ni₃₁Si₁₂ phase exhibited better ductility than single ??-Ni₃₁Si₁₂ phase at the cost of relatively small hardness reduction.     

Improvement of immunoassay detection sensitivity by using well-defined raspberry-like magnetic microbeads as carriers

Well-defined raspberry-like magnetic microbeads(RMMBs) as immunoassay solid carriers were prepared by chemical covalent binding between Fe3O4 magnetic microspheres and SiO2 nanoparticles. These RMMBs were not as agglomerative as nano-sized magnetie particles( 200 nm), which was an advangtage for high efficient magnetic separation. When compared to Fe3O4@SiO2core-shell magnetic microbeads(CMMBs) with smooth surface, RMMBs exhibited stronger capacity to bind biomolecules. Limit of blank(LoB) and limit of detection(LoD) of HBsAg detection using RMMBs as carriers via chemiluminiscence immunoassay(CLIA) were 0.472 and1.022 μg/L, respectively, showing a notable improvement compared with CMMBs whose LoB and LoD were 1.017 and 1.988 μg/L, respectively. All these indicated a great potential of RMMBs in immunoassay application.     

Calculation of 3D sensitivity matrix for electromagnetic tomography system using boundary elements and the perturbative approach

Electromagnetic tomography （EMT） is a non-invasive imaging technique capable of mapping the conductivity and permeability of an object. In EMT, eddy currents are induced in the object by the activation coils, and the receiving coils can measure the EMT voltages. When the activation frequency is significantly large, we can treat the metallic targets as electrically perfect conductors （EPCs）. In this situation, a thin skin approximation is reasonable and this type of scattering problem can be effectively treated by the boundary element method （BEM） formulated through integration equations. In this study, we compute three-dimensional （3D） sensitivity matrix between the sensors due to an EPC perturbation. Efficiency improvement is achieved through the utility of scalar magnetic potential. Two EPC objects, one sphere and one cube shaped, are simulated. The results agree well with the H dot H formula. Overall, we conclude that BEM can be used to calculate the 3D sensitivity matrix of an EMT system efficiently. This method is a general one for any shaped objects while the H dot H solution is only capable of producing the response for a small ball.     

Robust Fuzzy Sampled-Data Control for Dynamic Positioning Ships

A robust H∞sampled-data stabilization problem for nonlinear dynamic positioning(DP) ships with Takagi-Sugeno(T-S) fuzzy models is discussed in this paper. Input delay approach is used to convert the sampleddata DP ship system to a fuzzy system with time-varying delay. Adequate conditions are derived to determine the system's asymptotical stability and achieve H∞performance via Lyapunov stability theorems. Then, the fuzzy sampled-data controller is obtained by analyzing the stabilization condition. Simulation result shows that the proposed method and the designed controller for a DP ship are effective so that the DP ship can maintain the desired position, heading and velocities in the existence of varying environment disturbances.     

Microwave hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanostructures in aqueous solution

ZnO nanostructures were prepared in aqueous solution by microwave hydrothermal synthesis. Xray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to characterize ZnO nanostructures (ZNs). The effects of pH, reaction temperature and reaction time on yield of ZnO were investigated. The yield of ZnO increased significantly with the increase of pH value, reaction temperature and reaction time. High yield and well crystallinity of ZNs could be obtained at 120°C for 60min by microwave hydrothermal synthesis. The spherical and rugby-like ZNs were obtained at 120°C without triethanolamine (TEA) and with TEA (mass ratio, $r = m_{Zn^{2 + } }$ : m _TEA = 1: 1), respectively. The concentration of Zn(OH) ₄ ^?2 ions in the reaction solution and TEA had an important effect on the nucleation and morphology of ZnO nanostructures. Mechanism for the formation of ZnO nanostructures was proposed.     

Quantitative phase analysis of the calcium silicate slag as the residue of extracting alumina from high-alumina fly ash

Calcium silicate slag is the residue of process of pre-desilication alkali lime sintering applied in the high-alumina fly ash to extract the alumina. The quantitative phase analysis (QPA) of the calcium silicate slag has been performed by the Rietveld method based on the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) with the aid of noncommercial software GSAS-EXPGUI. A known weight of crystalline internal standard (10% CaF₂) was added to the calcium silicate slag to calculate the fraction of amorphous phase and other crystalline phases on an absolute basis. Besides, the calcium silicate slag was characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and thermo gravimetric (TG) differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to test the QPA results and investigate its other characters. Finally, the results show that the amorphous fraction is 17.5% (hereinafter, the percentages refer to the mass fraction), and the major crystalline phases detected in the calcium silicate slag consist of 23.5% Beta-Ca2SiO₄, 10.0% bredigite, 10.3% Ca₃Al₂O₆ (C₃A) and 21.6% CaCO₃.